A photographer with sight loss has created a stunning collection of over one thousand photos … and every single one of them is of his garden shed.
But if you're tempted to click over now - don't. Norman Taylor's images show how even the most mundane object can offer up a world of visual wonders.
Taylor's lens probes the intricate patterns in the grain of a wooden plank, the crystalline beauty of a frosted window-pane, how the cold sharp light delineates the edges of the tools inside, the dappled light and shadow of nearby trees. They really will take your breath away!
Belfast-born Taylor began to lose his sight five years ago due to optic atrophy (essentially, his optic nerves began to wither). A keen amateur photographer all of his life, he despaired of being able to take pictures again until a friend introduced him to the possibilities opened up by digital photography.
This Friday [December 4th], a remarkable display of 40 of the photos he has taken opens at the Edinburgh headquarters of the Royal National Institute of Blind People Scotland.
"Light and dark, shapes and colours, shades and textures, atmosphere, feelings and moods - these are some of the experiences I have tried to capture in photographing the shed," he says. "The weather and all the seasons have played a large part of this project. I have taken some very interesting atmospheric shots with the winter's setting sun reflecting on frosted windows.
"I have spent a wonderful two years absolutely absorbed photographing my lovely old shed and discovering some hidden gems. To date, I have taken over 1,300 images."
Taylor (66) lived and worked in Belfast all his life until he retired with his partner to live in Dumfries and Galloway in 2001.
"I have been taking photographs since I was about 14 when I bought my first camera, a 'Box Brownie', which I still have," he says. "It was a very depressing blow when my eyesight started to deteriorate. After two cataract operations, I was registered partially sighted. My world was turned upside down. Many of my interests involved visual arts in some form or other. Now I couldn't see the dials on my film camera. I was very depressed and anxious about my future and how I would cope in this strange new world. I was certain my photography days were over.
"Then two years ago, a friend walked round my garden with me. As we passed the old shed, he became very interested in its structure, especially the grain on the wooden panels. He took some photos with a small digital camera with a large screen at the back. When he handed me the camera I could see the basic shapes and some of the colours, even though they were from my point of view very fuzzy. My heart leapt! I began to get excited, though not too much at first because I didn't want to build my hopes up.
"I purchased a digital camera from Amazon and got to work photographing the shed. I confess I got a wee bit carried away once I got started and got to grips with what I could and couldn't see. It became an exciting obsession. As the project processed, I began to realise it wasn't just a shed and its contents but a three-metre square work of art just waiting to be photographed. I had to describe what these shapes, colours and textures actually meant to me.
"It became an exercise in seeing, as the camera became my eyes. Choosing a camera with auto focus is important. A fuzzy image on the screen is made sharp but partially sighted people will only experience this when the image is displayed on a large computer or television monitor.
"The hardest thing was seeing the image I wanted to photograph. This is why I didn't take landscapes or things that move. And this is why the shed is such a wonderful project, because it is in my garden and because it does not move. I can take my time at whatever part of the shed I want to photograph."
Taylor says what his exhibition is trying to express is that there is more to see than you think. "Good sighted people generally look at the potential picture as a whole and miss out on some of the interesting shapes, colours, and textures including light and shade. Looking closer also brings in feelings, atmosphere, moods, sometimes even smell."
So what's next? He laughs. "The book! There are lots of things that are just waiting to be photographed. I have started photographing tree-bark and a dry stone dyke with its carpets of moss, fissures and textures. Once you get started its amazing what there is to photograph."
* Norman Taylor's photographs are on display at
RNIB Scotland
12-14 Hillside Crescent
Edinburgh
EH7 5EA
from December 4 until mid-January, from 9.30am to 4.30pm (Monday to Friday), but closed to the public from 24 December to 6 January.
** Visit Norman's website at - www.normantaylorphotography.co.uk