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pauldebois

Photographer based in London. Work: Lifestyle, gardens, landscape and people.
Photos & features through: www.gapphotos.com
Alter ego: rowing coach.

A sunny Kew Gardens today. Cornus or dogwood. Al

A sunny Kew Gardens today.

Cornus or dogwood. Always good value in a winter garden with a range of fiery colours to choose from. Tough too. My parents used to have one in their front garden which I crashed my bike into regularly.

#gardenphotography #gardenphotographer #gardeninglife #perennialborder #perennialflowers #gardencolour #plantingideas #landscapephotography #getoutside #gardencolour #wintercolour #kewgardens

Making final prints for the first folio book this

Making final prints for the first folio book this afternoon. Around 25 prints in total.

These are the monochrome edits, largely pre 2021. I'm holding my favourite image from this selection. Oliver's Island at Strand-on-the-Green, taken in December 2016. Taking photos in fog is really tricky, a fine balance between what you think you can see and what can actually reproduce in print.

#subjectivelyobjective #documentingspace #overlookedbeauty #blackandwhitephotography #lightandshadows #shadowandlight #monochromephotography #brentford #london #beautifullondon #urbanexploring #cityexplorer

Strand-on-the-Green and Gunnersbury Park. London p

Strand-on-the-Green and Gunnersbury Park. London plane trees.

#getoutside #treeshapes #wintertrees #naturalsculpture #treelines #londonplane #time #strandonthegreen #gunnersburypark

From the archive, Scandinavia, 1980 In the early

From the archive, Scandinavia, 1980

In the early eighties whilst at college I made quite a few trips with a camera, travelling on train, bike or sometimes hitching. Essentially to capture images for coursework. Out of the many thousands taken, most were never used.

Strange looking through some of these again today after all this time. A bit like reading someone else's notes. These are scans from the original negatives, which were never printed at the time.

1-3. Oslo - the Oseberg Viking ship
4-5. Street performer, Stockholm
6. Forgotten the name of this tower, but in Stockholm.
7. Names sake, (nearly!) Stockholm

#stockholm #oslo #oseberg #vikingship #scandinavia #documentingspace #cityphotography #architecture #warmtone #tonedprint #travelstories

Not as originally intended... wandering around Kew

Not as originally intended... wandering around Kew Bridge today.

1-3 The Banksy goat artwork was removed a while back, which is a shame, but understandable. A multicolour replacement has recently appeared. Maybe Jackson Pollock. 🙂

4-6. I've sat in traffic queues on the bridge more times than I can remember and always thought these holes at the apex of the bridge looked like bullet marks. I recently found two eyewitness reports from WWII - one saying it was shrapnel damage caused by a high explosive bomb which hit the bridge. And another saying an aircraft fired shots which hit the parapet wall. Take your pick, but we can be sure they weren't there when Edward VII opened the bridge!

#documentingspace #city #cityphotography #architecture #sociallandscape #urbanautica #alteredlandscape #banksy #kewbridge #brentford

Scary snowman, Brentford Dock. Merry Christmas e

Scary snowman, Brentford Dock.

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope Santa is kind and that everyone has a wonderful 2026. x

Wandering today. #bnwlandscapephotography #blacka

Wandering today.

#bnwlandscapephotography #blackandwhitephotography #lightandshadows #shadowandlight #monochromephotography #seascape #waveforms

Happy winter solstice. Looking forward to longer d

Happy winter solstice. Looking forward to longer days again.

Wandering yesterday, as today was a complete grey washout!

#seascape #getoutside #cloudscape #lowlight #suffolk

Cliff top wandering with @bethdebois and @faithcny

Cliff top wandering with @bethdebois and @faithcny

Living on the edge. Always wanted to stay in one of these cliff top houses. Prefab construction, when the cliffs collapse, they simply roll everything back from the edge. Apparently we’re fine for the next two days!

It’s interesting…and sad…seeing the footprints of houses recently moved.

#suffolk #clifftophouses #wandering #pakefield #urbancoastline

New prints from wandering at the end of lockdown i

New prints from wandering at the end of lockdown in 2021

1. Willow trees at high tide, Syon.
2. Mirror reflection, Grand Union Canal. Although only a kayak paddle deep, the water created the illusion the trees reached to infinity.
3. Ham Lands, near Teddington Lock. Apparently an old gravel works back filled with soil and spoil from all over London. I don't know what type of tree this is.
4. London plane tree, Glover's Island. This island was apparently raised with soil from the construction early London Tube tunnels. It's also the island in the Turner painting, The Thames From Richmond Hill. Viewed from the inside, it is only practically accessible using a kayak on a high spring tide.

#bnwlandscapephotography #blackandwhitephotography #lightandshadows #shadowandlight #monochromephotography #londonislands #londonsriver #urbanriver #citywaterways #exploringlondon #secretlondon #lostplaces #nature_takes_over #printing #archiveprints #digitalprints

A grey day on the river, but made up by seeing a K

A grey day on the river, but made up by seeing a Kingfisher at Brentford. You only get a quick flash as they skim past, so not easy to see. Only the second time I’ve seen one on the Thames in 14 years. 😊

#kingfisher #riverthames #riverlife #brentford #putneytownrowingclub #monochrome #wintertrees #londonislands

Chiswick Bridge, early light. Swipe left to see f

Chiswick Bridge, early light.

Swipe left to see full size image.

#landscapephotography #getoutside #cloudscape #riverthames #earlylight #londonsriver #urbanriver #citywaterways #londonsbridges #chiswickbridge

Prints and portfolios. Thanks to those who came to

Prints and portfolios. Thanks to those who came to the impromptu display at @putneytownrc yesterday. And thanks to those who bought prints, hope you enjoy them!

#bnwlandscape #bnwlandscapephotography #blackandwhitephotography #lightandshadows #shadowandlight #monochromephotography #riverthames #thames #exploringlondon #secretlondon #printing #archiveprints #warmtone #tonedprint #handprinting #bookmaking

Rowing folk - great buddy, Salvatore. More experi

Rowing folk - great buddy, Salvatore.

More experiments with Kodak Tri-X film.

#portraits #filmisnotdead #journeyswithfilm #filmcamera #kodaktrix #monochromephotography #yashica24 #6x6 #tss #ptrc

6 new A5 notebooks I made this week, with a variet

6 new A5 notebooks I made this week, with a variety of cover designs and bookcloth spines.

#bookbinding #paper #handmade #traditionalbook #notebook #journal #japanesepaper

A festive early morning visit to @innertemplegarde

A festive early morning visit to @innertemplegarden today.
Always great to work with Sean and the team.

#garden #gardenphotography #gardenphotographer #gardeninglife
#editorialphotography #featureshoot #magazinefeature #innertemple #christmasseason #festivedecorations #xmasdisplays #gardendecorations

Printing gatefold pages. Rivers have always had s

Printing gatefold pages.

Rivers have always had significance and will often reveal signs of human activity. Whilst looking for bigger landscapes, I frequently come across small details, all of which tell a story. So a few observations and leftovers from the Thames and Grand Union Canal in West London since 2016.

1 & 2 Finished prints.
3. Grand Union Canal, Brentford - surface pollution and waterside allotment.
4. Remembrance flowers
5. Plastic bags trapped in a tree after flood water and a tin of Spam, Brentford.
6. Meat cleaver, Mortlake shoreline, and chair, Brentford
7. Ceremonial sword and statue, Grand Union Canal, Southall

#subjectivelyobjective #documentingspace #overlookedbeauty #brentford #brentfordait #urbanexploring #cityexplorer #riverthames #printing #archiveprints #digitalprints #bookbinding #handmade #limitededitionbook

Fiery sunrise. Mist rising off the water under Chi

Fiery sunrise. Mist rising off the water under Chiswick Bridge today.

#riverthames #thames #londonsriver #urbanriver #citywaterways #londonsbridges #chiswickbridge #rowing #sculling #rowinglife #earlydays #mist #fiery

From the archive, concertina books. Westminster Br

From the archive, concertina books. Westminster Bridge and Richmond.

I'm trying to work out a way to make another one of these using my current print set-up. A dozen images, with intro and closing pages needs close to 3 metres of paper. I will somehow need to join shorter page sections as I can no longer use roll paper.

In any case, a beautiful way to present images.

#handbound #bookbinding #prints #archivalprints #riverthames #londonprints #concertinabook #traditionalcrafts

New prints, Simili Japon paper. A bit tricky to us

New prints, Simili Japon paper. A bit tricky to use as it's not made for archival inkjet printing. But with a bit of tinkering, it produces beautiful results.

Brentford Ait. The gnarled London Plane tree on the downstream tip of the island, near Kew Bridge. Glimpses of the island and tree can be seen in the 1964 Beatles film, A Hard Day's Night - a completely different landscape, with docks and gasworks still there. Trees were planted in the 1920's, apparently to hide the industrial landscape from the genteel folk in Kew.

And the wonderful twisted roots of the Taxodium distichum or Swamp cypress trees bordering the Syon Water Meadows.

#subjectivelyobjective #documentingspace #overlookedbeauty #bnwlandscape #bnwlandscapephotography #blackandwhitephotography #lightandshadows #shadowandlight #monochromephotography #riverthames #thames #exploringlondon #secretlondon #printing #archiveprints #warmtone #tonedprint

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