'Our Hands In Nature' Project by Craig Payne

Craig is continuing with his 'Our hands in Nature' series this winter, using the basis of the project to produce a hardbakc book on the countryside, hunting, shooting and foraging. Below was the original plan for the project was has know been intrigated into his latest idea for his book.

The Project

As old skills slowly die away it is down to the records to keep people informed about how these skills were/are used. Craig has taken on the task of photographing every thinkable activity which invloves hands in the countryside to record the valuable techniques which may soon be lost. This is a huge project and is going to take several years to complete and Craig is hoping to publish a hardback book at the end of the project so that everyone can study how these activites, which tend to go unnoticed, are done.

So far Craig has photographed ferreting, a pheasant being plucked and jointed, a cow being prepared for market, stitching together pieces of leather, farriers at work, sheep shearing and falconry. Craig is determined to complete this project and has plans to photograph lambing, bee keeping, rug making, more farriers, making walking sticks, carpentry, a butcher and birds of prey in action in the next month. He has a lot of plans for the summer months but needs your help!

If you know anyone who wouldn't mind spending a couple of hours being photographed please let Craig know, the series is going to be both an exhibition and a book and all participants will recieve signed, limited edition prints from the exhibition.

The series is being shot on black and white film and black and white digital. When Craig photographed the falconry he shot some photos with with digital camera and you can see these through the link below. There are also 4 photos of some of his black and white prints, these were taken quickly at odd angles so the lights above did not affect the prints. The quality of these does not do justice to the quality of the actual prints!

Falconry