Today was my first trip to the new end of the line, 34th St / Hudson Yards, on the 7 train.
It’s deep, the escalator ride is like the underground, minus the ads (for now!)

Wonderfully empty too!

WALL!

The Empire State Building.

You’ll have to look carefully!

1989 looking downtown from UES.

This is now – it is still there!

Previously I posted a photograph of the gas tower in the Newtown area of Reading that I took 30 years ago. Previous post,

Now I have photographed it again…

In fact during the exhibition in Reading several people were drawn to take photographs of it for my Postcards of Reading 2015 archive project. To showcase these images I have started a tumblr. From today, each day I will post a new photograph taken in Newtown, between 25th July 2015 and the end of this year. I’m going to start with photographs of the gas tower.

If you would like to get involved, why not take your camera and walk around Newtown! Mail your postcard sized photographs to me, you can find address details and all the photographs (eventually!) here: Postcards of Reading 2015

This fortnight’s photo was taken on the London Road in East Reading, Berkshire, UK.
Taken during the two week run of the exhibition, Reading: A Start & A Return, a homecoming 30 years in the making, which ended last week.

This area of Reading, known as Newtown is where I attended college 30 years ago and spent my time walking and photographing. During the exhibition I walked and rephotographed this same area as a way to reconnect with both my photography roots and the area. The built environment has stayed substantially the same, with regards to street layout etc. Some individual buildings have been replaced, the Dove Pub, for example, was knocked down and housing erected in its place. Some new housing has crept into spaces around the edges but the overall area remains easily recognizable and in tact.

Two political events however, the expansion of the European Union in 2004 to include Poland and the 2009 decision to allow Gurkha soldiers permanent residency in Britain, have altered the demographics in Newtown.

The Nepalese community became evident to me through small details as I walked around. I began to notice manifestations of the Buddhist faith on windows, doors and cars. Statues of the Buddha, solar powered prayer wheels on car dashboards, and scarves over doorways and in windows.

For me these three stores nicely sum up both the demographics and the fact that these communities have been absorbed into the existing built environment of Newtown.

Another blast from the past, the setting sun falls on Electra Craft West 43rd Street in the late 1980s.

I am so excited to be heading back to Reading (UK) next month for the reunion exhibition – Reading: A Start & A Return Excited to have the time to see old friends, make new ones, to talk photography and to explore Reading photographically again.

For this fortnight’s photo I am posting an old image from 1980s Reading. I saw this ARTICLE about the gas holders I photographed there and it made me wonder whether the one in my photo is there now or will be next month.

They always say you can never go back, but when you have a link with people or place it’s like you just stepped away and when you return you’re back to where you belong. Places change physically, people move away or lose touch, but there’s still enough to make you feel like you’re home. Even after 30 years.