00:00So we're here in Market Drayton and we're here with, introduce yourselves.
00:05I'm Janet Richardson.
00:07And I'm Michael Richardson.
00:08So you've got a rather special book there, it's hot off the press that, it's literally just come as we've been chatting hasn't it?
00:14Yes, it's just been delivered.
00:16So it features public artwork around Shropshire and that's kind of just a small section of what you've been doing.
00:24Talk us through this project you've been involved in.
00:26Well we were working as volunteers for Art UK because we've got the luxury of being retired and they asked us to cover photographing all the wall art and murals in Shropshire.
00:38So we did that starting off in Shrewsbury and went through all the different market towns and Telford and then when we'd finished that they asked if we could cover Liverpool.
00:50So we thought great because it's a great way to go out and about and explore.
00:53So we've ended up doing a lot of work in Liverpool, got that finished and they said, would you fancy doing North Wales for us?
01:01So we've done North Wales as well.
01:03So is it up to you to find where the artworks are and discover where they are?
01:09It started off that they sent us a list of the open reach boxes, the first set of the open reach boxes of Shrewsbury and said, if you see anything else, take it.
01:19So we took them at the word and then they more or less just left us to do the research and find.
01:25So we've done lots of research using the internet and also Facebook and just watching on Google for things in the paper like the Shropshire Star or BBC and things like that.
01:40Because sometimes when new murals have been painted, there's some press activity anyway.
01:45So that's been a good way of finding new art installations.
01:51Yeah, we've featured a couple.
01:52I personally have done a couple in Shropshire and Shifnell and Troseby, which is always interesting.
01:58I love public art myself.
02:00Have you been encouraged by the amount of public art you've found?
02:04Is there a lot out there then?
02:05I've been amazed by the amount of public art out there, especially in Shropshire, because we originally thought, well, it's not going to be much here, especially when we were given open reach boxes.
02:15Yeah.
02:15But once we researched, I'd say we ended up with 190 something like that.
02:22Yeah.
02:23But it's amazing now driving around.
02:26We keep looking in all the concrete bus shelters to see if anybody's painted them and looking at park benches and bollards.
02:34It's part of the environment that you just don't clock and register as something special.
02:42And from getting the photos, the reason we created the book is there is so much there that you just don't know about.
02:50And I'm sure people don't appreciate it.
02:53It is amazing, isn't it?
02:55Like those ones in Shrewsbury, bollards, you know, a humble bollard, how you can turn that into a piece of something beautiful, a piece of artwork.
03:03Some of them are beautiful, yeah.
03:04And like the Charles II one that we were looking at earlier, I mean, just capturing the history.
03:12Yeah.
03:12Yeah.
03:13Yeah.
03:13So have you come across a favourite piece of artwork, kind of Shropshire-wise, that you've snapped?
03:21Has anything stick in your mind and you think, well, that was a bit special?
03:25Well, Shropshire-wise, I think the one on the cover of the book is my favourite from Shrewsbury, which was the BT box with the poppies on it.
03:32So that's why it's gone there.
03:34Whereas mine was probably the train in Oswestry, which I think was just amazing.
03:40So detailed.
03:41And when you look closely, even the newspapers have got writing on them.
03:45Yeah.
03:46And even, I mean, it's kind of, I know it's just off a main street, but it's kind of like a side street a little bit.
03:52And it's nice that someone's invested the time and the money and the resources to kind of, you know, to decorate it there.
03:58Well, we don't live that far from Oswestry or Asmere, but we've no idea what was in the other market towns.
04:04I mean, Bishop's Castle is just absolutely fascinating with its elephant trail and things like that.
04:10It's just wonderful what's happening.
04:12But we've contacted libraries, we've contacted local councils and county councils, asking them for details of the art installations.
04:23And it doesn't seem that any of them have got any information.
04:26They're not recording it.
04:27They couldn't help us.
04:29Yeah.
04:29So, so important to document this because, you know, who knows?
04:33I mean, there was an artwork you were on about, you're a big Liverpool fan, Liverpool football.
04:38Well, you're on about, there was a tribute to one of the players at a large mule in Liverpool.
04:43And because he's now switched teams, bump, it's gone.
04:46They've painted over it.
04:47You know, that's consigned to history.
04:49But it must feel quite satisfying that you've got all this recorded now.
04:54Does that feel quite a treasured item?
04:56Well, there's some redevelopment going on in Shrewsbury down by the river.
04:59And there was a lovely set of murals of birds on the wall.
05:04And they've all gone now.
05:04Yeah, by the hotel there.
05:06Yeah, totally.
05:07Yeah.
05:07And one day when we were in Liverpool, there was a Cuban lady painted on the wall outside a pub.
05:14And there were some guys there with ladders and paintbrushes.
05:17And I said, oh, can I disturb you?
05:19Can I take a photo of the mural?
05:21He said, you're just in time, love.
05:23We're just about to paint over it.
05:25Can you believe it?
05:26I've got the last photo of that mural.
05:30And it was wonderful.
05:31I mean, whether they had any appreciation of what they're about to destroy or...
05:36It'd be very frustrating being sent out to photograph that, certainly from my point of view.
05:42It's crazy, isn't it?
05:43We have these amazing artworks, but some of us appreciate them.
05:47But you're kind of aware, aren't you, that all it takes is for someone just to say, oh, Bob, get a tin of white and paint that, freshen that up.
05:56And not everyone appreciates it.
05:58And therefore, I guess that makes them all the more vulnerable, I guess.
06:01We'd found out about a mural on an underpass in Telford.
06:05And we were walking round and round trying to find it.
06:09And we asked several people, and they'd no idea.
06:11They couldn't tell us where it was.
06:13Eventually, we found it.
06:14And we were stood there taking photos.
06:16And one of the ladies who we'd asked about it came past and said, oh, I walk past that every day.
06:22I don't really notice it.
06:24It's crazy, isn't it?
06:25So your background then, what sort of photography generally are you into, the barrier?
06:30I like doing street photography.
06:33I love capturing the spirit of people and what they're doing.
06:38I quite enjoy wildlife photography when we go away on holiday.
06:43So all genres.
06:45And I actually like messing around with my camera, doing in-camera movement and arty sort of photos.
06:51So that's quite fun.
06:51Yeah, quite varied.
06:53What about you, sir?
06:53I like to certainly take architecture, especially geomatics sort of architecture.
06:59Like you can see in Liverpool with the Museum of Liverpool.
07:03Or we've been to Greece recently.
07:04Just capturing the shapes and the shadows rather than the actual whole building.
07:08Just the parts of it capturing the abstractness of it.
07:12And wildlife.
07:13Take a lot of wildlife on it.
07:15Yeah.
07:16I'm going to put a question to you now then, if you're being a Liverpool fan, being an architecture fan.
07:20Liverpool Cathedral.
07:22Do you love it?
07:23Do you think it's okay or are you not keen?
07:24You're talking about the Catholic one, I assume.
07:26Yeah, the modern-y.
07:28Yeah.
07:28Yeah, I enjoyed that.
07:29Yeah, especially when we went up there deliberately to take photographs of it.
07:35Yes, I did enjoy, like it.
07:37I was, yes, the answer is yes, I like it.
07:41Yeah.
07:41But what we try and do is take photographs that are of a different angle or height to what other people have taken.
07:49So we don't like to think our photos look like other people's.
07:53We try to get something slightly quirky or slightly different or something slightly unusual just to make them more interesting.
08:01Fantastic.
08:02And a little bird tells me you've been nominated for an award?
08:04We've been nominated for the Sky Arts Art Hero Award.
08:11Yeah.
08:11Yeah.
08:11And that's for your work on the project, are you documenting?
08:14That's quite nice, isn't it?
08:16A little bit of acknowledgement is the effort you've put in.
08:19We're absolutely chuffed to bits.
08:21And even if we don't get any further, the fact that we've been nominated and recognised for what we've done covering all the artworks has just blown us over, really.
08:32Well, thank you for documenting what is very, you know, very important cultural movement, really, here in Shropshire, and preserving that for future people.
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