Coronavirus

Hinckley & Burbage Photographed Is Going To Market

Developing An Art Project

I’m expanding the Hinckley & Burbage Photographed project to have a physical shop front on Hinckley’s traditional market.

For quite a few years now, my project Hinckley & Burbage Photographed has been going through some major transformations. I’ve gone from making photography for fun and to practice the art since the project began in 2012 to selling art products with my photographs in 2020.
The journey has been wholly experimental, pushing myself to always do better next time.
Last year in 2019 I produced the very first calendar for Hinckley in Leicestershire, the first the town had ever seen. It all started when I discovered a supplier that operated a special scheme for photographers to produce calendars, where they only allow one per area and create incredibly good quality products.

I never intended this project to make money and it was always about the community, documenting life and the environment surrounding us and enjoying the connection between our environment, photography and humanity.

Life has changed already for many of us experiencing this new Covid world. Much the same for myself in losing all of my commissioned work for the year and haven’t earned anything, also falling through the cracks of self employment grants. I began to innovate and developed a new product range from the one thing I did have; an archive of photographs.
When I produced my first calendar for 2020, I never thought for a minute that they’d be the least written on calendars of all time!

As time has progressed, my suppliers have introduced 1,000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzles to their product line, which I went straight ahead and created my first series.

I now have 9 puzzle designs available, which can be found in my online shop…

The puzzles have really taken off and has had an influence on my style of photography. To make good puzzles, I”ve had to learn what makes a good puzzle and then translate that in to the physical landscape. It’s a tough challenge to find good ideas and I’m really enjoying the journey.
I have two collections and 9 different designs. Some of the designs work better than others and all have a puzzle rating of between 5 and 10. I think I have one puzzle that reaches 10 on the puzzle scale, which is Hollycroft Park. It’s supposed to be very difficult because of the tones, colours and shapes in the puzzle. It was one of my first ones and since then I’ve created and developed new designs that really have caught the attention of a new local audience.

This next puzzle in particular is has already started selling on a pre ordering system.

The Horsepool in Burbage.

This particular puzzle is a beautiful romantic wintery scene with snow and Christmas lights decorating the scene.

The Horsepool, Burbage, Leicestershire.

Market Stall

I’ve been building stock levels, investing in the idea of selling my new products on a market stall in Hinckley every Saturday and possibly in the week on a Friday or a Monday on occassions.

I’ll also be selling my latest calendar for 2021 on the stall.

Jamie Hunt, owner of Brookfield Signs & Graphics has agreed a deal to sponsor Hinckley & Burbage Photographed and donated this banner to use on the front of the stall.

Myself and Jamie Hunt from Brookfield Signs & Graphics, who has become a sponsor of Hinckley & Burbage Photographed.  Jamie has donated this banner to help with the aesthetics of my new market stall venture.

Myself and Jamie Hunt from Brookfield Signs & Graphics, who has become a sponsor of Hinckley & Burbage Photographed. Jamie has donated this banner to help with the aesthetics of my new market stall venture.

The Cover to my new 2021 calendar.

Visit my online shop to purchase a calendar.

I’ve also created a book called Locked Down, which is a collection of portraits showing 36 different families through their windows, juxtaposing them against the reflections the world their locked away from, during the Global Coronavirus Pandemic of 2020. Accompanied with personal text about how they’re all surviving lockdown and what their thoughts were surrounding the major events as the virus broke out in the UK.

Locked Down Book

I hope to see you on the market soon.

Locked Down - Global Coronavirus Pandemic

Locked Down Coronavirus Window Portrait Project

The sub-project that has had me cycling all around Hinckley, Burbage and Earl Shilton is coming towards a closing point and the production of a Lockdown book begins now.

There are 36 stories accompanied with a portrait of the people on the other side of the glass and each story tells us how the families involved have survived and what they thought about the lockdown. The production of a book is about to commence in order to organise and contain these time capsules to secure them for our future generations to look back and discover more precisely about this monumental moment in history.


My intentions for the book are to show a sweeping snapshot of our experiences with urban landscapes of how the virus impacted our social cohesion along with the portraits and stories of the local residents that have taken part in this project.
I have no idea how long the production of this book will take, I’m organising the content now and then we move in to the prototype stage for editing.

I’ve been asked by some of the participants to produce some products with your photographs, like jigsaw puzzles, mugs, keyrings and prints etc.
So I’ve sourced a good local supplier and can now offer a small range of memorabilia and organised a point of sale on my website.

Whilst there was never any intention to earn any money from this project, I did lose all of my work that was booked in and I fell through the cracks of financial support from the Government, meaning, I’m not earning a single penny during lockdown and have no idea when I can start earning again. So I hope you don’t mind me offering these ideas?

Using your portrait photograph, you can now order the following memorabilia products:

If you have any questions about these products, then please get in touch with me asap