JamesGourley

A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of shooting my friends Wayward Daughter at the their EP launch at the Garage in Highbury and Islington. If you don't already know them, check them out on Facebook.           

Over the past few months I have been granted exclusive access to the Deputy Prime Minister's working life.

 

As the Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg is one of the most influential men in government. With exclusive access, this photo essay documents many aspects of his political life, from travelling across the country on the campaign trail to heading meetings in his Whitehall office.

 

To see some of this project in exhibition, come to the London College of Communication on June 3rd from 6.30-9pm where there will be a private view of the final exhibition of the BA Photojournalism students work. For more information and to see examples of the other work on display go to http://25thirteen.co.uk

 

I've been conscious that I have seriously neglected my website since the start of the new year and have finally decided to rectify this. Most of my time this year  has been divided between shooting a large project (more news on this to come soon.) and finishing my degree. But inbetween these I have managed to shoot some other things, and in no particular order, here are some of my photos from 2013 so far.

  Lady Thatcher's funeral procession goes down Fleet Street  Alex Salmond answers questions during First Minister's Questions  People dressed as Aliens pose on an Edinburgh tour bs during a photocall

Sarah-Louise Alexander poses with part of her project 'The German Shepherd' which features several life size cut outs of herself at the RSA in Edinburgh

 Sofia Wang models Edinburgh Napier student Charlie Jennings' warrior-themed outfit at Craigmillar Castle  A young boy admires Jason Hackenwerth's 'Pisces' balloon sculpture, which he unveiled at the Museum of Scotland   A Sigur Rós fan rests her head whilst listening to a support act at the Brixton Academy. Dylan Thomas (7) waves a flag at a rally of the Fire Brigades Union outside the Scottish Parliament in Holyrood Jónsi of Sigur Rós performing at the Brixton Academy.

Stay tuned for more exciting things from me.

A couple of days ago I posted my photographs from my time on a farm in New Zealand, now here are my photographs from the rest of my time in 'The land of the Long White Cloud' Thermal pool at Wai-O-Tapu A Pied Stilt walking near geothermal pool at Wai-O-Tapu A bench seen near a tree in 'Hobbiton'

I recently got back from New Zealand, where I was lucky enough to spend some time on my uncles farm, here are some photos from my time out on the farm. Cutting the spine of a Mutton. Helping a stuck top dressing truck which had gotten stuck on the terrain. Treating a 'Maggotty lamb' which had maggots eating it's skin. If untreated it can lead to death.  The raw flesh destroyed by maggots.  My young cousin looking over the farm. Dosing the lambs and ewes with vitamins and anti worming medication. Oscar getting up close and personal.   Whilst we were out there, they got a new border collie sheep dog puppy, 'Taz'. 

After leaving Transnistria we headed to Chisinau for a day before heading on one last overnight train to Bucharest before flying home on Saturday evening. I visited the Milestii Mici Winery on the outskirts of Chisinau. The largest wine collection in the world, I don't even really like wine, but it was worth a go in a country were good wine is cheaper than a bottle of ketchup (24lev vs 80 for ketchup) Wine tasting.  Too much wine tasting.

At the border between Moldova and Romania the track gauge changes, so because it would be too much effort for us to simply get on another train, the entire train is lifted about 10 feet in the air, it's wheels are disconnected, slid away, and replaced by new wheels for the new gauge. SIMPLE.

The view from the back of our carriage after the rest of the train was detatched and left in Moldova.  And finally, a few photographs from Bucharest.

The CEC Palace.

A statue of Roman Emporer Trajan, naked, holding a wolf with a snake body coming out of its head, designed to symbolise the birth of the Romanian nation after the Roman Empire merged with the tribes of Dacia, on the steps of the building formerly known as the Palace of the Post Office. A scene from inside a Romanian Orthodox Church in Bucharet.

After Odessa I headed on a relatively short train journey (only a few hours, compared to the others which were 12/13 hours) to the unrecognised breakaway republic of  Transnistria (its official Anglicised name is Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica/PMR). As the train pulled up to Tiraspol (the capital) station we were quickly ushered off the train, it didn't take long to realise my group were the only people getting off. (Taken and developed using Instagram as I decided whacking out my 5dII would probably be a bad idea)

 We were greeted by 'Tim', an American expat who claims to run the only hostel in Transnistria. He helped us through border control, which was easier said than done when one member of our party had drunk a bit too much and kept asking out the rather attractive border guard.  We then headed to the hostel and settled in for the night.

 

The next day we went on a tour of the city centre, starting with a walk through the main park Pobedi Park which contans a fun fair with some very similar elements to the Pripyat fun fair next to the Chernobyl power plant, including this very familiar looking ferris wheel.

I was expecting Transnistria to be a timewarped Soviet throwback, much the same as the DPRK is, I was very much mistaken. Transnistria is a surprisingly modern 'country', it has had a 4g network longer than the UK, and has free Wi-Fi in almost every, bar and restaurant.  Quite randomly Gareth (director of Young Pioneer Tours, the group that took me to the DPRK and here) and some others got stopped by a local journalist who realised they were speaking English and wanted to write an article, purely about the fact that people wanted to visit, which was pretty cool.

There are many building sites in Tiraspol as new projects are being constructed around the city. Like most markets, Tiraspol's had some products of questionable authenticity, including this beautiful hat. by B&G, ABCDEFGHIJKL.  Workers tend to a garden near a statue of Alexander Suvorov on October 25th Street in the city centre.

 

On Wednesday we travelled to Transnistria's second city, Bendery. During the civil war with Maldova in 1991-92 Bendery was on the front line as it possesed a key bridge to Tiraspol, so was heavily damaged. Today all that remains of this is the main governement building in the centre of the city, which remains potholed with machine gun holes as a reminder to the war.

A gift shop in the main Russian Orthodox church in Bendery selling necklaces, drawings, and other bits and bobs.

 It's probably fair to say you've had enough when even the TV is telling you to stop. Tiraspol Tim our expat guide, after enjoying a bit too much vodka. Women painting the base of a tree in Bendery in the early evening.  A stray dog waits outside a supermarket hoping for generous people to give him some food. This innocuous looking building is home to the only two embassies in Transnistria, those of Abkhazia and South-Ossetia, two other independent former Soviet, and until recently, unrecognised states. South Ossetia and Abkhazia were unrecognised like Transnistria until the 2008 war involving Georgia and Russia, which led to the recognition of both of them by a small number of countries, including Russia.

On Thursday we headed by bus to Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, which should have been a simple two hour bus journey. It wasn't. If you ever visit Transnistria make sure you register in Tiraspol, otherwise when you try to leave, you will likely get squeezed for a bribe, thankfully we had our trusty leader Gareth to sort us out.

After visiting Chernobyl, I visited a former Soviet Nuclear Missile Silo in the countryside approximately half way between Kiev and Odessa.  This facility was orignally built in the 1960's to hold part of the Soviet Union's Nuclear deterrent, and remained an active station until 1991 when the Union collapsed. After this, the Ukrainian government decided that they would not remain a Nuclear power, but would maintain the silos as museum's to what could have happened. On the grounds of the Silo, many weapons carriers, armoured vehicles and decommissioned missiles remain.

The silo itself remains a Ukrainian military site, and is maintained by a small group of army personel inculding Sergei (pictured below), a former Red Army soldier who served in the silo for 25 years.

Sergei and two other officers would have been stationed underground in the Silo's control centre for up to 30 days at a time, spending their time either in the control room pictured, or below in a small living quarters which contained three bunks, a toilet, shower, hot plate, and TV.

The stairs looking up from the living quarters, up to the control room. This is the greatly publicised 'red button', it required two seperate keys to be turned on opposite sides of the room at the same time to activate, then this button and a matching one on the other console have to be pressed at the same time to confirm a launch. Obviously I was heartbroken it wasn't red.

 

After 30 days in the control centre, the three men would leave in a very small lift up to 20 metres below the surface (from fifty) where they would swap with another three man crew who would take over the role, Sergei walking along the long corridor 20 metres underground towards the lift that takes you down to the command module.

 

After returning back to Kiev, I stumbled across some interesting sites such as ball room dancing in an underpass.

(taken on my phone and developed on Instagram as I didn't have my SLR with me)

 

Later that night I stumbled across the totally not copyright infringing 'Fast Ducks' coffee car. My friend still managed to misread it as 'Fast Fucks' coffee, so maybe Starbucks don't need to worry about suing them. 

On Sunday night I travelled to Odessa in Southern Ukraine on my way towards Transnistria (Predniestrian-Moldovan Republic) and spent the day wandering around the city's market. 

A butcher feeds a stray dog some meat. A lady sells porn and condoms at a stand opposite a table selling kids toys.

 

Later I decided to head up to the famous Potemkim Steps, but got distracted by an adorable stray kitten (below), spent about 20 minutes tickling it and photographing it, then when back to the café I had left my bags in. I suck at travelling.

After wasting my day on kittens I got on another train to Tiraspol, where this post ends.

On Saturday I had the opportunity to visit the Chernobyl exclusion zone in the Ukraine for a day, including time in the abandoned ghost town of Pripyat, as well as going up to the edge of Reactor Four.  The Chernobyl disaster, and its long term effects is (in my opinion) one of the most well photographed events in history. So by no means are these supposed to be taken as a major project or anything similar, Here are some of my photos.

 The radiation level oppostite reactor 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear powerstation. The normal level for background radiation is around 0.23.

Before and after. This reading was taken from the ground of the fun fair in Pripyat. According to my guide, this part of the ground holds particularly high levels of radiation because the tarmac was very new when the explosion happened. The nuclear physicist visiting with me told me that being exposed to this level of radiation for three hours would amount to your annual safety limit for radioactive exposure in a UK nuclear powerstation.  Being checked for radiation. The new sarcophagus for reactor four. It is due to be completed and fitted in 2015.

A statue of the angel Gabriel in the city of Chernobyl.

I have recently returned from an 8 day holiday in the Republic of Ireland with my good friends Katy and Sara Linton, it consisted mainly of churches, pubs, and walking between the two.

 

Here are some of my photos, I may add more later, depending on whether or not my iPod which is storing the majority of them decides to start working again or not.