Foxhole Village Film Camera Photo Walk
- Andy Brown
- May 30
- 8 min read
I did something recently I haven't done for a long time and that was shoot a whole roll of film at one go. Motivation and opportunity have both been lacking in equal measure. However, almost randomly,I picked up a Zorki 4K with Jupiter 8 standard lens I hadn't shot for three years I think now, although I'd had it ready and loaded with film for some while. It's a tank of a camera, with let's just say a few quirks. One of which is the Jupiter 8 lens which rendered things rather smeary in the corners, possibly down to the dreaded fungus. However, that helped in an odd way much like a pinhole camera. Otherwise, the rangefinder was working well and the subjects fitted my choice of film, HP5. I shot in a Clay Country village called Foxhole. The Clays as we call them down here are the Cornish equivalent of the American Rust Belt, formerly supporting the China Clay mining industry, which is now in decline. That means a general sense of ennui, a social club (not open on the day) with more notices about CCTV than anything else, a fish and chip shop, also closed plus buildings and vehicles in various states of decay. In short, manna to the photographer in search of subject matter. So after struggling with an initially misloaded film, the shoot went well and after developing in #510Pyro, the negs which survived my misloading came out well. I will start with an image that is probably my fave of the group as the compositional elements like repeating diagonals in it work well. Interestingly, the overgrown weedy area was gone by the time I returned today to shoot some B-Roll, lending it a different feel altogether. Back to the image which is at the back of the Village Chippie and Cafe. The shuttered door is actually at a level below that of the Cafe which, as you will see fronts on to the road which runs through the village in a long ribbon. I'm not sure whether it is residential or just storage, but the plant growing up it seems well-established, so it may not be in regular use. The gate itself with its bent railings stood ajar seemed not to be. Yet, when I returned to the scene later, much of the verdant greenery had been mowed away and it almost looked as though the gate could be used. That I think is unlikely and as I was leaving, indeed a car drove in heedless of such matters.
But, I'm starting in the wrong place. This shoot actually began in the grounds of Foxhole Social Club apropos of nothing. It only began there because there was some accessible parking, although if I'd taken the numerous warning signs about CCTV to heart, I would never have stopped there. I had made no specific plan other than making images in an accessible location not too far from where I lived. I only had my Zorki Russian rangefinder camera on me, no digital, just a phone, and that was only used for metering light. Unfortunately, the first few frames were ruined due to misloading (a common fault with these cameras). From the fifth frame however they were okay. I had been struck with the plethora of warning signs, repeating the same advice that images were being recorded on CCTV. Of course, today we call them Security Cameras because CCTV stands for Cold Cathode TV and no one uses that technology anymore. I also couldn't see any evidence of monitoring, so perhaps the intent was to deter those who might engage in anti-social behaviour, or theft from the club. But, it does make for an interesting picture as the notices were clearly of some vintage and had a well-developed patina. The profusion of wild-flowers below were certainly taking no notice of the warnings.
I then went on to take a closer look at the Club (and Institute) itself, which unsurprisingly was closed, despite the Neon sign hinting it might be open. The frontage itself was unassuming, even forbidding with just the hand-painted sign to indicate a personal touch and next to it a small hanging basket. A smaller sign positioned above the main one proclaimed Everyone Welcome. Perhaps there was a need to empasize that fact? Moving further round I found what I assumed to be the main entrance within a covered area furnished with a few plain chairs. You might call this a lobby, in reality though this is the smoking area. Fairy light chains were hung about somewhat limply. Mood lighting for the smokers or left over from Christmas? A small poster on the main door proclaimed a list of various events with dates for those hungry for entertainment. There could well be some in such need as there is no other entertainment venue in the village.
You may say I'm painting with words and gritty monochrome images a picture that is unfair to the area and maybe I am? Perhaps when the Social Club and nearby Chippie are both open, there is a genuine buzz to the area with music blasting out, cars coming and going and people enjoying themselves.
Next door and sharing parking facilities was the Chip Shop and as the sign also proclaimed, Cafe, The sign itself was redolent of the 1960's and I could imagine Rockers with loud and oily motorbikes meeting there. The building however was foursquare, neat and modern with modern UPVC double glazing and a flight of steps leading to what I presumed were flats above judging by the curtains. Perhaps not the best place to live if you desire peace and quiet. On the other hand, just a short stroll for a beer and even less for a fish and chip supper. Certainly some advantages there. Despite the modest appearances, we have the ingredients for a village hub. I have friends who live in another Clays village and they are fiercely supportive of a strong sense of community, perhaps lacking in other areas. So maybe we should look beyond the unpretentious facades and recognise what is provided here to those who live locally.
Second Location
I then took a diversion down the adjacent lane where there were several promising subjects. Promising in this context means things that fulfilled the brief of being slightly neglected or overgrown. My attention was drawn to a horse box which looked less than well used, covered in Algae and dirt. It was next to an equally neglected rusting iron door with Ivy encroaching over it. So I took my camera out and made a couple of images which I'm reasonably pleased with so here they are. I walked a little further down the lane, but there was a rope barrier so I felt I couldn't go any further in that direction.
So, I went back and crossed the road in search of further subjects. Just a little further along there was another lane and this one had two items of machinery, a digger and a dumper truck. As I could see no evidence of actual building work, my assumption was they belonged to a builder who was using his property as a storage facility. I've always found such items really interesting. There is something about industrial or even agricultural machinery that resembles brutalist architecture as there is no concession to looks and function definitely outweighs form. So, I lined up an image which I feel it is quite successful in conveying the slightly incongruous mixture of industrial machinery in a residential setting. However, as I said earlier Foxhole is a village in the centre of what we call Clay Country, a former mining area. Since the mines largely fell out of use various industries have grown up in their place delivering employment to the local population.
Further along the road, I saw an American van reminiscent of Chief Ironside's from the 1970s TV series, parked for sale behind a modern vehicle. With many summer shows featuring cars and steam rallies, the owner might showcase it at such events. If so, I’d love to take a closer look as Ironside was a family favourite.
Location Three
My final stop was at the village's end, where I found more potential compositions: a nearly collapsed wooden gate, a Land Rover peeking from behind a wall, and a house adorned with celebration flags. Plus there was a derelict house beyond a sturdy Iron gatepost which piqued my curiosity. First up is the Land Rover image which is the one I'm least happy with. I think it might benefit from an adjusted crop and maybe the car on the right hand side could be removed or possibly some of the left-hand space. Also, I would've been happier if the Land Rover had been a more classic one or maybe more patinated.
Next, the wooden gate doesn't appear to lead anywhere in particular and if you look closer, it is literally at the point of collapse. Following the decline in the historic Clay and other mining industries the population of such places as Foxhall may well have declined. Also, farms now employ for fewer people, so it may be that changes in land use caused over the years have simply removed the need. I guess that's what taking images of things that appear now to have no purpose does for me. It allows my imagination to roam over the possibilities, whether realistic or not and possibly hearing a more prosaic explanation could disappoint as reality often fails to match imagination. Moving on to the flag bedecked gateway, the explanation for this is much simpler. VE Day celebrations took place recently and the owner had not taken down the decorations on the day that I visited. When I went back a few days later to take some video to put these images into context they had gone and then the underlying poster celebrating the NHS was revealed which dates from the time of Covid. And finally we have the sturdy iron gate post, almost a bollard in a wide driveway in front of a substantial but now derelict building. My speculation here is that this was either a farm building or a workshop that is simply now not required. Certainly, the dimensions of the gate which would've been attached to the post or bollard would've been larger than that required for domestic buildings. I also quite like the Ivy twining around and the texture given by rust and the stone are both attractive features and transpose quite well to a black-and-white film medium. In digital, I suspect they would had less impact. One thing I did miss was a nearby small elderly car that had been parked up quite close by so, another possible subject I can return to. Like so many other places other compositions reveal themselves afterwards and give opportunities to explore these places again giving them an additional dimension. So, no one photographic exploration of a place gives the whole story. Perhaps if I had gone on another day when the VE day celebrations had been going on, I would have gained a different impression of this village in the middle of Cornwall.
Equipment
The camera I used was a relic from the other side of the Iron Curtain made well over 40 years ago. When new, these were derided by those who had the real German cameras they were copies of. However, it has survived those years mostly intact and it is a very tactile experience to use. It is all-metal with no electronics at all. Focus is manual, but there is some assistance via a small patch in the viewfinder which when aligned confirms focus. This achieved by rotating the lens barrel and aperture is set by rotating a ring on the lens itself. I measured the light with an app on my phone, which on this day was fairly constant. Otherwise, apart from my clumsy misloading of the film initially which is pulled through via a system of sprockets, things went seamlessly.
Tech stuff for the nerdy: Zorki 4K, HP5+ at ISO200, 6:30 in 510Pyro, exposure either 1/125 or 1/60 at f5.6 or f8.0, developed at home, scanned on an Epson V850 flatbed, Negative Lab Pro for the conversion and Lightroom for the rest.
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