Category: family

In lieu of any outings, with the weather being pants and Sophie away, I’m digging down into the archives for another episode of Fraggle Curated.

I’ve always loved driving, and had many cars in my life I especially love a good road trip and driving in other lands. Of course it’s not easy to take photos and drive simultaneously, and more than probably not the safest manoeuvre to pull off, but I have parked up and got out to take the odd road picture, and I especially like being a front seat passenger when I can do drive by shooting. It’s also good to have a passenger who I can direct what and where to shoot with my camera or iPhone. I have quite a few so there’ll be more than one episode of these!

In 2001, my friend Andy moved from Milton Keynes to Alhaurìn El Grande, in southern Spain. He hired a van, packed up all his gear and I went up to drive him down, through France and Spain, a 3000 mile round trip. I took Ben with me and we made some memories. Ben took nearly all the pictures here.

“It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.”  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Roads are a record of those who have gone before.” ~ Rebecca Solnit

“Wherever you get to is better than where you started. To stay on the road is a massive achievement.” ~ Anthony Joshua

All you need is the plan, the road map, and the courage to press on to your destination. ~ Earl Nightingale

We delivered Andy to his Mum’s Villa, from where he was embarking upon his new life, and Ben and I had a day and overnight stop there before setting off back to Old Blighty the next morning.

“No matter who you are or where you are, instinct tells you to go home.” ~ Laura Marney

“All he needed was a wheel in his hand and four on the road.” ~ Jack Kerouac

“Look at life through the windshield, not the rearview mirror.” ~ Byrd Baggett

“The pleasure we derive from journeys is perhaps dependent more on the mindset with which we travel than on the destination we travel to.”  ~ Alain de Botton

The sun went down as we reached the border between Spain and France, and I pulled off when we saw a motel to stay the night and rest up for the next day’s journey.

“When you go on a road trip, the trip itself becomes part of the story.” ~ Steve Rushin

“If you’re not lost, you’re not much of an explorer.” ~ John Perry Barlow

“In life, it’s not where you go – it’s who you travel with.” ~ Charles M. Schulz

That was the first really long road trip I ever did, but not the last. I know the photos are not all that, but Ben was only 12, the camera was a 1MP point and shoot, and I knew sweet fanny adams about photography. It doesn’t matter to me though, these are wonderful memories of me and my boy, and memories are why I got into photography in the first place.

“Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever… it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.” ~ Aaron Siskind