Only in Australia

By Dean McCleland in Other Galleries 0 Comment

A previous blog entitled “Only in Africa” revealed the essence of Africa with its idiosyncrasies and quixotic behaviour. Every country has a unique image which evokes that essence. As is usually the case that quintessence represents more than the landscape even though that forms an important backdrop to that imagery.

This time is the idiosyncratic behaviour of Australia and Austrailans that is portrayed.

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Scott’s Fatal Polar Expedition contrasted with a Modern One

By Dean McCleland in History, Other Galleries 0 Comment

The ways in which Scott and Shackleton explored the Polar Regions is moribund. Even the manner in which Randolph Fiennes manhandled all his kit across Antarctica need no longer be the modus operandi. Whilst even his odyssey to the South Pole is remarkable in terms of endurance and tenacity, it lacked the one ingredient that continues to make Scott’s and Shackleton’s attempts enduring: no Plan B. 

Robert Falcon Scott was to die on the 29th March 1912 in his heroic attempt to become the first person to reach the South Pole. Amundsen, using dog sleds instead of manhandling their equipment, had beaten them to it. The only solace and consolation was to return with their samples which was the ostensible reason for the trip. Reaching the Pole first was pure bravado, vanity and for the glory of the British Empire.

Main picture: Robert Falcon Scott in full Polar regalia

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Why there are fewer Men than Women – Part 2

By Dean McCleland in Other Galleries 0 Comment

When I wrote my first blog on all the idiotic and inane unsafe acts that men performed as if they possessed a death wish, I was under the mistaken belief that I had seen it all. Clearly I had not. Like the continual stream of photographs of shoppers in Walmart whilst in the most surreal forms of attire, so it is with these behaviours.

Clearly Safety Inspectors are a rarity or perhaps they are like the Dodo, extinct. If these photographs had been taken in South Africa, which clearly they are not, I would have suspected that another activity had kept the Inspectors at bay.

Surely these people are aware that they have no margin of error and that even a slight miscalculation could result in death or maiming. They should rather adopt a high risk sport such as abseiling, paragliding or base jumping.

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Twenty Five Astonishing Wide-Ranging Photographs

By Dean McCleland in Other Galleries 0 Comment

These photographs are truly eclectic in their diversity: part historical, part geographical and part physiology. Each in its own right deserves to be pondered upon. For instance the photograph on Hitler’s office without any humans in it could have been taken at any time of the day or year because Hitler seldom if ever used it and after Stalingrad never again.

From that time onwards he divided his time between Berchtesgaden and the Wolves Liar in Eastern Prussia. Finally after the precipitous collapse of the Eastern Front in January 1945, Hitler’s final office was a warren of passages and rooms under the Reich’s Chancellery.

Main picture: Hitler’s office

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An Eclectic Array of Historical Photographs

By Dean McCleland in Other Galleries 0 Comment

For me historical photographs even if they are unpretentious and unassuming provide a different perspective & keen insight on life and in particular how it was lived and experienced. This series of 25 photographs provides a mere peep into that lost world. Whilst most of the photographs fascinated me, I ultimately chose this one of the Beatles a year before they became famous as the main picture.

Main picture: The Beatles play for 18 people in the Aldershot club before they rose to fame a year later. [December, 1961]

I suspose that the main reason why it enthralled me was when I considered those 18 people that they could attract to a dance were unwittingly witness to a musical sensation in the making.  Imagine what they would tell their friends over a drink a year later.

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