Over the 14 months I collected 44 umbrellas which is more than I expected. I must have seen at least another 10 in times when I was out without a camera, so with better preparation the collection would have been bigger. By my unscientific reckoning this means a typical person will see an average of one abandoned umbrella a week. All in all that makes for a lot of broken discarded umbrellas.
However, almost as soon I had finished the weather turned and brought days where all I seemed to see were umbrellas abandoned everywhere, so perhaps if I had done this across 2006 the haul would have been even greater.
Each umbrella was photographed where it was found: for some the shots are close up, but for most the umbrella is just a part of the landscape, and for some barely visible. The photographs also serve to capture Glasgow: the decision to take a photograph being informed only by stumbling across an umbrella. Because of this they are a very one-sided slice of Glasgow life, with a heavy emphasis on Govanhill (where I live), the Gorbals (through which I cycle each day) and the city centre (where I work).
Despite this I did spend hours cycling around the city looking for umbrellas in other places, but with little success. Mostly the umbrellas had to be found in the course of every day life and seemed to take exception to be searched for or hunted down.
This site is the on-line exhibition of these photographs, shot using a second hand Olympus XA bought from Germany through eBay which arrived along with a bag with enough spare parts to maybe build a second. Luckily for me the camera worked perfectly.
To use the site simply click into the main gallery: all individual photographs can be accessed by clicking on top of them. There is a further high resolution web-print behind each individual photograph: again reached by simply clicking on the photograph.
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