Paul at work

After some final discussions with Paul I copied all of the selected images I've been filming around town of the buildings that Stroud Preservation Trust has restored over the last three decades. Then I drove over to meet him.

Paul has been commissioned by the Trust to design our 30th Anniversary exhibition which will be shown in the Stroud Subscription Rooms for a week at the end of November. The story will start with the protest movement against the destruction of local buildings that got in the way of a policy to 'modernise' Stroud that began in the 1960s and 70s. It was kick-started by a series of rooftop sit-ins involving local people who'd decided to stop the loss of the heritage which was envisaged. They were partly successful, and the protestors found that by forming a Trust they could have more power to affect such issues, and ever since the Trust has been involved in strategic fights and building projects. This year this culminated in our being able to lease out the Brunel Goods Shed to a local arts organisation, Stroud Valley Arts, which has brought life and activity back into the building, opening it up to be used by the community.

I had never met Paul before, having previously just talked on the phone and emailed each other, as we sorted out what gaps were missing in the visual record. He has designed the layout of the whole exhibition, to include 16 large framed photographs by local artists of the Goods Shed before its restoration, 3D stereoscopic images of parts of several buildings, as well as 26 large displays boards that will tell the history of the Trust and its various projects from its inception in 1982. At the same time there will be a series of projected animated displays, produced by a local artist, inside five shop fronts dotted along the High Street, all related to the Trust's work.

We had a long chat about our separate backgrounds, which of course led to us knowing various people in common, from the late 1960s onwards, when Paul was contributing his art and designs skills to the underground magazines of the time, such as 'IT' and 'Friends' magazines and also early editions of 'Time Out'. He then showed me drafts of the 26 designs, which he is currently assembling and in which my photos will become components. I was very impressed with it all but particularly by his graphic designs, which will also be assembled into a book, and available to all. I felt like ordering one immediately.

Then, as he copied all the images onto his Mac, I asked him if I could take a photograph of him. Here you can see him at work on one of my pictures from yesterday of one of the saved shops on the High Street. Thanks Paul, for all your work for us, (which he assures me he is loving doing) and for providing my blip for today.