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Andy Gawthrope
Andy was born in Scotland and in his formative years taken on trips to the glens and lochs of the Highlands and to the Western Isles where a love of the outdoors was forged. Andy overwintered at Halley station in Antarctica in 1990/91 whilst working for the British Antarctic Survey and took his first camera, a Canon AV-1, where his passion for the outdoors coincided with photography.
On return Andy started rock climbing and mountaineering, interests that led to even greater exploration of the outdoors. Sometime in the late 1990's the passion for the outdoors and interest in photography merged and Andy can now be found in the outdoors with a camera capturing its beauty in photographs that can be shared with others.
Avebury is famous for its Neolithic site. A bank, ditch and stone circle some 350m in diameter. It's not too far from home and so sometimes I find myself amongst its stones. For a while, I'd had the idea of some snowy, winter photographs and when a Sunday at the end of April 2018 dawned suitably cold and snowy I grasped the opportunity. Avebury normally has throngs of tourists milling around its stones but the cold and snow kept them away - even the National Trust representative selling memberships in the car park!
As I stood in front of that pock-marked standing stone, wrapped-up warm in boots, gloves, hat and big duvet jacket I couldn't help feel the enormity of time wash over me. That stone has stood there for millennia enduring every freezing winter and there, in front of it, was little me, all dressed-up in modern clothing taking its picture! If only it could speak - what stories could it tell!
