Drayton, west Norwich 1964-1971 continued to attend Thorpe St.Andrew school
Student/social science Researcher: University of Wales,Wrexham & Bangor 1971-81 Cert Ed: ( 2 main subjects: Geography & Sociology) 1974; B.Ed(with Hons) (in Educational Guidance) 1975 ...Lived in Wrexham area 1971-5
MA by Research 2 year research & thesis/ Social Science Research Council 2 year quota award 1975-7 ...an original research Thesis on "counselling"submitted Nov.1977 awarded June 1978 "above average research MA thesis" by Peter Woods examiner, Kings College , University of London. (Research thesis on Counselling in Schools.....1978 thesis lodged in U.C.N.W. Library, Bangor, North Wales & a duplicate also at University Library, University of Wales, Cardiff). Lived Benllech, Anglesey and in Bangor, North Wales 1975-8.
Researcher and later Lecturer in Social Science/Sociology: based Wrexham 1978-1999
early retired: now based back in Norfolk.... 1999+
most of 2002-5 travelled extensively in eastern Europe by car...mainly Baltic States... living there for 2-3 months at a time..longest stay September - June 2004-5. Also twice flew to Russia covering several weeks in 2002 ...Moscow & Volgograd... can now converse in Lithuanian...through opportune, random / informal contacts he did an Exhibition in Lithuania at a town centre University gallery: Dailes Galerija Univeristas, Siauliai, Lithuania August 2005... now based in Cromer, Norfolk and since 2005 has developed a large portfolio of mainly North Norfolk seascapes and local vistas.
Introduction:
Keith has taken photos of sea and landscapes for over 30 years of all over Britain and abroad while also working for the University of Wales in Bangor & Wrexham. Over the last 2 years he has focused on North Norfolk where he now lives after returning to his native Norfolk seven years ago.
"...managed retreat" Government Policy on coastal erosion West Beach Cromer 2006
Past:
Born in a village east of Norwich, firstly schooled in the nearby small Lingwood Village School and then in the Norwich area (Thorpe St.Andrew); later living in Drayton west of Norwich in his late teens where with newly made electoral changes he was nominated for election to St.Faiths & Aylsham Rural District Council at the age of 18 (interviewed by Michael Cole on Radio 4's Today programme, but although now enfranchised had to withdraw as other Acts had yet to be passed to enable Representation before age 21) ... Keith from his early 20's has studied & undertaken research and worked for the University of Wales in the field of Social Sciences, Welfare & Education for most of the years since; gaining a teacher's Certificate in two main subjects: geography and Sociology, then a Degree in Educational Guidance (counselling) and subsequently awarded a Quota Research Award by the Social Science Research Council in London to undertake research of his choice at Bangor, submitting an original research Thesis on the then new area,"Counselling in Education" in 1977 and in 1978 awarded by the examining Kings College, London, an "above average" research MA. Staying in the then vibrant & volitile North Wales, he taught for some years in a college in Wrexham associated to the University of Wales and was very involved & active in the late 1970's & 1980's within & outside the political Parties there and other political all Wales groups (Welsh Language Society; Anti-Nuclear movements in Wales, etc.) where over these years he witnessed the long 1984 miners Strike at first hand. He only returned to his beloved native Norfolk in 2001 and over the last 2 years has focused on the increasingly controversial terrain of the beaches & eroding coast of North Norfolk producing photo-art pieces of these seascapes.
Lithuania: international exhibition Siauliai, August 2005
Siauliai, Lithuania 2005
He has also had an Exhibition at Dailes Galerija Universitas Siauliai, Siualiai, Lithuania having visited there many times and extensively travelled it, staying for months at a time over 2002-5. One of the smallest countries in Europe, with it stoic culture, oral traditions and still spoken and used ancient & acclaimed oldest spoken European language, contrasting & very unlike the ancient languages of Latin and Ancient Greek that now can only really be found in a written form. A country of contradictions both material & cultural: of beautiful warm clear lakes, forest scenes, sandy beaches but juxtaposed and out of context imposed people settlements that appear on the horizon, almost as if growing out of the forest mists, a result of destructive wars that must have erased much of any past organically grown human settlements & the subsequent years of central planning that now have little link to their surrounding with the collapse of that central authority & power; a people surviving the wrath of a history of invasions and various ruthless exploitations past & present, with a stoic survivalist culture & psychology, yet friendly peoples whose warmth seems to manifest & appear as a given as if an ancestoral memory of a previous past of pagan natural innocence (long since lost elsewhere) within and surviving the living negativity and contradictions of the present.
July 2010 Baltic Sea Melnrage beach, Klaipeda, Lithuania (photos: by and courtesy of Ieva)
"...managed retreat" Government Policy on coastal erosion West Beach Cromer 2006
Siauliai, Lithuania 2005