This website started as 'York Walks', in early 2004, when I bought my first digital camera. It started in an unplanned way, as a small-scale personal project, then evolved into a larger website.
Since the mid-1980s I've been interested in how the city changes. A digital camera makes it easier to record these changes. I remember taking photos in York for one or two school art projects when I was younger. Film for the camera and the costs of photo developing were expensive, and I couldn't afford to take the photos I would have wanted to.
Twenty years on, I found a digital camera was truly brilliant and liberating technology. All the beautiful things I noticed when walking through York could be captured, at last. Also the not-so-beautiful things - like the building sites - and there are many of these.
York is a famous historic city, and often photographed, but I wanted to try to capture the perspective of a long-term resident. I saw very little on the web that reflects York as I know it. Anyone who lives in one place for decades has a certain perspective on a place, from wandering down the same streets, and seeing how some things change, while others stay the same.
While I've been taking the photos on this site I've realised that there are so many ways of seeing what is around us. There are many layers - not just the famous history of this city of York, but the way it changes through the seasons, as a result of the natural progress of things, and how it alters through the years, as a result of human intervention and development.
Some elements are particular to York - it is a particularly historic place - but other features are shared by other towns and cities. One of the things I've begun to appreciate is that the more notice you take of your own local area, the more you begin to understand the architecture and landscape of other towns and villages.
Observations of local buildings and landscape continues, when I have the time for wandering and collating the information into web pages. Over the years I've begun to learn more about the buildings I'm looking at. I've found, as many other people have found, that an interest in local history and architecture can lead to a better appreciation of history in general.
Researching my family history has also brought a deeper understanding of the past, and its buildings and landscapes. Family history research, and a general interest in Yorkshire's villages, has meant that recent wanderings have often been further afield, so that this website is now very much "an appreciation of York and Yorkshire".
The principle is the same - photos of the buildings and landscape of York and Yorkshire, with personal observations, rambling commentary and occasional architectural fact.
If you've enjoyed visiting these pages, it would be nice to hear from you.
Lisa, York
February 2007