We’ve just come out of the third or fourth heatwave of the summer, Marta’s gone off for a holiday with her friends, and I’m sitting with our dog, Lottie, in the relative cool of our north-west-facing windows. After my own little holiday at home for the last couple of weeks, watching movies, reading books, listening to music, I’m back at it. Tonight there’s a solar eclipse. At the weekend, Poland’s Armed Forces Day parade. On the 24th, Ukraine’s Independence Day celebrations in Warsaw. Later in the month, the Motorcycle Speedway World Cup in Warsaw, and in between then and now, several gigs to photograph too.
A Tom Holland Double Bill
Despite the many well-publicised and much-debated issues with the film, I thought the Odyssey was a fantastic spectacle. Sitting 3 rows from the front in Warsaw’s IMAX cinema, I felt like I was inside the movie and my tiny wee mind was blown throughout. It was quite a journey. (Sorry). I don’t disagree with some of the criticism, though throughout I’ve found some of those online classicists to be so conservatively joyless in their appraisals. Somebody get these purists out of here.
The very next day, I enjoyed the second film of my Tom Holland, John Bernthal, and Zendaya double bill at the pre-premiere of Spider-Man: Brand New Day. It’s so Spidey. I loved it. Again, it’s not perfect but my goodness it’s so much fun. Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle was a particular highlight, as was Sadie Sink’s debut as [redacted]. With choreography heavily based on the Insomniac Spider-Man games, on Day 3 of my holiday, I found myself back at the PlayStation and proceeded to lose several hours swinging around being the most carefree bastard in New York City.
Superstars and the broken Meta
A little earlier in July, British glam indie icons Suede visited Progresja in Warsaw, and I was in the photo pit for what were an incredible first three songs: Disintegrate, Trash, and Animal Nitrate. What a show it was too. Brett Anderson is a proper superstar. The 15mm on the Leica came in more than handy when he jumped down into the pit to be grabbed and pawed by the adoring fans. It was a real moment.
Holiday or not, I still have my 2026 365 project going on, so I’ve been snapping some work whenever I’m out and about, and when I’m not, I’ve been sharing stuff from earlier in the year. At the end of July, I chose to stop sharing each photo on Instagram. As someone with several thousand followers over there, not breaking into triple-digit views each day rendered the whole exercise pointless. Instead, the photos are shared on my website. A wee bit more about the website in the digest below.
Anyway, enough of all that. Welcome to the first issue of f/Stops, the newsy bit of The Contact Sheet newsletter. If you’ve been here for a while, you may remember the Dispatches series on Substack, where I shared some posts I had read, some news from the world of photography, and some other stuff I was enjoying. In this newsletter, Dispatches has become f/stops, and is much the same, sans the Substack of it all.
Let’s get on with it.
F/Stops
f/2.8 The British Journal of Photography discovers photographers_struggle_memes.
f/4 Despite the allusions to the Gen Alpha meme, the Pentax 67 is having a moment and had a key role in the making of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey.
f/5.6 Aperture has compiled a list of 25 books that define America.
f/8 Tish Murtha’s new book, Vandalism on a Grand Scale, is now available, and while mine still waits for me in a box under the stairs in my parents’ house, having seen some of the photos, I highly recommend it. It’s a limited run, so snap it up quickly.
f/11 Several European countries are considering bans for Meta’s Smart Glasses, something, as a long-time Ray-Bans wearer, I fully support.
f/16 Stepping away from photography for a moment, the algorithm served me this performance by Molly Walker of her poem Alkaline Reactor. Tremendous.
Digest
To end every issue of f/Stops, I’ll close with a digest of anything I’ve published on neilmilton.scot over the last month.
The Tinnitus Diaries
The Tinnitus Diaries, found at music.neilmilton.scot, is an incomplete and ongoing journal of gigs that I’ve shot since returning to photography during the pandemic. Part diary, part publication, The Tinnitus Diaries finally gives me a place to be excited in sharing my music photography. Initially I toyed with only adding a gallery on neilmilton.scot, however, it felt out of place among all the street photography. What I needed was a site with its own (admittedly similar) look, its own identity, and its own subdomain. I’m really happy with the way it turned out, and over the next few months, there’ll be a lot going on over there.
Too Many Fireworks. An Oral History
Before photography, I was an indie-label underachiever. From 2002 until 2019, I owned and managed the Glasgow and Warsaw indie record label, Too Many Fireworks. On January 21st 2027, Too Many Fireworks will turn 25 years old. To celebrate, I am writing about each catalogue number, the club nights, and the other bits and pieces. Speaking to bands, DJs and fans, I am building a small oral history of the label.
And finally…
If you’ve enjoyed this issue, I’d be very grateful if you could recommend it to any photography-loving friends.
This newsletter is free to read, however, as a freelancer in the creative arts, every penny counts. If you like what I do, please consider buying me a roll of film. You can do so by clicking here, or by aiming your camera at the QR code below. Your donations help me keep making photographs and writing.
All labour required to publish The Contact Sheet is undertaken by me alone. As I try to be a better socialist, I donate 10% of all income to anti-capitalist, leftist, or progressive causes or organisations that help make the world a better place. Thank you!
