Even in cities and towns, public sculpture can be both hard to find, and difficult to travel to. There are few locations where sculpture is conveniently clustered together making the capture of a large number of pieces easier. Areas may also be intimidating, particularly where our volunteers are using expensive equipment.

The coronavirus pandemic has also presented enormous challenges and volunteers have had to take great care in not placing themselves in situations where they might feel that there is a risk to their health. Not being able to venture out for photography trips has been incredibly frustrating for them and, of course, has resulted in less sculpture being photographed than they would have wished.

Even in normal circumstances, when visiting a site, some sculpture on their research lists is discovered to have been 'lost' and, even when they do find what they are looking for, the challenges in taking photographs can be enormous. Obstacles caused by building works are a frequent hindrance to obtaining a good set of images. In the images below, you can see a sample of the problems that volunteers have encountered.

It is always wonderful to see that public sculpture is directly engaged with by local communities, and there are many examples of sculpture that is so well-loved and celebrated that it is 'dressed' with various accoutrement. This doesn't always make it easy for our volunteers to get a good set of 'documentary' images, however.