cape cornwall by photographer matt cardy (via http://www.mattcardyphoto.com)

Hello! This surreal photograph of the night sky above Cape Cornwall has finally lifted the low-hanging, post-operative fog of daytime telly, cups of tea and snoozing.

Thanks very much for your kind well-wishing comments by the way – the surgery seems to have gone well (I even got sent high-res images of the inside of my hip joint to prove it – a slightly grisly souvenir). And thus far I’ve navigated the precarious new world of crutches without major incident. Can’t carry? Just throw. I am working on the transportation of tea.

So, what do you think of this photo? It is the work of South West-based photographer Matt Cardy and this year it made the cut for the Press Photographer’s Year 2010, an exhibition currently showing at the foyer of the National Theatre in London.

Just outside St Just, Cape Cornwall is one of Cornwall’s great wild spots. It’s my favoured land’s end (would I like a theme park and some greasy chips with my cliffs? no thanks!), and I like the stone stack set against the gradually intensifying red-orange glow and the sci-fi stars. I found this picture to have hidden depths – at first glance, it looked simple alongside the other more urgently moving images of war and human suffering that make up the exhibition. But it’s a real slow burner…

I thought the light in the picture must have been from the sun but Matt told pasties & cream: “the yellow on the right of the picture is the light pollution from St Ives picked up during the 30mins exposure. Although when I took the picture it was a moon less night and you could barely see your hand let alone dial in the camera settings, it just shows how far you need to be away from civilization to escape it.”

Now obviously we all know that St Just is the centre of the universe but I didn’t realise the stars actually orbit around it in this manner…

Press Photographer’s Year 2010 showing until 19th September 2010 at the National Gallery, London; http://www.nationaltheatre.org. Check out more of Matt Cardy’s work at www.mattcardyphoto.com.