Humanity has spent several thousand years finding ways to make things easier.

This is generally considered progress, though nobody seems to have gained any free time.

We can now use artificial intelligence to create photographs of people who never existed, in places that were never built, experiencing events that never happened.

It’s remarkable technology. Much of it has helped build this website.

Rather perversely, much of that effort has gone into making the website less convenient.

There were easier options. Attractive galleries, sensible menus, helpful recommendations and tasteful invitations to discover someone’s creative journey.

Instead, Like Clockwork Springs has been organised like the records department of an institution that has forgotten what it was originally supposed to do.

Photographs have numbers. Collections have names. Certain things are hidden. Others have been filed somewhere that seemed reasonable at the time.

Visitors may have to look for things.

This is deliberate.

The photographs themselves are made using whatever equipment seems appropriate. Digital cameras, film cameras, elderly lenses and various contraptions of uncertain temperament.

The photographs are taken by a person. Any corrections are made by that person too. AI won’t be employed to improve the weather, remove inconvenient pedestrians or make reality appear more agreeable.

Reality has not requested assistance.

Getting good at photography is difficult. Getting good at it affordably requires considerably more ingenuity.

It means learning how things work. Developing film, scanning negatives, experimenting with equipment and discovering which jobs you can do yourself.

Not because difficulty is inherently virtuous, but because knowing how to do something can make it possible to keep doing it.

This seems preferable to being charged for every stage of an activity you enjoy.

There are also photographs for sale somewhere on this website.

Finding them may prove challenging.

The modern internet has developed an unfortunate habit of treating every visitor as an incomplete financial transaction.

Here, visitors are welcome to look at things without buying them.

Those wishing to purchase something will have to locate the appropriate department.

The department has not been instructed to advertise its whereabouts.

Like Clockwork Springs exists to make things, understand them, occasionally get them wrong and leave a record of whatever survives.

Some of it will be difficult. Some of it will be inconvenient. Some of it will be entirely unnecessary.

The matter is considered ongoing.