LONDON - speakers' corner

Colour - free the imagination

Antique colour wheel.....lush.

“…colour is an integral part of freeing the human imagination from earthly bondage and is attached to a flight of fantasy…interlocking the marvellous and the mystical”. 


Raghubir Singh, River of Colour, Phaidon press

THROUGH LABYRINTHS - exhibition at the CCCB

.....Sooo. Barcelona seems to be always either protesting over ["having to"...] work, or taking a national holiday because someone has the same name as a saint, so i decided to take advantage of their puente (that's bridge, or Bank Holiday to you and I) for the Virgin Pilar and treated myself to a nice cup of tea and a sit-down at one of my favourite cafés in town, the CCCB terrace

It also turned into a rigorous doodling session which coincidentally turned out very similarly to the mazes features in the exhibition. Subliminal advertising must have been at work somewhere along the line. (Doodle: above left).

I digress. The tea was followed by a very casual stroll around an exhibition on the history of mazes at the CCCB in Barcelona - one of my favourite museums in the city.

The idea of the exhibition is to "[...]review the concept and representation of the labyrinth throughout history, making a clear distinction between single-path labyrinths and mazes, labyrinths with a choice of paths, and reflecting on the relevance of this element and different practices and uses today."

I can't say it was the most exhilarating exhibition I've ever been to - I came away with many "but why....?" questions left unanswered, but some of the ideas explored - how maze and labyrinth aesthetics have been used throughout almost every culture as symbols of the human condition....how often the situations we find ourselves in can be very easy to get into, but very difficult to get out of...rings a bell, doesn't it? Still, it left me very dry and I had to return to the café for another cup of tea afterwards.

And what do you do in the grand labyrinth of life without a memory? Get pretty bloody lost, that's what. It reminds me of the excruciatingly tacky catch-phrase I brewed up for an A-Level Textiles exam-piece based on the contours of my mother's face - "My life is a journey.....I need a map". Cringe.

Some of the artwork on display was also beautiful...loved the old line drawings that were reminiscent of the Magnificent Maps exhibition I visited in London a few months ago.

Here is a snippet I wrote as a review for www.la-boca.com:

"The idea of losing yourself in a walled garden of grass, of leaving the free, open space to become immersed in a closed, impenetrable world of endless networks and confusing paths can be both thrilling and terrifying. An account of our timeless fascination with Labyrinths will be hosted by the CCCB until the beginning of January, exploring both the Labyrinth as ancient symbol for the journey of the soul and questioning its validity in the context of today’s vast networks. An exciting journey not to be missed."

Exposició 'Per laberints'

From 28/07/2010 to 09/01/2011

Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona

C/Montalegre, 5

Ciutat Vella

old family photos

Some of my all-time favourite family photos, taken a really long time ago.

My older (then younger) brother trying to overcome gravity through the medium of the polaroid.

flores

A snap of some beautiful dahlias given to me yesterday by a very special boy. Everything about them is so delicate and pretty, they remind me of russian folkloric prints and the flowers painted on their matroyshka dolls. i'm sure he was aware of that too...he's very clever. x

RUSSIA - big melt

A visit to St Petersburg and Moscow at Easter-time, during the big winter melt-down of ice and snow. Chilly.

simon roberts - the work of

Simon Roberts' book, Motherland, is a beautiful, sensitive body of work which aims to reveal the way that Russian people identify themselves and the land they inhabit, and the intrinsic connection between the two.

At University I studied his portraits of the people and landscapes and absolutely loved the meditative qualities of his work - there's a certain sense of stillness to the images that draws the viewer closer.

I also love the painterly quality to his work - unlike alot of studies of russia with typically depressive, aggressive and dingy colours there is a beautiful crispness and clarity to the light of his photos.

Love it.

CANCUN - fast and furious

the party photos were actually of some random folk in san sebastian (spain), but I dont know, I thought they sort of go well together.

on starting a project....

Ahhh dear! Last night I had a good conversation with a friend about the nature of projects and research and the importance of gathering work into a coherent theme. So now after the long rant I posted a few days ago, I feel a little bit, well, silly!

I suppose the only thing I was slating was the idea of putting a strong, concentrated effort into photography to make an actual body of work, probably out of the uneasiness and fear of actually getting something started! And its all very well and good floating about taking whimsical photos here and there, but it's true that I want to do something more constructive and purposeful than that.

So we were talking about the point of making a project rather than floating about, photographing at random. It's to explore an idea or story - something that appeals to the intellect as well as to one's creativity. 

The photos I've been making have mostly arisen out of my curiosity with people, but obviously there needs to be something more than that.

Having my beautiful nikon D300 stolen at the very end of the summer was a big blow, and sort of threw me into a bit of an existential crisis - knowing that something is very wrong and needs to be put right. In retrospect I think it all arose from the idea that I need to start photographing again seriously. So, well, I've got my thinking hat on and hopefully soon some more creative juices will begin to flow.

MEXICO - beautiful and loved

A trip to my boyfriend's homeland at New Year. 

xalapa, veracruz to cancun, riviera maya, tulum and beyond. 

un país verdaderamente hermoso, lindo y querido.

love to observe the way we "do" tourism. it's the same the world-over - visit a national heritage site, pause, crouch and shoot.

BILBAO and work vs. play

Soo...In recent times I've been having issues over the word "work" when it comes to talking about the photographs I've made after  University, as most of them have since been spontaneous and unplanned.

I find that the word "work" (when referring to the creative process) implies long afternoons developing and squinting through negatives, creating contact sheets to be highlighted and mulled over, various frames test-printed to be later discarded followed by tedious conversations on colour-balance and/or composition...basically, what I spent four years doing at University and no longer do now (although I miss a good darkroom, but that subject might be for another day...).

It's taken me that long to work out that while creating good photographs does require a certain level of editing and an undeniable degree of, well, work, the most important part of the process I feel now has a lot more to do with the notion of toying around, of being less stiff with the camera and letting my intuition guide me - Something I'd always strived to do before, but now without the limits of a certain main project or theme, or title, I feel freer - returning to the simplicity of snapping life as it goes about its everyday business, sneaking up to catch it red-handed, liberating a moment from the confines of time and space to see what happens...

Sooo! To cut through this waffle...here is a selection of photographs I've taken over the last year or so, beginning with some taken over a long weekend in San Sebastian and Bilbao, Spain in July 2009.

(BELOW) The best part of the entire weekend focuses on a festival where grown adults with magnificently large, angry heads pursue small niños through the streets to then beat them with dried sheep bladders until the child is eventually saved by an adult with a head that is positively pea-sized in comparison....Probably one that has been looking forward to the moment their little darling can finally get their come-uppance by another grown adult without being legally obliged to call child-services.

Basically - never had I had so much fun on a rainy Sunday! >>>

A Basque stag-do....