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....

phone snaps

a random selection of snaps from the phone.

BARÇA WINS Champions League

So here is just a very brief selection of fotos I've snapped in and around Barcelona during the last 12 months or so. Some were taken with my NIKON D300, others with a CANON G10...i haven't edited this selection physically in any way - even though some could probably do with a bit of Photoshop tlc, I'm a purist, so what you see is what you get.

Barça wins against Chelsea in the Champions League - massive celebrations on Las Ramblas, May '09.

i went pigeon/people-spotting on plaça catalunya one day, and took a ridiculous amount of snaps as an attempt to get some swooping action-shots of wings, feathers and beady-eyes....mostly in vain. there were too many distractions from the actual subjects in colour so i switched them to good old b+w... but to be honest i still wasn't very satisfied with the outcome. You live and learn. >>>

BCN Barcelona - layers of

Well as my first blog post I suppose I should write a litle bit about what i'm hoping to achieve... basically I've set up this blog as a motivation to begin making new work - work being photography-related - and as a place to put my various creative wafflings (hopefully making more sense out of them n the process!)

Between graduating in 2008 at Falmouth University College with a degree in Photography, moving to and setting-up a new life in Barcelona with various other distractions, I haven't even really thought about beginning a new project but have been taking snapshots of life here from time to time.

I'll start with posting a few snaps i took recently as sort of photographic sketches and a few ideas I've had recently,

This snapshot of leaving the metro (either at Maria Cristina or Poble Sec if i remember correctly) has given me an idea i'm thinking about for a potential project at the moment. The idea is to take well compositioned photos of the view leaving the metro. Using the metro alot in Barcelona, it's always a sort of relief to leave and see the sky again. This could also be done at night.

Something else that strikes me about living in a city is the experience of living in various different layers, and moving through them during various points of the day.

Firstly, at ground-level you weave through the maze of streets, alleys, squares and buildings but can also feel the rumble of the metro beneath you. Then there is the labyrinth of underground passages as you go into the metro and these layers merge as you leave again. And of course the buldings themselves, going into each one and looking out there is literally an infinite number of vantage points, places to hide and places to be found. Going up to Montjuic literally feels as if you are moving into the sky and see the city as a blanket of buildings below. This feeling of moving throughout the different layers of a city is always with me as I move around Barcelona and would like to explore this idea further.