Beyond The Family album – A personal Take

At the Tate Gallery Exhibition, Women in Revolt, which celebrates 20 years of of feminist art and Activism in the UK between 1970 and 1990, I was reminded of the influence that some of the photographers had on my own personal work, especially that of the late Jo Spence whose project Beyond the Family Album … Read more

Unknown but Familiar Faces: Old Photos in Cafés & Bars

One of the things I miss most during the extended London lockdowns is sitting down at a café and people watching, writing my journal or reading. I miss both this solitary experience and the regular meet ups with my sons, partner and close friends. Sitting in cafés is an entrenched ritual that feels very much … Read more

Hot Days and Hand Fans

Nowadays in addition to carrying my red metal water bottle I make sure I have a little folding paper fan with me. Although it doesn’t help that much on the hot, airless carriages of London Underground I am usually grateful for the relief this simple classic device provides. I’ve always like the look of fans; … Read more

Old Family Photographs – posing with vintage cars and other wheels

I’ve gathered together some old family photographs that all, with the exception of the final image, predate my birth. In these photographs the cars and other forms of transport are integral to the photograph, they are not just part of the background. My parents and relatives wanted these objects to feature and be recorded. The … Read more

On Reading

In my last post on the Venice Carnival I included a photograph I’d taken of a masked man in a bookshop perusing a book on the Hebrew language. This got me thinking about other images I’ve taken of people reading as well as the representation of books and reading matter in family photographs in my … Read more

Dolls, Teddies and Transitional Objects: Some Images of Transient Attachments

Looking through my late father’s old photos I came across some vintage studio postcard images of extended family members that caught my eye. I liked the props – the doll and soft toy: Again from my father’s collection here’s a photo I really like of my first cousin Ruth – dating approximately from the mid … Read more

Dalia: the older the violin the sweeter the music

It was my mother’s 80th birthday this week. A former ballerina, Dalia still keeps fit and goes to the gym several times a week. A few days ago I posted a short video to Facebook where I filmed her dancing at her birthday tea party which was viewed to a quasi-viral level; her glamour and … Read more

Top Hat

In the 1920s my paternal grandparents left Iran for Palestine before settling in the UK in 1928. Here’s a photograph from that era showing my grandparents all dressed up. David Aminoff, who I knew as BOBO is in a top hat and is holding a cane and his wife Dvora aka BIBI is wearing a fur coat … Read more

hand coloured photos and some vintage self-portraits

There’s an exhibition on at the moment at The Photographer’s Gallery in London called Primrose: Early Colour Photography in Russia.   Here’s an image from the exhibition. I particularly like the theme – it’s a still of a rumba dance from a 1928 film called Albidum by Alexander Rodchenko. The print is silver gelatin with added … Read more

Bibi in her hats

I was searching through my photo catalogues just now for a particular image using the keyword “hat” when I came across this image of my late paternal grandmother, known to her grandchildren simply as BIBI (traditionally Farsi for lady, but in our community used for grandmother). I’d forgotten about this image, which I’d taken back … Read more