Light and Love: a personal take on decorative lights

Today is the last day of the Jewish festival of light, Chanukah, (sometimes spelled Hannukah) which lasts 8 days and which this year coincided with Christmas. The Hebrew calendar is based on lunar cycles, so the dates of festivals vary slightly each year against the Gregorian calendar.

The picture below is a scanned photograph of my son Rafi was taken in December in the early 90s. You can just about make out the Menorah – the candle holder used during Chanukah, on top of the cabinet in the background.  The festival last for eight days; you light an extra candle each day until all eight are lit on the final day.

Some 25 years later and here is a picture of day three of my Chrismukkah which according to wikipedia is a “pop-culture portmanteau neologism referring to the merging of the holidays of Christianity’s Christmas and Judaism’s Hanukkah”:

Here’s a picture of my friend Karen which I took on a trip to Cuba in late December 2008. I like the contrasting mise-en-scene; the relaxed domesticity, the knitting and crocheted armrests alongside the big double bass, conga and bongos. Of course there is also the illuminated Christmas tree, standing proudly in Castro’s Cuba which was about to celebrate 50 years of the revolution.

Next up are a couple of photographs I’ve take in London’s Oxford Street featuring Christmas lights. The one below was taken last year.  I was fascinated by the surreal and abstract quality of the building facade combined with the floating orbs and took several versions of this image:

Oxford Street at dusk with lights and construction work, late 2016:

Another decorative lights and architectural abstract combo, this time near Piccadilly:

It’s been very foggy, grey and dull the last couple of days so I am concluding this post with some light and vibrant colour. The first image was taken at Kew Gardens and has lights from the Hive installation twinkling in the background:

The photograph below was taken in Osaka, Japan and features a lights designed by artist Yayoi Kusama:

In the spirit of Yayoi Kusama’s LOVE FOREVER, I wish us all a happy, healthy and peaceful 2017, filled with light and love.

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