PHOTOGRAPHY
Back when I studied History of Art I spent a year in Venice researching various secular motifs in 18th Century Venetian painting. My assumption from that time was that Venice, unlike Rome and Florence, was not particularly a centre for religious iconography. However, on recent visits, walking around the city with an objective eye, I … Read more
Last week I took a photograph of a father and his young daughter on a London bus. I decided to develop it in black and white which to me rendered the image more nostalgic and timeless, with less distractions, so that one can focus more on the subjects and the beauty of the girl’s hair … Read more
The other day I went to The Barbican and walking down a side street near Moorgate I saw the sky and clouds mirrored in a glass-fronted building. Later, on examining the image I also saw a face in the centre of the image, with arched white wispy eyebrows and a round mane of hair framing … Read more
I’ve recently read Armistead Maupin’s memoir Logical Family which I preordered but then read slowly in order to savour his writing. I believe I’ve read all his books including of course his Tales of the City series. It so happens that today @armisteadmaupin tweeted “this makes an old guy happy” in response to The Guardian‘s … Read more
I wanted to write something about how art history is evident not just in the interiors of museums and churches in Venice but has a certain visibility as you walk around its streets and squares. This is in the form of reproductions of painting. I realised that I was concurrently taking pictures of contemporary street art … Read more
I was looking through my photo library and came across the shot below, which I’d taken back in 2009. The painted guitarists are nameless, implying that they are iconic enough to recognise. There is added handwritten text summarising their persona. On the left is a representation of American country musician Hank Williams who died back … Read more
I like seeing how sculpture interacts with the environment. The following two images were taken on a trip to Japan a couple of years ago. The first was taken in Hiroshima. A mother and child; the mother’s hair flowing behind her. They seem to be perched on a crescent moon, and are surrounded by an … Read more
A friend of mine posted an Instagram picture today of a supermarket delivery van decorated with artwork created by a child and it reminded me that over the years I’ve been photographing vehicles with designs and settings that have caught my eye. Here are a few of them. A highly decorated London supermarket delivery van … Read more
I was looking through my photos of a California road trip taken earlier this year and came across this image of a lifeguard hut on Santa Barbara beach: I started thinking about other palm tree imagery I’ve photographed; not in saturated Ibizan sunsets but palm trees in more monochromatic settings. I looked back through my … Read more
I’ve just returned from a few days in few days in Lecce, in the Salento region of Apulia in the heel of Italy. Lecce is sometimes referred to as the Florence of the South, connoting the abundance of visual splendour in the historic centre. However the reality is more complex; Lecce’s incredibly ornate Baroque churches … Read more