Oriental carpets and identity

I have been adding text and photos to my ongoing project entitled Persian Kentish Town which is a personal take on street photography highlighting the decorative facades, pavements, reflections and illusions of Highgate Road in Kentish Town. The photographs in the project all include oriental carpet imagery. I’ve supplied some background information as to what I understand … Read more

A few images of Maupin’s San Francisco

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

Guitars, icons and abstracts

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

Gotta photograph that hat!

A few days ago I went for a walk to Swains Lane in Highgate to take take some pictures and try out my new camera lens. It was a lovely autumnal day. On the way back I saw  a woman leaning against a tree waiting for the bus. Her hat caught my eye, a warm … 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

Handwriting and Nostalgia

Yesterday I was buying some art supplies and somehow got into a conversation with the store assistant (or possible manager) about the lost art of handwriting and calligraphy. I was saying that my handwriting is now pretty illegible, and has been so for at least a couple of decades, even though I stillI handwrite on … Read more

Exploring identity in self-portraiture: looking back in time

A few weeks ago I visited the Photographers Gallery in London to see the exhibition Feminist Avant-Garde of the 1970s which runs till the end of January 2017. Some of the images brought to mind work I did on identity and self-portraiture at college in the late 80s and early 90s. The college was called … 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

Let it all hang out: observations on washing & identity

I take a lot of pictures of building facades and over the years some of these have been because of the juxtaposition of the architecture with the personal  artefacts displayed. On a recent trip to Venice my eye was drawn to what seemed a quite surreal combination of an old weather-beaten apartment and professional, ultra-modern … Read more

My dad before I knew him

In today’s Guardian newspaper I was reading an article in the Books section in which writers, inspired by Carol Ann Duffy’s poem Before You Were Mine, reflect on photographs of their mothers before they were born. This is connected to the theme of Mother’s Day which happens to fall tomorrow, Sunday March 6. March 6 … Read more