PHOTOGRAPHY
In this second part of my photo series on London in lockdown I focus on images taken in the West End. The photographs were taken during April and May 2020. Firstly a series of photos where the graphic lines of metals grilles and shutters, as well as being factual and symbolic aspects of lockdown, interplay … Read more
It was exactly 40 years ago when, as a student in Venice, I first encountered a phenomenon that I found both simultaneously attractive and ludicrous. Walking along the Zattere – a waterfront promenade – in late Autumn there were groups of young Italian guys hanging out and people watching. These guys were cool, and they … Read more
I’ve posted several blogs in the last few years featuring images I’ve taken of mannequins. I’ve been drawn to photographing mannequins for a number of reasons. In terms of representation I like the ambiguity; a human, yet not a human. I like the fact they can range from quasi-lifelike to grotesque and non-naturalistic. I like … Read more
Here are a selection of images taken during my most recent visit to New York in late December 2018 and early January 2019. The focus is on facades and architecture. The first two photographs combine decorative metalwork and reflections: The next two also feature reflections and have a more abstract geometric quality: A … Read more
The other day I went to see the floating sculpture The London Mastaba, created by husband and wife artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude and which is situated temporarily on London’s Serpentine Lake. It was a gloriously sunny day and this was my first sighting of it: As I approached I noticed the lake’s surface had a … 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
Yesterday on my way home I saw a leafy tree reflected in a scooter’s wing mirror. I liked the surreal, abstract quality of this image of my neighbourhood street so I stopped to try and capture what I saw with my iPhone: I started recalling other images I’d taken involving vehicle mirrors and remembered a … 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
Every so often I go through sections of my Lightroom photograph catalogues and add more detailed keyword tags; I find it a good task to do when I’m a bit tired but still want to be productive. I came across a series of photographs taken in New York two years ago which I’d forgotten about … Read more
In the last few months I’ve been increasingly drawn to looking at the way the sun illuminates objects, noticing light and shade. Maybe this is because I’ve been regularly life drawing and painting, in natural light when possible. There’s also a desire to seize the warmth and colour of sunlight, to balance out the grey, … Read more