PHOTOGRAPHY
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 just returned from spending five days in Venice at the tail end of the Carnival season. It’s great that my husband loves Venice as much as I do; we both feel it’s our second home and that the five days just flew by. Upon arriving at Marco Polo Airport I saw a charismatic guy … 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
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
The first part of my tribute to this year’s Venice Carnival concentrated on images of masquerade and fancy dress. In this second part I focus on found street abstracts featuring coriandoli, Italian for confetti, a traditional decorative feature of the Venetian carnival. The pavements and squares are strewn with it. Here’s a picture of my … Read more
I’ve recently returned from a few days in Venice. It was the period of Carnevale, the Venetian Carnival, which culminates on Shrove Tuesday, Mardi Gras. The first contemporary Venetian Carnival took place in 1979. I studied History of Art at Venice’s Ca’Foscari University in the academic year 1979-1980 so was able to immerse myself in the … Read more
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
A couple of years ago I wrote a short blog piece here called Valentine Shmalentine! which I thought I’d revisit today, not only as it is Valentine’s Day but because of the passage of time. Since that entry Francino, the old man in the rainbow hat in the Bar Italia image, has died . Dini the … Read more
Over the years I’ve photographed representations of hands in graffiti. I often associate the icon of a hand with the hamsa – the middle eastern symbol of protection, usually represented as an open palm with and expended middle finger, with the thumb and little finger sometimes curving outwards, Both Judaism and Islam uses this icon … Read more
I came across these colourful architectural facades – unusually bright for Venice – on my visit last weekend: The next two images are windows on the city, partly obscured by curtains and shutters: And I really liked the abstract effect created by layers of torn posters, with the face at the centre still legible: