PHOTOGRAPHY
Here are a few pictures I took at yesterday’s Women’s March on London, one of a series of international marches in solidarity with those marching in Washington D.C. for human rights and equality, on the day following Donald Trump’s inauguration as US President. As I set out for the march on my local bus, this mother … Read more
A few weeks ago I visited Rome after a gap of many years. I had wanted to revisit for a while, especially after seeing contemporary films set in Rome by several of my favourite Italian directors: Nanni Moretti, Gianni di Grigorio and Paolo Sorrentino. I was immediately struck by the architecture and monumentality of Rome, but … Read more
This week I’ve been thinking a lot about warning signs and particularly signs of danger and our relationship to these signs. Which signs do I notice or pay attention to? This has come about for a couple of reasons. A few days ago a good friend remarked she was surprised that I didn’t include any … 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
I had never come across the late American photographer Saul Leiter until recently, just ahead of the current retrospective of his work at The Photographers’ Gallery in London. It’s unusual for me – I consider myself quite literate when it comes to artists and photographers and have separate degrees in both history of art and … 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
When I was in New Orleans recently I came across a wordless sticker in the street that referenced the iconic 17th Century painting by Vermeer The girl with the Pearl Earring. In the last few years the original image has entered popular culture after Tracy Chevalier’s 1999 novel about the painting was adapted into a … Read more
There’s a small but interesting exhibition on at the moment at London’s ICA called “Paperwork: A Brief History of Artists’ Scrapbooks” which got me thinking about the various ways in which I collect images, potentially for inspiration but sometimes just to ponder and absorb or surround myself with. Here’s an example from the exhibition which … Read more
(L.H.O.O.Q by Duchamp -source Wikimedia Commons) Back in 1919, artist Marcel Duchamp re-presented Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa by pencilling-in a moustache and goatee. He placed the initials LHOOQ beneath, which when pronounced sound like “elle a chaud au cul”, literally translated as “she is hot in the ass” apparently suggesting sexual restlessness and “fire … Read more
Tonight is the eve of the Jewish festival of Passover. Traditionally the first night is marked with a big meal – a Seder – where you recount in a certain order the story of how the children of Israel were liberated from slavery in Egypt (also innocently referred to in the text as the “House … Read more