David Bailey's Stardust

At the weekend, I went home to London to see family and friends, but more importantly to see David Bailey's exhibition Stardust at the National Portrait Gallery. David Bailey has always been one of my favourite photographers, in fact I think it's safe to say that it was his work that first got me into photography - as Bailey himself once said, 'It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer. You need less imagination to be a painter because you can invent things. But in photography everything is so ordinary; it takes a lot of looking before you learn to see the extraordinary'. So it is safe to say that my expectations were high, and I'm thrilled to report the exhibition did not disappoint. I absolutely loved the diverse range of his work and the exhibition really illustrated the extraordinary range of subjects that Bailey has captured: actors, writers, musicians, filmmakers, designers, models, artists and people encountered on his travels; many of them famous, some anonymous, all of them perfectly captured. That's the thing I love about him, he really manages to capture the individual, no matter who they are or where they're from you are shown a sense of their personality.

It is extremely rare that a leading institution allows an artist to curate his or her own retrospective, however I am so glad that they did. Featuring over 250 images, personally selected and printed by Bailey, the exhibition offers an unmissable opportunity to experience the work of one of the world’s greatest image-makers. He also designed the book (a must purchase of mine of course!) in fact Sandy Nairne, the gallery's Director, admitted that giving the artist such free rein was unusual; "We had to relax. It became very clear that he did have a vision about this show. This is Bailey through and through." But by giving Bailey free reign, we got to see all sides of his work, not just the famous shots of models and rock stars. In fact one whole room was dedicated to his wife Catherine Bailey, and featured many intensely personal shots of her and their children. As a huge fan of his work, I was wonderfully surprised at how few images in the exhibition I had actually seen before!

So, just in case you haven't got the hint, I loved the show and could not recommend it enough - I'm definitely going back whenever I'm next in London! To give you a little taste of what's on show, here's an extremely small selection of my favourites.

Fairy Tales

Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.

G. K. Chesterson

Cakes

Over the past year I have made several of my world famous (allow me this exaggeration) signature cakes. I have decorated a gardening themed cake for a family friends 60th, a fishing one for my Uncles 50th and then of course there's Christmas. This year, however, instead of one big Christmas cake, I decided to make several individual sized ones - just to make the process even more laborious.
Below are the results of the many hours spent moulding, colouring and cursing icing. Hope you like them!

Now I realise the next photo isn't technically a cake, however I am still pretty damn pleased (and therefore keen to show off) with my shortbread Christmas Tree. (Much tastier than horrid fruit cake too (not that my fruit cake tastes horrid, I just don't like fruit cake)!)

Black and White

Just a few images from a film I neglected last year. Enjoy!

Happy 2014

I apologise for my lack of blogging over the past couple of months but a lot has happened. First and foremost, after a year and a half of working for free (otherwise known as interning) and working in Costa (to pay for said internships) I FINALLY landed myself a job. Not just any job, but a job in publishing! I am now a "Publishing Assistant" at Intellect Books who specialise in the fields of creative practice and popular culture. This job meant a move to Bristol, (where I know no one so if you are in Bristol please come say hi) so I am now finding my way around a new city, discovering new art galleries, music venues and most importantly tea and bookshops!

In my absence from blogging I have read many fascinating books (currently loving Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn), watched a lot of TV programs (addicted to Breaking Bad and The Bridge at the moment) and gone from the usual drinking and feasting month of December to detox and fasting January (which also meant joining a Netball club, go Bristol Storms!)
So all in all, there has been a lot of change recently, which is why I have neglected my blog so soon after promising to update it more regularly. So again, I promise to regularly update you all from my new place in Bristol with all the books, art and films that I am being influenced by. For now I leave you with my quote of the week, from one of my favourite directors:

80% of success is showing up
Woody Allen