Looking Back...

Well after saying goodbye to 2012 (in some serious style I may add) it's also time to say well and truly goodbye to my carefree reckless days and say hello 2013 and the adult world (sob!).
So I thought I would start the new blogging year with a trip down memory lane... enjoy some of my favourite pictures from 2012 and expect many more to come from 2013.

“If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.” ― Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

I know very well that many, many things are going to ask me to have their pictures taken and I will take them all.' - Jacques Henri Lartique...

Coming Soon

Wow, it's been since September that I last blogged... Apologies! One of my (early) New Years Resolutions is to keep this updated regularly. I have been so busy but have a great new idea for a photography project so watch this space!

Until then I shall leave you with this wonderful image I recently discovered by Salvador Dalí to brighten up your day.

'Illuminance' by Rinko Kawauchi

Well, let me first apologise for the long delay in getting out a new post, I have been ridiculously busy working (goodbye student lifestyle, hello real world). I have seen, heard and read so many wonderful new things since June (terrible I know) that I hardly know where to start. So I decided, instead of recapping everything I have been doing since the Jubilee, I would start afresh and talk about a wonderful photographer I discovered on Thursday... Rinko Kawauchi.

I was finally able to get to the new Photographer's Gallery for the late night times after work on Thursday to see the Deutsche Borse Photography Prize. I have to say this year I was a little underwhelmed by the exhibition. Firstly I am not a huge fan of John Stezaker, whose work I seem to have seen everywhere this year and secondly, I just found the work rather uninspiring... apart from, that is, Rinko Kawauchi's who was nominated for her publication Illuminance. Thee result of both commissions and personal projects, Illuminance spans fifteen years of Kawauchi's practice. Using a soft palette of colours, masterful composition and editing skills, her images evoke moments of dreams, memory and temporality. It is also one of those very rare finds, where the book is actually more stunning than the prints displayed in the exhibition themselves. I immediately had to buy it, draining my limited funds (I'm currently undertaking in an unpaid internship and only have one day a weeks worth of Costa Coffee earnings to live off) but I don't care. The book is utterly breathtaking and well worth every penny. Kawauchi's ability to turn the mundane into the extraordinary (sorry for the cliche but it's the truth) is poetic. The book gives beauty to themes of life, death and the everyday, a wide range for one photographer. Enjoy some of my many favourites from the publication below.

P.S. If you get a chance before the 16th September, definitely go see Another London at Tate Britain. Street photography, capturing my favourite place to be, London, between the 1930s-80s. Amazing photographers, amazing photographs and just a brilliant, fairly small, exhibition... post will come soon in detail about it.

P.P.S Own photography post will follow soon too! (I promise)

Jubilee Jubilations

As everyone is aware (unless you've been living under a rock) a couple of weeks ago it was the Queen's Jubilee and one thing the British know how to do is celebrate in style. Living in a small village myself, I was exicted to visit the many small village fêtes being hosted around my home. So I donned my wellies, Barbour coat and Union Jack flag grabbed my cannon film camera and set out to the various events. All in all I visited Chipperfield (who got top marks for their fantastic fête), Bovingdon (who I felt could have done a lot more), Berkhamstead (disappointing as when I arrived at half 4 they had finished and packed away) and finally Gadebridge Park for live music, fireworks and the lighting of a beacon. I am a huge people watcher and love documenting the interesting people I meet and for the Queen's Jubilee they didn't disappoint. Donned in an array of fancy dress mixed with country chic I loved snapping away, documenting a weekend that made me proud to be British!
Here are a few of my favourites from a weekend of celebrating our Queen's glorious reign.

'I've had a lovely time' - Lucian Freud

After seeing Lucian Freud's exhibitoin at the National Portrait Gallery I was blown away, he is one of my favourite painters and finally getting to see his work live was incredible. The raw fleshyness of his paintings was fabulous, and you could tell the emotion behind both sitter and painter automatically. This was definitely one of my favourite exhibitions, so much so that I ended up buying Martin Gayford's Man with a Blue Scarf: On Sitting for a Portrait by Lucian Freud. I have always been a fan of Gayford, I think he is an extremely interesting art critic with a wonderful insight into the world of art. I especially became a fan of his after reading A Bigger Message: Conversations with David Hockney.

This book opens up both the mind of a world class painter as he works, as well as what goes through the mind of your "average joe" as they sit for a painting. Gayford describes his conversations with Freud in great detail, allowing us into the mind of a genius. These conversations are absorbing and entertaining as we learn of Freuds' relationship with other famous painters such as Bacon, his disdain for many other artists such as Leonardo diVinci who he claims 'someone should write a book about what a ghastly painter Leonardo da Vinci was', his daily routines and most importantly, how he begins, progresses and finally finishes one of his beautiful paintings. We also learn about his friendship with the infamous Kray brothers, something I found astonishing and hilarious at the same time. All in all it is a fascinating read into someone who has lived a life to the full, doing what he loves most, painting.

It was an easy, enjoyable book that I can see myself picking up again and again. So if you are fan of Freud's I urge you to read this insightful, witty and generally lovely book about Gayford's experience as a model for him. I think my favourite part was the last page, added after the death of Freud in 2011, which was extremely touching. Gayford quotes Freud saying 'I’m not frightened in the slightest of death; I’ve had a lovely time.” A poignant, true and simple take of what comes after a well lived and achieved life.