What people say about working with me ... and some of my work

 

Any time I raise anything on stage, I ask Di Mackey to join the project. Her photographic work is magnificent and I love her presence: her portraits are stunning, they expose intimacy, humor, and pensiveness; her photographs capture the space, the movement, human interaction deliciously, in a way that one feels invited to an event long after it disappeared from the public scene.

In all her unobtrusiveness when working with the camera, Di is great fun to hang out with, the artists, scholars, thinkers, curators of our big Berlin exhibition highly appreciated her, and when working together in Cairo, Istanbul, Berlin, or wherever else, I enjoy her kindness, humor, and delightful presence. 

I miss her at the time when we are “in between projects.”  One of the first things I will do when starting a huge new project is to ask Di whether she wants to do the photographic work.  I hope she will. 

Shulamit Bruckstein, curator, director of TASWIR projects / ha’atelier.

 

That Desire for Home ...

The desire to go home is a desire to be whole, to know where you are, to be the point of intersection of all the lines drawn through all the stars, to be the constellation-maker and the center of the world, that center called love. To awaken from sleep, to rest from awakening, to tame the animal, to let the soul go wild, to shelter in darkness and blaze with light, to cease to speak and be perfectly understood.

Rebecca Solnit.

I used to sit there, near the top of the hill, at the edge.  Located on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand, it was a great place to sit and dream about the world ... 6,000kms away from my east coast they told me.

I'm beginning to believe that I'm finally going home ... after 8 years away.  I never imagined, not even for a second, that I would ever spend longer than a year away from this landscape that owns my soul.

But I've looked around while I've been gone ... fallen for Genova, loved Istanbul, live in Flanders, wandered in Cairo and Paris and Amsterdam, Barcelona and Salamanca, Madrid too.  Adored and was awed by Rome, smiled in Naples, survived Berlin.  Enjoyed Ireland and England, France.

But going home ... it's as the quote says, I suspect. 

 

Happiness is ...

The other day my lovely friend, the talented soprano Kathleen Berger, had this idea over on facebook ... she was going to post a photograph of something that made her happy, every day.

I liked the idea.  There's been so much doom and gloom lately, so much chaos. 

I have spent this year following the poet, Amy Turn Sharp, as she creates a poem every day through 2012.  I love her poetry.  I love those daily poems.

To begin ... one of my favourite things is surely my deep red bookshelves, the ones that hang next to me, here at my desk.  They are loaded with my treasured books and dvds.  And there are little gifts too.

The painting from and by artist, Karla Verdugo, the red cardinal from the lovely Lisa Ferreira.  The beautiful tile with the perfect message, from Raquel. 

The worst summer ever ...

But perhaps that's only how it feels at the moment however the last few months have been horrible, and this 'horrible' looks set to continue a while, until I work out how to process it all.

If I told you the story of it all, you wouldn't believe me but it's been surreal ... so surreal.

Mostly I'm living very quietly while wishing I was off wandering. 

Here's to autumn being a better season, and to trams being 'enough' for the moment.

 

Wandering again ...

it was just a little wander but one that confirmed that I am happiest when catching a train or a plane, a bus or a car to someplace else ...

It was a short journey, maybe an hour and a quarter across Belgium, into French-speaking Wallonia.  There I had the loveliest day, lazily catching up with Wendy and Patrice, and Momo the dog.

And their sunflowers were stunning, just stunning!

Patrice van de Walle - Web Impact Video and the Videocial

It doesn't happen too often, thank goodness, but sometimes you arrive to photograph someone and voila ...you become the subject of a Patrice van de Waller's videocial.

He explains: Videocials are the specific combination of videos and social media.  In other words, the videos are made specifically with Social Media in Mind.  What is involved in this?

Patrice van de Walle was the bloke who made this photographer the subject ... dammit.

I should tell you though, he brings more than 20 years of experience in television & the Internet to any project he takes on.  He has managed a satellite TV channel in India and helped found a TV production company in the UK.  He  launched TV channels in Germany and the UK, launching several video and B2B web sites too. 

Actually, he is also available to speak at conferences about his favourite topic: the many uses of video on the web and the communications revolution it will engender. 

He's charming, engaged, intelligent ... so yeah, I let him film me at work.  It's not me at my best.  I might have felt a little bit ... filmed.  My preference is a kind of invisibility ... the kind a documentary-style photographer seeks.  I prefer to know about everyone else but here, Patrice captured something of me at work.

I recommend you having a good look around his website ... Web Video Impact, and then wandering on over to Videocial.

Here's the man.  I may have pointed my camera his way too ...

This Summer ...

This summer, we spent two weeks using this staircase so many times every day ... our bedroom, with that exquisitely huge old-fashioned bath, was up on the first landing.

I snapped this image, handheld, 'interesting' light, didn't think it would work ... but I like it.

That Guy ...

I remember seeing this photograph one day ... I'm not sure I ever posted it here.  It was no one I knew ... a stolen image really.  Stolen from someone who had simply walked past me. 

Perhaps he won't mind.

 

Miss 8

In lovely news, Little Miss 8 has returned to Belgium.  We've spent these last couple of weeks, lying on the bed, reading for an hour or two most days.  We have now reached Book 5 of Harry Potter.

We re-enrolled at her old school today and everyone seemed very pleased to see her again. 

I am.

Sometimes ...

Sometimes, our house just fills right back up again and my responsibilities change.

I am currently buried in the cleaning of this quirky little Belgian house, babysitting, and stuff.

Clare and Chris ...

They booked their visit months ago.  It was written into 'the book' and then time passed, in its usual haphazard manner.  Being me, I lost track but suddenly, despite this non-participation with regard to time, it was 25 August and voila, they were here.

I met Clare in Istanbul and adored her there.  She left, we stayed in contact and Gert and I had the joy of photographing her British wedding to the lovely Chris ...  

This friendship,  it's been lovely so far.

Yesterday we wandered the city ending our day at Taverne Ter Rivierenhof, with unlimited exceptionally exquisite Mosselen a Velonte, Scampi in Lookboter, and Stoverij.  Bliss!

This morning a traditional Belgian breakfast was enjoyed by all, conversations too, and then afternoon saw them disappear on our bikes, exploring this city Clare has only visited during colder months.  Chris has never been here ... it was therefore imperative that he went wandering.

Last heard of, they were leaving the Open Air Sculpture Park called Middelheim, heading for the famous Het Elfde Gebod - a pub full of religious statues, bought when the Catholic Church entered its minimalist phase.

There have been a couple of serious downpours but we're thinking they're fine.  She's an intrepid soul, as is he ... and we're looking forward to the stories that will surely be told over Shepherd's Pie and Pavlova tonight.

Oh ... and red wine too. Belgian beers for the boys we're thinking - in the style of an anthropological-style ethnography.  Gert's been introducing all the blokes to the new beer by Duvel Tripel Hop.  So far, everyone he has introduced to this new limited edition beer to, has looked like they have partaken of a miracle upon supping from their Duvel glass.

Even Clare toyed with not returning Chris's glass to him after a taste of the Duvel, despite the fact that we in the midst of our own red wine religious experience.  That, my friends, is how good the Duvel Tripel Hop is ... 

Anyway, meet Chris and Clare.

 

 

From, The Yoga Series

Sometimes, there is this feeling of mind-flight when I work with the camera.

It's not about me in a place, planning out a series of shots ... hyper-aware of angles and light and lenses.  It's simply about turning up and falling into that space where all is obvious and instinctive.

Could I explain it to anyone? 

Probably not.  It's about feeling and it's mostly unconscious.

I love finding that flow ...

Variations ...

I do minimal work on my portraits in Photoshop ... minimal because I think it's more important that people see that they are beautiful and not in need of photoshopping however ... my daughter goes in there and tweaks just the subtlest things in the most beautiful ways

She is an artist in Photoshop ... and she gave me three variations of the same photograph, having done minimal work on them.

A Portrait, with that Inquisitive Chicken

There was a huge amount of squawking and hysteria out in the chicken coop this morning ...

Immediate investigation by the Australian bloke revealed the Ms Inquisitive Chicken had climbed the ladder to the first floor and was completely ignoring her Rooster bloke's demands that she come down.

She spent some time up there and at the time of removal, was busy admiring herself in a mirror she'd found. 

The lovely American risked life and limb ... well, attack by said rooster, and brought her back to the yard.  Here they are, posing together.

Portraiture II

This shot was taken out in the cobblestone yard of the big old house in Wallonia.  The white background came courtesy of an old wooden barn door and the hat was a treasure recently found by Alysha at the Waterloo Market.

She used cosmetics on her eyes but that was it.  What the light did with her skin, was nothing short of miraculous.  I was stunned, once again, by the magic of eyes.

We had such fun.  I'll put up a gallery of this shoot, and the shoot with that lovely Australian bloke, soon.