The Road ...

I love this kind of view ...an empty road opening up in front of me.

Gert informed me that this song is mine, in those days as he watched me fill with the joy of that South Island roadtrip in the little red car.

I hate leaving, dislike saying goodbye, right up until that moment I'm on my way and then I am happiness-filled.

Leaving is one of those things I do best.  And out there, I usually stretch myself to the limit of what I can stand and beyond sometimes, then it's okay to come home again.

I'm not a wild thing, I'm just a smalltime wanderer who doesn't like to stand still for too long.

Favourite Flowers, New Zealand

Of all the flowers in the world, so far, these are the flowers I would fill my garden with ...

The humble yellow Lupin.  Colour-specific because no other lupin smells like the yellow lupin, otherwise known as L. luteus. 

In Dunedin, they mostly grow in that place between the land and the sea, in the interstitial zone.

Following the sandy tracks that led to favourite beaches around Dunedin, the yellow lupins filled my soul with something that felt like joy.

Long Ago, I Lived Here ...

I lived on the edge of Otago Harbour, out on the peninsula, and scenes like this were everyday kind of scenes. And I often slipped out of the house, usually with my dog, and wandered out into those early mornings ... any season.  It was always stunning.

I never took them forgranted, I loved every day that I spent out there.  It was only that I needed to see the world.  It was good to go home and visit it all again.

Ren Powell - poet, playwright, translator & teaching artist

The book released here in Norway in December is An Elastic State of Mind, which is an imaginative autobiography in formal and free verse. Three years of intense work with form, two years of historical research, and another two years with the translator: this baby was a long time in coming. The review that came out last week was positive, with the caveat that it was demanding of the reader. 

The book I am editing now, which will be finished in March, is Ewe in the Rain. It's more of a seduction than a demand.

Ren Powell, an extract from her post over on Mad Orphan Lit. 

Fascinating reading!  Take a peek. 

The photograph ... Boccadasse, Italy.


 

Photography with Giles Duley and W. Eugene Smith

I didn’t write the rules — why should I follow them? Since I put a great deal of time and research to know what I am about? I ask and arrange if I feel it is legitimate. The honesty lies in my — the photographer’s — ability to understand.

W. Eugene Smith, Photographer

I found this quote and loved it.  I loved the photographer's defiance, or the disbelief.  I'm not sure but it made me think that it is a question we should all ask sometimes. 
And this: 
Q.  Why do you print your own pictures?
A.   The same reason a great writer doesn’t turn his draft over to a secretary… I will retouch.

Or:
Q.   Avedon said that there are three steps in making a photograph: first the taking of the pictures, then the darkroom work, then the retouching. He showed me one unretouched picture in which the girl’s skirt fell straight; in the final version it was flying out.
A.   I would have gotten her skirt up somehow.
And so it is today.  You make the photograph, you process it, and then you apply your feeling.  That 'application' varies.  I like to keep mine minimal but the image is mine to do as I please.
I love the way he owns, unapologetically, all that he does as a photographer.
Found after watching the following inspirational TEDx Talk, by photographer, Giles Duley.

A Really Special Valentines Gift ...

A friend of mine has come up with a most delightful video product just in time for Valentines Day.

Patrice, from Web Video Impact, is offering to create an exquisitely personal video message using your own photographs.  You can see how it all works over here.

It's as simple as sending Patrice the photographs, via his Dropbox account, along with any text you want to add to the video.  He also asks that you give him some idea of the kind of music you prefer but don't worry, if you have no idea, he has more than a few.

And, of course, everything can be done via the internet, so location is no problem.

You can contact Patrice over at WebVideo Impact.

Taysir Batniji, "Voyage impossible", Berlin

I was fortunate enough to photograph Taysir Batniji, in his"Voyage impossible" performance, in Berlin back in 2009.

Today he wrote, asking if he might use some of those images for an exhibition in France, in April this year.  And it was so good to know that those photographs from that magical TASWIR Exhibition are still going out into the world.

Taswir - Univers iconographiques de l’Islam et modernité*, Martin-Gropius-Bau - Berlin, Germany

People Become Stories and Stories Become Understanding

I've spent the last few days researching, photographing, and writing up Monday's blogpost for Fans of Flanders.

I'm working on a series of interviews that are absolutely related to this blog's reason for being ... the whole people become stories and stories become understanding thing. 

With that in mind, I'll be talking to more than a few Flemish people I know over the next few months, taking some photographs and writing up stories because they're interesting people and because I love hearing people tell their stories.

Here's one of the images for Monday's blogpost.  I'll cross-post here once it's published.  Any ideas of what it might be ...?