There has been a real sense of storing impressions ... of really looking, as I walk city streets in these days before flying back home to New Zealand ...
This is the opening to a new blog post I wrote for Fans of Flanders, and posted on my Antwerp page but even as I write this here, I'm thinking maybe I need to create a New Zealand page.
I'll leave you with another image from New Zealand photographer, and good friend, David Wall.
Must finish packing ... tot later.
When you race out after breakfast to photograph the rubbish bags in an area not your own ... for that blogpost you wrote elsewhere.
And on the way home, after rubbish bag photography where you bluffed that yes, I'm meant to be doing this, you are picked up by a Jehovah's Witness doing her work. (I mistook her for a friendly Belgian out there on the suburban streets, between the supermarket and home.)
And unable to be rude, you obediently give her your home address, so she can come check whether you read that religious tract she just gave you.
Then you have that hour long appointment with a woman so wise that she makes you smile ... work on photographs, put the laundry through and vacuum.
You open the stunningly excellent carrot and cardamom bio soup you picked up from the supermarket because a truly generous yoga instructor is calling by, just to show you that you can do yoga without your injured neck popping out and all over the place.
And you talk photography with her because she wants to learn the how of it and you love sharing what you know.
Well ... it's been a day like that so far. The photograph ... the street I wandered home along earlier this morning.
Jess dragged me outside the other day ... the sun was disappearing but light was exquisite.
We were a little slow arriving in Rivierenhof on our bikes but caught some of the autumn action there ...
We had a most delightful day wandering this Flemish city of mine with our cameras …
We were 4, as they might say here. I loved the international flavour of us. We came from Italy, Belgium, Finland and New Zealand, meeting at my house, over lunch and pdf workbooks.
My photography e-course book is included in each photography workshop, as is Hanna’s video e-book in video workshops. I had previously asked Francesca and Bouchra what elements of photography they were most interested in and, after lunch, set them practical exercises focusing on their areas of interest.
That done we were ready to wander out into the beautifully warm autumn day Antwerp was offering. The city was good to us and shop-owners welcomed our interest in their decor and products. The autumn leaves glowed in the exquisite golden light on offer and we played … cameras in hand, 4 women together, out and enjoying the freedom to experiment and learn.
These workshops are as much about offering a safe and supportive environment for learning just how to use your camera … as they are about slipping in through the backdoor and visiting the lives of the people who live here. And it’s about any camera … whatever you have. And just as important is the realisation that your way of seeing is valid. That perhaps photography is about knowing the rules but then it’s bending them to your style, to exploring them and pushing them to their limits, about playing.
The goal? Well, it’s about coming away knowing that your way of seeing is exactly that … it’s your way. An expression or extension of you. In the same way the artist chooses their medium, the writer their genre …
I truly enjoyed the time we spent together on Tuesday. A huge thank you to Francesca, Bouchra and Hanna for being so much fun to go wandering with … and for being so willing to experiment with photography.
Photo credit goes to Francesca Puccio.
I write for the Fans of Flanders website once a week. It's been interesting finding my voice over there because it feels less about me as a photographer and more about me as a foreigner here in Belgium ... kind of.
But this weekend's post was slightly simpler to write ... well, it took ages but I was working through a small crisis. You see I have been known to complain about things here in Belgium. It's a very flat country, there's only 60kms of coastline, it's polluted, and people can be quite rude in the shops and on the trams ... not always but by crikey, I have more than enough stories of outrage.
Last weekend we had a party and one of our guests was the lovely Spanish-based American friend called Erik. He is friend to Simon and Paola, and so it was that he stayed with them over in Brussels, and they decided they would leave exploring Antwerp until the Saturday of the party.
I realised I would have to leave them to it, as there were more than 25 guests coming and we were cooking dinner for 7 plus 2 kidlets, beforehand. I found it strangely painful not to be involved in micro-managing their city wandering.
I was bemused ... but wait, what is this feeling??? Is it really that I want Erik to see Antwerp in the best possible light? Really?
And I realised that this is my over-arching desire when it comes to this adopted Flemish city of mine. I love introducing people to it, to the secret places tourists don't always find, to the restaurants and cafes with the best food and wine, to the ancient cobblestone streets that hide so many surprises ... really quirky surprises sometimes. I love it because somehow this city has become part of me.
Anyway ... my small crisis played out over on my Antwerp page.
This wasn't the first time, I've been interviewed for television before ...
I'm not sure if you read through the various blog pages I have on this website but I wrote the story of my recent interview experience over on my Antwerp blog page so ... just in case you missed it, it's there and not here, where I had originally intended to tell the story.