Scenes from an Exhibition, Berlin

Once upon a time ... I spent 3 months living in Berlin, documenting the international exhibition - TASWIR.  The hours were long and intense but the rewards, in terms of people met and things learned, were truly worthwhile. 

I love being given free reign to capture people doing their thing.  Had I known of the possibility, I would have dreamed of being an ethnographer when I was small and out searching for other peoples stories ... or I would have left to be a photographer as soon as I was old enough.  But I only knew of studio portrait photographers and never really thought about who was taking the photographs that appeared in magazines and newspapers. 

My world ... my mind, they seem to have been quite limited back there in small town New Zealand.  Although it was good place to grow up in so many other ways.

But now I'm out in the world and the adventures have been truly grand.  I'm posting this series of photographs in response to my poet friend, Ren Powell's, work challenge over on facebook. 

Today I wrote: A work meme from Ren Powell. Post your work for 5 days and nominate two others each day.  Day 2.  Today I nominated two talented friends, jeweler Kim Arrand, and colour therapist,  Marcia O’ Regan.

Today, I have a life to organise and work to do.  Thank goodness for sunshine and an end to the winter that was ...

Bookmarking Interesting or Beautiful Things Found...

Sharon Olds said something beautiful about sometimes thinking of her poems as instructions for how to put the world back together if it were destroyed.

From Amy Heppel's interview, with Paul Winner, from the Paris Review where she said so much that was wise and beautiful.

I was introduced to the story of Lisa Bonchek Adams via an exquisite article by Zeynep Tufekci, titled Make the Most of Your Day.  They wrote ...

Her love of life and courage was a lesson to me, everyday. She sent out these tweets almost daily, her lessons of life and death.

Saturday, I reread this book and realised all over again, how beautifully written it is while remaining a tale so powerfully written that it destroys me each and every time I read it.  Mornings in Jenin, by Susan Abulhawa.  It's worth seeking out.

Meanwhile, I'm enjoying this song by Andrew Belle as I listen to music here ... reading and writing, taking notes, enjoying the weekend ... at last.

A Round-Up of Things Read Lately ...

I loved this possible love story out of New Zealand.

I'm absolutely enjoying The Pa Boys movie.  I'll post an interview with the writer/director at the end.

I enjoyed this story: Bringing a Daughter Back from the Brink With Poems.

And this ...  Ballet Dancers in Random Situations.

The stories of refugees are, almost always, heartbreaking but we don't often get to read of them in our everyday news, so I'll share the story of Mazhar.

I photographed Sinan Antoon while I was working in Berlin, and listened to him speak.  I will find his book, The Corpse Washer.

I have been introduced to a new blogger.  He made me smile with this story.

And then there was this: Over 200 works of Marc Chagall have been gathered worldwide for this major retrospective exhibition to discover from 28 February to 28 June 2015.  In Brussels.

I have interesting friends on Facebook and so these mostly come from there, then it's also where I share.   This morning it seemed like an idea to share over here too. 

Perhaps there's something for you ...

Ralph Fiennes, by Julie Kavanagh.

On performing Oedipus ...

Now Fiennes’s fear was palpable, with a physical language of agony, like a Bacon painting; his barely audible “Not yet, not yet” sparking the ineffable shiver released by a great performance. The audience was silent, drawn into the moment, but at the end let rip with whoops and whistles, recalling the cast on stage again and again. Sophie Fiennes went twice and said that one performance was the most extraordinary she had ever seen. “It was not acting, it was being. It was a leap of faith, like jumping from one building to another. Ralph had dared to enter that state. Afterwards I told him, ‘Jini’s certainly gone to heaven now!’ Because she would have loved the play, she would have loved his courage on that night.”

From Two Years With Ralph Fiennes, by Julie Kavanagh.

A brilliant article, a brilliant man and the photographer too ... I had to put it someplace safe.

Photograph Jillian Edelstein.

It was a good day ... !

It's your wairua journeying here to your turangawaewae... your spirit returning to the place you belong. nothing can keep you from being here... not physical time or distance love you.  can't wait to you are here in person though, sitting on my porch with a wine and laughter xxxxx

Pippa.

It was one of those awful days that became magnificent.

The infection on my back has healed but I had to wait until tonight to hear that from the doctor.  The story of why I was there is almost laughable, now that I'm on the other side of it all ... but that's for another day.  Perhaps.

Meanwhile I'm assisting in organising a symposium later this year.  The subject is so very dear to my heart.  We worked hard on it today, more to follow tomorrow.

Then I had a rather exciting project arrive in the mail tonight. 

And the words at the start of this post came from Pippa's Facebook post ... I had written to her back in New Zealand saying, ' It's you, you're working the magic of the land on me. I know the smells and the air and the views somehow.'

She has moved house and is posting photographs of the landscape she sees. 

Pippa replied with the words I posted first.  I think she's right and, one day, I hope to be home again.  Sitting out there on her porch, drinking red wines and telling tall stories ... like we have done through the years.