now playing: genesis - the carpet crawlers
when the paint grows darker still
now playing: frank black - when the paint grows darker still
traffic lamb
now playing: the kinks - celluloid heroes
truck show
now playing: bloc party - so here we are
lune head farm
now playing: david bowie - because you're young
warcop ranges
now playing: clouds - souleater
signs of winter
now playing: nick cave & the bad seeds - loom of the land
snow day
Almost a week after the snowfall captured in my previous post, we had another overnight snowfall allowing me to capture the portraits of Kyle cavorting in a local park the next day [also in a previous post], and to capture the snow up close and personal, rather than from the warmth and dry of my home.
Below are some of the other photos I captured.
For those who might be interested, I have work available for sale as open editions on RedBubble [unframed photographic prints, matted framed and canvas prints], as well as postcards, greeting cards, and calendars.
Calendars are available for any starting month, and I'm more than happy to create custom calendars of my work, should you like!
Most of my self-portraiture is only available as limited edition prints, so please contact me directly if you're interested in any on RedBubble that are not for sale; or if there are any other images of mine you have seen on my blog or website that you would like to purchase that aren't on RedBubble.
Additionally, if you would prefer a signed print or a limited edition print, please also feel free to contact me for details
now playing: beirut - st. apollonia
snow patrol
I'm from a country where it doesn't snow in the cities.
If you're lucky it might snow in some alpine areas a couple of hours out of the city (see Victorian and New South Wales snowfields), but mostly you only see snow if you go hunting for it, and rarely do you ever see it actually falling. If need be, the holiday resorts manufacture their own snow so they can maintain a ski season in years when the snowfall isn't up to par.
I think the first time I saw snow was in about sixth grade when my parents took us away for a day to the Victorian snowfields, and my brothers and I had our first experience of throwing snowballs at each other, making a snowman, and just generally mucking about in the snow. I can't recall ever attempting to ski, but my memory may be fuzzy on this.
Apart from that, and being sleeted upon in November 2006 whilst tramping around the Tongariro Crossing area of New Zealand (I wasn't brave enough to climb the scree with my friends, Hugh and Jamie, who subsequently got properly snowed upon), my heaviest actual snowfall experienced previously was pretty piddling: a flurry in Birmingham city centre a couple of weeks after arriving in the UK in 1999, and a similarly brief 'white Christmas' in Newcastle a few weeks later.
Even in the two and a half years I lived here previously, most of the snow I experienced was already on the ground. This included when I had to work between the Christmas and New Year holidays one year, and I walked out of my front door in Reading and stopped on the doorstep, utterly perplexed at what confronted me. It took a good couple of beats before my sleep-deprived brain registered "It snowed!" Having snowed overnight whilst we slept, I had still not been snowed upon, good and proper; and since I had to work, I left my housemate and my then-boyfriend to run around in said snow in their boxer shorts throwing snowballs at each other, whilst I attempted to venture into town without falling on my arse.
So you can imagine I was pretty excited by actual snow, actually falling, at the start of February right outside my house. There were a few preliminary flurries over the weeks leading up to it, but I'd managed to blink and miss every single one. And given the windows to my bedroom are quite high up, and mostly obscured from view by the sloping ceiling when I'm sitting at my desk, it was only because I was talking with my housemates at the time and my landlady mentioned it, that I even noticed.
Suffice to say, despite the cold, I grabbed my camera and wandered out to try to catch some photos. Some at the beginning of the snowfall from the footpath outside my house; the rest from the warmth and dry of my bedroom, the landing, the kitchen and lounge.
I even woke at random points through the night to check if it was still snowing (e.g. 4:30am, and again at 8:30am), and shot off some more photos.
My landlady and housemates were not so excited by the prospect of snow, with concerns about driving and potential flight delays. And though I worried about the impact it would have on Kyle's arrival (it caused slight additional delay); and knew the novelty would pass once I had to venture out, once the snow had turned to sludge, and when the pure white snowfall was discoloured by so many neighbourhood dogs' urine, I think my inner tourist was showing.
now playing: snow patrol - chasing cars
i can't stand up for falling down
Last year was not my best year for a number of reasons. Though there were highlights like moving to London, and undertaking a one month residency at Hospitalfield, overall last year I was not at my emotional, mental or artistic best.
Maybe it's because I've been voluntarily unemployed since January 1 [though technically I'm self-employed; and even without that, when opting to temp, when not actually on an assignment you're not technically 'unemployed', you're 'between jobs'], and Kyle's recent visit has definitely played a part, but I'm currently feeling pretty optimistic about the year ahead.
Aside from my annual new year mantra which I took up a number of years ago now to 'make this one count', I've also resolved to shut out the 'noise' this year, and just get on with it.
By this I mean, think, care and worry less about what others are doing and saying (within both my personal and professional lives), and also know when to shut out my own internal 'noise'.
I let too much peripheral 'stuff' get to me and distract me from the important things last year, and I wasted a lot of time and energy being caught up with all of that. I don't want to waste any more energy on those negative elements this year.
The most important thing to me is to do what I want to do with my photography; do what I enjoy and makes me happy. Focus on what I want, and what I want to do, and block out all the rest.
now playing: curtis mayfield - future shock
paparazzi
I was almost entirely unaware of it until late in the day on our travels around the Tower of London and then Trafalgar Square on the Wednesday after Kyle arrived, but whilst I was snapping off shots of the sights around London, often Kyle was snapping off shots of me [as well as myriad shots of the sights].
Only when going through our shots on our respective computers or on the LCDs later in the day did I realise exactly how many shots of me he was taking. Mostly captured as I was taking photos, or perusing what I'd taken on my LCD, or wandering ahead of him here and there. He was actually shooting me here as I shot him, I believe.
I usually dislike being photographed by other people, especially candidly, but he managed to capture quite a few that I really like [including some very odd ones]; though there are also many of me, as I turned to find him aiming his camera at me once more, with an "Oi! Quit that!" look on my face.
Between his recent visit and his random screenshots from our Skype conversations, I think his collection of photos of me might now have exceeded that of my parents, though would still run second to my thousands of self-portraits.
He also captured some excellent images of subjects other than me during his stay, including some taken on a reconnaissance around the cottage we stayed in, that I didn't go on [I was enjoying a rare lie-in, savouring the warmth of our cosy bed as the sun rose].
Admittedly I was a bit rubbish on the exploration side, as the cold was getting to me, and my trainers really weren't appropriate footwear for clambering over fences and clomping through mud and snow. Add to that the cold I came down with [and still have!] on the Monday after we arrived in County Durham, and I was a bit reluctant to venture too far from the car if I didn't have to.
I'm ashamed to say I didn't even manage any self-portraits whilst we were away. We were so rarely at the cottage we rented as we had long days exploring the local regions, and were usually knackered by the time we finally returned in the evenings, with only enough energy for imbibing a few cans of cider and Guinness, respectively, and a few quick games of Monopoly.
But sometimes you just need a holiday, right?
now playing: lady gaga - paparazzi
fucking tourist
I've been a little absent from the online world the past few weeks, primarily because Kyle arrived for an all-too-brief visit, albeit approximately 25.5 hours later than scheduled, making it even briefer.
A technical hitch delaying his flight from Mackay in Queensland to Brisbane by two hours (originally cited as being due to bad weather) caused him to miss his connecting flight from Brisbane to Singapore; and though eventually Qantas found him a seat on corresponding flights exactly 24 hours later (after feeding him and putting him up in a hotel overnight), by the time he reached Singapore, snowfall in London had impacted on flights landing at Heathrow, causing his British Airways flight to be cancelled, and him to be placed on a Qantas flight another hour later.
Thankfully the brevity of his visit didn't take away from the excitement and enjoyment of having him here with me in London, and getting to show him the sights, as well as a trip up north for a week to explore Yorkshire, Cumbria and County Durham.
Having snowed here on the Friday night, by the time Kyle arrived in the early hours of Monday morning, a lot of it had turned to slush and ice, but having never seen actual snow before, seeing the houses, train tracks, and parks coated in the stuff, Kyle felt it was all a little surreal [not dissimilar from my own experience around Christmas 2000 when I woke to find it had snowed overnight].
He had also been led to believe it would be extremely cold here, being midwinter and coming from midsummer Queensland humidity and heat; but being still fairly mild here at that stage, he was wondering what all the fuss was about.
So after a relaxing pub lunch [the first of countless consumed by us during his time here], he insisted I photograph him barefoot and in a t-shirt at a nearby park, showing him enjoying the mild weather. The original image is below.
As luck would have it, the following Thursday night it once more snowed, allowing him to wander out in it with his camera almost as excitedly as I had done the previous Friday night, and for us to take a second shot the next day of him enjoying the 'mild' weather, this time going for full effect with him donning shorts, a 'wifebeater', and armed with a can of Carlsberg.
All he was missing was a barbecue.
After 'basking' in the morning sun, he also decided to do a barefoot lap of honour:
now playing: jason segel & walter - man or muppet
sun salutation
I'm currently wading through myriad shots from my residency at Hospitalfield in Arbroath, Scotland, in April / May 2011, to finalise the selection of images for my self-published photo book, interior / exterior.
I want to include some unseen images in the final book, so though I've been working through a lot of images, I've not been posting many; but I thought I'd post these three outtakes, especially as the lighting and post-processing are quite different to the final image from this part of my shoot that day.
I haven't decided on the definite final from this shoot, but I have it down to about 2 - 3, so far.
This was shortly after another shoot in an overgrown section of the yard, on the other side of the studio (the stone building to the left of this image), when I managed to step repeatedly into a cluster of stinging nettles. The after-effects of that were not my favourite experience of being at Hospitalfield!
That light creating the lens flare was lovely (and it's totally in-camera). It was probably about 15 degrees at most that day. Weirdly, I spent a lot of my time in the middle of early spring there, the weather not getting above 17 degrees, wearing little more than a sundress and my slip-on One Stars.
now playing: wham! - ray of sunshine
purveyor of alternate worlds
now playing: einsturzende neubaten - der weg ins freie
hearts and flowers
And here we are. The end of 2011.
It's been a mixture of awesome and awful, so I'm channeling the awesome for 2012 in the hopes that I might discourage the awful.
This year saw me move continents; undertake a fantastic residency at Hospitalfield; participate in some inspirational workshops with Miss Aniela and Lou O'Bedlam, meet some fantastic photographers and non-photographers; and do a bit of traveling within and without the UK to catch up with friends.
There have been some massively overwhelming lows emotionally, but we'll gloss over those and pretend they didn't happen, right?
I have January and most of February 'off' from administration day jobs, so I'm planning on filling that time with trying to get somewhat up to date with editing the overwhelming number of photos I've taken in the last year and beyond.
I'm also hoping to collaborate with some other photographers and artists I admire, both within that time span and within 2012 in general; and hoping that in 2012 I can exhibit both within group and solo exhibitions here in London.
I am looking forward to meeting my parents in Budapest for a few days in May; potentially traveling to Manchester at some point to meet up with photography and authorly folk; and hopefully some day or overnight trips to catch up with friends I made when I lived here last.
In short, I'm feeling pretty inspired and positive about 2012 and what it may hold, and hope that you are too.
Should you feel the urge, please feel free to contact me about commissions, prints, image usage or whatever you think I might be able to do for you, that might be able to keep me from returning to full time admin work; but no matter what happens, I'm feeling very hopeful for the new year.
And one massive shout-out to my beautiful partner, Kyle, who despite being literally on the other side of the planet, manages to keep me sane (or something resembling sane). I'm overwhelmed at the thought of him being in London with me in February!
now playing: lamb - hearts and flowers
golden afternoon
twohundredby200 have just released their second issue of the re-launched twohundredby200 magazine.
I'm featured in the magazine, along with Brian Copeland from Graphic Clinic, and Nightmare Mikey.
Go check it out!
now playing: amy winehouse - you're wondering now
selkie
Left: Merle Pace
Right: me
From Merle's Flickr post:
Selkies are Seal Faeries from Irish and Scottish Myth. In the sea, they are seals who swim with their seal sisters, but they also come on land on nights of full moons and transform into women and dance with their seal sisters. This is when men can steal their seal skins to marry them, as they are known to be the best of and most loyal wives, and they go on to have children and a family on land. But, the Selkie woman is always longing for something. If they discover their seal skins, they have the terrible choice of staying with their human families on land, or returning to the sea with the constant call of their seal sisters, which is so much stronger than their mortal family.
I love this story and concept so much, but was really struggling to put together something I felt captured the idea in the vivid way I would have liked.
My full time day job and other distractions have been a real inspiration-killer for me lately, though I'm working on fixing that [which is also the reason I'm posting this so late...]
My image is a montage of a swirling, animal skin-type cloak I borrowed from a friend for a shoot as part of my 365 days series, and a self-portrait from about 2009. I wanted to capture the sense of the sealskin mingled with water. Merle flipped my image to face right-to-left and adjusted the colour a little in this version to make it work more harmoniously with her wonderful, dreamy image.
She also put together two other pairings which I think are also both beautiful, which you can see below.
now playing: pulp - being followed home
100 people - #25: Kyle
One Friday night in September last year, my then housemate, Nicole Jensen, caught up with a friend who was visiting Brisbane for his brother's wedding the next day. They had met in a pub nearby, and decided to adjourn back to our house for more beers.
I was home editing photos and indulging in some ciders, and Nikki knocked on my bedroom door to invite me to come out and join them, as Kyle had been admiring the print of truth lies beyond hanging over the couch in our lounge room.
We ended up spending most of the remainder of the night talking art, photography, ambitions, travel, etc.
We then stayed in contact through Twitter, and met again about a month later when Kyle boarded with us for a week to do a course in Brisbane. We hung out much of the week watching Terriers, drinking cider and beer respectively, and going to the gym. On his second last morning in town, as we caught the bus together toward the city, he asked me if I wanted to catch up for dinner that night.
Having asked if Nikki was coming with us to dinner, I surmised from his answer in the negative, that he was asking me on a date; though, in case I was unsure, he confirmed my suspicions when he met me outside the gym, giving me the option to decline at that point.
Given that, were we not to go to dinner, we would just end up going back to the house and chilling on the couch watching more Terriers and hanging out together, I figured I got a good deal either way. However, I did chuckle and ask "You know I'm leaving the country, right...?"
Suffice to say, the date went well, and knowing we had only a short time together before I left for London, Kyle came down once more from Winton on Boxing Day and we spent an intense, indulgent and utterly wonderful two weeks together.
On New Year's Day I photographed him, from which this portrait is taken.
Despite my initial reluctance to undertake a long distance relationship, ten months later here we are (though officially we've just passed our eleventh month anniversary, agreeing in retrospect that first date marked the beginning of our relationship; and we won't mention that 2.5 hour break-up...)
We video chat almost every day on Skype, for hours at a time, to the point where it's almost like we live together, despite the vast distance between us. Thankfully he's a morning person and I'm a night owl, so our mornings and evenings overlap. Through the various ups and downs we've both had over the past year, we manage to keep each other going and make each other smile (though admittedly he's usually the one who has the more difficult job with this, as the past few months life has been getting me down a bit), and his encouragement and his own achievements with his weight have definitely been an inspiration in my weight loss.
This weekend he has made the move from Winton to commence a new job in Mackay. A job with more opportunities and that will give him more experience relevant to the IT degree he is currently undertaking.
All going to plan, he will visit in February for a few weeks, and I can't wait to see him in all of his high resolution, non-pixelated goodness. It will also give me a chance to take updated portraits of him as, like me, he has lost more weight and toned up more since January.
Maybe he'll also capture me in illustration, as he is a talented artist himself, though not practicing.
now playing: natalie imbruglia - that day
le marais
now playing: poison - nothin' but a good time
parmentier
now playing: augie march - baron of sentiment