RINKO KAWAUCHI

I love love love Rinko Kawauchi's photos, when you see them individually they don't have much power and always look a bit banal - but when you see them series in a book, they are just so poetic and beautiful.

DE-CLUTTER DAD

My friend Harriet's Dad is having a bit of a sort out.....

HELLO AGAIN

Well I am ashamed to say that it has been almost a year since i last blogged!...........but I have a good reason........my little daughter Anna Mabel, who arrived 6 months ago and has been keeping my ridiculously busy since then. But the dust is settling now so I am hoping I will have more time to blog.

Here's the little lady, my friend Rikki thinks she looks like Betty Boop and I kind of agree.

THE BIG DAY

Hope you all enjoyed W + C's big day yesterday. It was great wasn't it.... (especially the guilt-free day off work), we had a lovely time watching it on TV then to our local street party for dancing, cricket, bingo, and of course (drum roll) the cake competition –   followed by the pub. V enjoyable.

STREET ART

My great friend Rikki has curated a brilliant exhibition on street art which is currently on show at the Black Rat Projects Gallery in Shoreditch, all the prints are from the V&A' s collection and show the breadth and diversity of street art being produced at the moment. Rikki has also edited a fab book to accompany the exhibition which you can get here.

I'm back....

Hello, is there anyone there??........ sorry for the disappearance..... life and work just got in the way for a bit. I have been busy working on lots of exciting stuff....more of that later. But my main and most important reason for going AWOL is that I am pregnant with baby no. 2! We are thrilled although I am finding the whole pregnancy thing a million times more tiring this time round (must be something to do with chasing a toddler round all day).

Ps. You can get these great vintage posters here

Anthony McCall

Went and saw these amazing light works by Anthony McCall today, probably the best exhibition I have seen for a long time. Currently on show at P3 until 27 March, I really recommend going if you can.

DO KIDS NEED CUSHIONS?

I'm not sure they do...but anyway it doesn't stop me from being very tempted by these super cool ones from Scandi Living

Hoppé

Tilly Losch, 1928

Dutch West Indies, from Book of Fair Women, 1921

Margot Fonteyn, 1935

Ezra Pound, 1918

The Pearlies, Master William Dennis Simmons, London 1922


It is worth popping into the National Portrait Gallery to see the exhibition Hoppé Portraits: Society, Studio and Street which is on until 30 May. Not only are there some amazingly glamorous photos of filmstars and celebrities from the 1920s and 30s but Hoppé also took the most amusing street photographs of London, including the little chap above.

BOOKSHELVES

Other people's bookshelves are always very intriguing and Its Nice That are currently doing an interesting strand where they invite creative people to talk about their five favourite books accompanied by a photo of their shelves....

here are graphic designer and illustrator Supermundane's....

and here are mine...

We always try and keep the shelves free of clutter but it never works and they inevitably become a dumping ground for lots of random stuff.

Deciding on 5 favorites is tricky....so these are my go to books when I need some inspiration.

1. Rinko Kawauchi, Cui Cui
I stumbled across this beautiful book while in Toyko years ago and immediately feel in love with Kawauchi's photographs of her family which were taken over  a 13 year period  – individually the photos don't look like much but when you take the book as a whole it is a beautiful reflection on the ordinariness of life and death. This is the book I probably look at most frequently.

2. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude
The imagery is fantastic - a dream of a novel.

3. Saul Leiter, Early Colour
An amazing collection of colour photos taken by Leiter in the 50s. I always find his crops, angles and use of colour so inspiring.

4. F Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gastby
I read this first in school and have reread it so many times since, it was probably the first novel I truly loved.

5. Martin Parr and Gerry Badger, The Photobook: A History volumes I and II
I always end up looking at these before I start a new book, it is like having the National Art Library at the V&A in condensed form, and consequently both volumes are heavily post-it noted

VIVIAN MAIER

Vivian Maier was an brilliant street photographer who captured the people and places of Chicago from the 1950s to 1990s, her work was unknown until John Maloof stumbled across over 100,000 negatives, thousands of prints and loads of undeveloped rolls of film at an auction house. He has set up a blog dedicated to her and hopes to find out more about Maier's life and work – you can see more here....

VAUXHALL PARK

Hello Sun..... so nice of you to visit us again. Henry and I spent a lovely morning in the park with the sun on our backs, admiring all the little signs that spring is on the way. Everything was sparkling and the sky was so blue – even Vauxhall looked beautiful.

I REALLY REALLY WANT THESE........PLEASE

 

Cool Lisa Stickley purse to keep my glasses in

Orla Kiely storage jar for the kitchen

And this cute little Dicky Bird bag for Henry

INTERVIEW: JOANNA BROWN

I really wish I had known about Joanna Brown's wedding photography when Ant and I got married all those years ago, as I love her style and attitude – romantic but also with a keen eye for interesting compositions. Joanna has been busy setting up the project, From our Hearts with three fellow female photographers (one of which is Emma Case who recently took the photos at my friend Hayley's wedding) and I think it is fantastic to see more women moving into an area that has always been dominated by men (why was that? it seems obvious that women would make far better wedding photographers!). The above photos are from my friends Ellie and Dan's super cool London wedding in November, and Joanna captured brilliantly the happiness, laughter and love that filled the day (BTW didn't Ellie look gorgeous in her 6os style dress...).

What are you currently working on?

Good question I am involved in a new project called From our Hearts it is a collaboration between me and 3 other photographers: Debs Ivelja, Anna Hardy and Emma Case,we all run our own photography business’ and met through mutual respect and admiration for each others work.  We realized that we all share the same ideology of wanting to realize our full potential as artists and help facilitate that in others too. We have created a blog http://fromourheartstoourhands.blogspot.com/ where we are sharing our work, ideas, supporting each other and we are opening it up so people can get directly involved.  We have also created a Flickr group so that people can submit their work and ideas to photography projects that we launch from the site. It is really exciting, as this project has grown totally organically, it was never intended, it just happened as a direct result of meeting kindred spirits. We all recognise that creativity is fundamental to us all in and out of our work and we identified the need to feed and nurture it.  This project is really important to each of us; we are developing lots of ideas for the future so watch this space…

What attracted to photography?
It was very natural and intuitive when I first picked up a camera, I was curious about the world and  wanted to record how I saw it.  I then learnt the craft of developing film and printing in the darkroom; I was hooked – I have never looked back.

What has been your career path?
HA HA, the path I have been down did not have any signs on it there were clearly no distances or destinations, I had to find my way, here is my path; receptionist for a magazine, page layout and design for a magazine, photographers assistant, graphic designer, waitress, lecturer in photography and art, tutor for young adults with learning difficulties, chef, sandwich maker and delivery girl, receptionist for an alternative health clinic, graphic designer, illustrator, worked on a cider farm, workshop leader for people with learning disabilities, photography workshop leader... Then I set myself up in business as a wedding and portrait photographer, when I look back at that path it now all makes sense and has led me to where I am today… I followed my heart, made mistakes on the way and seized great opportunities

What has been your proudest moment?
Building my own website, launching my business – making it happen from scratch all done by my fair hand a real achievement.

What or who has been your biggest influence?
This may sound odd but David Bowie, when I feel bit vulnerable with putting myself and my stuff out there I think of him and in my head hum Absolute Beginners, he is a legend in my eyes, so creative, so honest, and a little bit nuts

What inspires you?
Most things that I see, people that I meet, music inspires me and landscapes do too…I am easily pleased and inspired I try to take in as much as I can most of the time…

What is the last thing you saw that made you go wow? 
The waves in Cornwall this year when I went away

What makes you happy? 
A sunny day, crabbing on a pier, adventures, my darling, my cat, my mates, my kitchen, a fire, nothing out of the ordinary, the smell of roses, making jam, simple pleasures really…

What's the best advice someone has ever given you?
My Nan she said that you can’t do anything without your health  – so true, I try to look after myself as it is the one thing we sometimes take for granted.

Who’s your favourite artist?
I love painters and had a dream to be one (I still paint when I have the time)  I love the work of Anselm Kieffer, Frances Bacon, Edward Hopper and even more so I adore Peter Doig, Thomas Scheibitz and Dexter Dalwood.

Favourite film?
Oh now that is hard I love The Sea Inside… it is quite depressing but beautiful.

Favourite book?
My complete set of Blue Peter annuals

What's next?
The sky's the limit really, more photos, more sunshine, more film, more home made lenses, more adventures, a whole lot of love…..

BEDROOM WINDOW

Oh no, London is freezing again..... and to add to my general air of grumpiness I am coming down with a cold too... I haven't helped myself though, as I spent the afternoon editing photos for my book On Leave, and torturing myself with these photos of beautiful morning light – I can almost feel their summery warmth.

THE KING'S SPEECH

If you haven't seen this film yet, you must go! It is beautiful in every way. The set/location design was stunning and I couldn't get enough of the ornate gold couch and crumbling wall combination in Lionel, the speech therapist's, office. It is a real wall from 33 Portland Place (see below), the house was also used as the location for Amy Winehouse's Rehab video and would make the most amazing party venue...