Photography | reframe

Instamatic Focal Point: Madrid, Spain

// February 25th, 2009 // 3 Comments » // Travel

Some photographs I captured during a recent weekend in Madrid with my marvellous flatmate, Giovanni.

Two recommendations for happy living.
1: When possible, go to Spain. 2: Always live with Italians.

Views from The Hajj and Eid al-Adha

// December 16th, 2008 // No Comments » // World Issues

Thursday “marked the end of the Muslim festival Eid al-Adha, or “Feast of Sacrifice” – which also marks the end of the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia.” The Boston Globe has a wonderful set of photos of Muslims around the world in prayer and pilgrimmage presenting a unique combination of diversity and unity.

“Muslim pilgrims perform the “Tawaf” ritual around the Kaaba at Mecca’s Grand Mosque before leaving the holy Saudi city at the end of the annual Hajj pilgrimage on December 10, 2008. (KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty Images)”

“An aerial view of Muslim pilgrims atop Mount Mercy outside Mecca, Saudi Arabia on December 7, 2008. From this hill, the Prophet Muhammad delivered his final sermon nearly 1,400 years ago. (REUTERS/Susan Baaghil)”

“A Muslim pilgrim prays at the top of Mount Noor in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Friday, Dec. 5, 2008. The pilgrims will visit the Hira cave in Mount Noor where the Prophet Mohammad worshipped before his first revelation. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)”

Portraits of Stillness

// December 1st, 2008 // No Comments » // Art, Music & Poetry

Turkish photographer, Nilgun Kara, captures simple portraits of stillness in this elegant selection.

Like Spinning Plates

// June 3rd, 2008 // 2 Comments » // Art, Music & Poetry, World Issues

The photograph below is the final scene of a powerful series capturing the assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, during a rally in the city of Rawalpindi on December 27th 2007. Interview with photographer John Moore, Getty Images, 1st Prize for Stories, 2008 World Press Photo.

While you make pretty speeches
I’m being cut to shreds
You feed me to the lions
A delicate balance

And this just feels like spinning plates
I’m living in cloud cuckoo land
And this just feels like spinning plates
Our bodies floating down the muddy river

- Like Spinning Plates by Thom Yorke of Radiohead

Standing silent in the Old Church (Oude Kerk) in central Amsterdam, I’d made my annual pilgrimage to remember the world unfolding around me. The sermon was strong again this year; suppression of the human condition in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Kenya and other lands so tortured. How often have we heard this parable and how often have we begged the lesson yet be learned? There was no hymn, no choir of angels to descend upon our fearful souls. We came to see, not listen, and we look until our eyes are filled with tears upon faintest realisation that THIS is happening HERE and NOW, merely outside whatever walls that we imagine line our little lands. There is no priest, except whatever voice wells up from within, and no communion except the few fragile seconds when you let slip and imagine that this man or woman or child is human, just like you.

Afghan Women

// June 2nd, 2008 // No Comments » // Art, Music & Poetry

Another favourite of mine from this year’s World Press Photo. These are two potraits of Afghan women from a simply beautiful collection of ten.

Lana Slezic, Panos Pictures, Portraits: 3rd prize stories.

“Six years after the ousting of the Taliban regime, the lives of many women in Afghanistan remain unaltered. Honor killings, forced marriage, domestic violence and denial of education continue to affect women daily. These portraits of women in Kabul were made by focusing a modern digital camera onto the glass plate inside an old-fashioned Afghan box camera.”

Come One and All the Springtime has Befallen

// May 1st, 2008 // 2 Comments » // Art, Music & Poetry

We wait; cold, damp, shrouded in the feeble greying light as color leaches from our skies, our streets and our souls. For long months it goes but this way. Winter passes in name alone, as Spring and Autumn offer no sign of release. Atlantic gales chill our very bones and mock the rare flashes of once pink skin. Those of us from southern climes reach for strong drink and palliatives to fight off insensible complaints.

Then BAMN, just as hopes were being crushed and curses reached the windswept boughs, the Amsterdam Magnificence Engine fires up and turns on this-

Photography by Tom Weaver

Come one and many, the grand summer of 2008 is beckoning from fair Amsterdam! With a great sadness I had to leave my wonderful room on Leliegracht before heading to Brazil. However, I have now taken residence in central Leidseplein, an environment equally comfortable and stimulating, if not rather decadent. Looking forward to sharing a remarkable summer with many of you.

All the Hemispheres

// July 26th, 2007 // No Comments » // Art, Music & Poetry

(Click to enlarge)

A scaled down version of a poster I put together for the quintessential mother, Mrs Kate Josephson, who celebrates her birthday today. Thank you once again for the roots and the wings that made the last five years abroad so comfortable.

Photograph: Toni Frissell, “Weeki Wachee spring”, Florida, 1947.

Poetry: Hafez e Shiraz, “All the Hemispheres”, Persia, 14th Century.

The Kármán line

// July 17th, 2007 // No Comments » // Art, Music & Poetry

A particularly beautfiful featured picture of the day on wikipedia. Click to experience it in all it’s glorious detail.

The Press Photographer’s Year 2007

// June 28th, 2007 // No Comments » // Art, Music & Poetry

The Press Photographer’s Year 2007 are awards for the outstanding press photography taken for, and used by the UK media in 2006. You can view a slideshow of 133 top photographs selected from the 6000 submissions.