Journal Entries
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Ansel Adams and William Eggleston
Posted Jul 29, 2002
The week just gone, I went to the Hayward Gallery in London to visit these two exhibitions, by two very different American photographers. The Ansel Adams exhibition commemorates his 100th birthday (if he were still alive), and looks specifically at his landscape photography, with the emphasis on the earlier work, including some less powerful, but nonetheless interesting, images from his formative years. The original prints are beautiful, many of them suprisingly small, being contact prints from sheet film negatives. Of particular interest were a couple of side-by-side comparisons of earlier and later prints from the same negative. The general opinion is that his earlier prints were better, the later ones sometimes being a bit 'loud', but I felt with the examples shown that the ideal print would be somewhere between the two.
William Eggleston's photography is a very different cup of tea. While Ansel Adams photographed the glories of nature on monochrome, William Eggleston photographs the ordinary suburban world in colour, mainly concentrating on the Southern USA, where he lives. His work can be confusing ('why did he take that?') and unsettling, often carrying the feeling that the images are brief glimpses into a longer story. I had only seen a small number of his pictures before, and was unsure what I thought of them, but seeing them en-masse created a very powerful impression.
If you're at all interested in the visual arts, and are able to get to London, I recommend you take the chance to visit these exhibitions. Together, they form what has to be one of the most important photographic events of the year.
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Latest reply: Jul 29, 2002
Slovenia
Posted Jun 23, 2002
is quite amazingly nice, and you really should go there. I spent the last ten days of May taking photographs there, mostly around Lake Bohinj, although I managed trips to Lake Bled, Ljubljana (the capital), and the Julian Alps.
The scenery is beautiful, the prices are low, and the people are pleasant. If you fancy a look, Bled and Bohinj are both good bets. Bled is a bit more touristy, though not overwhelmingly so, whereas Bohinj is really peaceful and unspoilt - more my cup of tea.
The locals usually speak English and/or German, but appreciate it if you at least try and speak Slovene a bit. I always think learning some of the language is part of the fun of travelling abroad, anyway.
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Latest reply: Jun 23, 2002
That twitchy thing in my left eye is back
Posted Jun 19, 2002
You can't see it (OK, that's largely because you can't see me anyway, but if you could see me, you wouldn't be able to see it), but I can feel it.
It usually happens when I'm tense, but I can't think of anything I'm tense about at the moment. Apart, of course, from having this twitchy thing in my left eye.
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Latest reply: Jun 19, 2002
Lessons from the past
Posted Nov 18, 2001
This week's cultural agenda in Stretchy-world has contained two works which have a lot to say about the present world situation.
On Remembrance Sunday, I went to Birmingham Symphony Hall, to hear a performance of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem. Although I'm a big Britten fan, I hadn't heard the War Requiem before, and it was a moving experience. As a pacifist, Britten brought his own unique angle to remembering the war dead, with a combination of the traditional Requiem Mass, and the poetry of Wilfred Owen. As had been intended for the premiere (at the newly rebuilt Coventry Cathedral in 1962), last week's performance featured an English Tenor, German Baritone and Russian Soprano. The piece is both sophisticated and approachable, and must have meant so much to the people of Britain when it was first performed.
On Wednesday, a friend and I went to the theatre to see 'Romeo and Juliet'. This is one of those works that you think you know, but don't really (at least I didn't). Far from being a romantic weepy, it's a dark and often violent play; a parable about the corrosive effect of holding grudges. The feud between the Montagues and Capulets is only brought to an end when it leads to the suicide of their children. Part of the power of the play is the dreadful feeling that the whole tragedy could have been avoided, but for the stubborn stupidity of the warring families.
I don't usually preach, but think about this: Every time you dislike someone for being different to you, every time you divide the world into 'us' and 'them', every time you try to blame your country's problems on immigrants, every time you judge people as a group, every time you do this, you are taking the first small steps on a road that ultimately leads to Auschwitz.
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Latest reply: Nov 18, 2001
Coincidences
Posted Sep 23, 2001
I'm never quite sure what to put in my Journal entries, but how about this:
A friend and I had always been intrigued the fact that, on the only day in his life that he visited Edinburgh, he ran into a woman he knew. It was also the only day in her life that she had been to Edinburgh.
This friend of mine has now topped this. Bearing in mind that we live around the Staffordshire/Cheshire border in England, he managed to meet someone he knew in Tallinn, Estonia. And yes, it was the only day in his life he has ever been to Tallinn (on a day trip from Helsinki). And the person he knew came not from Tallin, but from Nantwich, Cheshire.
Just thought I'd mention it.
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Latest reply: Sep 23, 2001
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