Cosimo Blues on tour in South of France

Spent the Summer in France and met Pascal Cosimo and his band performing in South of France. Here are a few shots from their gig at Kylian's. Thank s for a great evening!

A knitter's wet dream (part 1): the empty shell

These last few weeks I documented the transformation of a very old empty hairdresser's shop in Hackney into Wild and Woolly, a mine of supplies, advice and inspiration for beginners and experienced knitters alike. This is Anna Feldman's baby and she writes about the whole experience in her blog. Here are the "Before" pictures, the "After" ones will be in part 2 very shortly:

                                                       Below the stock has arrived!

Pretty in black & white

I enjoyed the first flush of colour in the garden as much as the next londoner, and decided to test an old 50mm (a humble E series from Nikon) on my digital DSLR at maximum aperture (f 1.8) on the first blooms. The light breeze was enough to make the background and foreground almost abstract. I'd left my black and white settings on and here is the result :

Where I come from

I didn't set out to pick photos chronologically but I guess it makes sense to show some early pix that also tell a bit about where I come from quite literally. This is a portrait of my grand-mother, Raymonde (daughter of Louise featured in my first post),  taken when she was 87 years old. She always hated having her picture taken but I abused my privilege as her only grand-child to bully her into posing for me.

Raymonde Ménard, my grand-mother

On the same day, I asked my mum to pose for me. I'd read about the principle of the "nude portrait", or that if you take a portrait of a person naked - you don't show their nudity - somehow the expression on their face is more truthful,  their true self is revealed. I suspect it is only because the person feels more vulnerable that it seems to work well with some people. To her credit - and my disbelief - my mother played the game that time.

Jeannine Joly, my mother

New Year, New Middle-aged Me!

After years of procrastination - even though I firmly believe that raising small kids does count as a legitimate excuse not to get on with the best laid plans - I'm finally coming round to digging into my piles of prints and negatives, and sifting through years of digital photographs.

This was on my very first roll of 35mm film taken with my very first reflex camera, a Nikon FM: my great grand-mother on her 98th birthday and my 18th.

Louise Roussi, my great grand-mother

Thirty odd years later it still feels like a good portrait, I knew it then, the second I saw the contact sheet and I know it now. Sometimes I'm asked how you choose between lots of pix taken in the same session, and I'm always at a loss as to the "how"... your eye knows in a split second.