Geoff Dyer in his fascinating meditation on photography, The Ongoing Moment (2005), makes a smooth transition (one of many) from reflecting on pictures of steps to an analysis of seating. ‘It is appropriate, then, that in photos of the 1930s … Continue reading
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‘Pink, a delicate color that means sweet, nice, playful, cute, romantic, charming, feminine, and tenderness, is associated with bubble gum, flowers, babies, little girls, cotton candy, and sweetness. The color pink is the color of universal love of oneself and … Continue reading
Whenever I see someone alone at a cafe or restaurant table I’m reminded of Tom Paxton’s poignant 1968 song ‘Victoria Dines Alone’. Victoria dines alone, she skips the potatoes / Victoria begins her meal with greens and tomatoes / Reading … Continue reading
Thursday 6th June Awake at six o’clock: blackbird singing; thrum of traffic on Kallirois drifting in; later, bells from nearby St. Panteleimon Ilissos. Walked up to National Archaeological Museum via: Hadrian’s Arch and Temple of Olympian Zeus; fine exhibition of … Continue reading
The subject here is taking a four-fold moment: smoking; reading a letter; finding shade from the sun; and escaping the crowds ticking off the Acropolis on their holiday to-do lists. Even a tree root provides a comfortable perch under the … Continue reading
The session last Friday (a joint effort with Alasdair Hayden-Wright) was an attempt to encourage members to look beyond the safe predictability of digital photography. The message was: ‘Experiment, play, have fun’. Central to this was revisiting the analogue world … Continue reading
The U3AC Photo Forum Exhibition (U3AC offices until 21 June) includes 26 photographs by members of the group. They are drawn from four projects tackled over the year: ‘Patterns’, Reflections’, ‘Song Titles’ and ‘The Other Cambridge’. Through these topics they … Continue reading
Working, usually at a laptop, is one of the main occupations of people sitting in public. And they are most often in cafes where the cost of office space in the price of a cup of coffee, say £3.00 for … Continue reading
Choosing a seat in a public place involves careful consideration of personal space. We are very diffident about asking to share café tables; and on buses and trains we sit beside a stranger only when all other separate seats are … Continue reading
‘The Dutch tourist board is to stop actively promoting the Netherlands as a holiday destination because its main attractions – the canals, tulips and windmills – are becoming both overcrowded, the Telegraaf said on Monday. In future the NBTC will … Continue reading
Another reason for people to sit about in public spaces: a cigarette break. Photo: Senate House Hill, Cambridge, April 2019
Another experiment for the U3AC alternative photography session. Much simpler this time: a cassette of Ilford XP2 in an Olympus Trip, again high street processed. Reminded me what a pleasure the Trip is to use and how good the results … Continue reading
I am preparing a session on alternative photography for the U3AC Photo Forum. The idea is to encourage people to break away from straightforward use of a digital camera. One approach is to go back to film and create deliberate … Continue reading
So, why do people sit about in public spaces? Variously: chatting, eating, reading, sleeping, watching, waiting, working on a laptop, attending to the demands of a mobile phone. Or maybe lost in moments of inner calm and reverie, time off … Continue reading
Another book of moments (see post 21st March 2019) is People Kissing by Levine and Ramey (Princetown Architectural Press 2019). More active that quiet moments, the sub-title is ‘A Century of Photographs’ and it reveals the shifts in social and … Continue reading
