Gone Fishing

It's that time of year again when film in bag off I go in search of adventure and  something new to learn.  This time off to the depths of Sulawesi, Indonesia, its shape is what first attracted me to it, the thought of all that tectonic energy in that region building up to create such a bizarre shaped island was not to be resisted.  I don't know what awaits me, I had a dream of rituals, effigies of the dead, houses shaped like boats surrounded by volcanoes, with small creatures; their eyes bigger than their brains eating grasshoppers and crickets in a frenzy of bliss until the sun rises and the rotation of a new day begins.   A new day, a new beginning, and time for reflection on what was what might have been and what might be, goodbye to Kuala Lumpur for just a while, I will whisper it all to you on my return.

Facing the Future

Facing the Future an open photographic show at the Elysium Artspace, Swansea, opening on the11^th July 2009.  I am happy that my work Kali Yuga will be showing within the exhibition, you can view some of this work at a previous entry on this blog back on May 13^th 09.  What interested me about this exhibition was the thought of change but from so many different angles, not just from social and climatic prospects but also that of the future of photography itself.  What is photography going to do next or indeed what is it turning into?  Is photography under threat like an animal fighting against extinction, what does this say about our world now?  It will be interesting to see what comes out of the debate taking place at Rhubarb on the 30^th of July: “Photography is Dead.”  Maybe as I seem to be repeating this issue many times of late, but maybe photography will return to its origins, or at least this is what I myself am in hope of, the world is round and continues to turn again and again.  To quote Black Elk; a holy Oglala Sioux; “You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, because the Power of the World always works in circles……. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were.  The life of man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything.”    Maybe for photography it is the same, a rotation and we are starting our return to beginnings.        Facing the Future continues until the 8^th of August 2009.      permission has been granted to post their flyer on this blog.

Re-Tracing Steps

I first arrived in Hong Kong on the 16^th of May 1994.  I was tired and penniless after traveling across Russia, Siberia and Mongolia on the Trans Siberian Express, and then through China on public transport.

I stayed in Hong Kong for a year and a half; it was here I met my Husband a fellow traveler, and many dear friends.  Re-tracing Steps looks at my return to Hong Kong in 2007, after thirteen and half years, and now made into a hand-stitched book depicting 18 black and white images.  Going back to a place after a long time is a strange kind of experience, memories re-traced maybe one circle completed and a new one begins.  I think sometimes we have to move backwards to again move forward.    

Re-Tracing Steps first edition of 100, and was completed on the 01.07.09, 12 years on from hand over and is available for orders.