Faded tones

I am drawn to photographing surfaces: capturing texture, tones and hues; whether it be the weave of a fabric, the grain of a piece of wood or the finish of a wall. I like materials. Rough or smooth to the touch, shiny or matte, monochrome, subtle or vibrant shades, I want to record it all. I want the eye to scan the surface of…

What once was here

A collaboration between Emily and Alex Hughes To see more of Alex’s pictures check out his photostream on flickr © Emily Hughes and searchingtosee, 2012

The sulky princess

I like pictures which ask questions, pointing us to the before and after; pictures which subtly slip from the confines of their frame, weaving their own wordless narrative before our eyes. I like incongruous elements too, like the cigarette. Perhaps this might be Barthes’ punctum? (It reminds of a picture I have of one of my good friends after she got married in her…

Lubitel

I posted a while back about using real film again. I have a big tub of old film; a mixture of 120 and 35mm, both transparency, and print. I am planning to slowly work my way through it using various old cameras I own. These were taken by Marlow riverside back in wet and windy April (or was it May… or maybe June?!). This…

The small things

The man with the magnifying glass… is a fresh eye before a new object [….] it gives him back the enlarging gaze of a child. With this glass in his hand, he returns to the garden, where children see enlarged. […] The details of a thing can be the sign of a new world which, like all worlds, contains the attributes of greatness. Miniature…

Fabulous Monsters (I believe in you)

… he was going on, when his eye happened to fall upon Alice: he turned round instantly, and stood for some time looking at her with an air of the deepest disgust. “What – is – this?” he said at last. “This is a child!” Haigha replied eagerly, coming in front of Alice to introduce her, and spreading out both his hands towards her…

Seven things to do with your instagrams

Maybe it’s a bit like Marmite; you either love them or hate them. Believe me the narrow-eyed cynic in me really really wants to hate them, but I can’t help it. I’m hooked. I love instagrams (and really I use instagram as a catch-all for any kind of images made/enhanced by a smart phone photo app. I also use vintage cam and Hipstamatic occasionally…

A walk in the woods

I’ve been sick all week with a horrid virus so haven’t had the energy to even get dressed let alone think about blogging. Still, I do have some new photos to post. Before I got ill we went out for a walk in the woods on Saturday. It was so green and lush and moist (on account of all the rain we have been…

Nephology

Recently, I’ve been doing a lot of cloud gazing. We’ve had plenty of moody skies which makes for interesting and dramatic cloud formations. I haven’t felt much like photographing them, though, strangely. I just want to look. The master of all cloud photographers was, I think, Alfred Stieglitz. He made his series of Equivalents as a response to a critic who believed that he…

How amazing is this? I would love to see it! Canadian Art Junkie Heather Benning’s life-size  dollhouse- a popular entry in last year’s Contact Photography Festival – is now a burned ruin. The western Canadian artist torched it, saying she plans an exhibition called Death of the Dollhouse.  See more on the WP blog ReadReidRead, where the story about Benning’s act of fire originated. …