searchingtoseeseed head study
Posted on October 30, 2014
I love shooting macros at this time of year. Autumn is such a rewarding subject, just as nature is settling, cocooning; turning inwards for the long winter ahead. I never tire of photographing seed heads either. Endlessly captivating, they offer forth their generous, basin-like heads, sheltering a bounty of tiny jewels secreted within. These ones looked still young to me, and they stood out, green and proud amongst a scene of quiet decline around them.
© images and content Emily Hughes, 2014
the forest
Posted on August 27, 2014
I’m back from our family road trip around Europe (6 countries in 16 days). I was hugely inspired by the lithe, elegant pine trees of the Bavarian forest, so different to our forests here in the UK. They appeared to me like ghostly apparitions in the fog, and this is my interpretation.
Looking forward to catching up with everyone over the next days…
© images and content Emily Hughes, 2014
In defense of daydreaming
Posted on May 21, 2014
We are never real historians, but always near poets, and our emotion is nothing but an expression of poetry that was lost.
Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space
shelter me from the storm
lose me in the mists of time
Who gives a truer account of history? The poet, or the historian?
Thank you to Chris Bronsk and his excellent post repercussions for reminding me about and bringing me back to Bachelard’s The Poetics of Space, which I have always read and savoured as an unreserved celebration of the pure joy of intimate poetic expression. The power of the poetic image is something which transcends history, time and even language. It is able to speak directly to our consciousness without the need for translation or interpretation. Through poetry, we can connect with our past, and with our imagination. Bachelard believed that “for a simple poetic image there is no project; a flicker of the soul is all that is needed.”
I have always been a fierce defender of daydreaming, and make time for it every day. I believe it is more than ‘escapism’; daydreaming makes us more open to the possibility of poetry – both receiving it and expressing it. It gives us the opportunity to indulge our dreams, create and practice the possibility of alternative realities; to reflect, be brave and honest with ourselves, and speak directly to our weary souls which are generally neglected, bruised and battered by the necessary drudgery of the day-to-day. Indeed, Bachelard has also been linked with the surrealist project which advocated the practice of (day)dreaming, or dislocation from reality, as a deliberate political act. Ultimately though, daydreaming (the ‘irrational’ primitive realm of dreams, poetry and imagination) provides us with a counterpoint to rational thought, and can actually help us to live happier, more fulfilled lives.
Let us then safeguard reverie, as our rich inner lives provide a vital antidote to reality, and I hope that today you are able to carve out a little chink in your busy schedule for daydreaming.
© images and content Emily Hughes, 2014
opalescence
Posted on March 31, 2014
It’s been an up-and-down few weeks, and I haven’t been as active on here as I would like to be. Getting the time to post is proving more and more difficult, unfortunately. I went back to my little skeleton leaves, and decided I hadn’t quite finished with them. I had a feeling they would work well as layers. I use this technique a lot in my images, and it’s a surprisingly creative and enjoyable process in which unexpected things often emerge. Here, it served to enhance the shimmery opalescent shades – which were just the merest suggestions before – to create something light and lustrous, and a little bit summery.
© images and content Emily Hughes, 2014
sketches
Posted on March 11, 2014
Spring surprises me every year. Like a switch being flicked, the sudden buzz and hum of life at volume jolts me into attentiveness. As the earth shakes off its heavy, muffled cloak of winter, a veil lifts from my eyes, and instantly they start to sketch shifting forms cast by the wayward light. As the sun shone on our little garden yesterday, we dug to find relics buried amongst the clusters of sprightly iris and anemones proudly splaying their pert figures. I instantly loved the bare little skeleton leaves, which quivered gently in the breeze as they generously sketched and re-sketched their intricate framework against a canvas of rich coffee soil. I like to think the earth kept these little treasures safe for me, just waiting for the light, and for my eyes to open.
© images and content Emily Hughes, 2014
a folk tale
Posted on January 29, 2014
sometimes, nature knits its own stories.
© images and content Emily Hughes, 2014
desert textures (revisited)
Posted on October 6, 2013
I posted these in black and white a while back, and promised to post in colour too, so here they are, slightly re-arranged. I like them collated together as little snippets in this way.
© images and content Emily Hughes and searchingtosee, 2013
find me
Posted on September 16, 2013
find me unravelling the forest floor
find me hugging the crest of a sandy shore
find me wrapped in a gauze of Spring, when Autumn comes
that’s where you’ll find me
© images and content Emily Hughes and searchingtosee, 2013
The Canyon
Posted on September 3, 2013
I wasn’t going to post any pictures from the Grand Canyon, as they weren’t really very good, but then I got some black and white prints back from the rolleiflex, and I realised they had captured something I wasn’t able to capture in digital.
This one best sums up the awe and the austerity of the landscape, I think.
© images and content Emily Hughes and searchingtosee, 2013
Flight
Posted on August 17, 2013
Another collage I’ve been working on. I wanted it to have a feel of movement and energy, but also be subtle, and gentle.
It’s always difficult to know when to leave something alone, though!
© images and content Emily Hughes and searchingtosee, 2013
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