Back to school

Just before I discovered I was pregnant with Leyla, I had been toying with the idea of doing a part time photography MA at St Martins College of Art. Of course best laid plans...

Most of my B&W negatives still remain buried, many of them have not even been printed. Printing takes me a whole day or more and any interruptions just disturb the flow, so I have satiated my desire to take photographs using my digital camera.

However when I found Pace Macgill Gallery* had shown the work of the genius that is Irving Penn, I felt quite sick that I had not been able to see it, and sick because I would love to learn how to print even a tenth as well as he does. When you see work like this, it makes you realise how beautiful good Silver Gelatin printing can be, and I miss it.

Now Leyla is getting older, and she has finally settled with her new Au Pair I think it is time to revive some of what I lost after the children were born. My figure may have gone deep south, but other loves such as Pilate's and Photography need to return.

I have spent my entire week lashed to the computer rewriting the year 12 photography curriculum. Not easy as there is 5 separate topics which in any other school would be written and handed over for the students to research. BUT my students are at best, with a prevailing wind not the brightest crayons in the box, so I have to break each topic into teeny, tiny, bite sized morsels for them to digest. They then give me the usual blank uninspired look and sit there waiting for me to virtually do it for them. So I then sit them down and go through it step by step and even them I am lucky to get even the merest hint of enthusiasm. The worst thing the government did was give these Muppet's a grant to stay on at school, because all they come in for is the money. Hmm, sounds a bit like me!!

The upshot of this spoon feeding is that I get to visit some amazing web sites and read some wonderful books. So whilst I am not complaining, a modicum of enthusiasm would go a long way.

* A really irritating website, I love that they have put up the images, but to block the ability to copy+paste is so irritating do they not know all we do is print screen?

Francois-Marie Banier

I noticed this photographers work in a W magazine a few months back for Diane Von Furstenberg.

I love the experimentation of the photography, as well as that someone in advertising, is thinking out of the box for a change.

Tres amusement, Non?

Residents of the fashionable Marais district have mobilised to voice their discontent about production company Endemol, which plans to move 18 young singing hopefuls and a large television crew into a 17th century townhouse in the centre of the historic area.
Read more here

Black Tights

As a teenager one area that was guaranteed to ensure a full and frank exchange of vitriol between my mother and I, was Black Tights. As a child there were no patterns, no beautiful jewel colours,just the most hideous array of beige, including American tan. I do not know if Americans were ever such a strange colour, but my tan clashed horribly with it, so from a very early age I wore black tights.
I preferred a solid black to the nasty 15 deniers on offer at that time. We so take for granted now that tights are 40, 60, 80 and the most beautiful of all 110 denier. It was not always so, until I tracked down a source of dance tights, I was reduced to wearing 2-3 pairs of cheap 15 deniers.
I suspect my mother bought me a pack of 3 and expected it to last, but let me remind you all that one only had to sneeze putting them on and a huge rent would appear, ladders would consistently steal up your leg up and so you could end up binning a pair a day. (my sister still does)
Now I do not remember who was in charge of redistributing the clean washing on a Sunday night but I never seemed to get back what I had put in, so commando style I would slip into my mothers bedroom and raid her tights draw. Needless to say words would be exchanged when the discovery was made, but it has always resonated with me the fact that for the cost of a few pairs of tights we could have been friends!
Seriously, I have bought Daisy and Kitty countless pairs and it is still not enough, Kitty wears hers over knee high black socks, whats that all about? but it suits her. She also wears a size large (she is tiny) which is good, as so does Daisy, so now they can share.
However no one thought to sort out the girl's tights draw over the summer, so last week Daisy in a rush grabbed a pair and went to school, after which she had to run for the train, and then walk a mile to and from somewhere with her friend. All the while the crotch of the tights kept falling down to her knees, so when she got home, she ripped them off and threw them away. Later when I checked the label they said Age 9-10!! There is nothing that raises my blood pressure more than tights that fall down, how that child kept her sanity I do not know. Do my daughters steal my tights? No, they don't have to, they know I will buy them some instead. Tights are now so much cheaper and far better made so that my sanity can remain intact.

Thomas Straub

Another favourite journal is Bloom, from which these photographs are from taken by Thomas Straub

I only managed to acquire 5 copies from various airports when the Euro was at a good rate. Now however the magazine costs well over £50, which, when you consider that most good art books are approx £35, makes it an expensive luxury I will have to go without. The magazine has some of the best photographic work I have ever seen, making it very inspirational, so I will make do with the few I have and track down some of the photographers work on their own web sites.

DEBORAH TURBEVILLE

One of my favourite publications is Casa Vogue which occasionally comes as a supplement to Italian Vogue. I love the overtly traditional focus that lingers on the faded grandeur of old houses.

One of the better photographers, whose work appears regularly is Deborah Turbeville. I have finally tracked down her work here

Wearing the trousers

I have noticed that whilst I tend to update my 'tops,' the bottom half tends to remain the same. These trousers have come very close to the charity bag on many occasions. They are well over 5 years old and in fact the reason I still have them is they are too old to give away. My recent acquisition of a number on longer tunic style tops, means that a slimmer bottom is needed. They look silly with skirts and hideous with wide leg trousers, so to balance them they need some thing slim but not overtly skinny.

So, luckily for me I have these old trousers from GAP in grey and black. Perfect, I wish I had bought more, you so rarely see this style. I love the fact they are slightly cropped as well, I did also dig out a curious pair of cord twist Levis as well, which I can just do up, so I am good to go for now.