Just Chilling in London

I am just chilling in London. I have been working pretty hard before I came here. I shot three jobs on the week I left. I know that the next three weeks in Tuscany will be fun, but I am sure it will be physically draining as well. So, I am taking it easy here.

I still managed to visit the Photographer's Gallery which is having a retrospective of British photographer and educator Keith Arnatt. Although not as cutting as Martin Parr, Keith Arnatt also displays a sense of dry British humour. I was at the bookshop, and instead of buying monographs of photographers I like, I bought Dialog with photography, Interviews by Paul Hill and Thomas Cooper, and Photography: A critical Introduction, edited by Liz Wells. I also later bought Setting Sun, writings by Japanese Photographers. I guess that I am feeling more confident in the technical aspects of photography, I am trying to get to a deeper understanding of the context and the process.



I went to see a massive exhibition at the Tate Britain today. It is called How we Are, photographing Britain. It was interesting to see the range of photography in Britain and what it is used for. It is not just an art photography overview, but an overview of photography in all aspects, commercial, technical, portraiture, documentary and art. And it gave me a lot of food for thought. One of them being that different photographers find different rationales for their practise. They become advocates of realism or commercial photography. And in spite of of the conflicting view points and biases of photographers through the ages, there is always a place for well crafted images, or well conceived images. My brain is churning.