Viewing category: Travels
The magic of Marrakesh
Thank you for all your comments and emails about Blogging from the Heart — I am so fired up and ready to start weaving this tapestry for you! Today, however, i will be resting on the sofa, as I just got back from a few days with my nephew and now have another cold — a lot of bugs and viruses get passed around the nursery, huh? Poor Noah is always poorly, as are his mummy & daddy, his nana, and now his auntie! But it was worth it — it’s always worth it when it comes to that tiny ray of sunshine. I have some new Polaroids of him I can’t wait to share with you :) In the meantime, here are some Polas from my trip to Marrakesh last year. I had to keep so my shots for the book I wasn’t able to share them here, but now the books are ostensibly done, I can share the rejects at last…. more soon!
The euphoria of love
December 3. Memory
Pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year. Describe it in vivid detail (texture, smells, voices, noises, colors). (Author: Ali Edwards)
It was my first afternoon in New York City. On my own, in the sunshine, a Polaroid camera in my hands — just the way I like it. After meeting my agent and editor for breakfast — our first meeting, and an auspicious moment in itself — I wandered through Madison Square Park and made my way towards Greenwich Village; considering it was my very first time in the city I didn’t for a moment feel out of place or lost. Perhaps it’s because so many of the films, artists and music I love were born in New York, but whatever it was, I felt completely and perfectly at home. Sauntering along Bleeker Street, turning a corner then another, letting my feet lead the way with no agenda, no worries, just me and the city. It was my afternoon of bliss… excitement… discovery… freedom.
When I snapped the photo above with my iPhone I was feeling as present and alive as I’d been watching my nephew be born five months earlier. Euphorically alive. How the streets glowed in the afternoon light! The pavement hot and dirty, the scent of food impossible to distinguish — Mexican? Hot dogs? Coffee & sickly doughnuts were in there for sure. The people enchanted me: the lady who gave me the address of her favourite book shop in London; the guy who invited me to an art party; the gent who admired my Polaroid and let me shoot his portrait. It was all so seductive. I fell in love with a city, and every time i see photos of New York my heart aches like it would for a long-lost lover. Ridiculous, really, but I am smitten. 
For #Reverb10
The Polaroid portrait
These are some of the Polaroid portraits I took while I was away last month.
Nine times out of ten I get the shot on my first attempt, meaning I usually only expose one Polaroid, but sometimes that doesn’t work out and I take two or three (I did this with Bindu’s portrait below – I thought I wanted a more serious shot, but the one I liked best? The first one, of course :)
What I like most about taking a Polaroid portrait is how the combination of the camera + film + moment means I slow down and so does the person I’m photographing. I tell them to relax and close their eyes while I focus, then ask them to look at me/the camera, holding my breath as I wait for the right moment to press the shutter button. Sometimes I’ll say something silly to make them laugh; sometimes i don’t. Sometimes I ask them to think about someone they love. I can feel that they trust me, and that the camera is a part of me; by only taking a single shot there’s none of the awkward intrusion you get with a digi, when you’re firing off 10, 20, 30 frames like a machine gun.
There’s just one clunky vintage camera, and me and my held breath.
And nine times out of ten that is enough.
[from top: Bindu, Tammy, Meghan, Christine, Lisa, Bindu, Melissa, Liz]
