Now Playing: hüsker dü - ice cold ice
Topic: self-portraiture
That's where I've been hiding these past few months - somewhere in between.
Things got a little crazy before I left Brisbane: the beginnings of a romance that snuck up on me played out to an incessant (though pleasant) soundtrack of summer rain; sad farewells; and packing my life into boxes whilst Brisbane flooded.
My trip to London was, by comparison, quite easy and uneventful. I made a couple of new friends on the plane - Greg from Manchester and Laura from Italy - and spent much of my time listening to my iPod and playing Solitaire.
On arrival I was met by my cousin's husband, Simon, and spent the first month staying with Julie, Simon & their three kids and their cat, Tabitha (shown above, whom I randomly found myself calling Kitterson), and reacquainting myself with Uxbridge, London, and getting on with the everyday endeavours of finding a job, opening a new bank account, and finding a place of my own to live.
On Friday I will have been here two months, and I have to admit I've somewhat landed on my feet. I've had a temporary day job since week three which now appears will take me through until my residency in April; I have a bank account which is gradually growing healthier; and as of the 5th of March, I have moved into a loft conversion in the northern suburbs of London.
Suffice to say sorting all those things out has not always given me as much time as I'd like to spend on editing photos, though I have been taking plenty, and hope to get onto editing in a big way over the coming weeks.
Since arriving I've been enjoying many of the sights and sounds and smells of London, including visiting the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery with Kerry Pringle after an afternoon wandering through the West End, Trafalgar Square and Covent Garden; wandering Portobello Road Market and savouring good food and cider with Scott; wandering Brick Lane with Phil to check out the area and the Brick Lane Gallery; taking in the Imperial War Museum with Ian and Zoe; and wandering alone through the Old Spitalfields Markets, and the City of London Cemetery in East London. In most instances my camera was kept handy, especially, as you'd imagine, at the cemetery.
In photographic-related adventures, I attended a one-day workshop that took place in a semi-derelict theatre in Eastbourne run by Miss Aniela and Brooke Shaden, where I had the chance to finally meet Sarah and Sevgi. I met again with the ladies, Matt and Amy and various other punters at a pub in Ealing as Brooke's final event whilst in the UK. And once more caught up with Natalie and Matt at the launch of her book, Self-Portrait Photography, at JaguarShoes in Shoreditch, also meeting Juliet Greig and stylist Rachel Holland.
I spent a day shooting still images of Jess and Chris to be included in my friend Stuart's short film, 'The Date Temptation', being thoroughly spoilt for food and drink by Stuart's wife, Shelley, who was also taking care of make-up.
So, as you can imagine, it's been a bit of a hectic two months, but things are now on track, so I can finally try to catch up on some of my backlog of editing, and get excited about my forthcoming residency at Hospitalfield, for which I am travelling by train in first class on my birthday. Hoorah!
I'm also finally having a chance to get rewards out to those wonderful folk who have made my residency possible, so thank you for your patience during my relocation!
I'm looking forward to meeting many more old and new friends over here, but for now I should probably call it a night! Will be back to regular posting from now on, I promise.
