april 2023
Not so many photos this month - have you seen the price of film?? I have a tranche of 35mm waiting to be sent off to some new labs to try and overcome recent malaise over the quality of my pictures - something I think would also be aided by simply cleaning my camera lens, but that seems far too easy.
This month I left my job at YBI, a role which has given me a huge amount over the last 2 years. Feeling uncomplicatedly sad when voluntarily leaving a job is a real gift. My time there took me from new countries and cities to a UN youth panel, had me work with fantastic colleagues across the UK and the globe, and introduced me to a new sector and working culture and set of skills. An organisation willing to support employees to work flexibly and accommodate further study is a rare and valuable thing, and although studying part-time has been (and remains) a huge challenge it is one that YBI encouraged from the outset.
I started a new role at the end of the month made possible by both the job and the MSc, and I’m grateful for 2 years that helped forge a path that was invisible back in 2021.
YBI sent me on my way with a generous book voucher which I instantly spent, and a restaurant voucher I am saving for the depths of dissertation despair.
And on that note I spent my first week in Brixham, Devon, a fishing village I expect to know very well by the end of the summer. It’s always useful when first impressions are formed under glorious sun, and a few days eating the freshest fish, seeing seals from the breakwater and gazing out over the glass-flat harbour at sunset was a good motivator for the literature reviews keeping me inside for much of the day. Researching and writing a dissertation alongside full-time work is no holiday, but Brixham is a lovely place to be treading this knife edge; it also has two lighthouses and a distinct lighthouse visual culture which did not inform my fieldsite choices but is a definite perk.
Other moments I have enjoyed in April:
shooting the explosion of joy that was my first queer wedding as a photographer, and some varied portrait sessions
traversing the globe through home-made cuisine by Haniah, from Bolivian salteñas to Cambodian fish amok
taking the boat to the Tate to look at Rosettis and sit smugly in the members’ room after finally achieving membership age 30 (thank you Masha, Ali, Umar and Vicky)
learning to play 80s hits on the kazoo over the third year running of gigantic vegetarian Easter roasts
finally experiencing the mini mail rail at the postal museum, hoardes of small children included
A moment I did not enjoy was a seagull snatching the softest section of a baguette and spreading a large webbed foot over my scalp to aid its escape. Not one witness batted an eyelid, which has at the least informed my understanding of the levels of vigilance necessary in coastal Devon.
Loved shooting Lizzy and Esther’s wedding, I wish every wedding I shot could be this stress-free, fun and food-filled.
april favourites
book Dark, Salt, Clear by Lamorna Ash, an anthropology of a fishing village which has helped me to think about my own art the joy of seeing so many Isaac Julien films in one space at Tate Modern - an exhibition that will need several visits to get the full experience podcast The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling, which was not in itself good at all, however demolishing it with friends as we listened along was very good theatre You Bury Me at the Orange Tree, a window onto queer Cairo newsletter The Real Sarah Miller, I love her writing about people and culture which make me both laugh and think
”No one who ever went outside on a spring afternoon could really believe that there aren’t second chances in everyone’s lives.”
Helena Fitgerald in her always incredible Griefbacon newsletter. No spring will feel the same as the lockdown spring, but this one has been understatedly beautiful too.