Love

Turns

Physical

Love at the High Place by Li Wei (via Hemmy.net)

(I was sure that I posted this last night, but all I could find today was a earlier draft version which I’ve amended from memory - sorry if you’ve already seen this via rss.)

I haven’t paid much attention to my flickr account lately, though I’ve had the odd comment or group invitation from time to time. Today I had an interesting one, the Figurehead group invited me to submit the following pic to their photo pool:

It’s the figurehead of the Cutty Sark, a clipper ship which is held in dry dock in Greenwich. She looks quite attractive from this angle, doesn’t she? All long flowing locks and pert bosoms. Interestingly, she looks quite different from the other side of the ship:

Not so pretty now, eh? I did some research and discovered that her name is Nannie, and she is a witch from a Robert Burns poem:

Tam saw that among the ugly group of witches, there was one which was young and beautiful. Her name was Nannie, and she wore only a ‘cutty sark’, a short shift. Tam was bewitched and, as her dancing became wilder, in his excitement, he cried out “Weel done cutty sark!” The witches then pursued Tam who fled for his life to the bridge over the river Doon, for he knew that witches could not cross running water. Nannie was faster than the others and, as the mare galloped over the bridge, she seized it by the tail, which came off in her hand. Hence, the figurehead is always shown holding a horse’s tail in her left hand.

I haven’t been pursuing my photography consistently recently; my distance-learning course ends in the next few days and I feel like I’ve wasted that opportunity, but I should have known better than to enrol on it. I seem to prefer to learn things as and when I need them rather than following a prescribed course of study.

Still, I’ve made some progress, mainly due to having my pics hosted on flickr. Two of my photos were chosen for Schmap Guides to London and Paris, and someone whose photos I really admire invited me to join his group called THE EXTRAORDINARY PHOTOGRAPH.

Last week I ventured into central London again: Clapham, Battersea, Chelsea, Piccadilly, Charing Cross then Victoria. You’ll see that I also stopped at the Hard Rock Café too. While I was around Leicester Square and Charing Cross Rd I also took some pics for Splotchy’s new blog, which was fun. Here are some of the results.

On my travels I purchased this canvas pic of a sexy pair of lips, which is currently hanging above my desk.

And finally, a guy has offered to model for me, in response to item 62 on my 99 things… Not like that, it’ll be all above board. So now I need to find a suitable studio to hire for a few hours next Sunday…

One of the first things I see each morning is my Bruno Bisang 2007 calendar. Ms October is a beautiful nude portrait, but aesthetically I see more than just her nudity when I look at her.

I see the shapes. Don’t you see them?

Firstly, there’s the circular shape of her derriere. And the smaller circle of her breast, which could be seen as a diagonal reflection of the larger one. Then there are the triangles formed by the positioning of her arms, plus the S created by the arching of her back.

I compare it to the following pic of Kate Moss by Mario Sorrenti, which has quite the opposite shape and feeling about it. I feel that the Bisang is more of a sensual celebration of the body, while the Sorrenti is a statement on introspection.

What do you think? Which do you prefer?

My friend’s housemate offered to let me join his photographic project, which basically seems to consist of random arty shots of him. I said that I’d love to have a go.

I might have preferred a voluptuous female for my first model, but he’ll do. Unfortunately he does remind me of the ex who broke my heart 6 years ago. (I’m over it.)

I think I might have given Russ* a seemingly seductive look this evening, but really I was half-asleep. It’s not my fault that I ooze sex-appeal.

As I was already in central London on business I decided to spend Wednesday afternoon at the National Portrait Gallery, which I had briefly visited with my friend on Saturday.

As it has become my favourite museum and I have become a regular visitor there, I decided that it would be prudent to become a member. For £25 a year I can visit their special exhibitions for free (the current one is £8 entry), and get 10% off in their shop and restaurant, which is not bad at all. There are some extra perks which I can’t remember right now.

I visited the Face of Fashion exhibition, which was amazing. There were loads of pics of La Moss, as well as other celebrities such as Madonna, Justin Timberlake, Drew Barrymore, Sharon Stone and Kevin Federline (of all people!) but there were also some striking pics of non-celebs. The featured photographers are Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, Corinne Day, Steven Klein, Paolo Roversi and Mario Sorrenti.

Madonna #1, 2006 by Steve Klein.

I’ll definitely go back to the exhibition before it closes at the end of May.

I also wandered around the main galleries. I discovered that they had removed my favourite portrait (one of Jessie Matthews by Dorothy Wilding) but I was able to view it on their computerised viewing galleries.

I’m intending to purchase Dorothy Wilding’s autobiography; she was an official royal photographer and also took some interesting non-royalty portraits like this one, called The Bat.

I’m getting really interesting in portraiture as a form of photography now. It’s one of my favourite kinds of photography alongside street and documentary styles. I’m personally not into macro, self-portraits or landscape photography.

My older brother Lee is a very talented photographer, and is very good at landscapes, macro and everything else. Whenever we meet up we show each other our latest pics and discuss general photographic paraphernalia. He works for Jessops (a photography retailer) so he knows loads about the latest cameras, photo developing, etc.

I’d like to visit the Victoria and Albert museum next. They are currently showing an exhibition of Kylie’s costumes, which should be interesting.

Yesterday was a good day.

I went to bed early on Thursday night, determined to have a decent night’s sleep. I woke up refreshed and ready for action.

Work went well. I got a lot done. Had a good meeting with my manager. My colleague didn’t annoy me too much. All was well. My colleagues got me a belated birthday bunch of flowers, which was really sweet and totally unexpected. I’d never been given flowers before.

I passed by the married guy’s cafe for a cup of tea as I hadn’t been there for a while. They gave me a little chocolate cake for my birthday too. I shared it out for everyone there (except him!). I saw his wife, a small Filipina woman. Later on, he whispered to me that he wanted to “screw me shitless!” (That’s romance for you!) Then he asked me how many boyfriends I’ve had. (Why does everyone want to know that?) My answer: “not many”.

Later on I went to Miguel’s house and heard all of his woes. Saw his room-mate who reminds me of my ex and freaks me out slightly. Hung out there for a few hours then went home.

I don’t have any plans for the weekend; I’m hoping that my dad will deign to come to the cinema with me to see 300. He hasn’t been to the cinema in decades.

I need to do some studying; my photography tutor emailed me a couple of days ago for an update on my progress. (What progress? I’m in retrograde!)

There are some short uni courses related to mythology and “wickedness” that I’m thinking of starting next month. I could probably teach a course in wickedness!

Fed up of being a house rat, I took myself on a photographic voyage around the West End. (Somehow I woke up at 10.20am and felt like doing something constructive with my day.)

I took the train/tube to Embankment, and strolled around taking pics (check out my Flickr page if you like), then I carried on up to Trafalgar Square. I popped into the National Portrait Gallery to check out the photography on show, then visited the nearby Photographer’s Gallery.

I carried on down Charing Cross Rd and popped into a couple of bookshops (only buying photographic postcards, no novels!). Then I traversed Tottenham Court Rd and turned onto Oxford Street. I was aching after walking for so many hours, so I got the train home at 5pm.

Here’s a portrait which I saw in the NPG that I really like. I had never heard of the performer Jessie Matthews, but I really like her pensive expression in this portrait.