Author: andy townend

structure

Image | | andy townend

Chaos was the law of nature; Order was the dream of man
― Henry Adams

My photo captures a sculpture on the South Bank of the Thames in London. It caught my eye because the distorted reflection of grandiose structures that now shape the financial district, the City of London, appeared so much like the Earth as I imagine it from space.

The placing of the fantastical city on the edge of the beautiful blue earth seemed a metaphor for man’s misplaced sense of mastery of the universe.

I wonder how many passing by that day felt the same?

For WP Weekly Photo Challenge – Structure

*shot with Fujifilm X100F with fixed 23mm (35mm full frame equivalent lens) at ISO800, f/9.0 and 1/900s*

stranger

Image | | andy townend

. . .sometimes one feels freer speaking to a stranger than to people one knows. Why is that?
‘Probably because a stranger sees us the way we are, not as he wishes to think we are’
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind

stranger, in a strange land

plucked from the earth

roots ripped

torn

stranger, in a strange land

plucked

ripped

torn

stranger, in a strange land

you, smell

so

sweet

stranger

corner (the second)

Image | | andy townend

Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length
― Robert Frost

This is my second interpretation of this week’s WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge – Corner (you can see my first interpretation here).

*Shot with Fujifilm X100F with fixed 23mm (35mm full frame equivalent) at ISO800, f/4 and 1/900s from the top of The Shard in London*

corner

Image | | andy townend

Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime
― Ernest Hemingway

it could

(perhaps)

be said, that

liberal (thinking) is in, a

corner

right now

the question

is

what will

become

of us

of them

of you

of me

For WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge – Corner

*Image made with Fujifilm X100F and 23mm  fixed lens (35mm full frame equivalent) at ISO1250 (don’t even go there), 1/800s and f/5.6 outside the Cortes, Madrid*

luna

Image | | andy townend

We’re both looking at the same moon, in the same world. We’re connected to reality by the same line. All I have to do is quietly draw it towards me
― Haruki Murakami, Sputnik Sweetheart

Like Apollo. An experimental shot at the moon.

Hand held. In broad daylight.

Inspired by this

not to mention the dreams of a small boy who (still, much later) dreams of reaching the stars.

*Made with Nikon D700 and 80-200mm f/2.8 lens at ISO200, f/2.8 at 1/2000s, cropped in Lightroom CC and reduced to mono*

shiny

Image | | andy townend

Maybe the star doesn’t even exist any more. Yet sometimes that light seems more real to me than anything
― Haruki Murakami, South of the Border, West of the Sun

For WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge – ‘Ooh, Shiny’

*Made with Fujifilm X100F and fixed 23mm (35mm full frame equivalent), ISO320, f/14 at 1/850s*

textures

Image | | andy townend

Unfortunately, the clock is ticking, the hours are going by. The past increases, the future recedes. Possibilities decreasing, regrets mounting
– Haruki Murakami, Dance Dance Dance


for WordPress weekly photo challenge – Textures

*Image(s) shot with iPhone 6S and merged with Snapseed*

connections

Image | | andy townend

Those who were living now are dead
Those who were breathing are from the living earth fled.
If you want to see how the poor die, come see Grenfell Tower.

From the impassioned poem on the fire at Grenfell, by Nigerian writer, Ben Okri, whose poem, published in the Financial Times on 23 June, 2017 is a searing statement from which it is impossible to hide, impossible to avert one’s gaze, impossible to forget.

I wrote earlier this week about my arrival in London, on the red-eye from Lagos, and my efforts to both stay awake and entertained before being allowed to pass through the portal of my hotel.

I decided, after grabbing some breakfast, and scribbling a short poem, (which I published on Facebook), to walk along the South Bank to the Tate Modern. During my walk I found some inspiration by shooting the various vans being prepared for the hordes of tourists soon to fill the streets which at that time were still and relatively quiet.

What I hadn’t counted on was the degree of connectivity I felt with the things I saw and experienced that morning.

Continue reading…

In Wetin You Go Do?

Image | | andy townend

In Wetin You Go Do?
– Title of an installation at the Tate Modern, created by Nigerian born Otobong Nkanga

The title of Nkanga’s piece, when translated from Nigerian Pidgin, an English-based Creole language widely spoken across Nigeria, is ‘What are you going to do?’. ‘In Wetin You Go Do’ integrates voice and sculpture to reflect on contemporary anxieties.

The theme of anxiety stitched a ragged thread through the time I spent lingering in the Tate Modern after my early morning arrival in London. Or perhaps, when visiting a gallery such as this, the feelings we have, that we bring in through the door, colour the way we see the exhibits, determine the way we select what to linger with and what to pass on by?

Continue reading…