Do you mean to tell me that you’re thinking seriously of building that way, when and if you are an architect?
– Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead
Back in August last year, I shared a series of photos of The Shard, shot with my Nikon D700 and Nikkor AF 80-200mm f/2.8 D lens.
Yesterday, equipped with my Fujifilm X100F with its fixed 23mm (35mm full frame equivalent), I made these images.
But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
– W B Yeats
I like to contribute to the weekly photo challenge hosted by WordPress and must confess I hadn’t quite found inspiration for this week’s prompt, which frankly is quite unusual for me, which seems apposite as this week’s theme was indeed unusual.
Having arrived at Heathrow this morning on a red-eye from Lagos, and finding myself unable to check in to my hotel for several hours, I took to the streets like any other self-respecting homeless person, by which I mean no disrespect to actual homeless persons, it is of course no laughing matter.
I had two main goals, one was to find breakfast (which I did, and I must have looked particularly hungry as an additional slice of bacon was added to my bacon roll and coffee), and the other, that was to walk along the South Bank to the Tate Modern. My plan being to spend six hours or so in quiet artistic contemplation, before the hotel would throw open its portals (or at least activate a smart card) to me and my battered luggage.
I also had the foresight to bring my camera with me, my Fujifilm X100F, which has now has become my constant travelling companion.
Any fact becomes important when it’s connected to another
― Umberto Eco, Foucault’s Pendulum
behind the razor wire
behind the airlocked double gates
conscience, nurtured by truth
guardian, meet guardian
behind the rhetoric
behind the clamour
a bridge between my reality, and home
for WordPress weekly photo challenge – bridge
we will remember them
those (we) forgot
until, too late
for them
we will remember them
who died, under a plume that stained
our sky
and
our, complacency
we will remember them
and their
righteous, anger
against our
failure
we will, remember them
won’t we?
poetry101rehab – grenfell
A celebration of creativity in Akwa Ibom, over on nigeriastreets
Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa and often referred to as the ‘Giant of Africa’, is a Federal Republic made up of 36 States.
Akwa Ibom, located on the coastal southern part of the country in the ‘South South’ sits between Cross Rivers State and Rivers State. Created in 1987, from the former Cross River State, Akwa Ibom is home to over five million people.
The State capital is Uyo with a population of around half a million.
This week, I was lucky enough to be part of a group visiting the Usoro Uso art exhibition, a celebration of contemporary Nigerian arts and craft featuring some outstanding work from artists of Akwa Ibom.
The exhibition opened on 8 June 2017 and is on display at the Ibibio Union Museum, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. The exhibition is slated to close on 22 June, 2017 so, if you are visiting…
View original post 370 more words
‘Seven weddings’, last week, over on nigeriastreets, more to come soon from my travels in Nigeria.
Let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls
– Khalil Gibran
Today, I attended seven weddings.
Well, not intentionally. I was invited to one, and found myself inadvertently attending seven. Which, incidentally, brings my weekly tally to eight weddings in two continents in the last week.
And that wasn’t the only surprise of the day.
The wedding was that of a colleague and friend here in Abuja, where I have been living and working over the last six months. The time has flown by.
To be invited to a colleague’s wedding was an immense privilege. And, perhaps, we really only get to know a culture by seeing how people are hatched, matched and dispatched?
Well, I can’t comment…
View original post 340 more words
‘Call me (call me) on the line
Call me, call me any, anytime’Call me – Blondie
For WordPress weekly photo challenge – heritage
*Shot near Chiswick Park underground station, Fujifilm X100F with fixed 23mm lens at ISO200 , 1/400s and f/5.6*
Remember a time? A time before mobiles, the internet? Remember when the only way to call, was this?
I have still not quite become accustomed to the fact that the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge has switched from Wednesday to Friday (or even, more correctly, from Friday to Wednesday!).
I had become (more or less) settled into checking the site each Friday evening, and firing off a quick riposte to the challenge. Now it seems I’m always late to the party.
Oddly enough, this week, I did check the WordPress site at the appropriate time but have still managed to delay my response to this week’s challenge DANGER! until now.
In her challenge, Michelle spoke about ‘injecting this unexpected frisson of Danger! into an otherwise uneventful afternoon’.
Often, in Nigeria, it is not the unexpected frisson of danger, but merely the unexpected direction from which the, expected, danger might come that makes many a day anything but uneventful. That’s not to say that Nigeria is dangerous all the time, it isn’t, and I’ve made some good friends here, and you should all come and visit!
But, danger lurks everywhere, or so it seems.
I took this shot just at the entrance to the block of the building in which I am (temporarily and from time to time) living. It seems to fit the bill, no?
The building itself lies within a razor-wire fenced compound with permanent security. To gain entrance to the compound my driver (I’m rarely allowed out alone and certainly not expected to take the wheel myself) honks his horn (this is actually pretty much mandatory for any driving operation here, including driving in a straight line on an open road). That honk permits the outer gate to be opened. The boot / truck is then flipped and the security guys have a quick look inside, a mirror is used for a cursory check of the underside of the car, then the inner gate is swung open. And home sweet home.
On my journey to work, I thought I would keep a weather eye out for other signs of certain danger.
A fire, stoked by a stack of old tyres sending a thick black plume of acrid smoke into the (now mercifully dust free) sky. An abandoned mansion daubed with a black painted warning of dire consequences ‘EFCC Keep Off’. A herd of cattle being led by two young boys meandering along the margin between the half constructed buildings and the partially built road. The road-sweeper with a stick broom diligently dusting the edge of the roads as cars hurtled past with no obvious attention to lane discipline. The guy on a motor cycle happily heading against the traffic on the wrong side of the road (and of course he wasn’t wearing a helmet, no one does). The swarm of three wheel ‘Keke’ (rickshaw) taxis, weaving between the battered green taxis, blacked out government SUVs, and the ubiquitous road side sellers. And of course the frequent road blocks.
So, no danger here, just an ordinary every day ride on nigeriastreets
*Shot with Fujifilm X100F at f/2.1, 1/1000s, 23mm (35mm equivalent, no other choice) and ISO200*
andy townend 