Images

darker | side | thursday | 1

Image | | andy townend

My finger is red raw, bleeding. Distracting, debilitating.

The index finger, on my left hand.

The nail is torn, blood oozing from the tip and running in a slow, painful rivulet. A stinging, insolent, rude and raw pain. I want to peel the torn nail off slowly, feel the parting of flesh, the slicing agony. Need that. Want it.

My fist clenches. Fingers dig into the splintered wooden table top, slivers of fresh twisted wood piercing flesh, sliding under my nails.

I shift uneasily. That empty, roiling feeling inside me making me anxious, again. I can not sit still. Can not focus.

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windows

Image | | andy townend

Strangely transparent, they seemed like windows to a world beyond, but however long I peered into their depths, there was nothing I could see
― Haruki Murakami

For WordPress weekly photo challenge – Windows

There are a lot more windows here and here.

*Shot with Fujifilm X100F with 23mm (35mm fixed frame equivalent) fixed lens, ISO 200, 1/140s at f/5.6 with some added mystery applied with Affinity Photo which, along with Affinity Designer, I’m exploring as a credible Photoshop CC replacement*

out in the midday sun | 5

Image | | andy townend

This is the latest in what was intended to be a weekly collection of essays themed as ‘out in the midday sun‘, which instead, has become a place for me (in or out of the sun, midday or otherwise) to write at random, and increasingly infrequent, intervals, on whichever subject seems worthy of note at the time.

I have not posted as much here, or  perhaps more perplexing, not shot or published as many photographs as usual, for the better part of the last year. The principal reason (excuse) for that has been (hold the front page) the intervention of the real world. I have travelled (too) much on business, between Europe and Western Africa, although I have found time to write up some of my adventures on nigeriastreets. I’ve recently switched working countries from Nigeria to Ghana. I’m not done with Nigeria yet, and the seductive siren song of other adventures already calls. More (perhaps) about that in due course.

I’ve also been busy learning new stuff. 

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A to Z

Image | | andy townend

Ever wondered what it would be like to work as a consultant, travelling the world, meeting new people, experiencing new cultures, stretching yourself intellectually and emotionally, being wined and dined?

Passing straight through the lounge doors at the airport?

A silk carpet, leather seats.

Flying the blue. Not Ryanair yellow. Not Easyjet orange?

Welcome to my world.

Here’s an A to Z of what it actually feels (looks) like.

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layered

Image | | andy townend

In the stillness of remembering what you had
And what you lost, and what you had, and what you lost
Dreams – Fleetwood Mac


I took this shot during a walk back in Salamanca before returning to Africa.

Even at the time I took the shot, I was captivated by this painting. Had the artist been there I would indeed have taken it there and then.

But, it was not to be.

There were at least three paintings, each with a dreamlike quality, each stacked against each other, seeming to peel back a layer of the beautiful city which formed a backdrop to the canvases.

And, in preparing this image, I couldn’t resist adding another layer of my own.

For WordPress weekly photo challenge – Layered.

*Made with Fujifilm X100F and 23mm (35mm full frame equivalent) fixed lens, ISO200, f/4 at 1/1500s with an extra layer of oil applied in Photoshop CC*

waiting

Image | | andy townend

Waiting for you to come along
Waiting for you to hear my song
Waiting for you to come along
Waiting for you to tell me what went wrong

Waiting For The Sun – The Doors

Lizard, waiting, in Akosombo, Ghana, for WP Weekly Photo Challenge – Waiting

I think it is a male West African Rainbow lizard (‘agama agama africana’). If you know more, please do say. 

*Shot with Fujufilm X100F and fixed 23mm (35mm full frame equivalent) lens at ISO 200, f/4 and 1/150s*

(un)structure(d)

Image | | andy townend

It’s just a question of time
Before they lay their hands on you
And make you just like the rest
– A Question of Time, Depeche Mode

Structure can be the death of us.

For WP Weekly Photo Challenge – Structure. Extract from Fashion Show II”, acrylic on canvas, 2011, by Godwin Sowah Adjei.

*shot with iPhone 6S, art on the wall, hotel in Accra, Ghana*

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