OK, pictures ...

... on the way to Iceland I spent a night in London. I bought film and visited galleries. I also took some tourist photos ...


There is something about the light in London ....



that is different to both New Zealand and Hong Kong.

That and some of the buildings look strange



Then I got on a plane and flew to Iceland

late night and daylight

I have come to the conclusion that Iceland is, in a way, a lonely yet very sociable place. There are only 300,000 or so people here, and most (about 80%) in one place, Reykjavik. I have been, for the last few weeks, traveling the country and often there is no one to be seen. And I thought New Zealand was sparsely populated. Going back to Hong Kong will be different.

I have shot a lot of film in the last six or so weeks, I hope some of it is good and that I can get it up on the site when I get it processed and scanned.

Till then, I am of to bed, early start in the morning.

More from Iceland

Stark then lush. That’s the words for today. It describes the landscape I have been looking at the last week. There are real contrasts here, rolling green fields and desolate, blasted vistas. It’s a beautiful country in many ways. The pictures you see in tourist brochures and magazines are real.

Anyway, what have I been doing? Well, getting used to an Icelandic keyboard for a start. Some great symbols and letters on it. I will try and keep the miss types to a minimum. We have been travelling over a small stretch of coast and interior photographing for “The Books”. I have been trying to do some of my own work (I’m not a rocks and trees sort of guy) and have found a few things that have made me do some work. Most of my time is spent helping Paula Chamlee either make photos or work on her film. The latter has been interesting.

Interesting things that have happened to me. Waking up to sheep surrounding my tent. Seeing Puffins, they are much smaller than I thought. Sleeping next to a glacier and hearing ‘bergs calve off during the night. Learning that the German translation for seal is sea dog. Not having a heart attack each time I pay for something (this is an expensive place).

Need to rush off and find the local laundry. Last chance for about 10 days. Have fun ya all.

travel with a bag full of cameras

Well I am in Iceland, and yes it is cold. Well, any where is probably cold after Hong Kong. London was good, warm (they thought they were having a heat wave), I found it almost pleasant. Had a nice time going from gallery to gallery. The new hang at the Tate Modern is good, few things that really worked and the Rothko room is still wonderful. The Tate was nice, spent a long time in the Turner wing.

What can I say about Iceland. Well for a start I have only been here for two days but yes, at this time of the year it does stay light for close to 24 hours. There is a brief, (2-3 hours), period when it turns to dusk. It is kind of wierd, light at midnight.

We spent yesterday geting organised. Got the vehicles out of the contianer and sorted out a few problems. Spent most of today out photographing. Think I found some good stuff, certainly different to what I have been doing lately, more modernist, traditional work. Will have to see what comes of it.

Anyway, will post more as time allows. Take care all.

... see you soon ...

This may well be my last post for a while, in a couple of days I am off to Iceland. I will be there for about seven weeks and will be traveling with two American photographers, Paula Chamlee and Michael Smith who are photographing for a book/s and for prints to sell.

I have traveled with them before, in Europe, where they where photographing in, predominately, Tuscany. They also run a small publishing company that produces some of the highest quaility photographic reproductions you are likely to see.

So I leave you with this picture. I like it for its humor, especially as it is outside a contemporary art gallery here in Hong Kong.

A random image

a little humour

I don't make a habit of posting links that often (except when they say nice things about me) but this is just wonderful

fruit and animals

Should you ever visit Sha Tin in the New Territories you must make the climb to the temple of the 10,000 Buddha's. I have posted other images from this temple before. Each time I go there I always end up looking at this statue, generally because I am drinking a lot of water.

This, and the next picture are from the old fruit market in Mong Kok (I think, that or Ya Ma Tei). It probably wont be here for much longer, places like this are high priority for the bulldozer and tower block thinkers.



Well, I'm off into the heat to photograph at a place called Tai O, (where the red wall in the previous post is) a fishing village on Lantau that I love. Have a good one.

... what, another wall?

well, two actually

nothing particulary profound to say about these, then again, maybe there is ...

Numbers

...more photo's about God ...

The Burning Bush

The Promised Land

In The Desert (40 Days and 40 Nights)

more walls

I'm still playing with this, not sure how good they are, any comments, feed back?

It's really obvious....

...but I had to do it

Welcome to whatever you want

life, love, living space, job, taste, experiance, town, country, sound, feeling.....

another meditation

I am still looking at ideas for my next exhibition, and this may, or may not make it. The theme is a progression from my last show on the Stations of the Cross. I am still playing with ideas.


This will probably be another of them, maybe. It is another that references the flight of the Jews from Eygpt.

World Interests

The other day I went walking around a part of Hong Kong with someone who knows it well. We started in an industrial area that is changing. There used to be a lot of clothing factories here. They have gone to the mainland.

In a way, this picture sums up that change, where once there would have been the names of businesses on this sign, now there are none.

While walking around we also saw this. The exterior of a large clothing factory. To get a better view we went up into the parking building that was built especialy for photographers wanting to get interesting views.

meditation on yellow

Well, the scan is not that crash hot and I can't match the colour, but this has been one that I have liked for a while now. What do you think?

... more street art ...

People seem to like these, and luckily for them so do I. If I didn't you wouldn't get to see them Anyway, here is another in a continuing series. There are some more but I am of to Para/Site's trial run of it's new space, why aren't you there?

Jack the Dripper

Another homage image, first person to tell me who this is a homage to gets a prize.

Ideas, I have 'em sometimes...

I have been thinking about a “homage” series for a while. A work I have always liked is Colin McCahon’s “Here I give thanks to Mondrian”. So this is the first in an occasional series. Keep coming back for more.

Oh, yes, this is called, to start the series, “Here I give thanks to McCahon”. And yes, it is a photograph.

Public Art and Private Views

All around Hong Kong are these house shaped symbols which are, I think for a variety of services (water, gas). They are often very interesting, especially if they have been on the wall for a while.

And sometimes there is street sculpture in one form...

...or another.

Tokyo revisited

You can’t go to Japan and not try a Zen cliché or three now can you? Let me know if you think it’s all crap oh yea my hard hearted critics….

And to satisfy the lovers of colour....

Suburbia...

Just found this while going through stuff. I don't think I will be doing to many like this here....

I went to Tokyo recently...

I spent just under two days there. It is an interesting city, and one that, obviously I can only make the broadest of generalizations about. It is big, we went to a bar high up a tower block one evening (the Park Hyatt, where parts of ‘Lost in Translation’ were filmed) and the city seemd to go on forever. But at street level, in most of the places I went to, it felt very human. Many of the buildings are ‘low rise’, four to six levels as opposed to the large number of towers in Hong Kong. This adds to the feeling of space. Tokyo is built like this for a reason I am told. Earthquakes.

During my time there I took surprisingly few photo’s. The three above are from a temple complex near our hotel. My understanding is that this temple was for stillborn and miscarried babies. It was a place that was both still and peaceful, yet also full of life. And therein lays a sweeping generalization based on 48 hours in a city.

And before I go, anyone who goes “Asian” in an attempt to lump a significant proportion of the world together as one homogeneous group should spend two days in Tokyo followed by two days in Hong Kong to understand the profound cultural differences. It’s like saying European, and expecting that to cover France and England as one group.

As some of you know I have a thing about water...

... I love, fear, admire and respect the sea. It has tried to kill me and it has given me great peace. My relationship with it is complicated, but then aren’t all relationships.

And on a more prosaic issue, some one reminded me this blog is fp4.blogspot, so where are the black and white images? OK, these are for you.

God It Is All Dark

The images above are installation shots from a show I had last year called “God It Is All Dark”. They represent my interpretation of the Stations of the Cross, and pay homage to one of New Zealand’s greatest artists, Colin McCahon. The images are gathered from the path that leads to Te Papa in Wellington, and are something that people walk over each day on there way to, from and past the gallery. (Another reference to McCahon, his work Walk).

I think like many of my generation there is a strong Judeo-Christian underpinning to my upbringing and therefore my spirituality. You can either fight it or use it.

As they say, "vanity, all is vanity", here (which you will have to copy and past into your browser, I can't make it work from within the post....) www.salient.org.nz/index.php?a=2018&c=28 is a review of the show from a local student publication. One correction, there are 14, not 12 stations.

I’m sorry about the quality of the images, I can not yet scan the negs, and the prints are way too large for my scanner.

It's been a wet day...

So I sit here and go through stuff planning for an exhibition later in the year.

I think my coming back to these old images is both a reaction to the landscape in Hong Kong and a continuation of the interest in religious imagery. Some stuff works, some does not.

Anyway, going out to meet friends and discuss things like food, books and movies. The sort of Friday night I like.

Going back through old negatives

While I wait for the Tokyo pictures to get back from the lab I thought I might just put these two up. These where taken some time ago when I was playing around with some ideas. I like them, even though there isn’t much that is particularly new or earth shattering about them. One comment at the time was “what a waste of a good camera”.