Tsumani of singlets

I used to live in a garden flat...

...which wasn't strictly a garden flat, as the bedroom part of it was still part of the 300 year old house and the room above it housed a constantly shuffing mature American student. The garden was also not so much a garden, but an overgrowth of scratchy plants and things. The landlady, Mary, was also a nosy eccentric woman who got bitchy occasionally and snapped when I accidentally left the window open once to freshen the room up while she was showing a tenant around. I managed six months there before moving out in August 2002. Anyway, the bizarre view outside the room one day was of a whole line full of singlets!

Cold glass window

I was inspired by Hatakeyama's Slow Glass series and decided to take a similar 'raindrops and glass in focus/background not 'image out of my kitchen window one recent afternoon. I wonder it makes you feel warm and cosy inside. (If you recall, this is the same window where our now dormant flower lives! he weather has changed a little since that photo, too. There are still a few leaves on the flower guy, but he's asleep for the time being.)

Other updates to the site: There are now most recent comments listed in the sidebar (not that I get that many).

Am considering adding "seasons" as categories rather than lumping almost everything under "photo". Any thoughts on this?

Have a good weekend!

Mute Swans, Regent's Park

Some mute swans and other ducks in the snow earlier this year at Regent's Park one morning. Normally in the summer this is where we go rowing! I posted this photo today because we've just bought Bjork's DVD documentary, Inside Bjork for 9.99 pounds on Amazon.co.uk and she's into swans. It's an excellent documentary. I also got Miniscule for the same price, but we haven't watched that yet! If you didn't know, the Queen has a prerogative over all swans in England and Wales and any unmarked swan on the Thames belongs to her. Swans are cool - seeing as there are no ibises like I was used to in Sydney's Royal Botanical Gardens, I make do with the swans.

Fireworks at Primrose Hill

Used fireworks on the grass at Primrose Hill, London, three weeks ago.

Things I have learnt about fireworks:
1. They scare cats

2. They scare me!

Primrose Hill, fallen leaves

A few years ago I took a similar photo of leaves and frangipani in Newtown, Sydney, and decided to do the same here. I just like the contrast between bitumen (what do they call it here?) path and autumn leaves.

My next plan is to take photos of my local area's laundromats! The bizarre neon lighting, 50s style setup and interesting laundromat inhabitors all make for surreal viewing when you walk down the street at night.

Long warehouse

While we're on the subject of long warehouse photos, here's another one - this is at Amazon.co.uk's warehouse in Marston Gate (almost in London!) taken last June. Here, the stackers and packers collate the books to be sent out to customers.

A frozen room

This frozen place isn't Antarctica! It was below freezing in this warehouse and the vast emptiness of it was amazing. Surreal? I can't really reveal more, but it was all very cool.

Primrose Hill in the autumn

Spotted this sign, "And the view's so nice" on the path leading up to Primrose Hill last Sunday. They could have chosen a more creative word like "misty". But that doesn't sound so complimentary! The leaves are looking great this time of year!

A flower at home

Can anyone please tell me the name of this plant? It used to be my friend Domenica's (who lived with me), but she gave it up for dead when she moved into a new flat. It sprouted two flowers over summer and has grown a heap of new leaves for winter!

We went to Manna Veg vegetarian restaurant in Primrose Hill for Sunday brunch today, and it was excellent!

Baker Street Greasy Spoon

Elderly ladies enjoy a chip and a chat at one of the greasy spoons on Baker Street. For the uninitiated: This is not the height of British cuisine by any means but it's certainly filling and satisfying enough when you're craving carbohydrates. When I first started working in London, it was customary to go down to the Angel Inn and have "lard" every Friday lunch. My colleagues would have, for lunch, eggs, beans, toast, sausages and bacon on a huge plate. And it would only cost £3 or so. Wash it all down with some Sprite imported from Estonia or Espana and a mug of coffee, et voila! Enough calories consumed to last you through the weekend! Greasy spoons also cater for us vegetarians - baked potatos, chips, veggie burgers, baked beans and bagels.

Another Olafur Eliasson Weather Project photograph!

A little bit of Turbine Hall overload?

After Brighton last week we went back to the Tate Modern (it closes at 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays, y'know!) and took a few more images. Got them developed at good old Snappy Snaps. I have about 10 others of the Turbine Hall, including some of people lying on the ground - all very surreal indeed! (Side note: Did anyone see the G2 supplement in The Guardian of volunteers all forming a "G2" shape on the ground?) I used 800 speed film for this and used a negative scanner initially but the contrasty colours really messed the scan up, so I used the tried and tested flatbed to scan the print in! Click on it for a larger version.

A day trip to Brighton

Got the Thameslink from London to Brighton last Saturday afternoon; it cost 15 pounds return.

The one above is of one of the amusement machines on the pier. You put a coin into the slot, and you hope that it falls in such a way that the moving tray below will push it over the edge, triggering some of the coins below the tray to fall through the collection box underneath. There are also rubbish prizes stacked on top of the coins, like a Bagpuss brooch.

Where Rob and I are from, Brighton beach means Brighton-Le-Sands, a pseudo Anglo-Franco name (it's next to a place called Sans Souci!), a suburb of Sydney I grew up in. Full of drag racing down The Grande Parade, souvlaki, palm trees and, of course, Coles Ramsgate. Confused? Good. So, this is Brighton the real deal, where Lydia and Mr Wickham in Pride and Prejudice went for a dirrty weekend, where my friend N. got exasperated, where my colleague Tim commutes from every day, where people have come for hundreds of years for magic cures to their ills.

Almost that time of year...

This rather plain looking photo was taken early this year one morning in Regent's Park, on my way to Primrose Hill, but I don't mind it! I seem to have put a lot of London snow photos in here! If you like you can see Rob's snowy New York ones on his site. I think we like the snow because we were both brought up in Sydney, where it never snows at all. There are some great thunderstorms there, though!
Too bad snow is white - we won't be able to use the Polaroid manipulation to smush it around!! :)

More Olafur Eliasson at the Tate Modern

Another image of the Weather Project installation at the Tate Modern. We went again on Saturday night, but somehow the effect wasn't the same - not sure why, exactly, but perhaps it had something to do with the lack of daylight coming into the building? There were also a lot more people there from contortionists to students protesting against fees to really frivolous people yelling, "Oh, so good to see you, I like your top!"

Blaine's box

We went past Blaine in his stupid box (see Polaroid Manipulations for our attempts with the Tower Bridge) yesterday and encountered about a billion people all looking up as soon as he stood up to take a pee... there were even street vendors! Behold the glorious light shing from above as Blaine watches over this procession of zoo visitors! (That's sarcasm, folks!) We didn't stop to loiter, we kept going. That was also the first time I'd seen the Mayor's building in real life, too - might take some more pics of that later.

Olafur Eliasson at the Tate, smoke and mirrors

Crap camera phone pic for now - will go back to take better ones soon, but I couldn't resist...



Guess who?

So, yes... Went to see The Weather Project at the Tate Modern today... it was very impressive! Enter the Turbine Hall and you'll see a misty, smoky atmosphere with a huge sun in the distance. Look closer and the sun is, in fact, simply a back-lit semi circle reflected in slanted mirrors four stories high. Dozens of people were lying on the ground looking at themselves. We also went to lie down and gaze up at ourselves and everyone else. Smoke and mirrors indeed! Find out more at the official site.

PS: AG, RG is emailing you :)

Tottenham Court Road Tube

Headache-inducing tiles, perhaps, but the busiest tube station in London takes its symmetry seriously.

Mrs Wilde the candy floss seller

Get your lardy ice cream here! Who is Mrs Wilde? How long has she been making candy floss, and how long has the packaging had that scary clown on it? Does she ever leave her van?

Hundreds of Belgian visitors?

Bonsoir! A short note to say bienvenue to all the hundreds of Belgian visitors that are coming to this site, but how did you come to find Fotos a Londres? We have not been able to see referrer logs from you, so I'm assuming this site was mentioned in an email newsletter. Thanks for letting us know!

The now closed-down Coffee Republic on Edgware Rd, London

Taxis & payphones in the snow

On the walk to work

In January 2003 we were treated to a rare sight in London: worthwhile amounts of snow! On the way to work I snapped a black cab etc. It's taken me this long to scan in the film.

My SX-70 bridge polarioid thingie has been getting lots of visitors - there will be more of these types of photos posted here soon, because Mr Gardiner has quite a few more in his album too - the London Eye, the 38 bus, etc!

A Snowy London Morning

Regent's Park in January
Let's hope this season will be as crisp and snow white as it was earlier this year!

At your beck and call

Living TV 10th birthday party, Pacha, 4 September 2003. (Featuring Bananarama and about six rejects from Big Brother 3 who guzzled down Bacardi Breezers like their 15 minutes of fame was gonna expire any minute, or something.)
A place where we could take the piss out of people by taking photos of them.

Regent's Park

Earlier this year, just after dawn, crunchy, dusty snow remained on the ground of Regent's Park in London

Before the sunlight and the footprints of joggers threatened to smudge away the fine crystals of snow, I wandered around the deserted park and atop Primrose Hill for a monocrome view of the city. No more leaves on the trees.

Item of the week

Step right up for the item of the week at Topshop. It's the fast-paced slave-to-fashion life you've always dreamed of!

Or perhaps you just want to wait for your friend who's trying on the latest throwaway top...

These photos were taken while wandering into Oxford Street's Topshop in London early in 2003. I have never bought anything from Topshop in my life - I've just never found anything in it particularly exciting. I guess it's the fact that whatever they sell there is meant to have a shelf life of six weeks or less, fashion-wise. Anyway, it was interesting seeing all the blokes waiting for their girlfriends in the dressing rooms! I really wanted to encounter a little more 'Martin Parr' subject matter that I did - I'm not in a hurry to go back and try and find more banality though.

Farringdon Lane

On the walk to work

2 miles from Hampstead

Another snowy London photo

Brown Sauce on Baker St

The height of culinary excellence awaits you at the greasy spoon on Baker Street! Note: More of my London photos can be found here.

British Museum

Anyone walking into the British Museum Great Court for the first time is blown away. The shoddy camera phone used to take this doesn't do it justice!

Blaine-baiting

Chris goes Blaine-baiting using his camera phone