AIRBRUSH | Sunday, May 31, 2020
#AIRBRUSH: this simple plastic ring came from the Freestyle Players’ Association many years ago, and its designed to teach brushing and other skills at low speed. Turns out to be PERFECT for kids practicing standard frisbee, it’s easy to throw and catch, flies true, doesn’t hurt the fingers and is generally fun. I think you can still find them as “coaster rings” if you look. #ultimate #frisbee #kids
DIARY | Wednesday, May 27, 2020
#DIARY: two months to the day since my last entry. It’s not like there isn’t anything to write about or reflect on, or time for that matter, so I don’t really know why. Ennui, lassitude, languor? An unparalleled period of time, also unpalatable despite our luck and fortune in being set aside from the bedlam that is clearly happening elsewhere. Maybe I should backfill the diary with a long essay, or write about all the things I should have done. It turns out that I am neither inclined to routine nor autonomy, neither captivity nor freedom, and perhaps have finally attained Adulthood Level 6! #quarantinelife
NERFGUNS | Monday, May 25, 2020
#NERFGUNS: somebody really needs to take these away. @electric_light_studios are having a clear out sale!
CHECKDAM | Friday, May 22, 2020
#CHECKDAM: After reading fourteen books cover-to-cover on water and its management around the world, I decided NOT to do my MA final project on the World Water Crisis. It was simply too big, too complex, and not visual enough without a huge budget. But it’s hard to not remain interested after so much research, so I instead took smaller parts of the story and shot those, which led me to all kinds of interesting people and projects. This is one on The Big Island, Hawaii. The watershed above Pelekane Bay was trashed through overgrazing and deforestation - the topsoil blows away, the rain comes down and just erodes the mountain by washing it into the sea. The Kohala Watershed Partnership stepped up to both restore the forests and build check dams to arrest the sediment - they fill up gullies with a stack of rocks, wrap it in wire and material and it blocks the sediment and slows the water, allowing it to penetrate the ground. Melora Purell, the KWP coordinator, responded to me and invited me to watch a group as they spent a hot day building two check dams. The work was hard, and the dams are quickly covered up with sediment and become part of the land again. The picture shows some of the team scouting for locations and getting ready. A long while later, I had another exchange of messages with Melora she mentioned they’d named a dam or two ‘Vish’. 😆 The Big Island might just be my favourite place in the world, and I look forward to going back one day and seeing a blossoming island packed with native flora. #Hawaii #watermanagement #PelekaneBay #Kawaihae #KohalaMountain
BARITALIA | Thursday, May 21, 2020
#BARITALIA: A camera was a fairly rare sight back in 1993, let alone in the hands of two 19-year-olds wandering around Soho late at night. Bar Italia was a old favourite of mine, to the extent of a 19-year-old’s life experience, but I had been walking through Central London hunting down comics and records for most of my teens and Bar Italia was as famous then as it is now. We were shooting on Frith Street when Tony, the owner, spotted us and asked us if we were from a magazine - cameras were rare, as I said - and my pal, who was never one to let an opportunity pass, said, “Yeah, we’re from the Evening Standard!”. I mean, really? Two cappuccinos headed our way and Tony gave us the free run of the place with the cameras, also never one to let a promotional opportunity pass. It worked out, since this picture has been all over the place for 27 years and here we are again promoting Bar Italia! I say free run, but it was packed, again, much like now. I remember multiple afternoons sitting outside Bar Italia reading comics and drinking about eight cappuccinos, piled with sugar. I think the caffeine from my teens is still running around my system. #soho #frithstreet #coffee
#LOCK/#DOWN: it’s really not safe to swim in the Thames but it’s not particularly sensible to take a dip around the weir either. Luckily, the currents dissipate quickly and very few people take an intermission on the island between the two banks: which is what makes it so delightful for larking about. #lockdown #stuckhomesyndrome #thames #river
