Opinion

Give Tuwani the floor and she'll give you a piece of her mind.
PS Thanks to everyone who left such encouraging comments last week, it's much appreciated. You're great!

The Christmas Project

They asked me to create some gift tags for the Christmas Project. I know I know this doesn't look at all Christmasy, but I'm not feeling the Christmas kitch yet. I want to focus on what we like to call the spirit of Christmas, which is hopefully also love and hope in your book.
Back to the drawing board...

Pretend

Papaya

Pa-paaa-ya - I just love the word and somehow it has retained itself with very little variation throughout all the island languages: pepe, pawpaw, papol, pepaya, papai, papita, boppai, papaali, papaja... Just saying it sounds exotic.

Memento mori

What is our fascination with death? Is it cruel or immoral to see beauty in death? to aesthetisize the unnatural? Does death not feel so unnatural because we are intended for immortality? Or maybe it just reminds us how fragile our existence is; how precious this life.

There is still life

The still life as subject matter is not a foreign concept in the art world, in fact most artists embark on their visual journey with the help of still lifes, whilst other artists like Cezanne proved that an apple painted once doesn’t mean that everything about an apple has been described. One can come back to the same subject, but tell a completely different story. I believe this can be just as applicable to photography.
The greatest advantage of a stationary object, is that it provides a stretch of time in which to study its light and colour and make conscious decisions on composition. With anything else that moves, even people who willingly sit for a portrait, you have a window of time slightly ajar before that specific light/shadow or twitch around the eye disappears, then you hope that you react unsubconsciously to what you have consciously done many times before with a still life.

Still lifes aren’t ‘just practice’. There is still a life there and if you become as still as the subject you’ll sense it.

Pomegranates have always been seen as exotic and sensual fruit. I’ve only ate it once and never seen it since, until the other day when we stumbled upon this stray tree in front of a derelict house. I couldn’t resist to just take a few home. I’m told that they only ripen during December and January when they become these red invitations. How intriguing that from this vermillion blossom a green fruit develops and grows into a rubicund pleasure.

I think Cézanne was right, there is nothing as perfect as nature.

P.S. I’ve also included an agapanthus nearly in bloom, because it holds so much promise - I like the emotion that it evokes.