Thursday 30 April 2009

Meeting























Work meetings are always different from what one might expect. For me the most excruciating thing is the actual arranging phonecall - maybe because I am a very visual person: an image speaks to me stronger than the sound a person on the other side of the receiver makes.

I do not mind the meeting itself, I usually talk a lot about my work which I am proud of and I am not affraid of such meetings with starnge people who are going to decide about my work's future but this introductionary phonecall scares a shit out of me. I can work, redesign the design, I do not mind working into wee hours of the morning and not having almost any social life. Just do not make me to call you!


I am affraid I will have to overcome my fears soon and arrange some more meetings before the source of my income dries out completely. Networking - a hated word.

Saturday 25 April 2009

Ingleby



After uploading some images for a client that we worked on for last couple of days we went for a walk to see a small exhibition of Francesca Woodman's work in Ingleby Gallery. This exhibition consists of 27 silver gelatin prints and I was really surprised how small the prints were! Not much bigger than contacts of medium format  and one was a large format contact from a 5x4 all beautifully framed in simple, wooden grey frames.

Prints were priced at 3000 to 4000 pounds in edition of 40.

We still have to see the show at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art as it is mostly combined of prints once owned by artist's boyfriend.

Every time I see these works I think how mature their author was at barely 20. What was I doing when I was 20? Would any of my work would be possible to go on a coherent show? Doubt it. My destination seems to be more Louise Bourgeois than Francesca Woodman, hopefully.

Friday 24 April 2009

Ah and the wafers!

Food


I do not understand all these complaints about quality of British food. There are numerous famous restaurants with even more famous cooks ready at any guormet challenge, takeaways of all nations' quisines and a classic English breakfast is a simple bliss on a windy, rainy morning. Continental muesli and orange juice just will not do in such a weather - you have to support yourself with fried sausages, warm tomatoes and beans on a fragrant toast with crispy bacon. It might not be great for you health but for your morale is going to be a pure bliss.

My favourite cholesterol bomb we drop sometimes on our cardiovascular systems is a solid portion of thick pancakes, grilled bacon and a decent dollop of a maple syrup. Then some Belgian wafers with vanilla ice cream. One of the favourite places for such a treat is Favorit near Edinburgh University. They serve breakfasts all day there too!

Monday 20 April 2009

Relationships


Since I am enrolled to the Institute Francaise library here in Edinburgh and I do happily use their resources not just for reading latest issues of Elle magazine (s0 many pounds saved as in contrary to Polish edition, the French one is a weekly! They do not stock French Vogue so this one I have to either buy or wait a month until it appears at ECA's library) but also to watch lots of nice Franch films every week. I am still working on not forgetting my French under the avalanche of everyday English, secretly hoping that maybe one day I will be able to live in Paris again. 

This week we were combining Kassovitz's La Haine with more left bank intello Les Amants du Flore. While Vincent Cassel with his shaved head really looks like an angry doberman, Anna Mouglalis perfectly impersonates Simone de Beauvoir with her sultry voice and slanty eyes.

I hope that one day she will be willing to accept a part in one of Phil's films as she is simply magnetising the screen with her personality. Even without any make up.

Friday 17 April 2009

Oak


I was playing today with a new tilt & shift lens. Oak was my patient model once more and Simon was responsible for the lighting, help and inspiration - very important parts of the photographying process as I could concentrate fully on taking pictures and trying to focus in the right place. I also had to hurry as Oak was only able to come to the studio during his lunch break.

Please click on the image to enlarge it.

Wednesday 15 April 2009

Haar




Today we experienced something that Scotts call 'haar' (you should have heard Venessa pronouncing the word!) - it is a sea mist that obscures the town (and it's castle) almost completely and makes you feel like what Monika Zeromska described in her diary from a visit to Britain as standing in a stream wearing  wet underpants.

We went to do some shopping in organic shop in the other end of town center so we had to cross Princes Street Gardens. With haar obscurring all the sounds from the nearby tram works and gently setting on our faces it was a mesmerising experience. Being photographers of course we left the cameras at home so we had to use our phones instead.

Tuesday 14 April 2009

Visit

We had a friend from Krakow visiting! Szymon is a husband of my best friend, we have known each other for years  and as he came to Scotland for a conference for psychologists at the St Andrews University we offered to host him for a day of a frantic Edinburgh sightseeing.

Our guest brought our wedding rings which we ordered on our last trip to Krakow (here) and patiently listened to Liska's reading from 'The Uselless Information Book'. It was a pleasure to meet him again - we chatted in a pub in Rose Street late into the night about children and bringing them up and how parents sometimes determinate their children future with their even unconscious actions. Szymon is not only a lecturer in psychology but he is also a proud father too so both Simons had a lot of information to exchange!  

Saturday 11 April 2009

Back from work!


We just came back from another commission, absolutely exhausted, so just a picture for tonight - I am going to have a loooooong, hot bath with orange oils, thank you very much.

Thursday 9 April 2009

Photospot


My guess is that without this very handy sign Simon would have been completely lost with where to take a picture of his daughter and girlfriend in the Princes Street!

I have to head to bed now to get some necessary rest as for a change to stomach problems I have injured my back this time: during a photoshoot today I lifted a hefty camera bag and...the rest was excrutiating pain and constellations of stars. 

The illustration blog features my new Easter card too! Happy Easter and have a peacefull extended weekend!

Tuesday 7 April 2009

Motherland




Simon came back from London very excited and with his mood visibly lifted after enthousiastic receiving of his project. So maybe this funding is going to happen after all, but tsyk tsyk, simply keep your fingers crossed.

Simon also brought couple of nice prezzies from the capital - he had a look at the Deutche Burse Prize exhibition in Photographers Gallery (they moved recently to a very posh location just off the Oxford Circus - so he was even able to do some shopping for me in the Muji shop in Oxford Street) and also got Simon Roberts' signed copy of his 'Motherland' in the gallery shop.

We tend not to buy photographic books anymore after the removal we had to get rid of about 95% of our collection so we realised that in fact, apart from our favourites (Norfolk, Brandt, Leibovitz, van Meene and couple of others) we really do not feel any more any urge, whatsoever, to buy expensive, heavy, bulky photographic books. Simon said that Roberts was the only exception (mine is Alec Soth but hopefully ECA's library is going to get his 'Sleeping by the Mississipi' soon) and what is more - he got a signed copy. Well, signature looks like it's been signed by the seller in the gallery bookshop during a boring afternoon but the whole publication is exquisite - brings to mind vivid stories in Kapuscinski's 'Imperium'.

Sunday 5 April 2009

Not THAT much, phleeeese!

When I said that I will not be posting for a while I did not mean such a long break!
I do not know if you also have it that your body seems to secretly know when you are about to have a break from your gruelling routine. So when you are just hoping to get away/top up on some work that got neglected for a while for whatever reason/have some unexpected holiday/are hoping to make a trip it all of a sudden stops to a grinding halt.
We went for a quick sightseeing to Linlithgow Palace on a beautiful, sunny and warm Thursday afternoon and I was about to prepare a nice, fat post about the place of birth of my Scottish obsession aka Mary Queen of Scots (who was born there), but to no avail! No way, said my tummy as I laid down with a hight fever back from the trip on Thursday evening, following with Friday and Saturday. I did not have any other nasty sensations - just a feeling of a brick swollowed and a feverish head. I blame the tasty organic brie and fresh cucumber sandwitches I prepared for the day...
However during my exhausting time in bed I have even managed to read half of a very serious book that I need for my reasearch and return to my tutor after Easter.
On Saturday afternoon I had to roll out of bed to go to a client meeting and then miraculously I felt good again (I wonder why?). I hope Simon will not get down with that weird tummy bug as he is going down to London tomorrow on a very important work meeting.
I will post in next couple of days about the Linlithgow - especially that I had a very strange feeling of seeing it before (but not one like seeing it in a film but in real life, only which one?). This story is comming soon as now I have to fight another disaster - a plague of moths invaded my vintage Simple and Solar woolls, nibbled on Simon's best cashmere jumper so I will have to get these little buggers OUT no matter how much of elbow grease and time it requires.
You see, I have said I am going to be busy but not with these kind of things!
P.S. Today's image depicts Simon in the morning (well, 11 am to be precise, after I just came back home with Sunday newspapers)