Wednesday 8 September 2010

Inspired by Joel Meyerowitz, A Peniscola Picture that Sings to Me

untitled_spain_2  This picture gets me very excited, and I know that that will take some explaining…

Two reasons; actually, three. One, I’ve loved the work of Joel Meyerowitz for a long long time, and often when I’ve worked on a project I find that his work is echoed there, and sometimes I find I’ve inadvertently worked on a theme which he’s covered before. Occasionally I find that he has a new book out using a theme I’ve worked on before, like his new book looking at wilderness in NYC. Admittedly that’s a little more appealing to the book buying public than my brief series on wilderness in Bournemouth & Poole…

In this shot I was thinking of a book of his I have called The Arch, in which he looks at the same architectural subject from lots of different locations. I wanted to include the large hotel sign in the distance in at least one shot for this project, and though I only have this one shot, the stillness of the streetscape and the pattern of the picture it feels to me to be reminiscent of his work.

Two: We drove to this town, a popular resort on the coast between Tarragona and Valencia, and couldn’t get parked, but we spotted this car. It was blisteringly hot and the atmosphere in our car was fractious, so I decided that it was one of those images I would keep in my minds eye and that it would never make it as far as the camera. We drove back to our apartment and decided to head in again early the next morning. I took a stroll, and there it was again, on the same street but a different space. I almost whooped out loud.

Three: The resort in question is called Peniscola. Hilarious!

If I can persuade Vicki, I’m going to print this one up big to hang on the wall. She tends to prefer the ‘pretty’ ones, but to me this is absolutely beautiful. Stillness, Spanish heat and photos seen together and apart, the composition in each just sings to me.

Peniscola (ha ha!) is here. It’s an absolutely stunning place, and I hope to go back next year for the jazz festival. (I took the photo where the letter B is on the map, but I wanted to show you the coastline as it’s really somewhere special.)

love | landscape

Thursday 2 September 2010

Wilderness at the Heart of the Mediterranean Coast

 untitled_spain_1

I realise I haven’t blogged for two months, and my poor reader must be wondering what’s going on… my only excuse is that I’ve been busy. I’m still helping establish a Free School in Swanage, I’ve been fixing up my house, and I’ve been away to the Valencia region of Spain to unwind and warm up.

Vicki, the boys and me had a great time enjoying the warm Mediterranean sea, the blistering heat and the fascinating local area – it’s lovely to see our sons (aged 6 and 8) each with a camera, photographing the backstreets of Spanish towns while we search for hearts and other graffiti. They’re getting quite an eye.

The apartment we rented was in Alcossebre, a very Spanish resort about 100k north of Valencia. Just along the coast is the Sierra de Irta National Park with 20km of almost unspoilt coastline and a number of abandoned buildings. I don’t know what this little building was, but it had the feel of a chapel. It was covered in spray paint and smelt of poo, but was really rather special. This heart was truly magnificent.

Sunny spotted this heart around the side – he took some shots of me alongside it looking fat and old, so I’m not sure we’ll use them, but maybe I’ll photoshop myself a new face, body and some hair and they’ll do for publicity.

It was here on the map. If you’re in the area, it’s worth a visit.

love | landscape