Bridges of Love

I went to London with Vicki and the kids last week and as ever came home with a few hearts. I also returned with a load of duff stuff where the focus was too soft as I'd rushed the pictures at dusk - the price of trying to shoot quickly so the boys wouldn't get bored...

This was on Tower Bridge, where there were several. Bridges are always good for hearts - I've found them on Brooklyn Bridge, several bridges in Paris, the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, all over the place in Venice, and on a few over the Thames. I remember way back seeing some on the Sydney Harbour Bridge years back, but I haven't been there since starting this set of pictures - I wish! There must be some symbolism relating bridges to romance - perhaps the joining of two bodies (of land) or the bridging of divides... perhaps I'll google it later. The odd thing with hearts on bridges is that often the bridge is a famous one, and to photograph it in an original way (or in a way that I want to see it, at least) is really hard. I tend to end up looking at the river, or at details of the bridge's construction. This one I quite like.

Speaking of the river, I saw the Roni Horn show at Tate Modern while I was there. Not my mug of coffee at all. I knew I didn't like the germanic deadness of the portrait work, but thought I'd like her work on the Thames. Having seen it in real life, I didn't like that either - without wishing to be rude, all her annotated work (the drawings and photographs) come across as humourless and smacks of the kind of art described as pretentious (I'm sure she takes it very seriously and that no pretense is involved) - like very well executed art student work, the 'artfulness' of which you hope the student will grow out of... harsh? I spent £7 on the ticket which gives me the right to an honest review!

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster's TH.2058, down in the Turbine Hall, was fantastic, however. The biggest installation space in the world, surely, and HT.2058 makes great use of it, immersing the visitor in a post-disaster London. I love sci-fi and this was like being a part of it. Not for everyone, but wonderfully disturbing.

Tower Bridge is here.