charlene

Holy week, Mexico City 2013. The water supply for most of the city had been cut off for several days so maintenance could be carried out on the pipes. My buddy Carlos and I loitered on this street, waiting for Micro (who was, naturally, a big guy) to arrive. The three of us were going […]

“American? From Cuba? Bolivia? Colombia?” I was talking to someone from Venezuela yesterday. In the course of conversation, I mentioned that I work for an American NGO. He asked me that question. Because I’d forgotten. In the months I spent in Mexico, years ago, Mexican friends repeatedly reminded me that everyone from North and South […]

That Christmas cruise to nowhere was my first experience of such a thing. With so few aboard, and Covid-19 measures in place, there wasn’t a lot of activity to shoot. I had my usual model though: Mum. My mother hates being in front of the camera. She protests / makes faces / waves me away […]

I spent Christmas at sea with my mother… inasmuch as being in the Straits of Malacca is “out at sea”, bounded by Peninsula Malaysia and Sumatra as we were, the entire time. I haven’t been on the water for years, and these 2 days brought back old lives: shooting the Svitzer tug crews in Perth, […]

The guilt I feel for invading people’s spaces with a camera. Not on assignment. It’s different, on assignment. Because that is a job, with a clear-cut purpose. I get in there, and work. But doing the same when I’m out shooting for myself? That’s another thing. I was thinking about this when writing the last […]

Out on a photowalk the other day, a few of us walked by this old school barbershop and the guy in the blue mask (below) waved at us. So we went over to have a chat, and in the process, got invited inside the shop. I’m always surprised to find that people enjoy letting random […]