Friday 29 July 2011

Dear Bill,









I met someone who knew James Ravilious, the closest I'll get to the late photographer, whose work is sublime. A quick on line search will reveal plenty of his black and white photographs. I think his wife, Robin still sells prints. I'm lucky enough to have two of them. Andrew Lawson (well known garden photographer) showed me the tree Ravilious had used in one of his shots.






This is Andrew, collecting yellow rattle seeds to thin the grass out.

I'm casually envious of those who live near the sea, though not so keen on the traffic that chokes the roads on the way in and out. The price you pay for living on a little island. The coastal walks are a breeze (if you are fit, and a struggle if not). We surrendered to the Navy at Falmouth, and spotted two peregrine falcons from a hide that overlooked their nest.














St Ives was humming with all sorts of fascinating people enjoying the pre school holiday calm, I even bumped into the photographer Gavan Goulder who works and lives there. He photographs the seascape every morning at dawn, so you can have a shot taken on the day your child is born. What a neat idea. We also saw BH's studio, discovering in the process that some of her work left me quite underwhelmed. Did you know you can get curried parsnip Cornish pasties?




Driving back, I passed this sign. Who is responsible for counting them? And what a lovely round number. I failed to spot one...




Lastly, I hope you've made the exhibition of Hungarian photography at the RA. There's some blisteringly great photography to see, including my all time favourite image, Kertesz's photograph of Mondrian's studio, a masterclass in composition. I didn't know that Mondrian had painted the tulip's leaves white to cover up their green colour. Now my knowledge of photograph is vastly improved. There are gems in every direction, including many of the classics and a good deal of work I'd never seen before. It's a must see.




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