All we do and are...

“Religion is, in reality, living. Our religion is not what we profess, or what we say, or what we proclaim; our religion is what we do, what we desire, what we seek, what we dream about, what we fantasize, what we think - all these things - twenty-four hours a day. One's religion, then, is ones life, not merely the ideal life but the life as it is actually lived.

Religion is not prayer, it is not a church, it is not theistic, it is not atheistic, it has little to do with what white people call "religion." It is our every act. If we tromp on a bug, that is our religion; if we experiment on living animals, that is our religion; if we cheat at cards, that is our religion; if we dream of being famous, that is our religion; if we gossip maliciously, that is our religion; if we are rude and aggressive, that is our religion. All that we do, and are, is our religion.” ― Jack D. Forbes

Memory...

“We look at the world once, in childhood. The rest is memory.” ― Louise Gluck

Magic and beauty

“The appearance of things changes according to the emotions; and thus we see magic and beauty in them, while the magic and beauty are really in ourselves.” — Kahlil Gibran, The Broken Wings

Creating bespke art for your walls starring you…

Where would we be without stories...

“Without stories, we wouldn't be human beings at all” ― Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials

Fra Pavel played by Frank Bourke in the BBC ONE HBO and Bad Wolf serialisation of His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman.

Portrait sessions with me — stories + compassion in South East London

Ripples on the surface of life...

“As Freud has shown, blunders are not the merest chance. They are the result of suppressed desires and conflicts. They are ripples on the surface of life, produced by unsuspected springs. And these may be very deep - as deep as the soul itself. The blunder may amount to the opening of a destiny.” ― Joseph Campbell

The beautiful life...

“I have an idea that the only thing which makes it possible to regard this world we live in without disgust is the beauty which now and then men create out of the chaos. The pictures they paint, the music they compose, the books they write, and the lives they lead. Of all these the richest in beauty is the beautiful life. That is the perfect work of art.” W Somerset Maugham — The Painted Veil

Singularity

   (after Stephen Hawking)

Do you sometimes want to wake up to the singularity
we once were?

so compact nobody
needed a bed, or food or money—

nobody hiding in the school bathroom
or home alone

pulling open the drawer
where the pills are kept.

For every atom belonging to me as good
Belongs to you.   Remember?
There was no   Nature.    No
 them.   No tests
to determine if the elephant
grieves her calf    or if

the coral reef feels pain.    Trashed
oceans don’t speak English or Farsi or French;

would that we could wake up   to what we were
— when we were ocean    and before that
to when sky was earth, and animal was energy, and rock was
liquid and stars were space and space was not

at all — nothing

before we came to believe humans were so important
before this awful loneliness.

Can molecules recall it?
what once was?    before anything happened?

No I, no We, no one. No was
No verb      no noun
only a tiny tiny dot brimming with

is is is is is

All   everything   home

Delighting in you..

“Your life is your life.

Don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission. Be on the watch.

There are ways out.

There is light somewhere.

It may not be much light but it beats the darkness.

Be on the watch.

The gods will offer you chances.

Know them.

Take them.

You can’t beat death but you can beat death in life, sometimes.

And the more often you learn to do it, the more light there will be.

Your life is your life.

Know it while you have it.

You are marvelous.

The gods wait to delight in you." — Charles Bukowski

Delighting in you — portrait sessions with me in south east London…

Self love...

“A consequence of female self-love is that the woman grows convinced of social worth. Her love for her body will be unqualified, which is the basis of female identification. If a woman loves her own body, she doesn't grudge what other women do with theirs; if she loves femaleness, she champions its rights. It's true what they say about women: Women are insatiable. We are greedy. Our appetites do need to be controlled if things are to stay in place. If the world were ours too, if we believed we could get away with it, we would ask for more love, more sex, more money, more commitment to children, more food, more care. These sexual, emotional, and physical demands would begin to extend to social demands: payment for care of the elderly, parental leave, childcare, etc. The force of female desire would be so great that society would truly have to reckon with what women want, in bed and in the world.”
― Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth

The invisible web of stories...

“The universe is one being.
Everything and everyone is interconnected through an invisible web of stories.
Whether we are aware of it or not, we are all in a silent conversation.
Do no harm.
Practise compassion.
And do not gossip behind anyone's back - not even seemingly innocent remark!
The words that come out of our mouth do not vanish but are perpetually stored in infinite space, and they will come back to us in due time.
One man's pain will hurt us all.
One man's joy will make everyone smile.” —Elif Safak

Being human...

There are truths that last because there are aspects of the human condition which remain constant… portrait sessions with me in south east London ♡

Who are we?

What are portraits made of? To find out please get in touch…♡

Our planet...

“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children…” Anon.

...creating bespoke images for you to tell your story… pls DM to find out more #ecowarrior #portraitandbranding

Turning you into pictures...

A set of photos created for a local singer/songwriter/therapist who needed a set of photos that bridged the gap between the corporate world and the ‘feeling’ world of being an artist and therapist….

Take the power to walk in the forest and be a part of nature...

Look one of three from a recent personal branding photo session with local singer/songwriter/therapist who was looking to update her website… pls DM me to find out more about about creating bespoke images for your business…♡

Your story...

“One can’t write directly about the soul. Looked at, it vanishes.” — Virginia Woolf.
Capturing your story with me in south east London // local portrait photographer

Begin at the beginning...

“Stories are light. Light is precious in a world so dark. Begin at the beginning. Tell a story... Make some light.” — Kate DiCamillo, The Tale of Despereaux.
Portrait sessions with me this September — letting pictures tell your story — pls DM me to find out more... ♡

begin at the beginning…

Lean into the memory...

“She leans into the memory. She stares. She concentrates. What IS it that's she's looking for, trying to get straight at last?” ― Vivian Gornick, The Situation and the Story: The Art of Personal Narrative

Your life is a story — please DM to find out more about how i can document it through my photography and turn your sentiments into pictures ♡

Words of wisdom...

From my photo session with the artist Caroline Coon.... pls read her beautiful words of wisdom:

“On 5th August 2016, a white male Der Spiegle journalist aged 45 asked me this, a question fixed in status quo prejudice of independent women: “And your life now, how do you feel about it? You are not married. You have not had children. Do you feel any bitterness?”*

Since I understand journalism and the limitations of print, here is a full answer to this man’s question:

“My life has been blessed. Looking back at both the splendours and miseries I can only be profoundly thankful.

I have benefited from the political and social revolutionary struggles that have provided me with many enlightened, human, civil and legal rights.

I have been free to choose whether or not to get married.

I have been free to choose whether or not to have children.

I have been free to choose whether or not to have abortions.

I have been free to choose my sexual orientations.

I have been free to choose whether or not to have lovers.

Free speech and feminism have given me the freedom to be an artist.

For women in the West there has never been a better time, my lifetime, to live.

My life has been of my own volition.

My life has been everything I wanted it to be, and more.

My life is the antonym of bitterness!

To live my life truly and effectively I gave up the idea that I could, considering my limited talent, trying with hope to better my skills, also be financially wealthy.

To live my own life according to my own independent vision was, and is, richesse a plenty – to which I owe my happiness.

And, as far as I can, for the rest of my life, I intend to support all those who are steadfastly holding on to and improving and furthering this happy, liberationist and humanist agenda.””— Caroline Coon, artist

*Verbitterung?

Caroline Coon, artist

Rain Dance

It's looking like a perfect storm
Waiting for the clouds to open
Don't get wet and don't get caught
When it rains it pours — The Lions, When It Rains

Raindance — self portrait