It's official! My partner and I are moving to Lithuania. In a month's time! This means very little time left for cultural stuff and even less for this blog. However, I am determined to carry on until the last day.
Before it closed, I visited Shadow Catchers at the V&A a couple of weeks ago. It was quite a small display of camera-less photography. It took a while to get my head around this unusual concept. There is a number of techniques to this sort of photography, but for me they mostly sound like variations of printing. Nevertheless, some of the picture were stunningly beautiful. I particularly enjoyed Pierre Cordier's work. In 1956 he invented 'chemigram' process – a method of directly manipulating photographic paper with light and dyes. Cordier creates abstract metallic images with narratives inside, which unravel stories the longer you look at them.
We gave another shot for Philharmonia Orchestra at the Southbank. Yet again I admired the building and appreciated the conductor directing his orchestra without notes. But a programme of Schumann and Weber works made me snooze again. It's not the orchestra to blame, it just confirms once again that my tastes lie with the 20th century. Give me Shostakovich, Ginatsera and Gershwin. Sorry Bach!
Also last week: highly enjoyed Ian McEan's first novel The Cement Garden. It brought me back to childhood.
