Dabbling in Abu Dhabi

A crop of photos taken in Abu Dhabi. I was only there for a day. Taking my camera for a walk was the most entertaining and cheap thing I could think of doing while waiting for a delayed flight out of there to Australia. 

The fan and the fire

Long absent from the blog because I’ve been travelling. Yes, ventured out of Peckham!

So, there I was in Abu Dhabi… when I spot this odd scene. To the right is an electric fan plugged into an energy source inside the abandoned café. To the left is a construct containing a small heap of burning coals. The fan is directed at them in order to keep them alight. But, why? As I ponder this a guy comes along and lights his cigarette from the coals. Then he saunters off to his building site, one of many in this land of petroleum fortunes. The explanation, surely, is that lighters and matches are banned on site and the Heath Robinson contraption is a way to get round this. Ingenious. Daft.

A homage to Lee Miller

I took this photo because the scene reminded me of a famous shot taken by Lee Miller: 'Portrait of Space, near Siwa, Egypt'. Hers depicts a desert landscape beyond a rip in a fabric. Mine, a shop in Choumert Road, off Rye Lane in Peckham, which is seen through a tear in the cover for a vegetable stall. And here’s the contents of the  market stall. Bright and peppery. 

I thought the lay-out of this blog entry would be the words sandwiched between the photo of the rip, and the peppers, but, hey, it's gone tits-up. I'm confounded once again by technology. Never mind. With luck you get the message.

Badly behaved urinals

The sign made me laugh because it was as if the urinals (in the South London Gallery) were out of order, as in behaving badly. Naughty urinals! In case you’re wondering, I didn’t need to lurk in the men’s toilets to get the shot, the door was wide open as I passed it on my way to the ladies’ loos, which were, I’m relieved to report, perfectly in order. 

Phantasmagoric Peckham

When I began taking photos I’d worry about whether I'd taken a good picture. Luckily, there were  photographers around to advise me, mostly because of street photography workshops held in Tate Modern (thank you, Sophie Howarth). Now, years later, friends who are successful photographers and artists (Phil Polglaze, Derek Moore, Nick Cobb, Chris Clack) give me pointers. But I’m starting to trust my own judgement. When I looked at this photo, snapped on Rye Lane in Peckham, it triggered a ‘Wow!’ Here you see it in miniature, so you will miss some of the detail. But this, I think, is a good photo. It zings.

... or somefing

As I sat on the bus in Peckham I looked over at the phone box, which smells of pee (this I know because I’ve stood at the nearby bus-stop many a time) and I thought about how I’d seen a Snappy Snap shop that recently had closed. And, I thought, yes, Snappy Snaps is really old technology and for historic-recording purposes I decided to take a photo of the poster. As I depressed the shutter two boys peeped from the side of the phone box. They’d been hiding. Next thing: a voice from behind me, a man talking rather loudly into his mobile: ‘Someone’s taking a picture of kids. Paedophile or somefing.’ To say I was shocked gets close to how I felt. I put my camera away for the day.

Is your Christmas lickin' good?

Wishing you a Merry Christmas with, I hope, a more succulent bird than the colonel will produce at KFC.  Photo taken on Rye Lane, from top deck of bus on a sunny, winter's day.