This is Entertainment

You are not alone. There are others like you out there. Men of a certain age who against there better judgment make their way through the night to see men often half their age perform on a dimly lit stage. Yes I’m talking about the middle-aged pop concertgoer. I count myself amongst their number and …

The Real Jersey Shore

After a time nearly all photography becomes art. The very fact of recording a period forty, fifty or sixty years ago is automatically compelling for us. A strange contrast is created; the ‘realness’ of the images makes us feel this could be now against the hairstyles and clothing that root the scenes we see in …

The Beauty of Blumenfeld

When a photographer’s work is described as experimental I tend to run for the hills. It makes think I’m going to enter some fiendish laboratory where the only thing likely to emerge is some kind of Frankenstein’s monster. Erwin Blumenfeld reminds me there are ways of experimenting that are playful and super stylish. His work …

Soul Tone

If someone were to tell me that they had an album for me two listen which would feature several songs of 9 minutes or more sung and played in a largely languorous retro folk rock style that brought to mind an east coast Neil Young, I would not be rushing round their place to pick …

Hail Cesaretti

  Gaining access is the bane of the documentary photographer’s life. You may want to take pictures of a Colombian drug cartel in action but doing so without being shot in the head can prove decidedly difficult Gusmano Cesaretti seems to have solved the problem judging by his fantastic images of low rider subculture in …

Designs for Living

Attending the excellent Le Corbusier exhibition at MoMa last week I was struck by a sad truth. That the architecture proposed by Le Corbusier works brilliantly when applied to the private residences of the rich but rather less well when applied to the lifestyles of the poor. Take his proposed solution to the problem of …

California Road Chronicles

One of the  most pleasant memories I take of my time living in California are the many road trips. The state was made to drive around with a vast array of scenery from desert to redwoods. Once you get away from the major highways and urban conurbations those trips are also surprisingly traffic free. You …