tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63439199474852529482024-09-08T12:54:49.080+01:00love | landscapelove | landscape is a project i've been working on since late 2004, recording graffiti lovehearts where i find them, and pairing them with a landscape that puts them in context. contact me through www.paulangel.co.uk - i have over 300 images from around the uk, and from london, paris, venice, florence and elsewhere. i want to try and raise questions as well as excite visually: who did this? why here? will drawn love last longer than the love itself? can modern love exist without a marker pen?Paul Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11015437856244716400noreply@blogger.comBlogger97125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6343919947485252948.post-65917688332725597752010-09-08T21:59:00.001+01:002010-09-08T21:59:37.975+01:00Inspired by Joel Meyerowitz, A Peniscola Picture that Sings to Me<p><a href="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/InspiredbyJoelMeyerowitzAPeniscolaPictur_1353F/untitled_spain_2.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="untitled_spain_2" border="0" alt="untitled_spain_2" src="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/InspiredbyJoelMeyerowitzAPeniscolaPictur_1353F/untitled_spain_2_thumb.jpg" width="404" height="137" /></a>  This picture gets me very excited, and I know that that will take some explaining…</p> <p>Two reasons; actually, three. One, I’ve loved the work of <a href="http://www.joelmeyerowitz.com/index.html" target="_blank">Joel Meyerowitz</a> for a long long time, and often when I’ve worked on a project I find that his work is echoed there, and sometimes I find I’ve inadvertently worked on a theme which he’s covered before. Occasionally I find that he has a new book out using a theme I’ve worked on before, like his new book looking at wilderness in NYC. Admittedly that’s a little more appealing to the book buying public than my brief series on wilderness in Bournemouth & Poole…</p> <p>In this shot I was thinking of a book of his I have called <a href="http://www.joelmeyerowitz.com/photography/book_12.asp" target="_blank">The Arch</a>, in which he looks at the same architectural subject from lots of different locations. I wanted to include the large hotel sign in the distance in at least one shot for this project, and though I only have this one shot, the stillness of the streetscape and the pattern of the picture it feels to me to be reminiscent of his work. </p> <p>Two: We drove to this town, a popular resort on the coast between Tarragona and Valencia, and couldn’t get parked, but we spotted this car. It was blisteringly hot and the atmosphere in our car was fractious, so I decided that it was one of those images I would keep in my minds eye and that it would never make it as far as the camera. We drove back to our apartment and decided to head in again early the next morning. I took a stroll, and there it was again, on the same street but a different space. I almost whooped out loud.</p> <p>Three: The resort in question is called Peniscola. Hilarious!</p> <p>If I can persuade Vicki, I’m going to print this one up big to hang on the wall. She tends to prefer the ‘pretty’ ones, but to me this is absolutely beautiful. Stillness, Spanish heat and photos seen together and apart, the composition in each just sings to me. </p> <p>Peniscola (ha ha!) is <a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=&daddr=Calle+de+Proyecto+N+130&hl=en&geocode=FV9RaAIdOEYGAA&gl=uk&mra=mr&sll=40.390946,0.410872&sspn=0.005222,0.009602&ie=UTF8&ll=40.377413,0.411301&spn=0.083562,0.153637&t=h&z=13" target="_blank">here</a>. It’s an absolutely stunning place, and I hope to go back next year for the jazz festival. (I took the photo where the letter B is on the <a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=&daddr=Calle+de+Proyecto+N+130&hl=en&geocode=FV9RaAIdOEYGAA&gl=uk&mra=mr&sll=40.390946,0.410872&sspn=0.005222,0.009602&ie=UTF8&ll=40.377413,0.411301&spn=0.083562,0.153637&t=h&z=13" target="_blank">map</a>, but I wanted to show you the coastline as it’s really somewhere special.)</p> <p><a href="http://lovelandscape.blogspot.com/">love | landscape</a></p> Paul Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11015437856244716400noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6343919947485252948.post-64179760762308716372010-09-02T22:51:00.001+01:002010-09-02T22:51:36.472+01:00Wilderness at the Heart of the Mediterranean Coast<p> <a href="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/WildernessattheHeartoftheMediterraneanCo_1416B/untitled_spain_1.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="untitled_spain_1" border="0" alt="untitled_spain_1" src="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/WildernessattheHeartoftheMediterraneanCo_1416B/untitled_spain_1_thumb.jpg" width="404" height="137" /></a> </p> <p>I realise I haven’t blogged for two months, and my poor reader must be wondering what’s going on… my only excuse is that I’ve been busy. I’m still helping establish a <a href="http://www.educationswanage.co.uk/" target="_blank">Free School in Swanage</a>, I’ve been fixing up my house, and I’ve been away to the Valencia region of Spain to unwind and warm up.</p> <p>Vicki, the boys and me had a great time enjoying the warm Mediterranean sea, the blistering heat and the fascinating local area – it’s lovely to see our sons (aged 6 and 8) each with a camera, photographing the backstreets of Spanish towns while we search for hearts and other graffiti. They’re getting quite an eye.</p> <p>The apartment we rented was in Alcossebre, a very Spanish resort about 100k north of Valencia. Just along the coast is the Sierra de Irta <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/europe/secret-garden-explore-valencias-sierra-de-irta-1667123.html" target="_blank">National Park</a> with 20km of almost unspoilt coastline and a number of abandoned buildings. I don’t know what this little building was, but it had the feel of a chapel. It was covered in spray paint and smelt of poo, but was really rather special. This heart was truly magnificent.</p> <p>Sunny spotted this heart around the side – he took some shots of me alongside it looking fat and old, so I’m not sure we’ll use them, but maybe I’ll photoshop myself a new face, body and some hair and they’ll do for publicity.</p> <p>It was <a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=&daddr=Calle+del+Prigo+del+Rei&geocode=FVxUZgIdOp4EAA&hl=en&mra=mr&sll=40.260126,0.299511&sspn=0.010463,0.019205&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=16" target="_blank">here</a> on the map. If you’re in the area, it’s worth a visit.</p> <p><a href="http://lovelandscape.blogspot.com/">love | landscape</a></p> Paul Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11015437856244716400noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6343919947485252948.post-9676810054392957482010-06-28T19:21:00.001+01:002010-06-28T19:21:51.793+01:00Ferreting in the Virtual Fridge<p><a href="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/FerretingintheVirtualFridge_11043/juan_jo__ouali_a_vie.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="juan_jo_ _ouali_a_vie" border="0" alt="juan_jo_ _ouali_a_vie" src="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/FerretingintheVirtualFridge_11043/juan_jo__ouali_a_vie_thumb.jpg" width="404" height="137" /></a> </p> <p>Trawling back through old shots again, I’m finding hundreds that I’ve never put together – some dating back four or five years! My folders of photos are the digital equivalent of rolls of film in the fridge. To get to them I need to reach past some cans of lager and a really old cheese… oh, and a really old animated gif too. Used to love those.</p> <p>This was from Barcelona in 2008. That’s a tree root on a cliff in the park near the big gallery with the fancy lighty-uppy fountains. That’s not its official name. It was magical at night though. I’m hoping to be in Spain again later in the summer…</p> <p>It was roughly <a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=&daddr=Avinguda+dels+Montanyans&hl=en&geocode=FQw6dwIdu-EgAA&gl=uk&mra=mr&sll=41.369981,2.159457&sspn=0.01029,0.019205&ie=UTF8&ll=41.369603,2.153256&spn=0.005145,0.009602&t=h&z=17" target="_blank">here</a>, or <a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=&daddr=Avinguda+dels+Montanyans&hl=en&geocode=FQw6dwIdu-EgAA&gl=uk&mra=mr&sll=41.369981,2.159457&sspn=0.01029,0.019205&ie=UTF8&ll=41.369603,2.153256&spn=0.005145,0.009602&t=h&z=17" target="_blank">hereabouts</a>.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><a href="http://lovelandscape.blogspot.com/">love | landscape</a></p> Paul Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11015437856244716400noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6343919947485252948.post-69313701620276142912010-06-01T21:57:00.001+01:002010-06-01T21:57:11.701+01:00Ben-Day Dots and the Free School<p> <a href="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/BenDayDotsandtheFreeSchool_134AD/jodie_quinn_2009.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="jodie_quinn_2009" border="0" alt="jodie_quinn_2009" src="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/BenDayDotsandtheFreeSchool_134AD/jodie_quinn_2009_thumb.jpg" width="404" height="137" /></a> </p> <p>I felt like making one of the pictures from Paris last October, so here it is: Jodie Quinn 2009. I do like photographing photographs of people and I do like the big Ben-Day Dots you get in large scale prints like this one. It was taken up the Eiffel Tower, so no map required.</p> <p>I’m in a funny position at the moment, and not just because I've hurt my back. I’ve been opposed to Conservative politics since the first time I thought for myself about it, yet the Coalition Government  is pushing forward with the plan to allow groups of parents, teachers etc to establish schools where the local authority doesn’t recognise the need for one. As our Conservative local authority has completely failed Swanage in its bid to make our town completely family unfriendly this is now our opportunity to create a school of our own.</p> <p>This afternoon I found myself discussing this on national radio for half an hour (<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00sn8m5" target="_blank">1hr 6mins in - this link will self destruct in 7 days</a>) and I’ve also been on local radio this week to talk about it.</p> <p>It’s a frightening prospect - the work that may be involved, not the school – and we don’t yet know what the legislation will involve us in, but if the people who are supposed to educate our children are so utterly hopeless that we have to do it ourselves, then I think that this is a strong enough community to do it. My personal dream is of a Co-operative Trust, set up to be run by the community for the community…</p> <p>If you want to find out more, have a look at the Education Swanage website at <a href="http://www.educationswanage.co.uk">www.educationswanage.co.uk</a> where we once tried hard to educate the LA Education Officers and where now we are beginning to present information about the Free School model.</p> <p> </p> <p><a href="http://lovelandscape.blogspot.com/">love | landscape</a></p> Paul Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11015437856244716400noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6343919947485252948.post-50942723817910943552010-05-09T09:38:00.001+01:002010-05-09T09:38:37.764+01:00I’d Like My Change Now, Please…<p><a href="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/IdLikeMyChangeNowPlease_8790/wun_luv.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="wun_luv" border="0" alt="wun_luv" src="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/IdLikeMyChangeNowPlease_8790/wun_luv_thumb.jpg" width="404" height="137" /></a> </p> <p>I’ve spent the last two days listening pretty much solidly to speculation and discussion about the outcome of the General Election. I’m enjoying the uncertainty in a way – but at the same time I’m getting heartily sick of pundits and politicians, on both wings, making assumptions about why I voted the way I voted. I was particularly annoyed about various Conservatives telling me that ‘people didn’t vote for electoral reform’ – personally, I did. And apart from that, the Tories didn’t win and they have no idea what people were thinking when they voted.</p> <p>I voted against the Conservatives partly because my local Labour MP was a good man and partly because I wanted a hung parliament (the only realistic way to tell politicians that we don’t like the way things are). And also out of a genuine worry that our new MP, Richard Drax, can’t possibly understand the needs of the average person – he has huge shoes to fill if he’s going to be even half the MP that Jim Knight was. Whatever they said, our local Lib Dems didn’t stand a chance of  winning in South Dorset, but if Nick Clegg can somehow wangle genuine electoral reform out of one side or the other, I’ll be happy. </p> <p>The argument that PR is bad because it would let parties such as the BNP through the doors of parliament is a denial of democracy. In my own view, it’s better to let them air their views so that the nation can see how abhorrent they are – that’s why their vote fell so badly this time around. People would vote quite differently under PR, though, and new parties would undoubtedly form and win seats here and there – there would probably be a Marxist MP for every BNP member elected, maybe a Monster Raving Loony too.</p> <p>Personally, I hope that Clegg forms an alliance with Labour (ideally under a new leader, otherwise the Tory Press will burst a blood vessel) because Labour have already embraced, if a little late, the idea of electoral reform. The Tories are hell-bent on getting themselves another elected dictatorship like they had in the 80’s so will never allow the people to genuinely have their say. PR would be another nail in the coffin of the vested interests that have distorted the political leaning of the UK for so long – the left of centre parties have always won more than 50% of the vote, yet for much of the last century we’ve had right of centre political control.</p> <p>So: To the politicians: all of you promised ‘change’ and none of you won, so now give the people real change - a fair voting system. Then I’ll probably vote Green. Hooray for Caroline Lucas, by the way!</p> <p>[Photo taken in a shelter <a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=50.152835,-5.064797&sll=50.152524,-5.064968&sspn=0.0011,0.002401&gl=uk&ie=UTF8&ll=50.152885,-5.063796&spn=0.0044,0.009602&t=h&z=17" target="_blank">on a pier in Falmouth</a> – on the left is a long list of names and a little heart. It seemed mean to leave any names out.]</p> <p><a href="http://lovelandscape.blogspot.com/">love | landscape</a></p> Paul Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11015437856244716400noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6343919947485252948.post-48568633921428625452010-04-27T21:58:00.001+01:002010-04-27T21:58:05.630+01:00One of the world’s great sheds<p><a href="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/Oneoftheworldsgreatsheds_134E3/untitled_75.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="untitled_75" border="0" alt="untitled_75" src="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/Oneoftheworldsgreatsheds_134E3/untitled_75_thumb.jpg" width="404" height="137" /></a> </p> <p>I know it’s very ‘bloke’, but I love sheds.</p> <p>This is possibly too solid to be properly described as a shed, but it isn’t a workshop or a house, so I’ve designated it ‘shed’ and have certainly got Shed Envy for whoever owns it. It also has a heart on the door. But imagine having a shed with a chimney…</p> <p>I have two sheds. Strictly speaking, they’re not just mine, and Vick may indeed say that one of them is hers, but I tidy them and fix bits when they break, so I’ve designated these sheds ‘mine’.</p> <p>One of my sheds is a retired beach hut and lives at our allotment. It leans forwards where the wind at Studland, where it once stood, pushed it from behind. It’s turquoise and full of tools, though I tidied it this weekend and put some reclaimed cladding on the wall as part of my ongoing attempt to make it Pleasant To Sit In.</p> <p>My other shed is, rather excitingly, underground. Our house is on a hill, and beneath our back yard is a stone shed with a door at the level of the road that runs up the hill behind. It’s dank, dark and cave-like and full of bikes and junk, but one day it will be beautiful.</p> <p>The shed in this photograph is at <a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=50.595245,+-2.060784&sll=50.594564,-2.060763&sspn=0.004359,0.009602&ie=UTF8&ll=50.594108,-2.063971&spn=0.004359,0.009602&t=h&z=17" target="_blank">Chapman’s Pool</a>. It’s a ridiculously lovely place, but don’t tell anyone as it’s also tucked away from the crowds. And there are even nicer sheds right by the water’s edge, but they don’t have chimneys, so this is probably my favourite.</p> <p><a href="http://lovelandscape.blogspot.com/">love | landscape</a></p> Paul Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11015437856244716400noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6343919947485252948.post-55784258663424971922010-04-12T22:46:00.001+01:002010-04-12T22:46:11.285+01:00Three Steps to Devon<p><a href="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/ThreeStepstoDevon_14029/untitled_74.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="untitled_74" border="0" alt="untitled_74" src="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/ThreeStepstoDevon_14029/untitled_74_thumb.jpg" width="404" height="137" /></a> </p> <p>I hadn’t been to Dartmouth before the Easter weekend and it really is lovely.  I’m sure millions of people know that already, but there’s no harm in a truth being repeated. We enjoyed relaxing away from housework and the work-work, the gentle English ambience of the town and <a href="http://www.thebolthole.co.uk/" target="_blank">the cottage we stayed in</a> and the boys enjoyed the castle, the pirates, the beaches nearby and the ice creams. And a very nice lady in a very nice gallery called <a href="http://www.baxtersgallery.co.uk/" target="_blank">Baxters</a> has taken my <a href="http://www.paulangel.co.uk/" target="_blank">Alphabet Coast</a> work too, so it was a doubly good trip.</p> <p>In a bizarrely small-world way I also bumped into our next-door neighbour from here in Swanage. We were both browsing the condiments aisle in Marks & Spencer… and were both amazed that a tiny seaside town has a Marks & Spencer!</p> <p>The heart above I photographed twice, but the other set of photos are still on Sunny’s camera. He has a better zoom than me, but that’s OK, he’s eight, he needs a better zoom than his photographer dad. I’m pleased with this, though in my usual way I’ve managed to make a pretty stone wall in a lovely seaside town look like a dingy bit of a rundown inner city.</p> <p>I do like this stickering though – there were three dayglo hearts on three signs nearby. Two stop signs and a one way – there’s probably something to be read into that about the nature of love, but I’ll leave that to somebody who has the time.</p> <p>If you read my last post I mentioned that the heart on the stop sign in Totnes was also on Google Street View… well <a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=50.349726,-3.578366&sll=50.349721,-3.57819&sspn=0.000548,0.0012&ie=UTF8&ll=50.350275,-3.578357&spn=0,0.002401&t=h&z=19&layer=c&cbll=50.349692,-3.578287&panoid=IqthffWrBD3jeEl4Md-lGg&cbp=12,290.68,,0,11.13" target="_blank">so are the ones in Dartmouth</a>! Double spooky-dooky!</p> <p><a href="http://lovelandscape.blogspot.com/">love | landscape</a></p> Paul Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11015437856244716400noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6343919947485252948.post-88095944164654097332010-03-29T21:37:00.001+01:002010-03-29T21:37:24.222+01:00Stop:Love / Love:Stop<p><a href="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/StopLoveLoveStop_12FAC/untitled_73.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="untitled_73" border="0" alt="untitled_73" src="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/StopLoveLoveStop_12FAC/untitled_73_thumb.jpg" width="404" height="137" /></a> </p> <p>I took this in Totnes in 2007 and have only just put it together. I’m in a bit of a muddle, having a huge backlog of photographs of hearts and stuff nearby dating back several years. Trouble is, I mean to catch up and then I go somewhere and take a load more and then of course I want to put those together first… only I don’t get them finished before I go somewhere else again, and so on.</p> <p>I like Totnes. It suits my hippy side. Vegan is normal, CND membership is a requirement. Eco-activism is second nature to everyone and it’s a <a href="http://www.transitiontowns.org/" target="_blank">Transition Town</a>, so the move towards a better, more sustainable world is not just a dream, it’s official. On the other hand, I prefer to be a rarity, it makes me stand out more. So I’d rather live somewhere not quite so far down the path to knitted yoghurt - that suits my cynical side.</p> <p>This weekend I’m off to Dartmouth, hoping to relax over the Easter break. Hopefully a bucket-load of hearts too to stop me catching up with the ones I took three years ago in Devon…</p> <p>Totnes heart was <a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=totnes&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=16.659427,39.331055&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Totnes,+Devon,+United+Kingdom&ll=50.427812,-3.681243&spn=0,359.9988&t=h&z=20&layer=c&cbll=50.427903,-3.68133&panoid=WPtkLN603t3W0KNaiPY0Kg&cbp=12,198.46,,1,5.99" target="_blank">here</a>. In fact, look at the <a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=totnes&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=16.659427,39.331055&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Totnes,+Devon,+United+Kingdom&ll=50.427812,-3.681243&spn=0,359.9988&t=h&z=20&layer=c&cbll=50.427903,-3.68133&panoid=WPtkLN603t3W0KNaiPY0Kg&cbp=12,198.46,,1,5.99" target="_blank">Google street view</a> – it’s still there! How spooky is that…</p> <p><a href="http://lovelandscape.blogspot.com/">love | landscape</a></p> Paul Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11015437856244716400noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6343919947485252948.post-5003797778271982292010-03-23T22:05:00.001+00:002010-03-23T22:05:32.186+00:00The Good, The Bad and the Love Heart<p><a href="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/TheGoodTheBadandtheLoveHeart_1369E/untitled_72.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="untitled_72" border="0" alt="untitled_72" src="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/TheGoodTheBadandtheLoveHeart_1369E/untitled_72_thumb.jpg" width="404" height="137" /></a> </p> <p>This is sad. An old(er) couple in Swanage have been voluntarily restoring all the old stone signs around town, starting up at Durlston Country Park and working their way down towards the centre. They are doing it out of sheer generosity and are doing a lovely job too.</p> <p>They clean each stone first, removing lichen, dirt and graffiti, then outline the letters, then fill them in. It’s a painstaking job, especially as a lot of the stones were laid low in the walls, some at ground level.</p> <p>Sunshine Walk is on our route to school. It’s also lovingly known as Poo Alley, thanks to the few lovely dog owners who don’t seem to notice that their dog poops as well as eats. On a bright day, if the poo is thin on the ground, it’s a pleasant walk. The old(er) couple cleaned the signs down here a few weeks back, but the cold weather seems to have held up the painting. A couple of weeks ago, they found the time to outline the letters on this stone, the last to be completed. Unfortunately, it looks as though last week the old(er) chap painted in the ‘S’ and it got rained on. And at the weekend some kind soul sprayed a loveheart across the whole thing.</p> <p>Now, obviously, I love finding lovehearts. But it does make me sad when the symbol of love is used to pointlessly vandalise something good.</p> <p>The name Joe is sprayed nearby. So if you know somebody in Swanage called Joe who was hanging around Sunshine Walk with a can of green spray-paint on Saturday night, can you print a copy of this out for him, roll it up and shove it up his Poo Alley?</p> <p><a href="http://lovelandscape.blogspot.com/">love | landscape</a></p> Paul Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11015437856244716400noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6343919947485252948.post-54039018000940381152010-03-14T14:05:00.001+00:002010-03-14T14:06:09.949+00:00Happy Mother’s Day<p><a href="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/HappyMothersDay_C62A/mum.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="mum" border="0" alt="mum" src="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/HappyMothersDay_C62A/mum_thumb.jpg" width="404" height="137" /></a>This is dedicated to all mums, everywhere. You’re all amazing.</p> <p>This post is short but sweet – just like my lovely mum!</p> <p>[<em>found on Swanage beach, October 2009]</em></p> <p><a href="http://lovelandscape.blogspot.com/">love | landscape</a></p> Paul Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11015437856244716400noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6343919947485252948.post-8561205971976410532010-02-23T19:52:00.001+00:002010-02-23T19:52:12.900+00:00One I Got & One That Got Away<p><a href="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/OneIGotOneThatGotAway_1175B/toby_loves_charley.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="toby_loves_charley" border="0" alt="toby_loves_charley" src="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/OneIGotOneThatGotAway_1175B/toby_loves_charley_thumb.jpg" width="404" height="137" /></a> </p> <p>I was in London at the weekend, staying close to Kew Gardens. There’s an Eco Village there, on the corner of <a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=kew+bridge&sll=50.634298,-2.376888&sspn=0.002178,0.004801&ie=UTF8&hq=Kew+Bridge&hnear=Kew+Bridge&ll=51.488752,-0.288638&spn=0,359.995199&t=h&z=18&layer=c&cbll=51.488775,-0.288481&panoid=jqpt5-8pzvBUnQvnkzGd0Q&cbp=12,135.56,,0,-6.22" target="_blank">Kew Bridge</a> and some-road-or-other. Personally, if I wanted to live in an eco village I think I’d pick somewhere quieter and where the air doesn’t taste of diesel fumes, but it’s a squatters encampment and good use of what will some day become several million pounds worth of luxury apartments, so best of luck to the squatters. There’s a facebook page <a href="http://www.facebook.com/posted.php?id=88020757939#!/group.php?gid=88020757939" target="_blank">here</a> and a YouTube video <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gGXCM-zuFI" target="_blank">here</a>. Great use of global new media to promote a true grass-roots movement.</p> <p>I walked past the Eco Village a few times and as always I kept my eyes open for hearts, but amongst the various graffiti nearby there were none. AND THEN. Driving away on Sunday morning there were two brand new bits of graffiti – a huge ‘Long Live the Eco Village’ and a lovely heart on the gate…. and me sitting in the passenger seat of a car belching diesel, stuck in traffic, about to hit the M3 back to the fresh air and quiet of Dorset. </p> <p>So can I ask you a favour? If you live near or in the Kew Eco Village, can you take a peek on the gate and see if the heart is still there? Maybe take a picture… and then when you want a new place to set up an eco-village, how about the old Grammar School site in Swanage?</p> <p>What I do have to show you is this: a heart from the shore at Osmington Mills. And look at that sandstone! What I love about sandstone is the fact that you can see sand dunes from millions of years ago, touch them, rub them and free sand that’s been trapped for millennia. It’s like being God. In a very small way.</p> <p>And the Smugglers Inn at Osmington is one of the loveliest pubs I know, so that’s a plus. The rock this was on is <a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=50.634039,-2.376164&sll=50.634284,-2.376523&sspn=0.002178,0.004801&ie=UTF8&ll=50.634298,-2.376888&spn=0.002178,0.004801&t=h&z=18" target="_blank">precisely here</a>.</p> <p><a href="http://lovelandscape.blogspot.com/">love | landscape</a></p> Paul Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11015437856244716400noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6343919947485252948.post-70795170651716395412010-02-14T14:51:00.001+00:002010-02-14T14:51:05.777+00:00happy valentines day<p><a href="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/happyvalentinesday_D0CC/dom_loves_karen_4_eva.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="dom_loves_karen_4_eva" border="0" alt="dom_loves_karen_4_eva" src="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/happyvalentinesday_D0CC/dom_loves_karen_4_eva_thumb.jpg" width="404" height="137" /></a></p> <p>Every day of the year should afford the opportunity to tell somebody how much you love them, but that isn’t always the way it works. Today is important because it provides the opportunity to make a romantic and possibly foolish gesture, safe in the knowledge that if it goes horribly wrong all will be forgiven because that’s just what crazy, love-struck fools do on Valentine’s Day.</p> <p>What’s odd is when you are snug and safe within a relationship and yet still you’re expected to make that additional gesture just because it’s The Most Romantic Day of the Year. I spend my life making pictures with hearts in them, to the point where Vicki should have lost interest in the universal symbol of romance. Last year we agreed a few days before not to get each other anything for Valentine’s Day. Come the morning, I found a card and a gift on my pillow when I brought in the coffee. I felt mean and unromantic and thoroughly caught out.  “And what did Swanage’s Most Romantic Man get his lovely wife for Valentine’s Day?” a friend asked a couple of days later. I explained. “You didn’t fall for that one?” he said in astonishment, amazed that I could be so foolish. </p> <p>So if you think you may find yourself in a similar pickle in future years, I hereby give you permission to bookmark this site ready to rush to your PC, pick a heart from here to print out and make into a hasty card. It might help, it might not, but it’s just a suggestion and it’ll look as though you were planning a cool and artsy hand-made card for ages…</p> <p>[the picture above was taken on a lovely autumn day in 2009 on <a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=50.612687,+-1.957358&sll=50.612647,-1.957047&sspn=0.001089,0.002401&gl=uk&ie=UTF8&ll=50.612755,-1.956092&spn=0.002179,0.004801&t=h&z=18" target="_blank">Swanage Beach</a>. The big red thing is on the end of a groyne down there. I didn’t Google ‘red thing on the end of a groyne’ just in case, but I assume that they mark the end of the groyne should the sea be particularly high and hiding the structure from boats coming into shore. A probable sounding factoid for you there.]</p> <p><a href="http://lovelandscape.blogspot.com/">love | landscape</a></p> Paul Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11015437856244716400noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6343919947485252948.post-58265522325005558492010-01-26T21:18:00.001+00:002010-01-26T21:20:08.686+00:00Deckchairs<p><a href="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/Deckchairs_12B8B/emo.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="emo" border="0" alt="emo" src="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/Deckchairs_12B8B/emo_thumb.jpg" width="404" height="154" /></a> </p> <p>There’s something about seeing deckchairs in pairs looking out to the sea. Often, especially in English seaside towns, I see old couples sitting in silence staring out towards the horizon and I always wonder what they were like when they were young, when they were first in love with each other, when romance was something new. They have spent so much time together and they have been so lucky to have that. I hope they know.</p> <p>Empty pairs of deckchairs bring this to mind but they also carry the melancholy of loss. </p> <p>That said, this was taken on a wet windy day in <a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=50.717064,-1.867209&sll=50.717111,-1.867292&sspn=0.001087,0.002401&gl=uk&ie=UTF8&ll=50.717167,-1.866378&spn=0.002174,0.004801&t=h&z=18" target="_blank">Bournemouth</a>, 2006 – couples of all ages had more sense than to reward their romance with a cold, wet behind.</p> <p><a href="http://lovelandscape.blogspot.com/">love | landscape</a></p> Paul Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11015437856244716400noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6343919947485252948.post-65086293647565916452010-01-19T22:26:00.001+00:002010-01-19T22:26:08.120+00:00Rock On<p><a href="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/RockOn_13B6A/untitled_71.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="untitled_71" border="0" alt="untitled_71" src="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/RockOn_13B6A/untitled_71_thumb.jpg" width="404" height="137" /></a> </p> <p>I just have a minute or two, but had to put this together and post it – took it a while before Christmas and loved it even in the camera. Have a feeling the heart is a little soft-focus, but it was taken in the dark…</p> <p>This is at Winspit, which is a very cool place. It was a quarry, a desolate planet in Destiny of the Daleks with no less than Tom Baker as Doctor Who, and now and then there’s an illegal rave there. It’s also something of a toilet, for ravers, climbers and Daleks I imagine. Watch where you step. Dalek poo is nasty.</p> <p>What I like about it is that it needs no dressing up to be a sci-fi film set. Walk into the quarry-caves and stand in silence. It’s like being on the surface of the moon, only with the surface reflected on the ceiling. Actually, it’s nothing like the surface of the moon, clearly. It has stone pillars and graffiti. But it’s an alien place for sure.</p> <p>It’s <a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&source=hp&q=winspit+caves&ie=UTF8&hq=winspit+caves&hnear=London,+UK&radius=15000&ll=50.587651,-2.034445&spn=0.008338,0.019205&t=h&z=16&iwloc=C" target="_blank">here</a> – on the planet Skaro.</p> <p> </p> <p><a href="http://lovelandscape.blogspot.com/">love | landscape</a></p> Paul Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11015437856244716400noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6343919947485252948.post-14872785379234487872010-01-06T21:13:00.001+00:002010-01-06T21:13:21.243+00:00Persons Anxious To Write Their Names…<p><a href="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/PersonsAnxiousToWriteTheirNames_12A5A/jodie_forbes.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="jodie_forbes" border="0" alt="jodie_forbes" src="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/PersonsAnxiousToWriteTheirNames_12A5A/jodie_forbes_thumb.jpg" width="404" height="137" /></a> </p> <p>…will please do so on this stone only. Jodie Forbes, and all the many others who relieved their anxiety by writing their names on this stone, I salute you.</p> <p>This stone has been relieving anxiety since 1887, and it’s fascinating to think of the countless names that have been written on it and worn away in all that time, and wonderful to think that Victorian England had a problem with graffiti that could only be solved by the use of two large slabs of stone set into the ground. Tilly Whim Caves nearby, locked to the public since 1976 and now home only to bats and Willy Tim the dragon (or so I tell my children), is also home to walls of graffiti, carved into the Purbeck stone near the entrances. I’ll get in there one day.</p> <p>Ever since I started photographing graffiti I’ve wondered what it means to write your name in a public place? There’s a lovely answer at <a href="http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_do_people_write_their_names_over_and_over_again_everywhere" target="_blank">WikiAnswers</a> to this question: “They think that writing their name all over will make other people know who they are. All it does is make other people see their name, of course, and not understand anything about them.”</p> <p>Personally I think it’s about our anxiety with being so small and so temporary. We are tiny insignificant beings and here for such a short time, and we want to be noticed and then remembered. Some people seek this through fame and celebrity, maybe notoriety, some through creativity (and maybe fame through creativity). To some it gives them a sense of identity – think of taggers, whose mark is largely illegible to most of us, but which identifies them to their peers. And some resort to writing their name repeatedly all over the place. Jodie Forbes wrote her name on this same stone at least three times, in the same pen on presumably the same day.</p> <p>May she be anxious no more.</p> <p>The Great Globe at Durlston is <a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=50.594898,+-1.952088&sll=50.594888,-1.952101&sspn=0.00109,0.002401&ie=UTF8&ll=50.594839,-1.952021&spn=0.000545,0.0012&t=h&z=20" target="_blank">here</a>.</p> <p><a href="http://lovelandscape.blogspot.com/">love | landscape</a></p> Paul Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11015437856244716400noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6343919947485252948.post-58818780878540374362009-12-29T17:58:00.001+00:002009-12-29T17:58:09.931+00:00Beep, beep, ding, dong and jingle all the way<p> <a href="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/Beepbeepdingdongandjinglealltheway_FC9C/beepbeepjesus.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="beep-beep-jesus" border="0" alt="beep-beep-jesus" src="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/Beepbeepdingdongandjinglealltheway_FC9C/beepbeepjesus_thumb.jpg" width="404" height="154" /></a> </p> <p>I took these / this in 2006 but here we are, verging on 2010 and I’ve only just put it together. Hearts, robots and Jesus – what could be more Christmassy?</p> <p>I add it now purely to wish you, my loyal reader, a Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year. You’ve visited me over 2000 times now, and for that I am grateful.</p> <p>I hereby raise a glass of sweet Sherry to you and wish you all the best. Hurrah!</p> <p><a href="http://lovelandscape.blogspot.com/">love | landscape</a></p> Paul Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11015437856244716400noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6343919947485252948.post-27734769453277242242009-12-15T20:42:00.001+00:002009-12-15T20:42:05.592+00:00Boy with an Exquisite Heart<p align="justify"><a href="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/BoywithanExquisiteHeart_12304/untitled_versailles_02.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="untitled_versailles_02" border="0" alt="untitled_versailles_02" src="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/BoywithanExquisiteHeart_12304/untitled_versailles_02_thumb.jpg" width="404" height="137" /></a>I’m no closer to solving the mystery of the royalist heart, but  here’s another offering from Versailles, this time from the edge of  the Forêt Domaniale de Versailles. I know the location because there was a big brown sign opposite with the words ‘Forêt Domaniale de Versailles’ written on it.</p> <p align="justify">It was taken <a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=48.793479,+2.162579&sll=48.793394,2.163185&sspn=0.002262,0.004801&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=16" target="_blank">here</a>, on the least interesting side of an unusually ornate and marbled electricity substation and was obviously sprayed in the same pink as the numbers marked on the stacks of timber nearby.</p> <p align="justify"><a href="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/BoywithanExquisiteHeart_12304/ParisOctober2009068.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="ParisOctober2009-068" border="0" alt="ParisOctober2009-068" align="right" src="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/BoywithanExquisiteHeart_12304/ParisOctober2009068_thumb.jpg" width="164" height="244" /></a> It is an exquisitely beautiful heart. I asked Sunny, age 7, to take my portrait alongside it, which is the portrait used at the moment on my profile for this blog. I took his portrait in return.</p> <p align="justify">There is something about this heart that makes me think of Picasso – I think it’s the appearance of a swirl in the upper right that does it. I can’t think where I’ve seen a Picasso heart and several attempts through Google have only led me to a <a href="http://ladybugdesigns.com/Picasso.htm" target="_blank">cross-stitch design</a> based on an original, so I’m still not sure of the original’s title. I’ll keep looking, just so that I can be sure that I did  see a Picasso heart with a swirl somewhere other than on a cross-stitch pattern.</p> <p align="justify">This was very close to the wonderful <a href="http://www.huttopia.com/en/nature-camping-Versailles-france.html" target="_blank">Huttopia</a>, where we were staying, just at the entrance to the forest, close to a playground. It’s beautiful. I hope nobody paints over it before we visit again.</p> <p><a href="http://lovelandscape.blogspot.com/">love | landscape</a></p> Paul Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11015437856244716400noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6343919947485252948.post-8503354225488703042009-12-08T22:18:00.001+00:002009-12-08T22:18:50.119+00:00Help Me Solve This Versailles Mystery<p> <a href="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/HelpMeSolveThisVersaillesMystery_139BA/untitled_versailles_01.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="untitled_versailles_01" border="0" alt="untitled_versailles_01" src="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/HelpMeSolveThisVersaillesMystery_139BA/untitled_versailles_01_thumb.jpg" width="404" height="137" /></a> </p> <p>I thought that it would be really easy, with the help of Google, to find out more about this heart, but I’m having trouble…</p> <p>It was found (though it was far from lost) in the passageway as you enter the Palace of Versailles, walking through to the gardens. It’s a beautifully clear heart, carved deeply into the stone with a crown above. A date is carved within the heart – looks like 17.5.17 , and though I’m finding it hard to see it in my own photograph, I’m sure that I could make out the words ‘le roi’ in there too.</p> <p>The origin of this graffiti must be documented somewhere – if anyone can help me out it’d be much appreciated!</p> <p>It was taken <a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=48.804012,+2.121091&sll=48.803581,2.121563&sspn=0.002261,0.004801&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=16" target="_blank">precisely here</a>.</p> <p><a href="http://lovelandscape.blogspot.com/">love | landscape</a></p> Paul Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11015437856244716400noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6343919947485252948.post-89749436375624706572009-11-28T13:25:00.001+00:002009-11-28T13:25:13.599+00:00Ho Voglia Di Te – but don’t take it personally<p><a href="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/HoVogliaDiTebutdonttakeitpersonally_BC9F/ho_voglia_di_te_paris.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="ho_voglia_di_te_paris" border="0" alt="ho_voglia_di_te_paris" src="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/HoVogliaDiTebutdonttakeitpersonally_BC9F/ho_voglia_di_te_paris_thumb.jpg" width="404" height="137" /></a> </p> <p>Taking a boat trip along the Seine, rounding the Île Saint Louis we spotted two hearts and, in huge writing, the words ‘ho voglia di te’. </p> <p>The next day I walked around the lower walls to find it. It took a while because I got to the tip of the island and then went back to tell Vicki that it wasn’t there, went around the other side and there it was, <a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=7+quai+d'Anjou,+75004+Paris,+France+(Finar%C3%A9a)&sll=48.852009,2.358241&sspn=0.00898,0.019205&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=7+Quai+d'Anjou,+75004+Paris,+%C3%8Ele-de-France,+France&ll=48.851275,2.35985&spn=0.00898,0.019205&t=h&z=16" target="_blank">about ten yards from the tip</a> but out of sight of where I’d turned around…</p> <p> I had no idea what the text meant, but it was clearly romantic and beautiful and intended either for somebody passing on a boat or somebody with extremely poor eyesight. Googling it upon my return I discover that it means ‘I Want You’ in Italian. A sexy phrase if ever there was one. If I’d known it when I was young, sad and single I feel sure I’d have used it.</p> <p>I’d never been to Paris in the Autumn before, and I spent every day singing ‘I Love Paris’ either in my head or out loud. I’ve always loved the song, even when I didn’t love the city, and now when I sing it I think about my loves, one wife, two children and a dog, and how lucky I am, I’m a lucky, lucky man.</p> <p><em>Every time I look down on this timeless town <br />whether blue or gray be her skies. <br />Whether loud be her cheers or soft be her tears, <br />more and more do I realize: <br /></em><em> <br />I love Paris in the springtime. <br />I love Paris in the fall. <br />I love Paris in the winter when it drizzles, <br />I love Paris in the summer when it sizzles. <br /> <br />I love Paris every moment, <br />every moment of the year. <br />I love Paris, why, oh why do I love Paris? <br />Because my love is near.</em></p> <p>Cole Porter. Genius.</p> <p><a href="http://lovelandscape.blogspot.com/">love | landscape</a></p> Paul Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11015437856244716400noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6343919947485252948.post-70238591115597062672009-11-19T21:21:00.001+00:002009-11-19T21:22:41.882+00:00A Photo of a Photo of Photographers<p><a href="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/APhotoofaPhotoofPhotographers_12C3F/untitled_paris_18.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="untitled_paris_18" border="0" alt="untitled_paris_18" src="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/APhotoofaPhotoofPhotographers_12C3F/untitled_paris_18_thumb.jpg" width="404" height="137" /></a> I mentioned a couple of posts ago that there were almost too many hearts in Paris – up and around the Eiffel was where I started to feel overwhelmed this year.</p> <p>Apologies if I’m place-dropping, but it was last year on the Brooklyn Bridge that I first got the slightly dizzying feeling that I was trying to achieve something that I couldn’t possibly do – I realised that I will never be able to photograph every heart I saw. That revelation (bloody obvious in hindsight) gave me the same sensation I used to have in my regular childhood Christmas nightmare, the one in which it was Christmas eve and I had to get home but it was physically impossible because I was half a world away. I stood there on Brooklyn Bridge looking at a swarm of hearts scratched and drawn onto the steel girder before me and thought out loud: ‘oh, crap, there’s a thousand of them’…</p> <p>I knew this would happen when I went up the Eiffel Tower, and it did. There’s some work going on up on the first and second stages with some great hoardings around it covered in life-size photographs of people looking out over the view from where you’re standing, taking photographs. </p> <p>There’s something wonderful about standing with your back to the view photographing a photograph of somebody looking at the view and taking a photograph. I got some funny looks.</p> <p>In case you’re uncertain, <a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=eiffel+tower&ie=UTF8&hl=en&hq=Eiffel+Tower&hnear=Eiffel+Tower,+Paris,+France&ll=48.859689,2.291529&spn=0,359.980795&t=h&z=16&layer=c&cbll=48.858709,2.293054&panoid=7uHlx3_xT2TtbdiWsFH2sQ&cbp=12,120.64,,0,-40.35" target="_blank">the Eiffel Tower is here</a>. Have a look at the ‘street view’ there, and at the lovely shadow on the satellite image on the map.</p> Paul Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11015437856244716400noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6343919947485252948.post-34521917513746907822009-11-09T21:01:00.001+00:002009-11-09T21:02:46.023+00:00Graffiti - Art or Vandalism?<p><a href="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/lovelandscape_127A9/untitled_paris_17.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="untitled_paris_17" border="0" alt="untitled_paris_17" src="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/lovelandscape_127A9/untitled_paris_17_thumb.jpg" width="404" height="137" /></a> </p> <p>Whenever I’m in France, Italy or Spain (which is not nearly as often as I’d like to be) I do find myself shocked at the sheer quantity of graffiti, almost everywhere. </p> <p>I don’t like to see graffiti as vandalism, but let’s face it, on this scale it really is. Still, there’s always a positive, and here it is the fact that the vandalism does have a large degree of artistic merit. And a heart opposite.</p> <p>I think I’ve blogged about this before, probably after returning from Barcelona, but mostly what you see are tags. There’s something surreal about seeing huge urban graffiti on bridges in rural Normandy as you drive down from Cherbourg towards Paris. I hope somebody’s documenting them – I wish I had the time to. I’d pick a route and would stop and photograph every bridge along the way. Many of them are simple crossings from field to field, some with a footpath, others there perhaps for livestock.</p> <p>Driving into one particular town (off the top of my head I forget where it was) we drove beneath a huge overpass with at least two levels, and on the lowest level was a heart along with some text. My instincts told me to stop, but the children were asleep in the back of the car, the entrance to the bridge was in some location unknown to me and it just wasn’t possible… sometimes I have to let them go.</p> <p>This photograph was taken <a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=49.144576,0.228186&sll=49.144478,0.227918&sspn=0.002232,0.004801&dirflg=t&ie=UTF8&ll=49.144615,0.227494&spn=0.002232,0.004801&t=h&z=18" target="_blank">here</a> in <a href="http://en.lisieux-tourisme.com/" target="_blank">Lisieux</a>, where we stopped for breakfast. We took a stroll – rather a long stroll as it turned out, as the Basilique Sainte Thérèse is stunning and we couldn’t resist walking up to it – and this was on the way back to the car, in a covered space between two buildings. I love the juxtaposition (but hate the word) between the traditional French window and the elaborate and bizarre graffiti. </p> <p>And I’m sure the owners of the house were delighted with it.</p> <p><a href="http://lovelandscape.blogspot.com/">love | landscape</a></p> Paul Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11015437856244716400noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6343919947485252948.post-76011622281018095392009-10-31T19:06:00.001+00:002009-10-31T19:06:24.866+00:00Paris, je t’aime again<p><a href="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/Parisjetaimeagain_10CA3/Esiro_Clelia_Vep_Paris.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="Esiro_Clelia_Vep_Paris" border="0" alt="Esiro_Clelia_Vep_Paris" src="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/Parisjetaimeagain_10CA3/Esiro_Clelia_Vep_Paris_thumb.jpg" width="411" height="162" /></a> </p> <p>I’ve fallen in love with Paris again. A couple of years ago we came home feeling irritable after a rough and clichéd encounter with a ticket inspector on the metro, but this time there was nothing to fault bar the weak pound.</p> <p>Since starting this project I’ve been to Paris three times and each time the hearts have been plentiful – this time they were set beneath blue skies and autumn leaves. Paris at its most beautiful. I even got to the point this time where there were so many I grew sick of seeing them – more on that in a later post, I imagine.</p> <p>I’m rushing this post as it’s Halloween and the children are downstairs looking and sounding grotesque and I am hiding upstairs with neither wine nor permission. I’ll have to go in a mo for pumpkin soup and noise.</p> <p>The heart shot here is not well composed (the heart is too low for my liking) but put together I like the way it works. It was taken from a train window as we passed, the second shot taken a second later as we picked up speed. I’d seen it the day before and sat ready to shoot as we travelled into Paris again from our eco-cabin in Versailles (of which more later too).</p> <p>It was almost precisely <a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=&daddr=Port+de+Javel+Haut&hl=en&geocode=FWtW6QIdFr4iAA&gl=uk&mra=mr&sll=48.846636,2.278118&sspn=0.00449,0.009602&ie=UTF8&ll=48.84629,2.277292&spn=0,359.990398&t=h&z=17&layer=c&cbll=48.846315,2.277276&panoid=WI5Ou9KFnFLTc9XpkSvNpQ&cbp=12,331.05,,1,5.55">here</a>, but from the train. I think the text in the heart is a name.</p> <p> </p> <p><a href="http://lovelandscape.blogspot.com/">love | landscape</a></p> Paul Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11015437856244716400noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6343919947485252948.post-66286006743066376122009-10-21T21:07:00.001+01:002009-10-21T21:07:07.716+01:00Cracked<p><a href="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/Cracked_128E7/untitled_70.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="untitled_70" border="0" alt="untitled_70" src="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/Cracked_128E7/untitled_70_thumb.jpg" width="412" height="149" /></a> </p> <p>I spent this morning in a long meeting trying to explain to a bunch of education officers that schools are absolutely and totally fundamental to the society, community and economy that surrounds them and that in any plan to reorganise schools the bigger picture needs to be considered very, very carefully.</p> <p>The people I was meeting with were trapped in a box of their own making, and were proof that joined up thinking hasn’t reached county councils yet. </p> <p>I’ll post the positive link and you can try to work out who I’m frustrated with: <a href="http://www.educationswanage.co.uk">www.educationswanage.co.uk</a> </p> <p>The photograph was taken <a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=A3212%2FMillbank&sll=51.492597,-0.125125&sspn=0.002124,0.004801&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Millbank,+London+SW1P,+United+Kingdom&ll=51.492713,-0.126214&spn=0.004248,0.009602&t=h&z=17">somewhere near here</a>, and for some reason the grey, broken surface seems relevant.</p> <p><a href="http://lovelandscape.blogspot.com/">love | landscape</a></p> Paul Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11015437856244716400noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6343919947485252948.post-67735757379695869862009-09-26T20:43:00.001+01:002009-09-26T20:43:38.846+01:00Where is the Love?<p> <a href="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/WhereistheLove_12369/untitled_69.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="untitled_69" border="0" alt="untitled_69" src="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/WhereistheLove_12369/untitled_69_thumb.jpg" width="394" height="134" /></a> </p> <p>I like this picture, but what do you think?</p> <p>It breaks one of my golden rules – it has people in it – plus the heart isn’t easy to see, though once you’ve seen it it’s clear enough. I like it because it builds a bigger landscape and it makes a nice change from the usual heart + location shot that I generally run with for this project. I’ve always liked the kind of hard-cut panoramas you get when you just piece them together roughly, and this has that effect.</p> <p>It’s from Portland, Church Ope Cove to be precise, same as the last picture. You’ll find a map link in that post. Where smugglers once came ashore with brandy and tobacco there is now this scattering of eccentric beach huts and, on a summer’s day like this was, the sight of burning English bodies scorching themselves in the sun.</p> <p>Putting this together I was reminded that I once photographed some hearts on a fence and went away and came up with another idea but found that the fence had been painted black by the time I returned. I’d wanted to re-photograph the hearts (there were at least a dozen) and then blow them up to life-size before piecing them back together on the wall. It was thinking about Hockney’s <a href="http://www.artandculture.com/media/show?media_id=62422&media_type=Image">photographic collages</a> that prompted the idea. Next time I see a whole bunch of hearts in one place I must remember what I was too late to do then… but the join on this picture makes me think of just a piece of a bigger image.</p> <p> </p> <p><a href="http://lovelandscape.blogspot.com/">love | landscape</a></p> Paul Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11015437856244716400noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6343919947485252948.post-69592391446496054412009-09-10T21:12:00.001+01:002009-09-10T21:13:36.170+01:00Barely There At All<p> <a href="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/BarelyThereAtAll_12A0B/untitled_68.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="untitled_68" border="0" alt="untitled_68" src="http://www.coastalhost.co.uk/love/BarelyThereAtAll_12A0B/untitled_68_thumb.jpg" width="384" height="131" /></a> </p> <p>I picked up the pictures that were left from my show at the White Stones Gallery on Portland at the weekend – there wasn’t a lot left. I’d had a fantastically successful show and it was great to know that people had really appreciated the work I’d put up. Over the six weeks or so that the show was up for I visited Portland several times, mostly to drop off more work. It’s an interesting place Portland – it is quite distinctly different to anywhere else along the Dorset Coast and has an air of wildness about it. I always feel that the villages on Portland have the feel of frontier towns, which is odd because they are on the edge, at the frontier of the sea I suppose, but a frontier that has long since passed.</p> <p>I have a question: I’d like to know what weight of stone has been removed from Portland since they began recording what was taken from each quarry. I want to know how much lighter Portland is now to what it was in, say, 1800. Seen from a distance I think Portland looks as though it could lift up from the sea like a balloon if they take much more stone away…</p> <p>This shot was taken at <a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=50.538185,-2.428&sll=50.539945,-2.429695&sspn=0.008291,0.019205&ie=UTF8&ll=50.538131,-2.428129&spn=0.004146,0.009602&t=h&z=17">Church Ope Cove</a>. The sun-bleached quarry-waste pebbles gleam beneath a wooded cliff and the ruins of a church, next to which are a handful of macabre tombstones faced with skulls and crossbones. The kids loved it. The heart on this stone is almost completely bleached away, but look closely and you’ll see it, feint in pink – it was in a pebble-built den with a stern warning against the ‘tresparsing’ of parents – maybe the long-dead pirates would be back for me if I’d stepped foot inside… </p> <p><a href="http://lovelandscape.blogspot.com/">love | landscape</a></p> Paul Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11015437856244716400noreply@blogger.com0