(06/09/08)
Today I went to Abbey Road and saw the recording studio responsible for The Beatles. It was really cool, especially because I grew up loving The Beatles and still do. Then I went back to the flat, which is now what I can truely call my home. When I went back, Graham and Ada left and I was alone for several hours. I spent most of the day catching up with one of my best friends in the States and finally had a day for me. I relaxed and spent my day in solitude. I took several photos at Abbey Road, but I'm only posting one picture I took of myself. I don't even like it that much, and it is definitely no the best photograph of myself, but I'm posting it because I spent today for myself.

03/09/08

First off, let me say my apologies for the delay on posting. Wednesday was Liz’s birthday! After foolishly waking up for my 9 a.m. class, which wasn’t actually meeting that day, I headed back to the flat with high expectations for the rest of the day with one of my best friends. Dave and I accompanied Liz to Wellington Square in Chelsea to her old home. It was a beautiful day, with soft light and the neighborhood was absolutely charming. Liz seemed to be in heaven, while Dave and I just seemed to follow, enjoying our own time in a mental solitude so to say. The Westminster Underground station was especially cool in comparison to most. We only saw it to transfer to the District line, but I found the lighting and architecture unlike any of the other stations; it looked like the Metro in D.C. almost. After we saw her old house and walked around for quite a while we went back home and had beautiful dinner, all vegetarian for Liz of course. We then had our first pre-bar in the flat, which was a ton of fun. The night went on and needless to say it was crazy.





04/09/08

Thursday was a very slow day. I was, how do you say, tired. Me, Luke and Dave removed ourselves from our beds and traveled over to Faraday House for our 2 p.m. photo class, as if 2 p.m. seemed like 2 a.m.. That was probably the most productive thing I did all day. I enjoyed sitting in class more in the state of mind I was in because I felt very focused on certain things more intently. It was easy to listen to one voice, rather than be bothered to move, talk to other people or make many comments. I was thinking clearly, but let me tell you when it came down to speaking, the words were not coming out. I feel we all have days like those, regardless of what we do the night before. I went to be early, excited to see Stonehenge in the morning.


05/09/08

Friday, me, Luke, Ada and Graham went to Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral along with many other students at Faraday. The bus ride was hard to sleep on, but I really enjoyed listening to our teacher and guide for the day, Richard. His British accent and aged voice put me in a very sedative mood, but had very interesting things to say, especially on the history of London. I really enjoyed a set of buildings he pointed out as we headed away from the city. They were artists’ studios, which had large windows with beautiful craftsmanship, and were especially tall, so that the artists could bring large canvas into the flat safely and easily. Once we got to the Cathedral, I was mostly excited to get off the bus, but it was strange going into a church after letting so many years of not going, but it was absolutely gorgeous building inside. The stained glass windows are what always get me. I didn’t find them something I was drawn to photograph necessarily, but I could look at them all day long. I was trying to find special moments and different shots in the Cathedral, purely because I didn’t want touristy shots and I knew everyone else was on top of each other shooting. I luckily got a shoot of a mother, Helene and her daughter Talia Halton, looking up closely at a to scale model of the Cathedral when it was being built. They are visiting England with the rest of their family from Ottawa, Canada. The town of Salisbury was really cute, but it was so easy to tell the parts of town that have been around for centuries and the parts from the past 5 years. Luke and I ate at this old Inn. The food was pretty bad, but the place was very quaint.

Living Strange

After my first class today, along with casual conversations with friends, I’ve been thinking about how much the environment in which you surround yourself can influence your state of being. For instance, the family environment in which you grow up in tends to be a large part of your preparation and overall attitude for life once you leave it. As I continue to live in this foreign country, in which many things are still unfamiliar to me from my normal environment, I have been seeking out people who seem to be what I view as an outsider, coalesce with their environment.
Today there was beautiful light. The appearance of the sun reminds me of being in Syracuse again; when the sun comes out, you notice it as if it’s been gone for a year. When the sun’s rays peak through the dark clouds, it seems as though it is merely pointing out the special things about this city.

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I met a man today named Phil James; he looked to be about fifty years old, but was probably only forty. Reeking of alcohol, he approached me outside of a pub from down the street as I was taking a picture of the BT tower. Quite close to my face as he began speaking, enquiring about my camera, I didn’t find him to be someone I should be alarmed by. Although, he had an intense manner to him, which made me more compelled to keep a conversation with him, rather than divert him off to another person along his way. After only two minutes of speaking with this stranger, he confessed to me that he thought I was someone “real.”
I can’t help thinking whether what he said was something he said to anyone who stayed long enough to have a conversation, or was he able to make an accurate depiction of a stranger in five minutes of conversation. I said thank you to him and then asked him he minded showing the tattoo he had on his wrist. It was an “Oasis” tag, a band from England that started in the early nineties. We parted ways as he winked at me saying, “I’ll see you again when I read about you making millions from you photographs,” and all I could think about was how real of a person Phil James was.

First Night, Early Morning

This is the first shot I took at my new flat in the center of London. The guy in the photo is my new roomate Graham. Graham and Ada both live with me along with my three other great friends Liz, Luke and Dave. We live right off of Edgeware Rd, two blocks up from Hdye Park when you get off the Marble Arch tube station. The community is mostly Arab, which means great food and people. On Saturday, the first full day we spent in the flat, I went shopping at an open market on Church St. It was a great choice, especially when we got two dozen bananas for a pound! And it just a much more visually appealing alternative to an ordinary supermarket.
London is an absolutely amazing city, with great people and an array of things to do. Today I went to the Tate Modern to see a photo exhibition called "Street and Studio." It was fantastic and I even got to see one of my favorite photographs by Paul Stand. Looking especially at the Street photography gave me a ton of things to think about while I shoot in this great city. The diversity has especially impressed me, even coming from such a metropolitain area. I cannot wait to continue shooting such a unique and interesting city. Late night conversations in my flat have assured me the next four months are going to be an experience of a lifetime.

Looking forward

As the summer comes to an end, I have an unbelievable trip ahead of me. The past two months have consisted of everything I know, a summer camp I've been going to since I was 8-years-old. Now, I am off to another country, one that I have never been to before. I hope this blog will help you see a little bit into my travels and experiences as the semester goes on, but more importantly how and what I see through my camera.

This is one of the last pictures I took from the summer. It was during a traditional candle lighting ceremony, in which a 10-year-old girl named Laura Durkee watched in awe for her first time. I thought the lighting was beautiful across her face, and the moment unparalleled.