The Look of Love

... and it was mutual. I met this young gentleman while photographing a mothers and babies group at my local bookshop.
Photo: Annie. Click to enlarge

Shot from the Hip

This photo was literally "shot from the hip" so as to avoid attracting the subjects' attention. The seated passengers on this London underground train seem oblivious to what's happening, faintly sedated in fact. But the man standing is another story. He knows full well that his image is being captured. Maybe that is because he, too, is a man of pictures: the Irish painter Francis Bacon.

The photographer is a mysterious person who goes by the alias of Johnny Stiletto. You can find out more about him at http://www.aliasjohnnystiletto.com/#/home/ajs-home.

Corridor of Secrets

My eternal fascination with hotel corridors. The chance encounter and furtive glance, the secret worlds behind closed doors, transience...
Photo: Annie

Jesus of the Ciggies

A pot of plants with a welcoming Jesus outside a hotel in Connemara. Unfortunately since the ban on smoking in such establishments, it is used for less divine purposes...
Photo: Annie. Click to enlarge.

In the Eye of the Storm

Irish weather is a religious experience everytime!
Photo: Annie. Click to enlarge

Madracula

It's scary what a little surface photoshopping can do to bring out a girl's true nature...

Image borrowed from the wonderful http://www.worth1000.com/ website.

Daphne

Daphne Selfe is an 80-year-old model with a 50-year career. I love her strength and beauty that no way denies her grey hair and magnificent age. Here she is stylishly gracing the pages of the Guardian colour supplement.

See also the Profoundly Superficial entry of 18 March 2009.

Little Wolfgang is Profoundly Superficial

From the frothy exuberance of Eine kleine Nachtmusik to the unfathomable grief of the Requiem, Mozart is the Profoundly Superficial composer par excellence. To quote the Russian poet Joseph Brodsky: “I believe that whenever someone employs the light touch, it bespeaks tragedy. Start with Mozart”.

Painting: Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Creative Commons

Monsieur Ripley, c'est moi!

This enigmatic-looking woman is the writer Patricia Highsmith. She's an important part of my life right now because I'm re-reading her books, the famous being The Talented Mr Ripley. Highsmith has a genius for seamlessly transforming the normal into the psychopathic, good into evil.How does she do it? Yesterday I discovered a clue, a quote from an acquaintance of hers: "She was a mean, hard, cruel, unlovable, unloving person."

Do I care? Of course not. Creative people often "live" more brilliantly, more satisfactorily through their work than they ever do in their lives. And that's what's important.