The Floating World...

... of seaweed in an Irish fjord.

Photo: © Profoundly Superficial. Connemara, Ireland

Holy Hotel

A few days ago I visited the Convent, a delightful Connemara guesthouse that used to be home to the Sisters of Mercy. It still maintains a certain ecclesiastical charm as is illustrated by this elegant little window.

Photo: Profoundly Superficial, Ireland

A Dog's Life

First we dragged Trudi up a mountain where she ended up covered in mud and extremely smelly. Then we rushed her down to the beach and dunked her in the ocean. As you can see, she polished up very nicely and is now ready for the next adventure.

Photo: Profoundly Superficial, Ireland. Click for some puppy love

How to Hypnotise Yourself

Watch the endless permutations in the ripples of the ocean. It will make you high.

Photo: Profoundly Superficial, Ireland. Click to enlarge.

It Dog

Everyone has a dog in rural Ireland. You'd look naked without one. Our It Dog is called Trudi, and we borrowed her from our friends Jane and Al. She accompanies us on beach walks and even comes when we call her.

Photo: Profoundly Superficial

Irish Riviera

This is the weather where I am right now. It's shite. But never boring.
Photo: Profoundly Superficial, Clew Bay, Ireland

A Nanny with a Camera

Vivian Maier led a strange and isolated life. She never married or had children, and worked as a nanny, moving from family to family as her young charges grew up. Towards the end of her life she was homeless. Yet she was a passionate street photographer, who found moments of great tenderness in the subjects she chanced upon.

Her work would have long been lost and destroyed but for a local historian, who discovered 30,000 prints and negatives at an auction in Chicago. Since then exhibitions have been organised and a documentary is in the works. So, for the outside world, Vivian Maier's life as a photographer is just beginning.

Photo:Vivian Maier, www.vivianmaier.com

The New Woman

If you're in Amsterdam anytime up to 13 November, you might like to swing by the Jewish Historical Museum for the exhibition of photographs by Marianne Breslauer. She specialised in Germany's "New Woman" of the 1920s and early 1930s: adventurous, independent and sexy. I saw the show last week and it's fantastic.

Photo: Marianne Breslauer, Jewish Historical Museum

At the End of the Day..

... when the camels are tethered and the drivers take a well-earned rest.

Photo: © Profoundly Superficial. Wadi el Gamel