The Autumn Photography Workshop That Was - Antwerp

We had a most delightful day wandering this Flemish city of mine with our cameras …

We were 4, as they might say here. I loved the international flavour of us. We came from Italy, Belgium, Finland and New Zealand, meeting at my house, over lunch and pdf workbooks.

My photography e-course book is included in each photography workshop, as is Hanna’s video e-book in video workshops. I had previously asked Francesca and Bouchra what elements of photography they were most interested in and, after lunch, set them practical exercises focusing on their areas of interest.

That done we were ready to wander out into the beautifully warm autumn day Antwerp was offering. The city was good to us and shop-owners welcomed our interest in their decor and products. The autumn leaves glowed in the exquisite golden light on offer and we played … cameras in hand, 4 women together, out and enjoying the freedom to experiment and learn.

These workshops are as much about offering a safe and supportive environment for learning just how to use your camera … as they are about slipping in through the backdoor and visiting the lives of the people who live here. And it’s about any camera … whatever you have. And just as important is the realisation that your way of seeing is valid. That perhaps photography is about knowing the rules but then it’s bending them to your style, to exploring them and pushing them to their limits, about playing.

The goal? Well, it’s about coming away knowing that your way of seeing is exactly that … it’s your way. An expression or extension of you. In the same way the artist chooses their medium, the writer their genre …

I truly enjoyed the time we spent together on Tuesday. A huge thank you to Francesca, Bouchra and Hanna for being so much fun to go wandering with … and for being so willing to experiment with photography.

Photo credit goes to Francesca Puccio.

On Blogging about Antwerp

I write for the Fans of Flanders website once a week.  It's been interesting finding my voice over there because it feels less about me as a photographer and more about me as a foreigner here in Belgium ... kind of.

But this weekend's post was slightly simpler to write ... well, it took ages but I was working through a small crisis.  You see I have been known to complain about things here in Belgium.  It's a very flat country, there's only 60kms of coastline, it's polluted, and people can be quite rude in the shops and on the trams ... not always but by crikey, I have more than enough stories of outrage.

Last weekend we had a party and one of our guests was the lovely Spanish-based American friend called Erik.  He is friend to Simon and Paola, and so it was that he stayed with them over in Brussels, and they decided they would leave exploring Antwerp until the Saturday of the party.

I realised I would have to leave them to it, as there were more than 25 guests coming and we were cooking dinner for 7 plus 2 kidlets, beforehand.   I found it strangely painful not to be involved in micro-managing their city wandering. 

I was bemused ... but wait, what is this feeling???  Is it really that I want Erik to see Antwerp in the best possible light?  Really?

And I realised that this is my over-arching desire when it comes to this adopted Flemish city of mine.  I love introducing people to it, to the secret places tourists don't always find, to the restaurants and cafes with the best food and wine, to the ancient cobblestone streets that hide so many surprises ... really quirky surprises sometimes.   I love it because somehow this city has become part of me.  

Anyway ... my small crisis played out over on my Antwerp page.

Things Left Behind ... (written in 2006)

Thing: an object that one need not, cannot, or does not wish to give a specific name to. (things) personal belongings or clothing. 2. an inanimate material object, especially as distinct from a living sentient being.

This morning it occured to me that my life has been so much about leaving things behind ...

And it should go without saying  that I miss people more than I miss things ... mostly but today I was thinking of things missed.

I lived in one house until I was 20 and so nothing prepared me for the constant stream-lining of possessions that lay ahead of me. I moved house at least 11 times during my 14 year marriage to a high school teacher back home.  And then, 4 times after the divorce,  before leaving for Turkey.  There were two homes in Istanbul and now here I am, almost possessionless again here in Belgium.

I had so many books, over 400, a beautiful desk and chair, and a bed that I loved, back in New Zealand ... photo albums, a material history made up of precious things.

I left my winter clothing in Istanbul, with other things abandoned when my excess book luggage cost me a cool 240 euro.

I was flying back there in September 2005 anyway, on my way home to New Zealand but I haven't managed that yet.  The Belgian distracted me and here I am, still waiting to be legal.  Then legal to work.

Here, in this new life, I have two journals, a laptop full of photographs, my cds and dvds, my camera gear and my books.

The oddest things make me remember those things I've loved in other places.  Yesterday I bought a new cup. I love beautiful cups and this cup, its shape, its colour, how it fits in my hand ... it's perfect.

The new cup made me nostalgic for beautiful things left behind ... in Istanbul and in New Zealand.

Mostly I don't think of these things but sometimes, just sometimes, I miss them.

Agrippina, the Opera, in Belgium

It happened quite unexpectedly ...

Tonight, a lovely friend in North Carolina wrote of his yearning to be in Belgium, in order to watch Ann Hallenberg perform in the Vlaamse Opera production, Agrippina.

I asked him about the location, he replied Gent and then wrote so many good things about Agrippina as an opera and about Ann as one of the best mezzo sopranos in the world that ... I just had to go and try booking a seat for my very first opera.

It worked, I am booked ... and now I'm really rather looking forward to this journey into a world I have only suspected I might love.

I recommend the youtube below.  It offers you a 'Backstage view of the opera production 'Agrippina', starring emperor Nero's power hungry mother. A baroque master piece by Händel, in an eighties styled version by Mariame Clément'.

Artists ...

Artists are some of the most driven, courageous people on the face of the earth. They deal with more day-to-day rejection in one year than most people do in a lifetime....

Every day, artists face the financial challenge of living a freelance lifestyle, the disrespect of people who think they should get real jobs, and their own fear that they’ll never work again.

Every day, they have to ignore the possibility that the vision they have dedicated their lives to is a pipe dream. With every role, they stretch themselves, emotionally and physically, risking criticism and judgment. With every passing year, many of them watch as the other people their age achieve the predictable milestones of normal life - the car, the family, the house, the nest egg.

Why? Because artists are willing to give their entire lives to a moment - to that line, that laugh, that gesture, or that interpretation that will stir the audience’s soul. Artists are beings who have tasted life’s nectar in that crystal moment when they poured out their creative spirit and touched another's heart.

In that instant, they were as close to magic, God, and perfection as anyone could ever be. And in their own hearts, they know that to dedicate oneself to that moment is worth a thousand lifetimes.

David Ackert

Somehow ... it was all this and more

Somehow, without intention... without preparing for it all, I have been busy.

Monday, I interviewed the lovely singer/musician/yoga teacher, Luc Acke.  Friday night, I had the pleasure of attending his sneak preview concert, the one where he and Spring Groove performed tracks from the album they're making together ... HOME.

I was interviewed by a student of journalism on Wednesday.

Wandered city streets for the photography workshop on Friday.

All the while, preparing for a massive dinner party/party on Saturday.  Erik Rasmussen was in town and it seemed like a good idea to catch up with him, Paola and Simon, Cloe and Brian, pre-party.  And so we did dinner.

There was this really fast  turn-around, and we were ready as everyone started arriving for the party at 8pm.  It was a good party.  10 nationalities, excellent people, intense conversations, and much laughter too.

My carriage turned back into a pumpkin around midnight and voila, I fell into this horrible cold that's going around.  I've spent the last two days dozing and napping, only venturing out into that 'other world' called Facebook, when the notion of slowing down and stopping has become too much for me.

But this week has to be quieter, even I know that ... although the headache has gone, the cold remains.  I might just chill out a few days more and make sure it goes.  I  play Missy Higgins and listen to the sea in her track, sure it has some kind of medicinal property.  I wash dishes and do laundry quietly and slowly.  It's okay.

Gert meanwhile, has been caught up in preparation for Belgium's local-body elections.  Last night, the country watched as the Flemish Nationalists stormed to victory in Flanders, and so I'm curious. 

Back in New Zealand in 2000/2001/2002 ... what was I studying

The European Union, of course ... via political anthropology classes with the author of this book, Douglas R Holmes.  He was fascinating and we were lucky to have him for more than one paper down there at the bottom of the world.

So you can imagine, perhaps, I'm bemused to find myself in the centre of this nationalist victory here in Flanders.  Other countries in Europe will surely be watching to see how it all plays out as Belgium begins to walk towards their national elections in two years ... with a nationalist government in power in the Flemish half of the country.

I shall observe with interest.  But anyway, meet Luc and Spring, taken during their Friday performance ...