untitled #3 [parisi udvar, budapest, hungary, 2024]
In May 2012, visiting Budapest with my parents, we ventured from our hotel for our first full day in the city.
untitled #1 [parisi udvar, budapest, hungary, 2024]
Just on our doorstep was this beauty, containing the Parisi Udvar arcade, though its full beauty hadn't yet revealed itself when I started photographing the building's exterior.
untitled #5 [parisi udvar, budapest, hungary, 2024]
I'll write a piece about it and our experience when I share the second of three instalments of photographs.
untitled #2 [parisi udvar, budapest, hungary, 2024]
mcmix [parisi udvar, budapest, hungary, 2024]
untitled #6 [parisi udvar, budapest, hungary, 2024]
owt wet [bridgetown monroe, hitchin, north hertfordshire, england, 2024]
a matter of opinion
resident of the month
Week two of the December project I'm doing with friends, Phil, Christina and Charlotte.
No theme, just a photo a week of whatever catches our eye.
west ulverstone butchery [west ulverstone, tasmania, australia, 2023]
When travelling, my camera is probably pointed equally at the sublime and the mundane. Whatever catches my eye.
In this case, a former butchery in West Ulverstone, Tasmania, caught my eye as Victoria drove me from our delicious brunch at Hey Buddy to West Ulverstone beach for a wander (albeit relatively brief as the weather turned wet and windy soon after).
untitled #28 [west ulverstone, tasmania, australia, 2023]
We'd only driven about 160m when the shopfront caught my eye, and I asked Victoria to stop so I could take some photos.
I can't explain why I was drawn to it. Maybe it was the eggshell blue tiles. Maybe it was the faded signage. Maybe a combination of the two.
west ulverstone butchery logo
I don't recall if I registered the logo design fully in the moment, but that is definitely a reason I should have been drawn to it. I've included a crop of the detail of the logo (albeit not the best quality at that size) to explain why it was 100% worth stopping, in my opinion.
there will be comedy (loading only) [futurist theatre, scarborough, north yorkshire, england, 2012]
I took this photograph of the Futurist Theatre in February 2012 while visiting Scarborough with an ex-partner, Kyle, using The Old Chapel in Baldersdale as our base.
I finally edited this photo a couple of weeks ago and looked up which road it was on in Scarborough. That was when I discovered the theatre closed in January 2014 and was demolished in August 2018.
(Photo courtesy Google Streetview)
I have to admit I gasped in shock, horror and sadness.
The place seemed somewhat comical when I photographed it.
Most British seaside towns - especially their esplanades (even if called something else) - elicit a strange combination of amusement (especially if there's a 'Pleasure Beach'), nostalgia, curiosity, wonderment and sadness for me. Maybe there's a longer piece to be written about that.
But, given its history (both iconic and terrible), it seemed shocking to have been knocked down.
And from what I can tell, the site hasn't been developed further since (which is possibly even sadder).
For a time, the Futurist Theatre had the ignominious heritage of being owned by the Black and White Minstrel Show's producer. They staged the show there many times.
But The Beatles also performed there during their Beatlemania period in 1963 and 1964.
Aside from the architecture, history, irony and nostalgia, I photographed the theatre because The Muppets was showing.
Man or Muppet became our shared earworm during that holiday. It played regularly on the northern radio stations we listened to in the rental car during our time in the region.
Despite its cheesiness, there's a snippet of the film's dialogue in the video clip for the song that got me every time. It still does.
rue des mineurs [liège, wallonia, belgium, 2014]
noi fodrasz kozmetika [budapest, hungary, europe, 2012]
chic to chic [budapest, hungary, europe, 2012]