After any trip I like to explore how the photos I took might look in black and white. I never shoot in that medium, even on those occasions when I already feel it would be the best option, because it’s easy to transform from colour to monochrome but impossible to do the reverse in any realistic manner.
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I think we tend to think of ice as clear, or maybe white like snow; the images in this gallery will show that it is anything but! There is a scientific reason for this. Dense, pure ice appears blue to our eyes because it absorbs longer wavelengths of light (including red and yellow) more effectively, while scattering and reflecting shorter blue ones back to our eyes.
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I often find myself drawn to photograph the little details I see around me, whether close to home or on my travels. So much so that I often come home to find I have lots of photos of the details of a building and none of the building as a whole to provide context.
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While travelling is always a wonderful treat, part of the pleasure lies in having the memories of the sights seen and experiences lived to look back on later. And the photos of course; always photos! At the end of the past few years, I’ve enjoyed compiling a summary of my travels, so here is this year’s version.
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If like me you enjoy searching out and photographing small details that capture the unique stories of a city, then spotting these relics of Florence’s past will certainly appeal. These 'buchette del vino' or ‘wine windows’ date back to the 1500s when the Medici family allowed nobles who owned vineyards outside the city walls to sell wine tax-free.
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Opinion is very much divided on the topic of street art and graffiti. Some dislike it all, regardless of the skill (or lack of it) of the artist. They feel it disfigures a cityscape, rather than enhances it. Others love it for its rebellious nature, again regardless of the skill (or lack of it) of the artist.
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My surprise birthday trip to Florence, a city I’ve long wanted to visit, was naturally wonderful. In three days of rather mixed weather (one wet, one cloudy, one sunny) we managed to see many of its sights (but missed more than we saw), wandered its streets, ate gelati every day and excellent meals every evening, and slept well in a beautiful old house in the Borgo Santa Croce.
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Last week I paid a brief visit to Liverpool. I stayed only one night and saw only a fraction of what the city has to offer. The weather was dull and grey, best suited to monochrome photography.
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There are some places that stay with you forever, whether you spend just a few hours there or many days. Places that almost haunt you. Places you long to return to some day. Sometimes you fulfil that longing and return, maybe often. And sometimes you never go back, but never forget.
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Christiane Ritter spent a winter in the harshest conditions that Svalbard can offer. Living in a tiny hut with her husband and another trapper, but sometimes left alone there for many days. Constant darkness, cut off from the world by snow and ice; her Arctic was not my Arctic. But I think editing some of my photos in black and white has helped to emphasise what sense of bleakness I did find in this stunning environment.
