I spend a great deal of my time researching these days. Im always reading something, talking to someone about something, travelling to look and photography something or writing about something. Its part and parcel of doing a PhD on a part time basis and its very very often a lonely road because I have to do all of this away from my main full time job. But I believe that if you are passionate about something then you should behave passionately about it. This was my bedroom in 1983. This wall was completed by me and my best pal at the time Suzanne – she was an amazing portrait artist and unlike me also did art at school (which by this time I wasn’t attending all that much). I was a nightmare at this time in my life. I was rebelling against everything and everyone and I was also suffering/hiding the beginnings of what was possibly early signs of an eating disorder. But apart from the eating disorder bit – an explanation of which I fully intend to return back to at some point on this blog – I was – quite honestly – having the greatest days of my life.… Read the rest

Here are a few of the shots from my recent press visit to the AutoSport and Performance Car Show at (it will ALWAYS BE THE NEC TO ME!!) Genting Arena, Birmingham. I do the odd event for Press, its mostly for music events but occasionally I do get something else. It was a bit mad for me to revisit this type of event as when I was in my teens I followed and shot at many car related events and I was even a promotions girl for a few F1 events at Brands Hatch and Silverstone. I shall be sorting out the photos from all those eighties memories at some point and uploading here but for now here is this recent event……

With massive thanks to I Racing and Racespot TV for the opportunity.  … Read the rest

Crazy beautiful city but the best part of Prague for me when I visited back in 2009 was to visit the graffiti memorial –  John Lennon Wall.

Its mad to think that this wall has been covered in Lennon inspired graffiti since the early 1980s. But it has. Apart from an (ironic) act of vandalism (yeah I said it was ironic) back in 2014 when the wall was painted completely white over night with just the words THE WALL IS OVER written in black spray paint – this wall has been a mecca for Lennon fans and graffiti writers from all over the world for decades. It stayed white for less time than a hall of fame in London so within a few hours it was back to being covered in graffiti inspired by love, friendship, hope and of course Lennon lyrics.

This is a brief explanation of why and how the wall is there :

 

John Lennon and the Communist regime

Lennon was a hero to the pacifist youth of Central and Eastern Europe during the totalitarian era. Prior to 1989 when communism ruled, western pop songs were banned by Communist authorities, and especially John Lennon´s songs, because it was praising freedom that didn’t exist here.