I am currently having a particularly long bout of insomnia. Im on my 16 day/night/whatever of broken/limited/barely any point sleep. So as Im grumpy Im editing some London shots.

Im not keen on London. I have some lovely friends who are from London, but I just prefer Birmingham as a place. These however are some nice shots I made recently.

If you squint top right you can see Wembley…..

LittleWing, London, January 2017… Read the rest

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

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.

My first visit to Barcelona was in 2004. Exactly a year after we had lost our Dad, which was exactly two years after we had lost our Mom. Me and my brother decided to get away from the grieving and awfulness for a bit. We just wanted to go anywhere, it didn’t matter where. Barcelona was mega cheap and I was just starting to pick up my camera again after two and half years of not touching one with about five years before that of barely having opportunity because my children were so …well….childreny.

Graffiti spotting wasn’t a major priority to me at this time. I still took the odd shot of tagged up walls, because I always have, but not much of anything was a priority to me at that time. My whole family were still shell shocked by all the events of the previous two years. I had had a lot of additional stuff happen during this time of massive loss, including a divorce and trying to keep my home. Or the roof over the kids heads. I basically was just grateful to get away from Birmingham, and real life.

I did find a few walls I liked the look off and this is one of them.… Read the rest