Some say the camera never lies. But does it? Even before technology made it possible to alter reality, photographers were playing around with tricks and illusions. Today it is easier than ever to edit an image; to fool the viewer into seeing something that was never there, or not seeing something that was.
What is it that makes so many doors and windows beg to be photographed? Is it that they intrigue us by hinting at what might lie beyond, if we were to open them? Or more simply, that they provide decoration and interest to what would otherwise be blank walls?
The people of North Korea are not so very different from those of every other country. Like people the world over they want to feel safe, to be in good health, to have the basic necessities of life. If they have children, they want the same for them and they want them to thrive and do well in their lives.
‘We could hardly conceive how these islanders, wholly unacquainted with any mechanical power, could raise such stupendous figures’
I am passionate about travelling and at the moment, when travel is on hold, I am naturally dreaming of where I will go when we can all travel again.
‘Here terrible portents came about over the land of Northumbria, and miserably frightened the people: there were flashes of lightning, and fiery dragons were seen flying in the air.’
Until I visited, all my images of New Jersey came from song lyrics – Paul Simon’s traffic-clogged turnpike and Bruce Springsteen’s urban working class childhood.
Is there a traveller or photographer anywhere who doesn’t dream of one day seeing the Aurora? It may be a scientific phenomenon, but the artistry of those beautiful glowing colours that seem to appear almost mysteriously in the sky can’t fail to induce awe in anyone who sees them.
The early morning clouds hung so low over the forest that we couldn’t see the tops of the trees. And we certainly couldn’t see any howler monkeys! Just like us it seemed, they like a lie-in on a miserable morning.
‘Everybody knows the moon is made of cheese…’
Wallace in ‘A Grand Day Out’