Morgyn Edwards

Hello my Lovelies!

I haven't updated in a while mainly because I've been doing nothing interesting but working! Well, until this week! Chris and I went to Venice for a few days and I have to say it still remains one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been to. Even if it is a bit of a tourist trap and a rip off, once everyone goes home for the day and the shops shut and the night comes I love to wander around the city. It's beautiful to walk through all these little allyways and then it all just opens up into a huge open square. The food and wine was absolutely fantastic and we didn't have one bad meal! We went to this great place on our first night called La Caravella and the inside is like a ship and food was wonderful. They have an outside square too but it wasn't quite warm enough to be eating dinner outside on the night. We did eat outside by the Rialto the next night and it was just so beautiful. I guess Chris and I have a thing about bridges and rivers though. On our second date we walked next to the Thames and over Tower Bride for hours, so it was fitting that our first holiday together we spent four days doing the same thing!

We did start to feel the ache of walking on stone and over bridges all day towards the end. I think my legs must be able to crack walnut shells now! But I thought I would share some photos before I head off to my friends wedding in the country later today.

 

I have been very lazy/busy lately. I went to Brighton with Chris Dorney for the day about a month ago. Although it was windy and cloudy we had a really good afternoon going to the pier, being cheated out of a giant Angry Bird from a claw machine and riding the merry-go-round. We ended the day with a lovely warm cup of tea and a nice drive back to London.

 

I have to admit the stormy seas do make for better photos though!!

Last weekend the new man and I went to Canterbury. Even though the weather was much the same as it was in Brighton we still had a good time. It was fun I met some of his friends and we walked through the countryside town where he grew up. It was lots of fun though we did walk through a field of sheep and I wanted to pet one but they ran away from me :(. We were fairly lucky it wasn't too muddy when we went walking through the countryside

We didn't get to Canterbury till about 8pm on Friday since we both had to work during the daytime, but we went out for dinner and I got a lovely photo of the cathedral gate lit up very nicely.

               

My mother has gone back to the USA for a week or so and left my step-dad and I at home on our own. This is a bad thing to do as we both get bored very easily and my mom somehow manages to keep us all entertained. Without her this weekend we have been struggling to find something to do so we didn't end up sitting around the house and playing video games all day. So we went to Sountbank and wandered around.

At the Festival Hall they had a food market on selling all sorts of yummy things so we got a beer and looked around before deciding to have seafood for lunch there. Paul got a whole boiled crab. It was messy, but very entertaining to watch. I tried a bit, and it had been boiled in a crab boil similair to one my family uses in America but not as spicy or strong tasting so you could still taste the meat. It was very good.

It didn't look quite so pretty when we were done with it.

After lunch and much washing of hands, we walked down the river with ice cream watching the people. We stopped occasionally for a pint or cocktails, so  the 20 minute walk to the Tate Modern actually took around 4 hours. We discovered a new gallery called The Wapping Project Bankside on the way, which had some exceptional work by the photographer Jeffery Stockbridge from his 'Occupied' and 'Divine Lorriane' projects. Stockbridge won the Taylor Wessing portrait Prize last year but this exhibition was mainly showing the urban decay of his home town of Philidelphia. Paul and I found a few pieces we wouldn't mind owning, but as mom isn't here we can't purchase anything yet.

Here are a few other photos from the wanderings.

 

I've always liked Damien Hirst work, if only for the fact it creates so much discussion about art and what art is. My favourite pieces of his were the animals in formaldehyde. Specifically the piece ‘ The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living’ as it is something which cause a lot of debate between my friends and I.

 

Photo by Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images

Now Hirst has been one of a series of artists asked to 'ink' volunteers for the forthcoming magazine ' Garage' and has produced a tattoo of a butterfly on the  labia of a girl, which  has been photographed and will be on the cover of the first issue (with some censorship). Amy Fleming, writing for the Guardian states the collection of work is meant to symbolise ' The works play on notions of who owns the art and what it's worth, while referencing tattooing's popularity reaching saturation point.', to me it's more about looking at the idea of people who claim that their ' body is a canvas', if it is a canvas then who is the artist? The person whose design the tattoo is? The tattoo artist? And if you consider your body a canvas are you objectifying yourself? Can a body become a private, living gallery?

Garage Magazine featuring Damian Hirst's tattoo. Photograph: PR

Joao Silva was a member of the Bang-Bang club, who were a group of four photographers that photographed the townships in South Africa during the Apartheid. In October 2010 he was with American troops in Afganistan he lost one leg below the knee and one leg above the knee. He recently spoke to the about the experince and the NY Times have transcribed and condensed the talk on their website. It's a really inspiring read from a very grounded photographer.

Joao Silva: ‘This Is What I Do. This Is All That I Know.’

A few months ago I came across a website called 'Photography Served'. It's a website that shows images from portfolios on the Behance Network. The images are all chosen from either the commercial, product or portraiture catagory. The portfolios they show are beautiful and with the varity of the images they have I am sure there is something that everyone will like.

One of my favorites is Alison by Jack Radcliffe, showing the beautiful relationship a father and daughter can have. Another one I love is Kiss by Ellie Tobin, the loving embrace shown is so touching and beautiful. I guess I just have a thing for human relationships at the moment.

I can't express the swell of hope I had today at people's determination.

Three nights of civil unrest have occured now and I, like much of the country, sincerely hope that it has peaked and will stop. I'm not going to make claims of understanding politics and the reasons why I think this happened, nor what needs to happen next.

 

Tonight was something I never expected to see in London. Civil unrest doesn't seem like it would take place in the city that I love so much. I understand protesting, I understand having a cause, but fighting for the sake of fighting... I don't think I can ever understand it.

 

Living in Hackney, I was worried about my best friend at the beginning of the evening. Then I see this report;

 

We've detoured to Dalston where a bus was set on fire in shacklewell lane earlier. The single deck bus is now cordoned off and there doesn't seem to be much damage, but the incident has clearly shaken the large Turkish community here. Many shopkeepers are on the street talking about how they chased away the gang of youths behind the bus fire.
"We beat up four of them quite badly and they ran off," one man, who wouldn't give his name, said. Another said: "this is not justice, coming here and trying to attack us." Notably several businesses are still open ascot usual here, unlike other violence hit areas.
We've just watched a mob of locals chase a gang of hoodies down the main road, with police vans on full siren in pursuit.

 

It was soon followed by a fantastic photo not of rioters but of his local community, working together to keep their area safe. Then came the rumours of it kicking off in Ealing.

 

My Ealing.

 

It was difficult to watch the riots throughout this amazing city, but now my Ealing was going to be destroyed? It became painful to watch the footage and hear the reports. Living there and studying there for three years I had fallen in love with the place and hope to one day move back there. Not to mention the people I care about still living and working there. Their businesses being destoryed, wondering if their door was going to be kicked in.

 

None of that really matters though because I realised as much as I worry and love and care about my friends, there was nothing I could do to help them. And that is a scary thought that is keeping me awake now.

I found a website today that I absolutely love called 'Dear Photograph'. Some of the messages are very sweet and some are a little funny but I love the way it gives you a small insight into some anonymous person thoughts.