A bit quiet on the blog front the last few days. All due to us being back for a brief but hectic visit to London and Wiltshire for a combo of seeing friends and a little bit of business. Travelled overnight on Monday and got to our friend Robin's place in Pinner on Tuesday morning. Good to see him as always. Very kind to us he is. Tuesday night we were round to see a very good friend Angie and my god-daughter Nicky who was looking rather lovely. The rest of the family were out. Husband Mark was rehearsing The Tempest which opened last night and went very well and older sister Clare was at a Voice Master Class with fabulous mezzo-soprano Sarah Walker, having just before met Bryn Terfell. Sounds like she had a particularly good day. I was looking for a you tube link for Sarah Walker and instead came across a French and Saunders sketch including Carl Davis and Sarah Walker. Here it is!
Up to London yesterday - Wednesday - for some meetings, then last night some mutual friends, Di and Tony came round for dinner. Yet another good evening. Great to see them. Today Thursday, we had some time to go back into town to see a couple of photography exhibitions. One of our regular haunts when we were living in London was The Photographers' Gallery, which then was based in Gt.Newport Street, Covent Garden. It was a strange space. Essentially a small café area of one room, surrounded by photographs. It wasn't the most easiest of spaces to really look at the images, but the quality was always tip-top, so we always went. The Photographers' Gallery has now moved to premises in Ramillies Street, W1. We were really impressed with it. Reminded me a bit in layout, of a smaller version of the Wellcome Trust building in Euston Road, which is another favourite place. Both have excellent gallery spaces, shop and café, which are at the front of each building, so you walk straight into them. The Wellcome introduced us to the wonders of photography in science. Using highly specialised photography techniques and equipment, details are revealed which are otherwise completely invisible to the human eye. Quite astonishing.
The other exhibition we saw, was in a commercial gallery just round the corner from Baker Street tube station. A day of two firsts: getting out at Baker Street rather than just changing lines and, the Atlas Gallery in Dorset Street, which hosts some stunning exhibitions, such as the one we saw this morning.
The inclination quite often these days is to believe that we've seen all there is to see and know, perhaps want to see and know, about World War 2 and the Spanish Civil War. There's a proliferation of images on these subjects in our visually congested world. But the exhibitions at the Atlas Gallery of images by Robert Capa, Sebastião Salgado and Dimitri Baltermants demonstrate that photography can still surprise, amaze and that each photo still has the ability to reveal more from even the most frequently told of tales. The Atlas Gallery isn't a big space. Two floors - entrance level and first gallery and the basement - second gallery. Each photo we saw was a masterpiece, capturing a particular moment and mood, because the photographers had placed themselves right at the heart of the action. There were images of jubilation and defeat, extreme sorrow, human courage, compassion and exhaustion - civilians and soldiers alike, as well as the photo that launched Capa's career - Trotsky in Denmark/ 1932 - and the camera he took it on, a rare Leica. Capra founded Magnum Photos along with Cartier-Bresson and the Atlas Gallery is their official UK gallerist.
Thursday evening was spent with some more friends John, Lesley and surprise, surprise, Charlie (Lesley's daughter) who travelled down from Northampton with son Nathaniel who is now fifteen months old - I think. Haven't see Charlie for ages and gorgeous Nathaniel we have only seen in photos on Facebook. So just wonderful to see them as well. Hopefully John and Lesley are visiting us in early August and Charlie some time soon. John cooked a terrific dinner. Lots to chat about, loads of laughter as always. A really fab last evening before heading off down to Bradford on Avon.
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