The most famous and popular of all the clowns in harlequinade and pantomime was Joseph Grimaldi. Despite his Italian name and family origins, he was born in London in 1779, dying in 1837.
To this day he is commemorated annually by clowns in their own church, Holy Trinity in Dalston, East London at the beginning of February.
There were a selection of clowns, old and new, good and bad, professional and part-time, and a unique opportunity to grab some images of some unusual characters.
This particular clown was an older clown who caught my attention. I was very lucky to be in the right place at the right time and chose the right camera angle to make this shot work in a room packed with clowns and public waiting for the clown show to begin. Thanks Mr. Clown.
Monday, 2 February 2009
Joseph Grimaldi
Tuesday, 7 October 2008
Is Capitalism Broke?
I remember, 6 years ago, being immersed in a book called 'The Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy' by Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw.
The book considers the shift of assets from central governments to private enterprise in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, and analyzes how such changes as deregulation and privatization will affect economic power in the world. It predicted a new model (although it didn't say what that model way) to replace the bankrupt Communist model and the future discredited Capitalist model, or at least our current version of Capitalism.
A very convincing read at the time, I was sympathetic to its predictions. I am not sitting here amazed the predictions are now being realised I am only amazed that its predictions of the fate of the current Capitalism would be realised so quickly and so dramatically.
With the world dependent on banks to generate capital to fuel the capitalist production and consumption, which underpin the capitalist model and the economic mechanisms put in place to support the capital markets, came speculative market practices and the new pariahs of the marketplace, derivatives and short selling.
Marx wrote of the alienation of the human species from the objects of capitalism - materialism, wealth, greed... and philosophied that the human species would only realise its true progress through abandonment of those values.
Many risk hungry bankers, driven by materialism, wealth, greed or just plain arrogance, have made their millions and are now asking for money from you and me to pay for their mistakes.
It doesn't matter how you look at the mess, our current Capitalism didnt work for the ordinary men and women who work just to get by - and Communism didn't work either... what next? A friend of mine says Anarchy should be the next model of choice but I say that's what we've had that already in the markets for the past
two decades and that didn't work either... any ideas?
Sunday, 28 September 2008
Protect the Human
Geogre Galloway MP
Tower Hamlets and City Amnesty held its annual Summer Festival at Christchurch near Spitalfields Market on 14 September. The event, a fund raiser and vehicle to raise awareness of a number of campaigns, with the main focus on Human Rights in the War on Terror, was opened by John Biggs, member of the London Assembly and closed with an impressive and pationate speech by George Galloway MP.
Both John Biggs and George Galloway rolled the dice and found themselves on the wrong side of the War on Terror, spending time in the cage to promote the new interactive website http://www.protectthehuman.com. All the detainees photos can be seen on www.protectthehuman.com in the 'Tower Hamlets and City Amnesty Summer Festival 2008' gallery.
John Biggs AM
Thursday, 28 August 2008
Winepsych.com
I've been working on the photography for a new web site winepsych.com due for launch in the next year. The author of the site is Miles Thomas, Psychologist. Spend an hour with Miles and his wife Sarah and you'll soon see where the idea for a wine psychology web site came from, as both are big on wine.
This portrait is from the first sitting to establish a look and feel for the site's photography. Their house makes for an easy shoot, with its large windows, clean decor and some impressive paintings that make excellent backdrops.
Lookout for the winepsych.com launch on the web sometime in the next year.
Friday, 25 July 2008
Childeren of the Corn
My little nephew is a photogenic little man. This summer I went camping in the Canadian Rockies with my my brother, sister-in-law and my nephew. I carted my photo gear and lights into the wilderness to get a portrait of them all together on holiday... as with most kids, my nephew likes getting his picture taken and this one was taken while we were waiting for dinner - only 20 mins earlier the little man had a bath - he's your typical 4 year old, if there is sand or dirt in the vacinity he will find it.
Sunday, 15 June 2008
Niki DaRold
While I have been living in London UK, I have been lucky enough to meet many interesting and talented individuals. One of which is Niki DaRold whom I met while taking a Photojournalism Course at the London College of Communication/University of the Arts London.
Originally from Italy and living in London for the past 2 years, Niki is an accomplished photographer who blew me away with his photo story of the alternative bike courier scene in London and his self portraits.
A couple of us photography geeks got together this last weekend to play with flash and share some techniques, the above photo of Niki was taken with the camera on manual, with an aperture of F8 for good depth of field in the foreground, and the flash unit on ETTL off to camera left (using the Canon off-camera shoe chord OC-E3).
Many would argue that the shadows cast by the flash from the nose and glasses takes away from the image, but I kind of like the effect. These shadows can be easily filled in with a flash unit on manual to camera right, if so desired.
The image is a good example of how manual exposure and ETTL flash can work together to create a dramatic lighting effect (Ive included the straight exposure, without flash below for reference). Now I dream of some high powered studio lighting units to enable me to light full body portraits and street fashion photography in the field... I will have to keep buying those lottery tickets for now.
Before Exposure Adjustment and Flash...
After Exposure Adjustment and Flash...
Saturday, 14 June 2008
Copyright and Photo/Image Licensing Enquiries
All the photos on this site are copyright and should not be reproduced without prior written consent. All my photos are available for license... for more information, please send your enquiries to gwlad(at)hotmail(dot)com. Please provide details of the desired license usage including whether the image will be used on the web, in print (brochure, magazine etc), intended use (marketing, editorial etc) and for how long the image is required.
