Alone & Waiting
Somewhere on the inter-tidal plains
Sitting, waiting…
For Selene to pull
and mother Earth to roll.
Canon EOS 60D | Sigma 10-20mm
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Tag: black and white
2015 Deck – Week 34
I realise that this one might need some context… which, in the eyes of some, makes it a less successful photograph that it could have been. Of course, I could just as easily not give context and it could probably be a better photograph for it…
But, I will put in my few words anyway 😀
Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm.
Main Street/ High Street, Georgetown.
Basically, I wanted a photo of the pedestrian in the distance with the recently knocked down / destroyed sign in the foreground; the sign that once indicated to drivers and pedestrians that there was a pedestrian crossing ahead. 🙂
But this photo got me to also thinking about the street upon which I took the photo; this portion you see is called High Street, the portion behind me (which is obviously not in the photo) is called Main Street, as you proceed further south it then changes to Avenue of the Republic and then back to High Street. Why would what is effectively one street have four different named sections? From what I’ve read, it was possibly once called simply “High Street”; the portion running through Cummingsburg was then named Main Street, and then when Guyana attained Republic status the portion running through Lacytown was renamed to Avenue of the Republic. Interestingly, after a slight detour around St Saviour’s Church, it becomes Saffon Street, this, however, never seems to be considered as part of the “High Street” issue.
Stretches of streets within Georgetown which have multiple names is normally attributed to the fact that Georgetown was originally built as a number of different wards, and the streets were never meant to be contiguous, then the wards were joined together, the multiple names resulted, along with some streets having a slight turn to continue since the original ones were not in-line. The wards involved in the High Street issue are Kingston (High Street), Cummingsburg (Main Street), Lacytown (Avenue of the Republic) and Stabroek / Werk-en-Rust – and part of Charlestown (High Street).
Click on the image to see it in the gallery.
2015 Deck – Week 33
I climbed onto the seawall to see what I could photograph, and a voice coming from near my feet surprised me. This fellow was packing up some items in a bag. He thought I was a foreigner, but the minute I answered him he realised I was local.
According to him, he has lived along the seawall for most of his life, he doesn’t have a regular job, he does odd-jobs, but he says he finds everything he needs to survive right there on the seawalls. Although I’m not sure about him finding “everything”, I saw no reason to doubt he finds most of what he needs 😀
Life on the wall 15-0143 | Georgetown Seawall, Guyana
Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm Lens
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2015 Deck – Week 30
One bad thing about Georgetown is that it floods…. as a photographer, I can also say that one good thing about Georgetown is that… it floods! That sometimes makes for an interesting photo.
I only had my phone on my at this point, so it was a quick snap to get what I was seeing… and even so I had to crop for an interesting photo, which makes it a bit on the low resolution side.
Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini Duos | Instagram
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2015 Deck – Week 27
My fascination with the seawalls continues.
Almost every weekend, I stop somewhere along the walls… sometimes never taking a photo, just walk along the wall, or to the water’s edge for a few minutes.
Sometimes I take photos that never see the light of day, but sometimes there’s one that falls just into the type of image that I like taking, processing and sharing.
Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm | 10mm, 1/250s, f/11, ISO 100
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with other images from this year’s Deck Project
2015 Deck – Week 25
I don’t generally do portraits, I never am very happy with the outcome when I do try, but at the insistence of my friend Fidal, I went out to do a few informal family portraits for his family. I had processed the usual ones and given over to him, of course… there are ALWAYS unprocessed images, aren’t there?
This is one that is more along the lines of what I’d normally shoot…. there’s a bit of “street photography” a bit of “landscape” in there, and I got some of the cloud details that I like too.
Canon EOS 6D | Canon EF24-105mm f/4L | 1/250s, f/4, 28mm, ISO 320
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2015 Deck – Week 24
In today’s world, it often seems that the old tradition of “family” has fallen by the wayside. The divorces are common, marriages not worth fighting for, child abuse seems more commonplace than before, parents and children yelling at each other; it even seems sometimes that some people care more for their pet than for their own flesh and blood relatives, so when I saw a father and son working together on a motorcycle, I just had to sneak a photo of it.
It may not always be this way, but like much of our lives, its these moments that matter most.
Rodrigues and Rodrigues | Instagram | Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini Duos
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with other images from this year’s Deck project
2015 Deck – Week 22
Come away with me…
As I sat and processed the image, those words came to mind, as I sit and look at it after I have finished the processing, it still remains lingering and softly playing over and over again in the cerebral auditorium. I titled it simply “Basket”, but the feel I get is still “come away with me”…
Each photo has a different effect on each viewer, but this one, more than most recently, has a deeper more calming effect, I can feel the breeze, smell the salty air, hear the sound of the surf, feel the warmth of the sun on my skin… I can hear the voice of Ms. Jones, soft, sultry, creamy, crooning to me to come away…
Kingston Seashore, Guyana, South America.
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery, along with some other images from this year’s Deck Project.
Street
Today we honour one of the more famous of the Street Photographers, Henri Cartier-Bresson (born August 22, 1908). I won’t try to mimic or even come close to his type and style of street photography… but here’s a Georgetown Scene for you.
Morning Munchies
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2015 Deck – Week 20
I’m using this blog-post to express some opinions. No one has to agree with me, or even bother reading, you can skip to the photo 🙂
Guyana’s Sound – recently there has been talk about developing a unique sound for Guyana, someone was even telling me that there was talk about using the Ringbang name – I say stop right there!! For one thing, Ringbang is not Guyanese, it’s Caribbean, it’s more encompassing than what most Guyanese think and it is not “we own” (I know, Ringbang is Eddy Grant’s creation, and while he is “we own” the idea behind Ringbang was regional and not local). Not many people might remember that Guyana actually had a sound, a unique style of music that died off as suddenly as it was born… and all before our time, it was called Shanto, and the man responsible for its popularity was Bill Rogers, while I don’t remember all the songs I do recall the Fifteen Cent Sweetheart and BG Baghee. Another identifiable style was that of David Campbell, very folk oriented and probably unknown to most Guyanese living here… Our world-famous artistes all sing or trade on existing genres, and they do it well. Eddy Grant is arguably our most famous musician outside of our borders, I think most Guyanese can name at least two of his songs (which in itself is a tragedy, melodically the albums were very good; lyrically, let’s just say that Guyanese should really listen to more of his tracks than just Electric Avenue and Johanna). Dave Martins is likely the most well-known and well liked, it is not uncommon that people know the lyrics of his popular songs perhaps even better than he does, his music speaks to us as a nation, we identify with it, is we own. Is it a unique sound? That is hard for me to say, it is calypso and folk, and a lot of Dave. Our newer artistes like Natural Black, Timeka Marshall, Jomo, Adrian Dutchin and Slingshot all sing in the reggae, dancehall and soca genres (with some R&B influences), the ever popular Terry Gajraj and similar artistes of the Chutney field did very well for a period. There was a period in the 1980s when there were a lot of Bands, and while many were mostly cover bands some were striving to get original songs on the airwaves and played publicly; these included the Yoruba Singers (out of which came Charmaine Blackman), Mingles Sound Machine and EC Connection, to my ear, EC Connection had a different sound to many other performing bands across the region, likely due to the compositions of Burchmore Simon. Here’s my opinion on the Guyana Sound that we seem to be looking for, you can’t necessarily develop it, it has to be born then nurtured; encourage musicians to create, encourage them to be the drive that the industry needs, this is where the DJs come in, they simply play more to the imported music, understandable, but they need to be creative themselves and help make the sounds of Guyanese heard here.
I was going to try posing a “plan” for a weekly event for musicians, but that will have to be a different forum I think…
Another local blogger raised a question recently asking about where or when is Guyana’s Renaissance happening… I think it is now.
We are living in a time of change, of relative hardship, of freedom of expression, of creativity. Nothing is going to be handed to us, so stop expecting the government to give you something, or the corporations to want to give you contracts just because you say you’re an artist. The arts collectively cannot have one plan to do this together, that is impractical, the needs and the development of each genre is different and diverse, but I also say we cannot each do it alone, we must be supportive of the other, to work together when possible, and to let creativity be the driving force as individuals, but the love for art be the driving force collectively.
Copyright and Intellectual Property rights are always touted as the factor that hinders the arts from progressing, while I agree that it forms a basis upon which the artists can earn from their work, the lack of proper legislation should not stop us from creating. There is always a lot of talk about IP legislation, but little action, I have yet to see a group of advocates put forward the writings that may form the basis of any legislation, but I may be in error on this. I think that now is the time for these advocates to act, to put forward the documents, the artists are eager to give voice.
This is the time of our Renaissance, we have musicians eager to perform with some breaking through, we have writers eager to be published, we have performance artists making headway on stage and on-screen, we have painters, sculptors, photographers and every type of visual artist expressing themselves daily through their work. To everyone in the Visual arts, the performing arts and the literary arts, I say it is time to create, to get your work out there, we are the artists of Guyana’s Renaissance.
Geotube Groyne – Thomaslands, Georgetown.
If this photo has anything at all to do with what I’ve written is entirely up to each reader, if you are a member of the creative people of Guyana or simply like to see the works of the creatives, ask yourself what element would you be in this image…
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with the other photos for this year’s Deck Project.
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