About not giving things to others.

Why have I never seen this before?

Lewis Takes Off His Shirt from Owen Pallett on Vimeo.

Fuck yeah, soaps as building blocks, fuck yeah, topless Pwen!
Also, the music, but you all know this anyway.

Interrail, #2: Florence

The second stop of our Interrail tour was Florence, a town where it’s very hard not to feel like a tourist, when you are a tourist. Luckily we had local support (Hi Alex!) and were shown some less obvious spots (like the wonderful Edison bookshop and the inside of a Florentinian home). On the other side of the spectrum ... the Uffizi, the Cathedral, everything else. Some of the places were so busy that I actually felt too uncomfortable to take pictures, which is why some defining aspects are missing from the photo documentary. I feel rather sad, for example, that I did not take pictures of the ridiculously enormous number of almost identical leatherware stalls at the market.
We stayed in Florence for three nights but had barely two days, because of the day trip to Siena (photos coming up next!). It was not at all enough time. We plan on going back, but avoiding the peak season.

The Menu Turistico: Duomo, Campanile, Battistero

That’s how the day started - checking out of Venice in the early morn.

Pigeon chilling on top of a rape in the Loggia dei Lanzi.

Imitating Paintings while waiting for our time slot at the Uffizi.

This was taken at the Edison bookshop (+café). I loved it there!

Night falls slowly. Too many pictures are being taken of me. Accidentally I really like this one.

Ha!

Some old bridge ...

Weird markings on the wall.

Imitating statues. Badly.

Catching some atmosphere ... San Frediano by night.

The To-Do list is endless! Danger: Stendhal syndrome

Inside the Cathedral.

Come prepared or you will be humiliated: With their zero tolerance attitude towards exposed skin, Italian churches show no mercy on the indecent!

Cooking in the beautiful, tiny flat that was Alex temporary home while we were visiting. Good times!

And one more thing, because it fits: READ THIS BOOK. DO IT!

The past has never been as beautiful as today.

 

I found out about Roger Mayne because the above picture of a ‘Girl Jiving’ taken in Southam Street in 1957 is the cover to my paperback copy of Ali Smith’s Girl Meets Boy (A fabulous book by an absurdly underrated writer that I can only recommend everybody to read. In fact you should read all her books!). After I fell in love with that cover photograph, I looked Mayne up and it turns out that he is someone I should have known all along. His pictures of urban England in the 50s and 60s (interspersed with the occasional country idyll, the odd portrait) are beautiful. I particularly like the ‘snapshots’ that remind a bit of film stills. 

Here is a selection, all taken from his website.