Freedom

I am in complete awe of Jonathan Franzen's Freedom but I don't know what I'm going to do with myself now! It was such an incredible read and I'm now envious of anyone who gets to read it for the first time. If you haven't you should! Do it! 

Life as a bum

Due to unforseen and rather unexpected circumstances I will be in New Zealand until May. This officially extends my status past beyond 'holiday' into the murkey area of 'unemployed bum'. I have been relishing the experience and trying to do things I genuinely enjoy, even if other people might consider it straight lazy. 

1. Lying on the couch and listening to favored albums while doing nothing at all. Just closing my eyes and listening intently. No multi-tasking allowed.

2. Staying up till guilty hours reading books and sleeping in till equally guilty hours.

3. Walking to local gardens when the sunshine allows and taking pictures of plants, flowers and wildlife. I used to think my parents were ridiculous for obsessively taking pictures of orchids but now I get it, sort of.

4. Worrying absently about my depleting funds (no income for a bum you see) but then realising that a hiatus of relaxation is way more important than money.

5. Going to the movies alone in the middle of the day.

6. Visiting local opshops and pillaging the magazine section for old copies of National Geographic. The pictures and articles are ahhhhmazzing.

7. Writing letters to loved ones in a relaxed and orderly letter writing manner. This involves sitting at the dining table with an assortment of coloured pens, magazines for collaging, scissors, blank paper, a cup of jasmine tea, and some biscuits on a plate. 

7. Developing film. Always a treat.

8. Taking 3 hours to prepare for an evening date. Bubble bathing, air drying hair and manicures and pedicures.

9. Scouring magazines for amazingly complicated meals, heading to the supermarket for ridiculously specific ingredients and  spending the afternoon cooking.

10. Making leisurely to do lists like

-wash hair

-watch parks and recreation

-trim and paint toenails

-sleep for 9 and a half hours

-pen love letter for boyfriend

(if only more to do lists were this enjoyable)

11. Visit  amazing local exhibitions at galleries like this one.

12. Make mix tapes and channel all artistic power into the homemade cover art.

Hedi

Hedi Slimane never fails to amaze me 

Oh hello I'm back!

Photos by Randy Martin, Salva Lopez

Hallo hallo I'm back. Sorry I have been away for so long! After all the anxiety around the earthquake, aftershocks and nuclear scares I flew home to New Zealand, slept for what seemed like an eternity and turned my my back on all electronic forms of communication for a good while. I stopped writing. I didn't take photos. I buried myself in Jonathan Franzens Freedom  pausing only for sleep and my mothers delicious home cooking. I had never felt so tired. Everything had turned upside down inn the most unsettling of manners and I wasn't sure how to handle it. I'm now feeling back to normal and being at home is great. I have been catching up with family, friends and my lovely boyfriend and feeling very spoiled. I'll be back up in running in the next few days. It's good to be back! I hope you've all been well. x x

Going home

Things have been getting a little bit too crazy around here so I am flying back to New Zealand this weekend. We are experiencing black outs as of tomorrow, there are still aftershocks, a food shortage and evacuees from Fukushima have started arriving in town.

I can't say how much happiness and relief I am now feeling after days of tension and anxiety. Thanks for all the support. I will be back with more posts when life resumes back to normality. 

xx

I'm okay

you can donate here

Just thought I'd check in to let those of you who check the blog know that I am okay. The earthquake was awful and terrifying but the building I was in was not damaged and no one was injured. It lasted for at least two minutes which felt like an eternity. It started off small and I wasn't too worried as we had had a number of small earthquakes in previous days but it got bigger and bigger and seemed to go on forever. Afterwards it felt like we were on a boat with lots of little quakes. My nerves are a bit shot from the little quakes but generally I am doing fine.

Yesterday my friend and I spent the day going to all the supermarkets trying to gather up enough food and water. Some things are completely sold out; water, bread, milk, eggs and instant noodles. You really see what is popular at the supermarket! The lines were crazy and the roads are in a grid lock as everyone is trying to get petrol at the stations. All are now closed and we have run out of petrol.

We are 100km north of Fukushima so are keeping an eye on news about the Fukushima power plant in case we need to evacuate. We have bags ready to go and are pretty prepared. I see a few friends have posted on Facebook that there are expected aftershocks of magnitude seven in the next three days so it's a bit scary. There will also be organised power outages so I may be out of contact.

I have received so much love and support via Facebook, Skype, email and phone which I do really appreciate. In times like this I feel really homesick. I want to be home with my family, my boyfriend and friends but unfortunately that is not an option right now. I am counting my blessings and feel so incredibly lucky as devastation and lives lost around the country is simply horrific. We are only two hours away from Sendai where things look really bad. The footage is heartbreaking and I can't stop thinking about how hard it must be for people in the prefecture. I really want to do something to help but we have been told the best thing to do right now is to stay put and be prepared.

I am feeling so grateful to be completely okay, uninjured and safe and want to thank all of you who have contacted me with messages of support. I really do appreciate it and feel less alone in a time when all of this is happening.  For those of you in Japan, please stay safe!

Gemma

xx

Self portrait

Alex Stoddard takes a phenomenal self portrait. Participating in the 365 day project he went from not knowing how to operating a camera past auto mode to channeling his identity in the most extraordinary way and developing some amazing technical skills. And did I mention he's only 17? Below is an interview from My Modern Met.

What have you learned from your 365 project? How did your style evolve?

A better question would be what haven't I learned from my 365 project. Starting off, I hadn't a clue how to operate my camera outside of 'Auto' mode. Focus was a nightmare, and interesting concepts never occurred to me. Basically, I have learned everything about photography that I know now in the 229 days of my 365 that I have under my belt. And it isn't even just photographically that I've evolved. I have become more in touch with my emotions, more willing to accept and build upon my internal frustrations and glees. I think my 'style' has changed a lot as well, but I like to think that overall it is just an open variety of blending the real with the imaginary in a manner that doesn't call for any kind of manipulation. I like to take what is there and mold it into what I want to be there instead.

Your photos are all beautifully artistic. Do you try to tell stories or are you thinking about portraying a character in them?

Each photo tells a story of its own whether I am aware of it or not. I think it's just how things fall into place when I organize a shoot. Sometimes I'm subconsciously bringing in little details, a certain shirt, prop, location, and I don't even know that there is a story there until it's there. I consider myself boring, so I wouldn't dream of shooting only photos of myself in regular clothes in boring places. Instead, I try to become someone else, somewhere else, because anything is better than being just me.

I see that you're friends with Rosie Hardy. Does she influence you?

Definitely! Like so many others, Rosie was the reason that I started the 365 project in the first place. Her incredible compositions and concepts made me feel like it was okay to dream and shoot something outside of regular portraits. And even more so to do it every day!

How has Flickr helped you develop your style?

I basically owe everything to Flickr. When I first joined, I would read different posts that people would make in regard to Flickr's community, how everyone is so warm and encouraging, and I never believed any of it. But it's true. If it weren't for the kind words of my followers and them simply.. being there.. I wouldn't continue to push myself so incredibly hard in an effort to improve. Some may say that I shouldn't do such a thing.. that I should be shooting photos that I want at whatever degree of difficulty that I choose, whatever makes me happy. In a way, I agree, but I think that only comes after one has completed the 365. It's a project of growth, not of comfort.

Are there any quotes you live by?

I read something in Tim Walker's book that I can't recall exactly, but he explained that originality doesn't exist within a person, it never has, but instead we take everything we have ever seen, felt, experienced from everyone else and make it our own. I think that is a completely valid statement.