Fragile Beauty and the American Scene

In the breakfast room of John and Furnish hangs a portrait of Robert Mapplethorpe and one of Nan Goldin, which they see every morning. In many ways, the Fragile Beauty section of the exhibition is its heart, built around the works of these two great artists. When John first saw ‘Thanksgiving’ by Golden at the…

Fragile Beauty – Desire and Reportage

‘How does the collection reflect the collector’s personality? Is collecting an obsession or a pastime? How does the collector live with their photographs? And can private passions even be fathomed from an art form that is so much about the surface – in other words, do photography collectors somehow hide behind the photographs they amass?’…

Fragile Beauty – Fashion and Stars

‘Like when you write a song, when you take a photograph there’s a bit of luck and happenstance in it – something happens at the right moment and you have to have the intelligence to click on it.’ Sir Elton John Fragile Beauty – Photographs from the Sir Elton John and David Furnish Collection is…

St Ives

These are pics from our week away that didn’t fall into the previous posts. I’ve grouped them as ‘The Sea’, ‘Us’, ‘St Ives’ and ‘Coast’ – some are fun and silly and others I’m really pleased with, and of course some are both! We had such a wonderful week and hopefully they will give you…

Tate St Ives

This trip to St Ives was our first in nearly five years, so it was great to get back to the Tate, which has been completely rehung and expanded since the last time we visited it. The exhibition space now extends back into the hillside, giving the gallery much more flexibility for specific shows (such…

Beatriz Milhazes: Maresias

‘I’ve tried to bring new possibilities to the course of abstraction. My challenge is how to work with geometry and life. I’m in favour of life, we need it!’ Beatriz Milhazes First shown at Margate’s Turner Contemporary, this retrospective of 20 key paintings spans her 30-plus year career as one of the world’s leading abstract…

Barbara Hepworth – St Ives and at Tate Britain

In 2015, Tate Britain held a retrospective Barbara Hepworth – Sculpture for a Modern World. I have recently been going through my photos and realised that whilst I had photographed this great show for a piece in the journal, I had never actually written a post about her garden or the exhibition. Since I am…

Ugly Butterfly, St Ives

‘There’s no such thing as an Ugly Butterfly, in the same way as there’s no such thing as food waste. We are so lucky to have one of the most beautiful views of the Cornish coast. You are overlooking the ocean, watching the dolphins and seals. It’s a place where all of your problems just…