Tunnel Vision
(Leica M7, Fujichrome Provia 100F)
Her name was like an echo. Every time someone called her they could see how vastly it travelled inside her hollow self, not bouncing until it reached the bottom of darkness she had endless amounts of. She was bored. Bored of life, bored of redundancy, bored of familiar faces. But she never attempted anything different. Like it had encompassed her so gradually, like an hour glass with an endless bottom - so that even when she was engulfed in boredom, she was oblivious in it’s grainy texture. She walked along the same route to get home. The same route she embarked on for the past ten years. It was only this overly humid night, that she realized that only the sounds of her footsteps surrounded her through the tunnel. She took a deep breath and yelled out her name and watched as it warped old structure. She gasped, taken aback by her own spontaneity. She looked around at the still empty tunnel; finally hearing the sounds of the hourglass.
Conversations by the Window Seatis an ongoing creative collaboration between Adrian Seah and Romila Barryman, with photos and writing themed around a common love of travel and discovery.
View other Conversations by the Window Seat or read more of Romila’s writing at her blog Daydreamsonlooseleafpaper
Plastic Fantastic
(photo taken with Canon 50E, Kodak Elitechrome 100 Cross Processed)
Let me take a second to cut and paste the image of her hips, Alysa’s upper body, Lisa’s lips and Cassandra’s lower back onto a canvas that is already completed. Because skin bleach is just a Ctrl Alt Delete to being born the wrong colour. We can fix it! Says the man with the overly white smile - and he can fix those too. Teeth. Cheeks. Because they are supposed to gleam unrealistically. Chins were meant to have sharp cuts. Thighs aren’t supposed to touch. The love we’re supposed to satisfy ourselves with; let me take a moment to trim that incase it adds to my jean size. I can try to find it through someone else. Later. Nature got it wrong the first time around, so we cut ourselves open.
Conversations by the Window Seatis an ongoing creative collaboration between Adrian Seah and Romila Barryman, with photos and writing themed around a common love of travel and discovery.
View other Conversations by the Window Seat or read more of Romila’s writing at her blog Daydreamsonlooseleafpaper
Inhale. Exhale.
(photo taken with Leica M7, 50mm Summicron, Kodak 100VS)
But minds can’t be blank. Neither can hearts. Neither can school yards, or kitchens; once in a while you stumble across some who are. Blank. He used to put up empty canvases in his room. For a brief moment he could feel his mind breathe. But it was silly they told him. Things were meant to be filled. Of course they were, he thought with eyebrows raised, like passports and pages, so they may turn to books; like lady bug wings; like starry skies. But hearts and minds were not things. How peculiar, he would ponder. How dangerous it became; as time moved on he forgot. As life moved on he deteriorated. His heart, that is. His mind. Him. Among each traffic light, each lamp post, each signage. Finger Lickin’ G- 50% OFF Furniture Tod- Make a Better Deci-
Perhaps it was the black background that spotlighted the contrast. Perhaps it was the little boy in him that stayed ignited. But he had to gasp for air at the sight of the blue. He irises drank the view at the glimpse of blank. He stopped the car. He watched the plane pass by, the birds on occasion. He breathed.
Conversations by the Window Seatis an ongoing creative collaboration between Adrian Seah and Romila Barryman, with photos and writing themed around a common love of travel and discovery.
View other Conversations by the Window Seat or read more of Romila’s writing at her blog Daydreamsonlooseleafpaper
Wing Shya | Hong Kong Photographer, Director
One of my favourite photographers is Hong Kong based Wing Shya. Long time collaborator with auteur director Wong Kar Wai, Wing Shya is equally comfortable in fashion, film and art and his photographs often look like stills out of a movie.
I met Wing Shya at a talk he held at London’s Institute of Contemporary Art many years ago, and the impression he left was deep, his ethereal images are distinctive and seem to always to be a part of a larger narrative, invoking the viewer to imagine what happened before, and after the frame imortalised. His bold colour palatte and grainy pictures are very urban and visceral, of disenfranchised youth and jilted lovers contemplating their loss. I remember Shya saying that he likes working with expired film, as the results are unpredictable and organic, words which definitely describes his work well.
Wing Shya runs Shya-la-la Workshop in Hong Kong and apart from his photography, has also directed music videos and the film ‘Hot Summer Days’.
View the photos from my Hong Kong series.
I have just finished watching Sylvian Chomet’s The Illusionist on DVD and it is a beautiful beautiful film. Set mostly in Edinburgh and the Scottish Isles (with a bit of London and France), the lush hand drawn and painted sets were such a welcome break from the 3D souless perfection of Disney and Pixar.
Having visited Edinburgh and the Scottish Isles about 10 years ago, and having lived in London for close to 9 years, watching The Illusionist brought back a rush of memories, it was like a romanticised version of reality, but at the same time, gritty and authentic (it was constantly raining in London and Scotland in the film). Each gorgeous frame of the movie could have been a painting.
The Illusionist is based on an unproduced script written by a French mime, director and actor Jacques Tati in 1956, intended as a personal letter to his estranged eldest daughter. A quiet film with hardly any dialogue, The Illusionist is the story of a down-on-his-luck illusionist and his fatherly relationship with a ‘daughter’, set mostly amidst the the backdrop of beautiful and at times moody Edinburgh.
If you haven’t yet watched it, I would urge you to do so.
Traffic streaks in Mongkok | Hongkong, China 2002.
Canon 50E, Kodak 100VS crossed processed
ABOUT THIS PROJECT
Over the past 15 years, I’ve been lucky to have travelled to a multitude of places and met countless amazing people. This collectively has played a huge role in shaping my world view and making me the person I am today. What I’ve come to realise is that despite differences in our skin colour, language, socio-economic status, we are all united in our common humanity, that we by and large dream the same dreams and seek the same things in life: Love, security, friendship and a purpose to wake up in the morning.
From the archives is a celebration of people, places and travel, and its limitless potential to open eyes and shape minds. From time to time, I will post a photograph I’ve taken from my archive of 43,000 photos from this period, with a brief description. Some photos are taken on film, some on digital, and I will include any camera equipment details if I have them. Please feel free to comment and let me know your thoughts!
View the other photos of the ‘From the Archives’ series.
High-res
