Deloitte Ignite at the Royal Opera House.

I'm just catching up with some of the photographs I've been taking over the last couple of weeks, there seems to have been a lot on this time of year, including the Deloitte Ignite festival at the Royal Opera House. I was drawn to Ignite by the Forest theme, curated by Joanna macGregor and Marina Warner's introductions to a number of short films.
I did find the Opera House, which I hadn't been to before, a bit of a nightmare to navigate, a bit like a smaller version of the Barbican. I did enjoy the amazing costumes on display in the Faded Forest by Richard Williams, David Collis and Janey Gardiner. They used discarded opera costumes, animals, mannequins and a sound track from the Amazonian forest , in the Crush Bar.

Downstairs in the Pit Kathy Hinde had created an installation of One Thousand Birds, origami birds and projections, which was part of a misty forest of tree trunks.

Mark Simmonds had created Fall Forest, which included an installation of colourful balls, that adults and children alike were playing with.

The Floating Forest in the Paul Hamlyn Hall was a series of suspended tree trunks that seemed a little sad to me. On the stage I was lucky enough to watch a couple of performances by Royal Ballet dancers. It was great to be right by the side of the stage, somewhere you'd normally not be in regular performances.

I got to watch Joan Ashworth's How Mermaids Breed, which was funny and engaging, and The Mushroom Thief, which told of the move from childhood to adulthood. It was good to hear about the films from Joan Ashworth herself, interviewed by Marina Warner, and Marina Warner's own response to the films. Joan's site here

Islington Chapel market and Epping Forest

With two of my themes and interests in mind I was in Islington for one of them, taking photos of street scenes and the market there. It's interesting seeing the effects on me of a lot of recent publicity about photographers being stopped from taking photographs outside in everyday life. I don't find it easy sometimes taking photos in the street, but I do believe that we should be able to do so as artists as well as tourists etc.
It is the increasing money to be made from the ownership of copyright that is causing the problems I think.

Later in the week a friend of mine took me with her to Epping Forest again. It was a lovely day to be in the trees and to see the young ducks and geese on the pond. Taking pictures of trees can be really surprising, when looking at their trunks and branches at first they appear ordinary, yet sometimes in the photograph a spirit type face is looking back at us.