Stories from inside life’s big top.

Posts from the “photography” Category

Wild At Heart: Molly Pope & Liliana Velásquez

Posted on March 23, 2016

“Destroyed, divided and held captive during a century of chaos and upheaval, borderless Berlin has yet remained a city where drifters, dreamers and outsiders can find a place — and finally run free.”  – Stuart Braun, ‘City Of Exiles’   It’s no secret that for decades Berlin has become famous for attracting bohemians, artists and performers, from the world over. Many put it down to the Berliner Luft: a certain freedom of spirit and dirty glamour that infuses the air, and sounds a siren to the seekers, the playful, and those adventurous of heart.   Former mayor Klaus Wowereit echoed this idea when in 1994 he famously described Berlin as “poor but sexy”. As he was recruiting potential tourists and tech industry investors to…

Buzzing + Humming: Samantha Wareing

Posted on March 16, 2016

Sam Wareing and I first met when I visited Berlin in July 2014.   It was the height of a stinking hot summer, extremely humid, and glorious as Berlin summers are wont to be. I remember being shocked that a Central European city could have such capacity for a ‘Darwin summer’, a place I’d also lived, with weather I’d been equally astonished by.   My husband Oliver and I spent 10 days soaked in sweat zooming around the cobble-stoned streets, getting to know the city. At the back of our minds we were scoping it out hopefully, as a potential place to live. Meeting Sam, and listening to what she had to say about it, helped clinch the deal.   I was also there…

One Adventure In A Whole Day: Hanna Nordqvist

Posted on March 10, 2016

A long distance relationship made it possible for Hanna Nordqvist to leave her home country of Sweden for Berlin – plus a few magical nights when as a teenager, she visited the ‘City of Dreamers’.   Hanna is one of the women featured in my photo series for Circus Folk + Flower Punks, the photo exhibition put together by myself and Kate Seabrook. It opened this week and Hanna was at the vernissage, along with around a hundred other people…   Living in Berlin as an adult, she has moved through academia and publishing to find her way to studying the Grinberg Method, a particular bodywork therapy currently on the rise in Europe and the US. This year she will to graduate as a…

Der Himmel unter Berlin (Heaven Under Berlin): Tim Anders

Posted on March 3, 2016

I literally stumbled upon Tim Anders and his music in a tunnel, en route to a rendezvous at the “Berliner Siegessäule” (Berlin Victory Column.)   As the Victory Angel towered over me gleaming in the sun, I heard Tim’s voice way before I saw him. It seemed to float up from the underground and into the busy street.   Descending the stairs his music echoed around corners and filled the labyrinthine, ‘otherwordly’, fluorescent-lit space, like a cloud that had somehow escaped from the sky above and had taken a wrong turn.   Many metres later I spied him from a distance, singing his heart out for no-one in particular and anyone who would listen.   I asked if I could take some photos of…

Force of Nature: Amelia Jane Hunter

Posted on February 24, 2016

One of my favourite people in the world is Amelia Jane Hunter: stand up comedian, TV producer and NT Bush Walking Tour Guide extraordinaire.   We first met ten years ago, when we were both living in Sydney, Australia. It’s been a while since we shared the same continent, but now we do again: she in Manchester, me in Berlin, the latter being her real home – that is of course, after the Northern Territory.   Amelia is an ADVENTURER. She has a gypsy heart, a rambunctious rebel spirit, and tells stories like no-one else I know.   She is also incredibly funny – coughing fit funny.   Call an ambulance: it’s hard to breathe when she gets started, whether on stage or around…