Bent on a Bargain
IT Repairs on Oliver Plunkett Street hopefully had some bargains the day this man was peering carefully at their phones.
Evening Falls on the North Side
The tower of St. Anne’s Church has recently been renovated but this photo is from 2022, when it was still gritty. It looks all shiny now but I think it looked better back then. The clock faces all got a nice lick of paint though which is welcome!
A Cut Above, Two Metres Apart
Remember how impossible it was to get a hair cut during lockdown? Afterwards for some time the barber or hair dresser would have to wear a mask while grooming your hair. This was in February 2022, when we were still paranoid about COVID-19.
A Pandemic Smoke
Mask pulled down to the chin, cigarette on the go is the small, very 2022 contradiction I couldn’t resist framing.
20,000 Bulbs and One Sky
The massive Eiffel Tower glows golden as it is viewed from the Trocadéro nearby.
Sunset arrival, weeks before the world stopped
A Jet2 737 comes in low over the beach at Playa Honda, undercarriage down, engines glowing pink in the dying light. The approach-lighting pier marches out from the lava coast like an unfinished bridge, each platform waiting to flash its sequence and guide the next arrival onto runway 03 at Arrecife. I took this in…
A Leg-up at Dawstown
The man in the blue jacket has both hands on the jockey’s left boot, mid heave, and number 37 is halfway between earth and saddle. It’s neither one place nor the other. I love the awkward physics of a leg-up. It looks ungainly until you remember it’s the only sensible way to get a small,…
Pop Art and Pocket Screens
Daniel Buren’s wall at Tottenham Court Road does most of the work for you. It’s fifty feet of saturated circles and diamonds, all bouncing off those merciless black-and-white stripes. I just had to wait. Two strangers soon obliged: he slumped against a blue diamond mid-text, and she tucked into a green circle taking what looked…
Flamenco Frills on a Valencian Pavement
Valencia in late October had just been rinsed by a quick shower, and the pavement was still glossy when this little party walked past me. The two women had gone all-in on the traje de flamenca. The ruffles stacked like waves, fresh blooms pinned into their hair, and a peach-coloured shawl folded neatly over one…
Brooms and a Brolly
A London street sweeper, fully kitted out in orange hi-vis, has parked his cart, bristling with upright brooms like some sort of municipal hedgehog, outside the Brompton Oratory and is holding a big black umbrella over himself for shade. It was roasting that day. Umbrellas aren’t just for the rain. They are very useful portable…
Elvis the Taxi Driver
Derry “Elvis” Coughlan is a local taxi driver in Cork. Here he was on St. Patrick’s Street in 2021. He was walking towards an older man with bags of shopping who would probably need a lift home. I don’t think I’ve seen Derry around since then. Not someone who appears to have an online presence…