Thank you to everyone who came to the Nairn Book & Arts Festival this year. I always enjoy this festival, and find some of the most engaging audiences. This year I was considering the narrative of ‘truth’ and authentic identity across the history of portraiture. We had some really fantastic discussion and looked at portraits from the earliest days of photogrpahy to Planton’s recent portrait of Mark Zuckerberg. An interesting area that came up in conversation it the tradition of family Christmas portraits and the myth of the family that this perpetuates. I’ve always found the idea of what family…
Upcoming: Nairn Book & Arts Festival
Tickets are now available for my talk at the 16th annual Nairn Book & Arts Festival this September. The festival runs from 10-15 September and is a celebration of literature and art set in the idilic Highland town of Nairn. This year’s theme is focused on ‘Our Roots and Who we Are’ with books, readings, lectures, exhibitions and seminars throughout the six days. My talk on the 13th at 18:30 will be on Truth and Identity in Portrait Photography: We are the most photographed generation in history. Despite this, when we see a photographic portrait, we want to believe that…
PTI Summer session: Rethinking Medical Photography for the classroom
This weekend I led a session at the Princes Trust Institute Art Enrichment Residential on Rethinking Medical Photography. It’s always a fantastic experience to work with the PTI, because you get to work with teachers and consider how to get students engaged at all different year levels in the history of art.
Summer 2019 Update
This spring and summer has been incredibly busy so I am putting several updates all in one place for you. First, coming up I am very exited to lead a session with Elmaz Soyal at the Princes Trust Institute Art Enrichment Residential in Downing College, Cambridge. If you are a teacher in the arts in the UK, the PTI Enrichment summer residential is a wonderful programme, and there are many opportunities for funding, so do have a look at their link. Though I am a writer I’ve always enjoyed teaching and it is a real honour to have worked with…
Launch: Guided Horror Walks
Now that it is March I am officially launching my guided Horror Walks in London! I was fortunate to host a preview walk with the women of the Fulham Chelsea WI. We explored their local borough with my “Chills of Chelsea” walk at the end of February, which was full of fun and frights. While you may know Chelsea to be the home of Dracula author Bram Stoker, the glitzy King’s Road was a once a horror haven, graced by iconic British horror actors like Christopher Lee and Vincent Price. I encourage you all to check out my new Walks Page…
Winter 2018
I have enjoyed quite a bit of traveling over the past few months, including two trips to Scotland: first, to the Nairn Book & Arts Festival, and second to Edinburgh for the inaugural presentation of the McCarthy Award at the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh. Both were wonderful experiences, and I want to extend congratulations to Dr. Kristin Hussey for winning the 2018 McCarthy Award! On December 5th, I am giving a talk on the history of medical photography at the Prince’s Trust Institute Inspiring creativity through mixed media event. If you are an educator interested in mixed media and photography, booking…
Autumn 2018
Moving into autumn, I am happy to look back on a productive and quiet summer of writing and researching. In June my first poem was published in Door=Jar Magazine (Issue 7), and my ‘Beauty and Alienation in Medical Photography” paper came out in Journal of Visual Communication in Medicine. I also have done some peer-review work with Mortality journal. It is a fantastic way to help encourage and engage with new scholarship, and of course, it feels good to be referred to as a specialist in the history of photography. As with any writer, the bulk of my time is spent on research. At…
