Published in Japan

It was a privilege to be asked by Pen magazine in Tokyo, Japan to contribute to their March 2009 article on Art Deco Architecture. The article looked at European architecture and focused on Barcelona, Paris and Glasgow as well as Amsterdam and Munich.

The photographs from the Glasgow School of Art are listed below. It was an honour to get to photograph the interior of one of Charles Rennie MacKintosh's architectural masterpieces.

Pen magazine is a publication aimed at affluent males in the 30-40 age group. In British Terms it's a cross between GQ and an architecture magazine.

Dr Who's Tardis lands in Glasgow

One Saturday afternoon in March 2009 there was a strange visitor to Glasgow. The kids look perplexed as they try to work out who's inside

Credit Crunch Live

While shoppers buy their last presents on Christmas eve in Oxford Street, London one more shop hits the wall of insolvency. Financial experts in the UK are predicting that mid January will see up to 15 high street retailers go bust. Already with several days to go in 2008 the numbers are stacking up. Every day seems to add to the gloom with iconic retailer Woolworths now in its death throws. These photos show the perfume store clearing the decks. Look beyond the obvious. On the edges of the pictures people are thinking about buying or sampling the wears.

Santa in London

On Christmas Eve while walking around London I was overwhelmed by the number of visitors fro Japan. Just look at the expressions on the faces of the people in this picture taken in Picidilly Circus in central London

A Complicated Society of Rich and Poor

Cuban society in late 2008 appears to be even more divided that ever. Far from the communist ideal as the island is about to 'celebrate' 50 years of revolution I found the island to be a divided land of those with cash and those scraping and existence. It all seems to centre on your ability to get your hands on Cuban Convertible Currency CUC which is supposedly only spent by the tourists, where as the rest of the country spend Cuban Pesos and scrape by. If you are lucky enough to be working in anything to do with the tourist industry you will get paid in CUC. Where as taxi drivers Casa owners and anyone mildly related to the islands visitors gets there hands on this pot of Gold, hard working Doctors, Government workers such as engineers and teachers get paid in Pesos at the equivalent of $30 a month. The irony that I found while my taxi driver could afford to take his holidays outside Cuba another 'illegal' taxi that I took was driven by a hand Surgeon at night after he had toiled all day in one of Havanas main hospitals.
The pictures in this blog post show both ends of Society. Where as The first shows a small affluent Cuban family the second shows a less well off family who have to scrape by with no luxuarys in life.

Old style Street Photography in Havana, Cuba

I encountered a street 'portrait' photographer in Havana Cuba. Using an old style Kodak camera it was fascinating to watch him and his assistant work. Getting his subjects to still still seemed to be a problem for Jose Gonzalo. He has been working the streets of Havana for 20 years and taken around fives minutes to take and develop the photos. I must say, it was like a history lesson in real time, even if my hand stung of slight acid burn as I walked off with my 2 inch by 2 inch print.

Photographing with Markus in NYC

A Picture of Greg Forbes in action photographing in Times Square NYC with Markus Hartel http://www.markushartel.com/

Taken in October 2008