Photo-Heart connection: April 2014

At the beginning of every month Kat of the Kat Eye Studio suggests we go back through our photos for the previous month to see if there is one that really speaks to our heart.

Wikipedia describes Street art as “an umbrella term defining forms of visual art created in public locations, usually unsanctioned artwork executed outside of the context of traditional art venues. The term gained popularity during the graffiti art boom of the early 1980s and continues to be applied to subsequent incarnations”.

It is a form of art that is still gaining popularity and, increasingly, is created to fulfill a commission, in order to enliven what would otherwise be an ugly blank wall or surface. Such works of art, thankfully, tend to attract less graffiti (the ugly, destructive kind).
A couple of weeks ago I came across this piece painted on the side of a house in Picton Street, Bristol, UK.

A small plaque nearby indicates that it was created to commemorate the passing of the artist’s father. Apart from camouflaging what would otherwise be a rather ugly blank wall, I think this is a wonderful tribute to a much-treasured father.

Photo-Heart connection: March 2014

At the beginning of each month Kat Sloma invites us to share a photo taken the previous month that really speaks to us in some way.

Earlier in March we went to Vietnam for the first time and I went on an early morning photography trip with a locally-based photographer and a small group of amateur photographers. We were hoping to wean ourselves off the automatic functions on our cameras and try our hands at taking photos of people. After taking photos in the fishing village we returned to base on a ferry boat. There was a young Vietnamese couple on the boat with a small baby. When they first got on the mother was still wearing her crash helmet and mask and the baby was all muffled up in a woolly hood and jacket. All of us photographers wanted to photograph the mother and child. As she got used to our attention and decided she was actually enjoying it, she removed her mask and gradually removed items of clothing from the baby so that we could photograph them. At the end she was smiling broadly and the ladies seated behind us thought it was all a great joke.

Photo-Heart Connection: October and Texture Tuesday

This is the first time I’ve participated in Kat Eye Studio’s Photo-Heart Connection.
Pick one photo, with which you feel the strongest heart connection, to share. The photo shared can be any photo that you worked with in the last month, either newly captured or edited.
Write about your heart connection with that photo. Why does the photo speak to you? What do you feel?

I saw this man with the kitten on his lap on our recent road trip round Turkey. I asked if I could take his photo and he said yes, I could. I chatted briefly with him (my Turkish is not fluent and he seemed to have some sort of speech impediment) and, as I turned to go, he took a bunch of grapes out of the plastic bag and gave them to me. They were delicious – small, sweet and seedless.

textured with Kim’s Pumpkin Grunge