customer relations, nine elms style ... the vendor is on the right

there will be a short intermission .... whilst we regain our equilibrium after a cultural weekend

what's yours ?

craven street, WC2

stuff just laying around

a stage outfit worn by the supremes

i spent some time in the V and A this afternoon practising my photography-in-the-dark skills


you will have seen some of the objects before, but not quite as clearly ...


these dresses are by the entrance to the supremes exhibition


i first heard "where did our love go ?" performed by johnny anger and the wild ones on stage at beeches barn in cirencester in nineteen sixty something just before the record was released over here ...


i went there with my excellent schoolfriend robert hitchings whose dad, fred, kindly drove us over from malmesbury


the wild ones were not quite as wriggly as the supremes, all of them were stubbly males wearing black leather cuban heels and matching black leather jerkins, but they sang it ever so well

cinderella's other slipper ... click on the picture to see the nice button

the norfolk room without concert chairs ... the camera was teetering on a ledge

more old tins ... including robin hood as dick whittington as principal boy

my second best dressing gown ... too many buttons

posh frocks in low light ... now you can see the stitching

a clearer view of those gilbert bayes' figures

try milk of magnesia

typical millwall supporters ... mister nobody ... 'an 'is bruvver

in the back room at the museum

i'm sure there's a rational explanation

happy dragons

is that a green man i see before me ?

fine and dandy

an elizabethan music room

this triptych of portraits must have been too nice for the national portrait gallery

casting couch for the valkyries

next season's retro ... i wish

charles the second frightening the children

english chinoiserie at the V and A

the old lacquer chest

lacquer and lacquer ... masterpieces from old japan

old tins

most of the victoria and albert's possessions are conserved in very low light conditions and it is hard to photograph them without a flash ( discouraged ) and/or a tripod ( forbidden )


flash makes everything look awfully cool with any icy blue sort of light so today i tried a method which is a bit like pressing your nose to the glass


i pressed the rim of the lens casing flat against the glass


this enabled me to hold the camera fairly ... but less than perfectly ... still for some very slow exposures ... but only where the objects were at a reasonably comfortable level above the floor and a suitable distance for focussing beyond the glass

file under "champagne: for the drinking of"

georgey boy

pomona lends a hand in plutarch's garden

lot ninety-nine, laydeys'an'gennermen ... as played by george formby

nothing like this old-fashioned clockwork in your argos catalogue

the dog is bored, but even the sheep are smiling

what is she reading ?

sweet and gentle

happy cranes

a masterpiece of "visual logic" from old japan

as they say in glasgow ... she's away with the fairies

and after you've hoovered ...

proust ... two down ... ten to go ... no, five, depending which way you look at it

peter porter writes about lawrence durrell in this week's tls