Amblog - A (photo)blog through Europe

London, 16/01/2012:

No pictures for the 16th. After lugging my camera around the day before, my back/shoulder was a bit sore and since my parents and I were just heading to a museum, I thought I wouldn’t need it. I was wrong.

We went to the Tate Modern, which I had not been to since it first opened in 2000. In case you are unaware, the Tate Modern is on the Thames, looking back into London to face St. Paul’s Cathedral. The recently installed Millennium Bridge provides a walking route across the river to the museum, or you can walk from the London Bridge tube station, as we did. The entire walk runs along the river with perfect panoramic views of the London cityscape. And I forgot my camera.

I also would have liked to photograph some of the exhibits. I enjoyed the photography exhibit on new documentary forms, particularly the work of Akram Zaatari. He was a studio photographer, so his work shows not only the culture of Lebanon in the early 1970s but also how people thought they should look and act. His work has an honest, raw quality about it, but is quite different from documentary photography, where the photographer tries to showcase the world from an impartial viewpoint. Zaatari’s work shows people as they portray themselves, honestly or not.

I also loved the sculpture exhibit on energy and process. Some of my favorite pieces were the carvings of trees from blocks of sawn units of timber (he reversed the process; instead of turning a tree into timber, he turned timber back into a tree by following the knots of the wood) and the red staircase, which was transparent and ethereal from every angle.

After walking through the museum, we had lunch in the restaurant on the top floor. The floor-to-ceiling windows showed expansive views of London, especially St. Paul’s Cathedral, and the mid-afternoon light was radiant. I have never wanted my camera more.

So, I now resolve to take my camera everywhere, even when I don’t expect to want it. And, I will be buying a new strap for my camera bag, to make it a bit more comfortable.