These past two weeks have been a flurry of intense work days and just-as-intense days of travel. I’ve been getting trains to-and-fro it – almost daily it feels like, while having the most busiest two weeks of work since the year began. I am TiReD. It’s been interesting work though. In particular, one commission has had me thinking and researching a lot about identity, migration, culture, family history, and more. I’ve written a little about this in the past and would love to write about it more in future when I’ve formed a deeper understanding about it. At the moment, it’s a complex jumble of thoughts and ideas and gaps in history. In the meantime, I’ve just ordered myself one of those ancestry tests and I’m immeasurably excited to explore a little more of the journeys and migrations my own ancestors made, and discover a little more of my way-back history.
See you again next time,
A x
Visual journal
Work work
Writing
These past weeks, I’ve been writing for Where the Leaves Fall about the photography of food and on the people and platforms who inspire me:
Inspired by The Colour of Transformation, a documentary film featured in Issue #13 platforming “new perspectives on nature” via seven pioneering women, I’d like to share a few of the inspiring platforms and people who I look up to, who help me to be more confident and give me the language and understanding to speak on the topics that I’m passionate about.
I’ve had my last teaching day at Cambridge School of Art and spoke a little on getting through blocks and struggles in writing. I’m excited to see what the students end up producing in a couple of months time! And keen to get to work on creating some kind of online resource from all the resources I’ve collected and worked on here.
– Sarah Archer Things to remember when you’re struggling to write
Photography
Since last time, I’ve been working with a poet and an artist on a couple of exciting collaborations for my book. Here’s my moodboard for the cover art I’m hoping for. There’s not much else for me to share this week, but things are gearing up now for the final stages of preparation – and, if things work out, I should be heading to Istanbul in a couple of months’ time to go see the printing of the book!
Bookmarks
“Don’t learn to draw, draw to learn”: An absolutely mesmerising collection of sketches of trees by artist Luke Adam Hawker. I’m obsessed with the fact that he draws using the gutter as a central point, when I’ve always tried to avoid it. For what reason? Probably just a hang-up from school days. I might try journalling across the gutter after seeing this.
I’ve been enjoying fellow photographer Marie Gardiner’s poetry and image combinations, and now intrigued by her use of AI to create accompanying imagery.
“My skin is a palimpsest written with, first, ancestry, and then the scattering rain.”: A beautiful write-up about landscape and walking and belonging that made me go “OOF” several times.
I came across the idea of snack plates this week and I am desperate to get one like this.
Funnily enough, the week after seeing this, I came across and joined (almost instantly) the r/CannedSardines forum on Reddit.
Tipping jar
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A bit about me
Hey! I’m Ameena – a writer and photographer based in London. I love to tell stories about adventure, the outdoors, and our relationship with the natural world.
On canned sardines, I ate my last tin of Pinhais sardines recently. Yum, but also, sad face. I will be reading that New Ohio essay shortly, but we should sit down and chat over coffee or whatever about ancestry, identity, migration etc some time. In in North Wales right now and the more I work on this project the more it throws up to think about.