I have not been posting much on this website. I’m slowly changing that. Most of my current (and more recent) posts are about my travels in South East Asia, especially Malaysia, with occasional posts about places like Istanbul or bits and pieces of blogging. I am, currently, posting mainly pictures, in part to share with…
Capital and Privilege buys Belonging. Nice if you can have it
The issue of belonging, of belonging to a country or a people, or a community and even a family is vexing. The issue is belaboured by claims about race, ethnicity, religion, language and (even) skin tone. In South Africa we most certainly have reduced belonging to skin tone, and race. Belonging has a lot to…
The Tourist Gaze: Exotic and Fetished Zulus Framed as Scenery
To photograph is in some way to appropriate the object being photo-graphed. It is a power/knowledge relationship. To have visual knowledge of an object is in part to have power, even if only momentarily, over it. – John Urry in The Tourist Gaze. I picked up a book, what seemed like a bog-standard picture book,…
Considerations of a Past, Present and Future of Palestinians and the State of Israel
In homes, on the streets across Gaza, Palestinians are sat, drained and disillusioned, and collecting their lives from the rubble and ruins – mute from sensory shock, loss of life, separation and dislocation. Their lives have been changed, fundamentally, in the way that Walter Benjamin described the trauma and poverty experience of the First World…
Novel Menu. Kampung Losong Ebeng
Graveyard of boats on Pulau Duyong, Terengganu
I’m working on texts, the chapters on the North East of Malayasia, Kelantan and Terengganu. These are some of the pictures I made. The geolocation tagging function helps identify some of the locations, as well as confirm, so to speak, that I had, actually, visited the places that I am writing about. It’s a fascinating,…
A Photograph: Gone for Solat Maghrib on Pulau Rusa
Gone for Solat Maghrib on Pulau Rusa ©Ismail Lagardien
A Landmark Photo (at least for me)
After a decade or so of wrestling myself over the use of the cellphone camera, in place of an actual camera, I passed something of a landmark in June. I had a photograph published, accompanying a short essay about maritime trade/boat-building in South East Asia. The picture was made with an iPhone. I have had…
Arsenal 25/26 Season. Let’s not conflate ambition with achievement
Arsenal have had a busy summer. With the arrival of Viktor Gyökeres summer shopping spree has come to an end – unless, of course, there are surprises lined up. While Gyökeres, an out-and-out-striker is “the missing piece” in Arsenal’s plan to win the Premier League, Martín Zubimendi Ibáñez is, without a doubt, one of the finest players…
Arsenal Will Not Win The English Premier League
It’s still early doors, but…. The next English Premier League season starts on 16th of August. Anything can happen between then and now. Let me say, at the outset, that I have always been terrible at Fantasy Football (I very rarely finish above last place in any league), and I don’t really like predictions. So, let…