Brazilian Archive

I was born in England, near Hastings, but grew up in the South of France. I met, fell in love with and married my now husband after returning to the UK. We now live in Belgium where our daughter, Amélie, was born in 2005.

I am a lawyer by profession but like pretending to be a photographer in my spare time. I first became properly interested in photography shortly after Amélie's birth but that interest has since developed into a bit of an all-consuming passion. I love trying to capture the happiness she brings me and her uninhibited wonder at the world that surrounds us. I don't want to forget a single moment of this incredible journey.

I shoot with a digital Canon SLR camera and edit my pictures in PhotoShop. If you have any questions about my pictures, please don't hesitate to leave me a comment and I'll do my best to help. That being said, I know I still have lots and lots to learn so constructive feedback is really appreciated.

Anyway, that's enough about me. How are you?

(the pictures of me in the blond wig were taken by Tara Leigh, an inspiration and someone I am lucky to be able to call a friend - give her site a visit, you won't be disappointed! - and my logo was designed by the fabulous Matthew Nelson)

I had an urge today to do something a bit different… An urban landscape or maybe even an industrial landscape… Something I could have fun aging and adding texture to… And then I remembered some of the pictures I took in Brazil a year and a half ago. I don’t know why I never did anything with them at the time but I’m glad I managed to find them again. This particular scene really struck me: on one side you had huge cargo ships, ships as tall as buildings, hulking great things, scary things… And then right there, on the edge of the water, people living. Mothers washing their clothes, kids playing in the water. Water thick with oil and filth… I felt guilty standing there taking a picture as if the squalor of their lives (***) was some kind of tourist attraction. But I tried to be quick and I reasoned that maybe if I did something with the picture it might raise awareness. I’m not sure I’m doing that very well, but at least I’m finally posting it.

*** I say “the squalor of their lives” but that sounds wrong somehow. At least, in the sense that it seemed to me that the people I saw were doing the very best they could with the very little they had. You can even see a line of freshly washed clothes hanging in front of one of the buildings. Anyway, I hope you know what I mean.

by admin

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13/02/2010 - 8:16 pm Steve - It's a worldwide away, reminds me a bit of my days in S'pore... Or thé gypsy camp i posted recently. I can't help but wonder ... Did you frame "smoking" as you did intentionally?

13/02/2010 - 8:58 pm admin - It actually said "no smoking" but it is one of the little details I like about the picture... "Smoking" like a smoking gun, identifying the guilty party... Maybe I'm thinking about this too much! Anyway, I know I noticed it before I took the picture but I can't actually remember if I deliberately framed it that way. I would like to think I did but this was back in September 2008. My memory really isn't that good. I'm getting old!

17/02/2010 - 4:14 pm Ingrid - Knowing very well the poverty in South America and the impact on those less fortunate by the actions of government or lack there of it hurts so many. Scenes like this are so common yet ignored. Thank you for giving them a voice. Like you said these are souls striving to do the very best with what little they have for them for their families.

19/02/2010 - 2:12 am Julia Jardim - Living with internet we're used to pass through blogs and sites as if they were magazine pages, but I simply couldn't NOT stop at this picture. It's one of those things that seem so simple at first, but if you just give it a chance it'll make a huge difference. Living in Brasil I'm used to these scenes more than I can explain. We see richness and poverty living side by side every single day in every single detail of this country, but everyday I think to myself that we can NOT get used to it. So even though it hurts me everytime, it also helps me want to do something. And this image said it all for me. Thankyou for wanting to make things better, too. And of course you're doing it very well; every way is the best way.

Cass D Photography » An apple a day keeps the doctor away.