A day out with DailyKeith

I had a great day out with my friend Keith, (aka Blipper DailyKeith), visiting a wonderful photographic exhibition called 'Swaps', at the National Museum of Wales, in Cardiff.  Keith mentioned it to me after he'd attended the opening event last autumn at which David Hurn introduced the display of part of his collection of other photographers' images, which they'd swapped with him.

The exhibition finishes next weekend, and if you have the chance do visit it, as it is quite unique. It is a way of seeing work by some of the best recent photographers from around the world, whom David was fortunate to know, and many of whom became his close friends. 

I took a few pictures of the exhibits, which surprisingly was allowed, so I can view them again at leisure. But I also recorded some of the fascinating descriptions of the pictures and often included David's descriptions of how he obtained them and of why he admired the photographers.

I drove over to Cardiff in the morning and after viewing the exhibition we were both hungry. We took a chance on the restaurant in the museum and were both very pleased with the tasty food they offered. At the point when Keith went to the counter to give our order, I couldn't resist taking this picture of the young man at the table next to us in the basement area as he faced the job of drying these piles of the restaurant's plates.

After eating and a good chat we ventured up to another gallery where there is a very good collection of fine art. We both particularly wanted to see the Impressionist works which included some by Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Paul Cezanne, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Pierre Renoir  and sculpture by Edgar Degas and Auguste Rodin. 

Then Keith took me to his local town Penarth just outside Cardiff, which has a fine old pier on the small sea frontage. The air was distinctly warmer than recently and we joined the many people milling about enjoying the sense of spring in the air. 

It was a fine day altogether and  even better to be able to spend a few hours with Keith who used to live near us in Stroud. It was soon after we met that Keith introduced me to Blip which I then immediately joined in 2010. Have a look at Keith's blip today featuring some women we met on the pier.

ps
I should mention that there is a TV documentary about David Hurn, called 'A life in pictures' on BBC4 on Monday 9th April at 10pm. Keith has seen it before and highly recommends it.