Reader

I met up with Fatma, my bookshop friend, who has a fantastic eye for pictures but who doesn't use a camera. It'll take time but I will persuade her. 

I took her to the Photographers Gallery in London which she hadn't visited before and we were both exhilarated by the Helen Levitt exhibition. You have until 13 February. Note well.

Fatma commented on what an extraordinary historical record Helen Levitt's pictures are, then we agreed that all good pictures will be, when their time comes. (I wonder how quirky this distanced, masked time will appear, 40 years hence.)

For me, the biggest change between 'then' (1930s-1970s or so) and now was how free children were, without adults protecting them from cars, predators, photographers and all sorts of other dangers, real and imagined. The photographer's image belonged to the photographer, not the guardian parents. There were also many images, especially of women, that I doubt the subjects would have approved of if they'd had any say.

It made me reflect on how constrained by 'respect' my and many other photographers' images are now.

When I came out my eyes were fizzing so even though it was a dark and grainy evening, I'm using almost all the extras I have left this year:
Butterflies
Nothing left to lose
Sweatbox
Pink
Stars