2019: A Year In Photos
Fourth year of doing one of these summaries, taking stock of another year behind me via my favourite images (+ my Instagram) and reminding myself of how lucky I am to live the life I lead.
2019 was a tough one personally - the aftermath of ending a four year relationship and an extended upheaval in my home life - but it also saw me take a film to premiere in Cannes, do work I’m proud of and fall in love.
January
Cvet in winter sunlight.
I started the year with art, with my birthday, with work, with break-up conversations, with my book club (a source of joy and support throughout this year), with theatre, and with a lot of film including a screening that led to big things.
top film: The Favourite
top book: Asunder, Chloe Aridjis
top art: Matt Collishaw’s The Mask Of Youth, The Queen’s House
top theatre: The Butterfly’s Last Song, The Puppet Barge
February
I played lots of football this month, something that makes me happy and that I want to do more of in 2020. I also made big things happen at work (one of which was wrestling on stage). I saw some of the best art and theatre of the year, some of which made me cry. I had a strange experience at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
top film: Hale County,Morning, Afternoon, Evening
top book: Maurice, E.M. Forster |
top art: Tracey Emin’s A Fortnight of Tears, White Cube
top theatre: Collapsible, Vaults Festival
March
Derek Jarman’s house in Dungeness X the pineapple-scented bushes that surround it.
One of the best months. Made a really silly film with some friends. Spent an otherworldly weekend in a Living Architecture property in Dungeness with people I consider my family, and every other weekend was rammed with art and with film.
top film: The Ground Beneath My Feet in BFI Flare
top book: Milkman, Anna Burns
top art: Dorothea Tanning, Tate
top theatre: The Crucible, The Yard
April
A kir royale and a baguette in the town square in Charroux.
Art! Football! Music! Theatre! A difficult month at work and at home, softened by a weekend of food and light in one of my favourite places.
top film: Les Yeux Sans Visage
top book: Hope In The Dark, Rebecca Solnit
top art: Harald Sohlberg and Mariele Neudecker, Dulwich Picture Gallery
top theatre: Wolfie, Theatre503
May
The streets of Cannes, on my first roll of Tungsten film.
I photographed comedian Sofie Hagen’s book launch on instant film. I spent 24 hours in Cannes touching the fringes of Hollywood celebrity after our short film was selected to premiere in the Straight 8 programme.
top film: Marbarosi
top book: My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Otessa Moshfeg
top art: Luchita Hurtado, Serpentine
top theatre: Out of Water, Orange Tree
June
My friend Brendan at the National Portrait Gallery, seeing our friends’ work in the BP Portrait Award. This year I shot a lot of rolls on my pocket-sized Yashica T5, which has been a revelation.
The lowpoint of the year - gained an excellent new flatmate and within a week we were robbed. I lost a lot of precious things: all my digital equipment, irreplaceable pieces of jewellery from people no longer in my life, and a sense of security in my home that is only just returning. But there was also watching the Women’s World Cup with football huns, getting some photographs exhibited in the Festival of Football, and a really glorious weekend in the South West.
top film: Kattumarram in the London Indian Film Festival
top book: The Bell, Iris Murdoch
top art: Grace Pailthorpe and Reuben Mednikoff, Camden Arts Centre
top theatre: nope, nothing
July
Gained several excellent new colleagues this year, and spent a lot of summer evenings with them in golden Hackney Wick.
A weekend in Deal with a lush pal (+ lush dog). A weekend in the North with my Northerner and transplanted friends. My first bottomless brunch (catastrophic).
top film: Midsommar
top book: Queer Intentions, Amelia Abraham
top art: Keith Haring, Tate Liverpool
top theatre: again, nothing I liked
August
Jeni in Edinburgh - a place full of mixed feelings for me, rescued by many and varied pals.
Lots of time out of London: a work away day was a welcome reminder of the brilliance of the people with whom I get to work; a weekend away with my book club; a weekend away with my best friends; a long weekend in Scotland seeing theatre and old colleagues and exceptional art. And I learnt to play pool.
top film: I did not watch one film in August.
top book: Dance Dance Dance, Murakami
top art: Salvador Dali’s Christ of St John of the Cross at Kelingrove Gallery, Glasgow
top theatre: OUT, Edinburgh Fringe
September
Kel at the Long Barn in Sussex.
A few golden days in another Living Architecture project, quite possibly the highlight of the entire year. Then 10 days exploring the monuments, sunsets and tomatoes of southern Greece - and climbing Mount Olympus! - with a brilliant travel companion.
top film: Border
top book: An American Marriage, Tayari Jones
top art: Young Greek Photographers, Thessaloniki Museum of Photography
top theatre: A Very Expensive Poison, Old Vic (honestly though this is scraping the barrel)
October
My cousin Milo canalside in Amsterdam. I’ve seen a lot of my family this year, and I’m lucky to like them all so much.
A hen party and a wedding (both excellent). Celebrating a marathon in Amsterdam with my family, celebrating a birthday in Margate with my friends.
top film: The Farewell
top book: My Name Is Lucy Barton, Elizabeth Strout
top art: Brassai, Foam Gallery Amsterdam
top theatre: again, nothing I liked
November
Afternoon tea at the Welcome Collection with Masha who has been a constant source of joy and support this year and many years previously - thanks Mash.
A whirlwind. Honestly not sure what I did in this month other than see art, do a lot of planning for 2020 and make the annual voyage to my dad’s neo-neolithic burial mound. (I did also go to a Russian sauna which I want to note here for posterity as it was an intense experience of which no record exists.)
top film: Shooting The Mafia
top book: The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller
top art: Anthony Gormley, Royal Academy
top theatre: The Arrival, The Bush
December
Christmas in York with my family and the best weather you could ask for.
Met a new family member, spent an alternately lovely and hideous election weekend in Oxford with old friends, ate a stunning amount and got incredibly drunk in a Northern town by the sea. Today a friend is going to help me set up my dark room, and then 2020 will begin.
top film: Atlantics
top book: The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison
top art: Barbara Hepworth’s sculptures at the Hepworth Gallery, Wakefield
top theatre: Joan of Leeds, New Diorama