Comes highly recommended, and I do need some guidance…

Likely to be confrontational.

Svetlana Jovanovic. Otherness. An ongoing long-term project exploring identical twins and the tension between shared identity and individual presence.

Christopher Wood. Zebra and Parachute. 1930. Christopher was born in Knowsley, near Liverpool on 7 April 1901, and died tragically in 1930.

Secrets of the River Mersey. Tuesday 30 June. Channel 5.

‘I think serious photographers will have to start working in colour too. It’s there. Colour is in the world. But for a really good colour photograph, one that holds its own, you have to give everything you have to offer’. apple.news/AJkuaQDLWTT2...

Camilo José Vergara’s Study Of Old New York City. 1970-1971. “My work asks basic questions: what was this place in the past, who uses it now, and what are its current prospects? I uncover patterns shaping the nation’s poorest and most segregated postindustrial cities.”

Beautiful. apple.news/ASImDqz-qRaW...

Quentin Matsys. The Money Changer and His Wife. 1514. Intriguing.

The Spirit of the Beehive. 1973. Directed and co-written by Víctor Erice. When this film came into my life, things changed. I became haunted by cinema, even more than I was already. Beautiful , haunting and evocative. A celebration of film form. youtu.be/aqvpMJNlqxE

Pierre-Louis Pierson. Scherzo di Follia. 1863–66.

Medicare for All - "That's socialism!" Social Security - "That's socialism!" Debt free education - "That's socialism!" Universal childcare - "That's socialism!" $1 trillion in tax cuts for the richest 1%... "That's just how it is."

Publicity still for the lost Lon Chaney-Tod Browning silent horror film LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT (1927)

"Humor is just another defense against the universe." - Mel Brooks Happy 100th Birthday to the legendary actor, comedian, director, filmmaker, songwriter & playwright, born on this day in 1926. One of few entertainers to achieve EGOT status (winning Emmy, Grammy, Academy aka Oscar & Tony Awards).

Eugène Atget. Romanichels, groupe. 1912. My very first research assignment for my degree back in the day was the work of Atget. It was a wonderful way to begin my adventures in photography. artblart.com/tag/eugene-a...

Gordon Parks. Portrait of Langston Hughes. Chicago December 1941. “I've known rivers: I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. My soul has grown deep like the rivers.”

Robert Cornelius. Believed to be the earliest extant American self-portrait. September or October 1839. Quarter plate daguerreotype.

You can read Michelle’s story in the Outsiders book but stocks are running low and it’s unlikely to be reprinted https://marcdavenant.com/product/outsiders-book/

Birte Kaufmann. ‘The Travellers’. “What is really import for me in this project is photography that shows the individual as human and never breaks my own ethical rules in regards to exploitation by taking photographs.”

Jane Hilton. Renowned for her work documenting American Culture, in particular the American West, which she has explored for the past thirty years. Jane is fascinated by subjects that are legal but not socially acceptable.

“Children absorb tension before they understand context. They notice injustice before they have language sophisticated enough to describe it carefully. They ask questions long before adults are prepared to answer them.” (Why I loved teaching so much.) apple.news/A4hs493xuS9C...

Oliver Kornetzke. That’s the way it is.

Lake Como. A beautiful honeymoon.

Tom Gauld.

Me contemplating the absolute moral and political failures inherent in modern UK politics.

‘Bonnet Girl’ is an illustration created by author and artist Dave Eggers . It features in interview in The Guardian where Eggers discussed the broader societal and literary implications of machine-generated writing and artificial intelligence.

This is Hedgehog street in a quiet corner of our garden.

I thought about busker Peter Mickle today, dressed in one of his trademark outfits, entertaining shoppers in Church Street Liverpool. He passed away not long after I captured this image. RIP Peter.

Films I loved to teach #14. Cloverfield. 2008. Directed by Matt Reeves and written by Drew Goddard. youtu.be/HXckW975sFI?... It was a sci-fi double bill alongside John Carpenter’s The Thing.

Kitchen sink drama.

Ilse Bing. Greta Garbo Poster, Paris. 1932.

Thomas Struth. Unconscious Places. Urban panoramic views and street perspectives. His street views deliberately omit human crowds, turning bustling metropolitan areas (like Wall Street, Tribeca, or Düsseldorf) into still, almost melancholic stage sets.

I do have a thing for shops windows and mannequins. Venice. Mahon. Berlin. Palma.

Two of my heroes. Geoff Dyer and John Berger, Turin, 2004. Jean Mohr.

I may as well get this Martin Parr thing out of the way. Borough Road, Birkenhead.

Every time I set foot in New Brighton I turn into Martin Parr.

A beautiful, magical place to visit. I know it well. apple.news/AMo-mKEV4Tpi...

“I hear America singing,” wrote Walt Whitman in Leaves of Grass. He didn’t say that the song was “USA! USA!” backed by a klaxon and accompanied by a foam finger. apple.news/AmOv1grLySUy...

Albert Birkle. Portrait of Painter Ludwig Kath. 1924.

A random section of a random bookshelf in my study. Speaks volumes.

Another hog hotel ready to deploy 🦔🦔🦔

Nils Jorgensen. Denmark, London based. He cites Elliott Erwitt and Tony Ray-Jones among his influences, both of them photographers known for their humour. His own wit is warm, with a celebration of everyday quirkiness that never slips into mockery.

World Famous Round Here. Jack Hulme. www.bbc.co.uk/bradford/con... @paulwchambers1970.bsky.social @marcdavenant.bsky.social

The blues. Funchal, Madeira. Anglesey, Wales. Pier Head, Liverpool. New Brighton, Wirral.

Antonia Caicedo Holguín. Twins. 2022.

Ishiuchi Miyako. Japan. “I never intended to continue photography, but somehow more and more things have appeared in front of me, asking to be photographed. That’s how I have reached today—it has been a natural flow.”

Christophe Agou. French. Life Below. The underground world of the New York City Subway became a stage for chance rendez-vous with people from all walks of life – ordinary and yet mysterious. Christophe died in September 2015 of cancer. He was 45 years old.

Jack Hulme. He was born and spent all his life in the pit village of Fryston West Yorkshire, that he photographed for over 60 years. He said he felt humbled by all the fuss his pictures had caused. He had never considered them worthy of attention.

Piotr Kamieniarz. I’m Still Afraid of My Old Demons. 2019. Aren’t we all.

The Day the Earth Caught Fire. Directed by Val Guest, who co-wrote it with Wolf Mankowitz. The 1961 film that predicted a 'boiling planet'.