April was an amazing month for me. It was a perfect mix of interesting work with lovely folks and downtime to catch up with pals and ingest way too much awe inspiring art.

Over the month I had 3 projects for The Elopement Society, in which I help couples to design their small-scale wedding or Elopement around Edinburgh or East Lothian. One was a rainy day in Leith, another a beach elopement and a small wedding in town. All very different and all great to be a part of.

I met up with a previous wedding client couple to shoot their baby naming ceremony and first birthday party. Genuinely love this crew and they make me weep every time with their singing and their ability to joyfully share about the good and trickier parts of life. And I made some poor future wedding clients cringe in some back alleys around Porty but it turned out ok in the end.

I also worked on brand commissions in Leith, London and Dunbar. I’m loving doing this type of work. It’s a great collaborative creative play, figuring out visual ways to narrate and explain myriad talents and work avenues of small brands and independent creatives. Lately I’ve worked with a graphic designer, illustrator and performer, a kitchen witch, hypno-birthing midwife and a local jewellery business. These types of shoots can be a mix of portraiture, editorial with models, some ‘behind the scenes’/b roll type images for socials content and blog posts, abstract images of inspirations and product shots so there’s a really interesting mix of photo work and plenty opportunity to use digital and a bit of analogue work to keep it unique and expressive.

While in London I totally overdosed on beauty. I went to 6 different exhibitions, gluttony to the point of sensory overwhelm but I’d do it again. I was blown away by both exhibitions I saw at National Portrait Gallery. The Time is Always Now was stunning. Not a dead rich white guy in sight. I feel deeply in love with the work of Michael Armitage, Lorna Simpson and Kerry James Marshall.

Portraits to Dream in; Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron explores connections and themes in the perceived inspirations of both artists’ work and is overflowing with beautiful little prints.

I also loved Dreams Have No Titles by Zineb Sedira at Whitechapel Gallery, rooms full of film set vignettes from activist films which have informed and inspired the artist’s work and life, along with a beautiful short film piece which ties the whole story together. I loved it. The artist has British French and Algerian heritage and uses scenes from French, Italian and Algerian films of the 60s-80s throughout the exhibition. It feels like a dream inside a dream.

I also explored When Forms Come Alive at Hayward and was glad not to find Mr Blobby hiding in any of the works. I got lost in the Yoko Ono exhibition at Tate Modern which explored a lot of her activist work and participatory pieces. The guy at the box office let me sneak in for cheap. A lot of very serious faces when someone sits inside a bag is a weird reaction (it wasn’t me in the bag). And finally, I loosened my belt and gorged myself on the Capturing the Moment painting and photography exhibition there too. Definitely satiated.

And I took time to explore Borough Market for the first time in years, picking up fresh flowers and wild blue loose leaf tea which I wouldn’t recommend. I also spilt taco juice down my tits to keep it classy. I performed rituals and danced with some beautiful East London witches. I did a creative writing workshop with prompts around magic and tarot and I sat in my pals’ hot tub with fancy glasses of tasty (booze-free) drinks and got lots of hugs from the family.

I’ve also been listening to audio books more than playing music lately. 1 and a half speed while I’m up to something else and I weirdly retain the info better. Usually I’ll love reading biographies and try to share some details and will sound like a 5 year old who just learnt to read as I just have zero retention for things I read. I always struggled with school exams for the same reason, I could study something over and over but it wouldn’t stick, I’m a visual and aural learner.

I boomed through the whole of Florence Given’s brilliant book, Women Don’t Owe You Pretty - a concise and insipiring rant about gender politics, priviledge, the patriarchy and finding your voice. I loved it and think it should be taught in schools (out loud at one and a half speed while kids are doing something else at the same time, obviously).

I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned but I also read Fern Brady’s book, Strong Female Character, about her experiences of being autistic and it’s fucking great.

(I’d also recommend Ellie Middleton’s Unmasked and Aspergirls by Rudy Simone which are also around neurodivergence in women and the lack of acknowledgement of all the ways we’re treated like shit cos of misogyny and ableism. Both talk of the different ways that traits show in girls).

It’s nearly the end of May already which is blowing my mind but I’ll be back soon with more scintilating details of this month’s escapades (spoiler: mainly swearing at ladders and paint).