Josef Koudelka, Enzo Sellerio, Piergiorgio Branzi, Mario Giacomelli, Eve Arnold, Bruce Davidson, Maria McGinley, Larry Fink, Yousef Karsh, Ann Brigman, Gertrude Käsebier, William Allard, Paul Caponigro, Neil Folberg, Sally Mann, Ernst Haas, Walker Evans, Wilem Kriz, Carl Chiarenza, László Moholy-Nagy, Phillipe Halsman, Wynn Bullock, Minor White, Paul Strand, Alfred Stieglitz, Bill Brandt, Saul Leiter, Harry Gruyaert, René Burri, Ilse Bing, Irving Penn, Gisele Freund, André Kertész, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paddy Summerfield, W. Eugene Smith, Dennis Stock, Arnold Newman, Imogen Cunningham, Tina Modotti, Olivia Parker, Theodor and Oskar Hofmeister, Erwin Blumenfeld, Eugène Cuvelier, Andrei Tarkovsky, Dorothy Bohm, Hiroshi Sugimoto, John Gruen, Frederick Sommer, Josef Sudek, Aaron Siskind, Jan Groover, Claudia Colella, Anna Arca, Gordon Parks, Herman Leonard, Peter Ruting, George Hoyningen-Huene, Edward Weston, Joel Meyerowitz, Stephen Shore, Martine Franck...
Arvo Pärt, Robert Wyatt, Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Stereolab, Dr John, The Ronettes, Mose Allison, Jeff Beck, Chrissie Hynde, Curtis Mayfield, Joe Pass, The Rolling Stones, Ella Fitzgerald, Blind Willie Johnson, The Who, Steely Dan, Clifford Brown, Richard Thompson, Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham, Bobby Bland, Horace Silver, The Police (but NOT Sting!), Stevie Nicks, Miles Davis, Led Zeppelin, Lhasa, Frank Sinatra, The Ink Spots, Jimi Hendrix, Sandy Denny, Radiohead, The Meters, Charles Mingus, Pink Floyd, Scott Walker, The Smiths, Bob Dylan, Tony Joe White, Johnny Hodges, Randy Newman, Ian Dury & The Blockheads, PJ Harvey, The Beatles...
Georgia O' Keeffe, Robert Smithson, Egon Schiele, Alberto Giacometti, Felix Vallotton, Caravaggio, Amedeo Modigliani, Sydney Long, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, William Nicholson, Eric Gill, Constantin Brancusi, Richard Long, Graham Sutherland, Tony Bevan, Ruth Bide, Helen Garrett, Joachim Patenier, Henri Rousseau, Paul Nash, John Piper, William Blake, Edvard Munch, Alexander Calder, Charles Burchfield, Harold Harvey, John Knapp-Fisher, Henry Moore, Samuel Palmer, J.M.W. Turner, Barbara Hepworth, Hiroshige, Andy Goldsworthy, Pablo Picasso, Edward Hopper, Naum Gabo, Peter Blake, Banksy, Erich Heckel, Robin Jacques, Jack Kirby...
Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky), Ossessione (Luchino Visconti), Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock), Casablanca (Michael Curtiz), Black Narcissus (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger), Night On Earth (Jim Jarmusch), Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese), Sideways (Alexander Payne), Ladri Di Biciclette (Vittorio De Sica), The Swimmer (Frank Perry), This Is Spinal Tap (Rob Reiner), Das Cabinet Des Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene), La Nacion Clandestina (Jorge Sanjinés), Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders), Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder), The Night Of The Hunter (Charles Laughton), Nil By Mouth (Gary Oldman), Koyaanisqatsi (Godfrey Reggio), King Kong (Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack), The Vanishing (George Sluizer), The Day The Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise), Cinema Paradiso (Giuseppe Tornatore), Secrets And Lies (Mike Leigh), Johnny Stecchino (Roberto Benigni), Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud)...
'The Old Man And The Sea' (Ernest Hemingway), 'A Confederacy Of Dunces' (John Kennedy Toole), 'Perfume' (Patrick Süskind), 'Cannery Row' (John Steinbeck), 'The Master And Margarita' (Mikhail Bulgakov), 'The Collected Short Stories Of Roald Dahl', 'The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes' (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), 'Mr Bump' (Roger Hargreaves), 'Psychotic Reactions And Carburettor Dung' (Lester Bangs), 'Shots From The Hip' (Charles Shaar Murray), 'The English' (Jeremy Paxman), 'The Cheviot, The Stag And The Black, Black Oil' (John McGrath), 'Hamlet' (Willy the Shake), 'Bifocal' (William Stafford), 'Wires' (Philip Larkin), 'Kilpeck' (Fleur Adcock), 'As Much As You Can' (C.P. Cavafy), 'Mattina' (Giuseppe Ungaretti)...
Tom Baker, Jon Pertwee, Keith Richards, Sherlock Holmes, Sid Waddell, Stan Laurel, Ian Dury, Stephen Fry, Richard Thompson, Pyckwll and Shw, David Attenborough, Oliver Postgate, Kate Bush
Time becoming meaningless as I drink in the beauty of the waterfall at St. Nectan's Glen (Cornwall), a lightning storm over Monte Circeo (Sabaudia, Italia), feeling the ghosts of men in the tomb of the pyramid El Castillo at Chichén Itzá (Mexico), dawn over the Grand Canyon (Arizona, USA), walking along Brighton beach when it's deserted (UK), inside the Lovers Tree on Hampstead Heath (London), watching hippos at a watering hole at Kilaguni Lodge in the Tsavo game reserve (Kenya), eating well at the Taj Mahal restaurant (Penzance, Cornwall)...
Learning Italian, The Word podcast, driftwood, beach stones, shadows, unexpected surprises, stars in a clear night sky, looking at a woman I love while she sleeps, the way I feel when the right music hits the right spot at the right time, the sound of a Hasselblad shutter, sea urchins, manatees, slugs (well, someone's got to love them), a cigarette after a curry, crisp Autumn mornings, lightning storms out at sea, Cornish light, black coffee, Moleskine notebooks, Cowrie shells, 1960s Marvel Comics, Ant and Bee, Doctor Who, the wit and wisdom of Bill Hicks, Sunday night folksong at the Falkland Arms pub, moving burning firewood with my bare hands outdoors, Ingrid and Humph's reunion kiss in 'Casablanca', Laurel and Hardy, my mum's cooking, knowing I've just taken a great photograph...
Radiohead - South Park, Oxford 2001 (wet, heavenly, transcendent) • Neil Young with Booker T and The MGs - Finsbury Park, London 1992 (windy, loud, megalithic) • Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham - Embassy Rooms, London 1999 (soulful, dignified, intimate) • Jeff Buckley - Shepherds Bush Empire, London 1995 (eclectic, talented, sexy) • Richard Thompson - 100 Club, London 1999 (sweaty, funny, stunning) • Jimmy Page and Robert Plant - Shepherds Bush Empire, London 1998 (rock, and, roll) • Stevie Wonder - Wembley Arena, London 1987 (joyous, uplifting, funky) • Rubén González - Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club, London 1997 (graceful, celebratory, sensual) • Nirvana - Kilburn National, London 1991 (aggressive, melodic, historic) • 10cc - Hammersmith Odeon, London 1983 (my, first, gig)
Alessandra Pigni (ti amo), Paola Nolfi (grazie per tutto), Bruno Leonte, Anna Arca (www.aarcaphotography.com), Claudia Colella (www.claudiacolella.com), Paddy Summerfield (www.paddysummerfield.com), Annemette Rosenborg Eriksen, Nancy Browner, Mum and Dad and everyone else in my vast social circle...