Christian Banfield @christianbanfield - Tumblr Blog

Posts

In the states i love to walk - it always surprises people as i tend to not choose scenic routes but just A to B. In this instance to a mall some 6 miles away from where i was staying in New Orleans. The textures and colours and graphical lines please me.. immensely.

#nola #Street Photography

A perfect sunday with great food and amazing friends.

#leicasl #leica

First day in the cape, hottest day of the year so far, 6k walk from Muizenberg to Kalk Bay, fish and chips for lunch. 3 swims along the way.

#leicaq #capetown

Enthusiasm is the yeast that makes your hopes shine to the stars. Enthusiasm is the sparkle in your eyes, the swing in your gait. The grip of your hand, the irresistible surge of will and energy to execute your mind.

Henry Ford

Quote sent me by a client after shoot yesterday. So lovely to be seen this way.

Maison Plisson

Passionate foodie that I am I have been looking forward very much to visiting my friend Delphine's new deli/traiteur/restaurant in Paris. She stayed with us when in London and was researching it before opening at which time s she subjected us to the arduous task of tasting numerous cheeses from Neals Yard...

France has a tradition of traiteurs and delis that in my opinion have not really modernised with the times.. Till now. Maison Plisson sells every ingredient to cook a 15 course meal, It also sells ready made food and has a charming restaurant attached where the produce gets cooked once its at its peak of freshness and ripeness but not been sold - so there really is a daily excitement around cooking food in the moment.. Delphine has sourced over 400 unique suppliers to ensure that her produce is the very best in its category. As it was late morning when i visited last week and I had not had breakfast i decided to go for something that encompassed all the food groups - a classic french ham and cheese sandwich. Bread baked on site, creamy butter, comte cheese, ham and perfectly acidic and crispy cornichons. Every ingredient excelled..

Its also open 7 days a week.. totally un french.. I can’t wait to take Lucy there on our next visit.

#fieldtofork #deli #maison plisson #paris

TURNING JAPANESE.. I REALLY THINK SO

I learnt some rudimentary Japanese cooking skills from my very good friend Naoko Abe many years ago and often make simple home style meals for weekday dinners. Our passion and confidence for cooking asiatic cuisine grew manifestly from taking a cooking course at Miss Vy’s cooking school in Hoi An in Vietnam. So when we had pescatarian friends for dinner we decided to go for it.. One of the friends and I have been having a cook off in recent times - a gentle and warm competition to out do each other on each subsequent dinner party we have. Since we cooked this meal he blew us away with Lobster Thermidor etc etc.. He and his Mrs do the lovely Salon-London events and the Also Festival if you fancy a night or weekend out for a bit of culture with humour. Still a few tickets left for this year.

I really love the preparation stage. Laying out the various bowls and plates and utensils. Prepping ingredients. Mixing sauces and marinades where as chef Fergus Henderson likes to say “they can all get to know each other”.

The Tawana market on Chepstow road is good for the majority of ingredients needed. George’s fishmonger on Ladbroke grove is in my opinion the only place to buy fish in our neighbourhood. Salmon fillets for the main course. Sea bass and tuna for sashimi. There’s something so decadent about making sashimi at home. I say making in the loosest sense of the word as there really is nothing to it other than a sharp knife and some respect for the fish. I love to hold it. Look at it. Let it tell me in which direction to slice it..

The perfect accompaniment to the sashimi for me is cold green tea soba noodles. I first had them on a plane to Tokyo many years ago and since make them a couple of times a month for a weekday supper. You simply boil them till al dente and wash long and hard under very cold water. In a seperate bowl put some wasabi, some Tsuyu and a dash of ice cold water. Serve the noodles on a Japanese mat plate that drains if you have and garnish with chopped spring onion and some toasted nori - just take the nori sheet and wave it over the flame of your cooker or toaster if you don’t have gas till it dries and crisps up a bit, then slice into fingers. Finally Lucy made a fabulous Nasu Dengaku - miso basted baked aubergine..

#turning japanese #sashimi #cooking

Paris

Its been a few years since I spent time in Paris as a tourist. It was pleasantly refreshing. I love how the city juxtaposes old and new as you see here in this picture at the Louvre. I went for a couple of days with one of my oldest buddies Jared Hendler - digital marketing supremo, now heading up marketing at Sundance Film festivals globally. We have been getting the habit of the occasional little euro trip when he is this side of the pond- our last to Berlin. We stayed in Vincent Warins amazing Montmartre apartment thats available for rent on Airbnb.

Heres a few more moments of my trip…

Velib - The free city bikes, seem to be half the weight of the ones in london. Most streets that were one way, especially the small ones round the left bank are now also two way for bicycles meaning you can happily meander as your whim takes you. Angry Parisian drivers are super surprisingly extremely tolerant of cyclists. I did got get beeped at once in two days of cycling all over town. I think overall Parisians have gotten a dose of humility subsequent to suffering the recent financial depravations and terrorist attacks. They are really much more friendly than eve before.

Taxis.. I used to spend hours and days in Parisian cabs - fighting with the drivers who even though I speak like a local would try and take me long ways round town to inflate the fare.. They told good jokes but that was it. I was on expenses mostly but i hated wasting time on their charades.. Now Uber rules and they are friendly, open the doors, put bags in the boot, offer water and sweets, play ridiculously cool music and nothing is too much of a hassle - drop one here, collect another there its all about good service and ratings.. Waiters in touristy cafes and restaurant’s with a view are just as odious as ever.. less said the better - clearly not interested in earning their tips.

Gare Gorille is an amazing restaurant at the other end of the scale charming, attentive and knowledgeable staff. Outstanding ingredients simply but exquisitely combined for truly delicious food. Thanks to my super talented old friend Bertrand Gruyer for finding and booking. Check out his amazing street art photography in the link on his name.

My visit was topped off when i was at dinner last night - the somewhat loud but exquisitely eloquent brit at the next table was familiar to me but couldn’t work out where form - was he an actor i had cast at some stage..? I finally twigged it was Jamie Byng of Canongate publishing. We had been introduced once before in Portobello by mutual friends but it took being coincidentally sat in the corner of a garden on the banks of the Seine in Paris to have a proper conversation and to discover a great connection.

I have been researching the last few weeks a wholesale migration for my work cameras from Nikon to Leica. Colin Johnston at Leica has been incredibly helpful in facilitating this. This weekend its been the turn of the LeicaSL which i took out on our trip to the south bank yesterday. Courtesy of our great friend Cedering Fox of Wordtheatre fame we went to see Les Blancs and had a lovely drink with Elliot Cowan who co stars afterwards and discussed the play at length... Heres the results of my putting it through its paces.. low light contrasty situations etc - i think i am sold..but would love opinions?

#lesblancs #leicasl #wordtheatre #nationaltheatre #elliot cowan

Announcing departure of Flight 2016, your luggage should only contain the best souvenirs from 2015. The duration of the flight will be 12 months. There will be a stop over at peace & love, and another at adventure land. Fasten your seat belts, and remember to take a moment to look out the window from time to time, checking out the view is usually worth it.

Love this piece sent me by a friend as New Years greeting

A little colour to brighten up January - A shot from a shoot i did in Formentera with Jax May the incredibly talented Yoga teacher behind http://www.formenterayoga.com

rubyetc

I found these gifs I made a while back for a site that’s not running anymore, so I thought I’d post them here. It’s a description of psychiatric symptoms and states of mind using a pink box and some other stuff.

A THEORY about AGE

I have long held a theory about age and our journey through life being related to expanses of water - water being life, femininity and creativity.

If we look at the numbers.. those little jumps we make as milestones in our childhood - 10, 13,15,16,18,20,21 - all are marked in some way.. first decade, first teen, age to drink, smoke, have sex, drive, double decade and then the all powerful 21.. its then a short drift of four years till 25..

So lets take these little expanses of time of a year or two or four between these milestone birthdays and consider they might be small streams, rivers, the thames.. we cross, we make it to the other side, we mark the time.

So at 25 we kick off on a five year journey till our 30th - no more markers in this five year cruise.. so lets say this is across the English Channel.

At 30 we now have a far longer expanse ahead - a full ten years and so we commence our traverse of the Atlantic - a metaphorical ocean of big seas and calm patches.

At 40 we hit the Panama canal and cross through into the Pacific - warmer, tropical and changeable and certainly for most a more profound experience.

Well having formed this theory in my 30’s I didn’t have the maturity, age and experience to have the insight to see where life went beyond 50 and besides the theory had run out of ocean expanses to cross.. it was in my late 30’s that I was directing a TV commercial in Brussels. Out for dinner one night with my producer a one Armand Hiernick who was then around 60, Armand is [maybe was] a very bright and lovely man who had spent much of his life in analysis - a true Woody Allen character with a humour, charm and sophistication I admired - i decided to pitch this theory to him and ask if he could throw light on the subject of what happened post 50..

He was quick to answer and and in thick franco belge accent responded “ Ah… Christian it is very simple - after 50 you are in your own little lake.. an enclosed piece of water that is still and only occasionally troubled by wind but not currents - you are sat on your jetty surround by your family and friends”

Well i reckon he was right - at 51 and having had a tempestuous couple of years I am now settling into that lake and looking forward to fully realising myself in my third age - 50-80.

#age #fitatfifty