Thyme & Capers – Alternative Views of Santorini

No apologies for being away, been away. Now back. Here are some pictures.

I have been thinking about why I take digital photos. They are, of course, a memory store, the archetypal crap holiday snaps, or travel pics, a moment captured.
But I tend to focus, mind and then lens, on details, tiny things that so often go unnoticed, views that you will not find in the travel brochure that accompanies Brand Holiday Destination. The sun bouncing off the paintwork on a tantalizingly padlocked door; a piece of graffiti declaring love between two unknown and never to be met people, on a black rock next to a church on a hill; the rusting wheelbarrow at the back of the church; a discarded flower, perhaps passed to a child or a lover as a gift or an attempt at reconciliation, tossed away and stamped on, left as unloved and unnoticed as the giver of the gift.
All this attention to detail, beyond capturing, I hope, some beautiful images out of the casual chaos of an everyday life, also helps me in some therapeutic way to find beauty in the everyday. I delight in the detail. At the best moments I feel a childlike wonder at the world and all it’s tiny elements.
Of course, it doesn’t always work, and the feeling never lasts, but for those moments when I see a lonely chair on the edge of a dusty, cracked concrete jetty and think – yes, this is beauty, it’s really rather wonderful.
So here are a selection of pictures taken on a real holiday in Santorini, the Greek island that really is one of the most beautiful places on the face of the earth. There are plenty of padlocked doors and wide open spaces, vertiginous views and delightful details. Enjoy.