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Amsterdam - a trip by First Light photographer Steve Parry

Steve Parry from First Light returned from the Dutch capital having engaged the city in a pictorialist style. From intriguing shots of its famous canals to avant-garde imagery taken in the red light district, the collected Amsterdam edition is now available to view on this site. Click on the picture below to go there.

Exhibition: February 2003

Featured The Seine, The Tuileries Gardens and The Eiffel Tower in Paris, and Panoramic prints. Paris on a cold, clear January day. Walking from Isle St.Louis to the Eiffel tower, the long shadows of dusk contrast with the illuminated carousels. The unique vision of the Eiffel Tower appears at unusual angles, whilst the statues in the Tuileries Gardens offer a coldly thoughtful perspective to the viewer.

The exhibition was held at the First Light Gallery, 3 Nile Street, Brighton, open Tues-Sat 10.30-4.30pm, Sun 2.00-4.00pm. See our Contact Us page for a link to a map of how to get there.

'Statue and Frozen Pond, Paris' by Mark Nelson

Miami Journal: August 8th-16th 2002

First Light photographers Mark Nelson and Steve Parry report on their week-long photo-shoot in Florida's city of Miami:

Day one: South Beach Miami. Checked into the Villa Paradiso Apartments on Collins Ave after a nine hour flight (but upgraded to first class!), thank God for air conditioning as it's 100 degrees outside and ninety percent humidity. Recce along Ocean Drive, the main 'drag' by the beach in the evening.
Day two: Pre-dawn. Thought I would feel tired but can't wait to get going. The sunrise over South Beach is phenomenal. Setting up with tripods, we have one eye on the vagrants camping on the beach and the other on getting this amazing scene on film. It's a rim of red on the horizon and a purplish thundery sky, an endless white beach with coloured beach patrol stations. Breakfast at the Cardozo restaurant (owned by Gloria Estefan) of French toast, strawberries and bananas. Evening shoot on the beach again.
Day three: Dawn at 'Camelot', our nickname for the stripy tents and kiosks with coloured flags on the beach near the Loews Hotel. This morning it's a fiery sky with tankers on the horizon line. I shoot my first triptych panorama. Swimming later, and Manta Rays come within touching distance of the bathers. Helicopters and lifeguards continually check the bathing areas for sharks and jellyfish. The water is very warm. That evening we watch the 'beautiful people' parade along Ocean Drive. They are making a movie about Versace so there is a lot of filming going on at his villa on the strip.
Day four: Shooting the art deco on Ocean and Collins Avenues. Best time is dusk when the lights come on. In the late 1930s a group of Miami architects started building in this style (begun in Paris at the turn of the century) using local limestone and stucco to produce a style which became instantly fashionable in this area known as SoBe (South Beach).
Day five: Some friends take us to Coral Gables, a rich, quiet area of quiet boulevards and leafy streets lined by elaborate Spanish and Italian styled architecture. The local pool, a recent quarry conversion is surrounded by quasi Venetian architecture and very photogenic.
Day six: Last full day. We had all the films processed locally to check for exposure mistakes and to avoid too much X-Ray. Very pleased with the results, 45 rolls shot between us.
Day seven: Back home, cramped in economy, overnight. Starting to think about the cricket scores and the darkroom work to come... and the cool of Summer in England!

Mark Nelson & Steve Parry

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