Received a copy of the French dvd of Pavee Lackeen which has just been released!

Recently back from the Architectural Biennale in Venice. Delighted to see so many photographs. There’s a special focus on Thomas Struth. One of my favourites is the post-apocalyptic ‘Crosby street, Soho, New York, 1978’ (above) which on closer inspection is clearly taken post snow storm. There are significant contributions from Irish architects O’Donnell + Tuomey and Grafton Architects. And Heneghan Peng were selected to create the Irish Pavilion. In the furthest corner of the Arsenale is a pavilion showing a short film by Wim Wenders on Swiss architect Peter Zumthor. It’s only about eight or nine minutes long but worth going to Venice just to see this little gem.

Only just seeing the Gaudi-inspired story I shot for Anthropologie back in July. It was my first ever trip to Barcelona and we had fantastic access to the Gaudi buildings - even if we did have to shoot some of the pictures at 4 in the morning!

Try to see this film. It's a video diary of sorts following five or six years in the life of West Bank farmer Emad Burnat from the day his son is born. Emad documents the weekly protests in his village, Bil'in, against the building of the barrier/wall. It's harrowing and haunting but beautiful in its honesty and intimacy. Many congratulations to co-directors Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi on producing an important film. Great to see a Palestinian and Israeli working together.

I was at Mercy College secondary school in Coolock, North Dublin, for the launch of ‘A Window on The Lane’, a book of writings and poems by the 4th year students, all inspired by works in the Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane. The book is published by Fighting Words – a literacy centre set up by Roddy Doyle and Sean Love in 2009 to promote and encourage creative writing for young people of all ages. I was asked to write a foreword for the book and duly obliged! Roddy was inspired by Dave Eggers’ literacy project 826 Valencia in San Francisco. Fighting Words – it’s a fantastic initiative. www.fightingwords.ie

Just back from Florence and the opening of the exhibition 'Francis Bacon and the Existential Condition in Contemporary Art' at the Palazzo Strozzi. The exhibition presents works by Bacon and five contemporary artists. They are also showing various items from Bacon's studio and a small selection of my photographs of the studio. www.strozzina.org

The website is finally ready! It's taken longer than I thought because going back through the archive has been time consuming and distracting - it's too easy to get lost in the past! There's more to come, but right now I'm taking a break...