Live Encounters Magazine Volume Two November-December 2024.
Skyscapes of home, photo feature by Lynda Tavakoli.
Like most countries with a troubled past, Northern Ireland has often received a bad press. During the times of our own ‘Troubles’ it was a rare thing to enjoy images other than barricaded streets and the aftermath of bomb blasts etc. However, times have changed and thankfully most of the images we now witness on our screens or seen in print, depict the real beauty of this small country of ours, allowing it to shine brightly in its own right.
Today, Northern Ireland is a respected and popular tourist destination valued, not least of all, for the beauty and diversity of its scenery. Who could not admire the marvel of The Giant’s Causeway, the mystery of The Dark Hedges or the splendour of The Mourne Mountains, all of which create powerful images in themselves and are rightly highlighted in glossy magazines and stimulating documentaries.
Yet for me, there is wonder in the more ordinary scenes of everyday life here, not least of all within the changing skies that alter their form and mood from hour to hour, and often from minute to minute. As a poet, I have been accustomed to describing such images by using only words but increasingly, with the aid of a very modest and unsophisticated handbag camera, I have enjoyed creating visual images as well. In this limited collection of photographs taken locally near my home, I am discovering that there is actually poetry in everything, even without words.
But mercifully the pigeons and crows continue to survive !
© Lynda Tavakoli
Lynda Tavakoli is a professional member of The Irish Writers Centre and has been nominated for Best of the Net Awards and the Pushcart Prize (2024). Lynda’s poetry and prose have been published widely in journals, newspapers, anthologies and magazines, including Live Encounters Digital books. She has been the winner and runner-up of several International Literary Awards that include The Westival International Poetry Prize, The Blackwater International Poetry Competition, The Roscommon Poetry Competition and the Mencap International Short Story Competition. Lynda practises amateur photography and regularly uses her images to endorse the natural beauty of places where she has held residency, particularly in the Middle East. Her photographs from Iran, Bahrain, Oman and the UAE have been included in Lynda’s numerous travel articles and essays. More recently she has turned her attention closer to home, photographing subjects of interest in her native Northern Ireland, several which have been used as backdrops on BBC weather programmes.