Rewards for the Translator-Photographer

The dull lockdown period, with limited activities and less work, has been brightened up by a couple of perks this month.

This past winter (and the winter before), I translated the catalogue and other texts for the pan-European photography festival CIRCULATION(S), which takes place in Paris and a few other EU countries each spring. This year, the festival was celebrating ten years of going from strength to strength. As a photographer in my spare time, I just love working with this client and feeling part of such an exciting event. Sadly, the pandemic did not allow the festival to last beyond the preview and the festival could only happen online.

That is, until mid-June. As the déconfinement started in France, CIRCULATION(S) was able to re-open their doors to the public until the end of July. As a bonus, I was sent a copy of the catalogue! For the thousands of words that translators re-write each year, we rarely see our work “in the flesh”, and I am always grateful and thrilled to see how my work has taken shape. Seeing that little section of pride grow on my bookshelf is also highly rewarding.

And just to prove that I do not solely translate texts about art and photography, I had started, just before lockdown, a new photographic project on colourful houses around Bristol, where I live. I am pleased to report that my series Rainbow City was published in the local paper Bristol 24/7 on 4 June.