Houses

Ani Gompa nunnery, Tagong /  by Liesl Pfeffer

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 Ani Gompa nunnery, Tagong
Sichuan, China
June 2018

We walked to this small village on a hill crowned by the Ani Gompa nunnery and its large stupa. It was about two or three hours by foot from the small town of Tagong. It was a beautiful walk through fields of grazing yaks. Unfortunately the clouds were very low on our days in Tagong so we didn’t see the mountain peaks that we knew were all around us. As we left Tagong by minivan in the direction of Kanding, we drove through a high mountain pass that was covered in snow despite it being summer.

Outside Kampot /  by Liesl Pfeffer

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Kampot region, Cambodia
April 2018

We hired a motorbike and Nico drove us through dirt roads surrounded by rice fields. The drive was a bit wild after it rained all night; there was mud everywhere and we had to go slowly. A truck overtook us and splashed us head to toe with mud down our left sides. We bought a few bottles of water and washed some of the mud off ourselves, and some friendly guys on the other side of the road washed our motorbike for 2,000 riel ($0.50). We stopped for lunch at a roadside stand next to Secret Lake and ate the spiciest green papaya salad that I have ever eaten. We ate with tears pouring down our faces, constantly sipping sugar cane juice and breathing heavily. We visited a cave with green moss-covered walls and stalactites hanging from the ceiling that surrounded a 1,300 year old temple. Our guides were two local kids (literally kids) who pointed out shapes in the cave that looked like a turtle, an elephant, an alligator and a pig. We drove home at dusk, the highway full of trucks and rickshaws.

Haefligers Cottage /  by Liesl Pfeffer

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Hill End Artist Residency, NSW
Australia
February 2018

I spent the month of February living alone in this absolute dream of a worker's cottage built 150 years ago around the time of the gold rush. The whole house and studio were mine to sit, read, make and cook within. It was a magic time for me, listening to the birds eating in the fruit trees, saying hello to the kangaroos on my way to and from the outdoor toilet and going for long walks through the bush at the end of a day in the studio. I worked on cyanotypes on fabric using found native flora, and made ten new abstract collages from photographs. 

Front yards /  by Liesl Pfeffer

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Inner North, Melbourne
September 2017

Joy gave me some expired slide film after sorting through some old boxes at her parents' house. I decided to cross process the film, and yes, a lot of the roll is way too green and high contrast, but some of them turned out okay. These are from a photo walk with Nico around Carlton North and Brunswick. 

Wassaic /  by Liesl Pfeffer

Wassaic, New York
July 2016

Photographs from a good day last summer. First, swimming in a secret swimming hole at the end of a dirt road, then talking and laughing on the front porch with my dear friend Giada while a rainstorm poured down around us. 

Greenpoint yards /  by Liesl Pfeffer

Yards
Greenpoint, Brooklyn
July 2016

Eight or nine months have gone by since I took these pictures. I remember it was a hot day and I was sad and anxious—sad from the recent ending of a long term relationship and anxious about my rapidly approaching departure from New York. I went for a walk around my neighbourhood with my camera, to look at things outside myself. It seems appropriate that I ended up making a portrait of these sad plants and sad yards.

Frida Kahlo's Blue House /  by Liesl Pfeffer

Museo Frida Kahlo
Coyoacan, Mexico City, Mexico
January 2016

I am very fortunate to be able to say I've been to the Blue House twice. The first time I didn't pay for a photography permit, but this time, knowing what I would find, I did. This is the house where Frida Kahlo lived with her husband Diego Rivera - and it is also where she was born and where she died. The house is filled with a deep sense of gravity, as well as much light and beauty.  

City Island, Bronx /  by Liesl Pfeffer

City Island, Bronx, NY
November 2015

Afraid that soon it would be too cold for day tripping, in early November we went on a little adventure up to City Island in the Bronx. It's been on my list of things to do in New York for oh... four years. City Island is a small island (one mile wide and one and a half miles long) with a ship building past and a sleepy old town feeling (you really don't feel like you're in NYC anymore. But you are!) It takes about an hour and a half to get there from Brooklyn (two trains and a bus) so I guess that why it took us a while to get around to visiting. 

On our walk down the main street of the island, we found two church thrift stores. I bought an amazing boat themed sweater for $2 and Adam bought a new-looking pair of Doc Martens for $5. We trawled through a couple of nautical-junk filled antique stores (Nicolas bought small glasses for 50c apiece) and then ended up at the main attraction, Johnny's on the water, at the southern end of the island. We went for the seafood but we stayed for the pina coladas. This place is a feast for the eyes as well as the tummy, with old school signage, baskets of fried seafood and a seagull-filled patio area, and cafeteria tables where leather clad bikers sit alongside old ladies drinking daiquiris. It is as excellent as it sounds.