While the snow fell endlessly earlier this year, Maddy and I booked a trip away to Valencia for a couple of months ahead - based mainly on the criteria that it must be baking hot and include a beach. When we finally arrived last week, the first thing that hit us was the heat - and the over-abundance of fruit sold on every corner.
With tropical ideals in mind, we ate cherries and peaches each day on the bright sandy beaches, drank orange juice cocktails on terraces in the evening, and cycled around the city taking in the palm trees and splashes of tiled colour on every building. We visited the Calatrava-designed complex in a surreal storm of purple lightning, and wandered through the cacti in the botanical gardens.
I carried my camera everywhere with an outline of creating a series based on the colours, forms and sheer heat of the city traced out. I wanted to combine these with Maddy's and my own portraits, taking direction from what I'd seen earlier that day. And most of all I wanted to channel the tropical heat of the holiday and our long, sunny days in the city.
