Photography

Top 10 Happiest Moments of Architectour London

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I’ve always believed in the importance of the journey, it makes us less judgmental of yesterday and has hope for every tomorrow. We are a work in progress and what happens in between is what matters. For the past year, I’ve worked full time on a dream called Architectour, and what an incredible journey.

This is a collection of my dearest moments that I want to share with you today. In no chronological order.

If you haven’t yet, you can get a copy of your London Guide now.

1. Drawing on sunny days
Drawing outdoors, even in the coldest days of January, is one of the activities I enjoyed the most. It helps me create a deeper memory of the site as I pay attention to the details I won’t normally perceive. The days that the sun was bright in the sky were a treat and I remember all of them and where I was thanks to the drawings I made.

 

2. People behind every visit
Who takes your pictures? is a question I get sometimes. Many of my visits I was lucky to enjoy it with a friend on their lunch break, during the weekend or someone who happened to be visiting London at that time. Every place reminds me of someone as I never returned with a different person. It was mostly friends who took my best pictures.

 

3. The feeling of progress
Sometimes we aren’t aware of the massive amount of work we are doing. We are deeply immersed in our passions and in the charm of small daily accomplishments. However, in the middle of my working mornings, especially the tough ones, I was stricken by a sudden light of consciousness realizing that I was perhaps creating something big, maybe my life’s dream. And then I felt powerful and full of energy. Every day I realized how fast my dreams were materializing.

 

4. The hidden beauty
London is fully of beauty, on every corner. It’s just so obvious to anyone who is not running from one place to each other that I’m unsure hidden is even the appropriate word. I still feel nostalgic remembering decadent architecture overtaken by nature, or random love in the middle of the street.

 

5. Meeting strangers
A random old man in Christ Church (Spitalfields), drawing a corner of the building. He engages in a conversation that includes telling me he is a famous artist. The turn-away smile of a business man arriving to Canary Wharf’s tube station. The complicity of the worker at Tate Modern, letting me go upstairs to take the shot-which-is-crucial-to-my-career, whilst not being a member. Sharing an angle with another photographer while taking a long shot of Tower Bridge (another one). The stories I’ve experienced and listened to are so incredible that I will write about them one day.

 

6. The love of friends and family supporting me on this journey
One of the most rewarding things of this project is the shared love. I get excited easily but getting your mum excited about quitting your job is not so easy. However, at some point, my closest circle was very excited about all that was going on. The questions, greetings and laughter made me keep going on. You can’t imagine how grateful I am for this, it was the fuel I needed.

 

7. Sneaking in
I will confess some type of pleasure every time I managed to sneak in. “Private property”, “only members” or prohibitions of that sort meant nothing to me. Every day I faced a challenge, some of them didn’t even have a happy ending but it was fun. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t wearing a Balaclava and breaking lockers. Sometimes I was wearing a pretty dress and claiming I wanted to join that exclusive gym while taking pictures with my GoPro which was hidden between the coat sleeves.

 

8. The last visit
There I was in front of Karl Marx’s tomb realizing: that was it, I was done with all the visits. It takes courage to start your first guide with over 400+ locations but even more of that to finish it. It was a weirdly satisfying feeling given that I was facing a massive statue in the middle of a cemetery.

 

9. The first time I had the guide in my hands
I hadn’t slept properly in a week, probably more. I was in a parallel reality, the deadline reality to be precise. We agreed a really good price for a first draft, 65€ for an almost empty book seemed a fair deal (I joke). The best part, continuing with the humor, was that the pages were printed the wrong side. I was very angry as you can imagine, given that I still had to pay the full price. However, when I was driving back home, I put my favorite song and realized how ironic the situation was. The secret? The back-to-front guide was the one I had to use for all the photoshoots and videos.

 

10. Surpassing my own limits and knowing it
What if you could do your very best for a long time? What if at every challenge you were able to reframe the problem? We are often told that in falling there is an opportunity to stand up again. But falling is no easy task, it hurts and it’s humiliating sometimes. However, practice makes perfect. Every day I saw it as new fight to overcome whatever problems were on my way. And voilá, I saw myself getting better and better.

 

+1 Smashing the Kickstarter Campaign
We achieved 100% soon after our first day on Kickstarter. The best part? the shared excitement with my friends. Everyone was seeing the numbers going up as terrified and amused as me. Every whats’app, every call, every Tweet made me realize how lucky I am of the friends that surround me. THANKS if you were one of them 🙂

 

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27 thoughts on “Top 10 Happiest Moments of Architectour London”

  1. Lovely post, Virginia. While all the photos are lovely, I think the one of you in front of the peeling rose pink facade is one for the frames. It does take courage to put out your own books out there, yes, so a big thumbs-up and hugs xx

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    • Hello Arundhati, how is Wednesday going? The picture you mention is one of my favorite spots, I have a funnier pic with 10 friends. It was a challenge not to laugh with everyone in front making funny faces. I love this picture in part for that reason hehe. I am still self-judging myself but I feel I am a little more courageous now 🙂
      Thanks for being part of those positive people I mention, I am grateful!

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      • You are welcome, V. I am a self-conscious person when it comes to photos so anything that makes me look human, I thank the lord above 😉 Yours are lovely. Wednesday is going okay. My husband is off to India for a few days because my FIL is in hospital and it has us worried. I cannot go. We move countries in a few days and have to sort out things. So a little busy apart from which started feeling a bit lonely already even though my husband is still here getting ready to go fly.

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        • Oh no, I am sad to hear this. Whereabouts in India is your husband’s father? When would you be moving? I hope you still have a margin to make things work. Don’t feel lonely, sending you lots of love to the north. In between work, use the worry to write fiction, it always helps ❤️

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        • Thanks for your sweet words and love. They bring me comfort. My husband’s parents live in Delhi. We move to New York. I cannot imagine leaving this, Home that is, but we gotta do what we gotta do. Just feeling a little maudlin but once evening comes, and he is off, I shall go running and feel better. Slip into a routine of sorts. I am working on something non-fiction actually. You have a lovely day xx

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        • Running always helps, it clears my mind too. Good luck with the moving, I feel you as I will be moving to NY in August, since the campaign is going so well. Hope you are moving for the better 🙂 Have a lovely day too Xx

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        • Exactly, clearing the mind and a surge of the happy hormones 🙂 Good luck for your move too! For now the move is definitely looking good but I shall leave a big piece of my heart behind. Maybe I will see you on the other side of the pond 🙂 xx

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  2. Pingback: My Biggest Work is Now on Kickstarter | Virginia Duran Blog

    • Y en más de una. Contigo he visitado unos cuantos sitios a lo tonto hehehe. Lo siento pero parte de mis recuerdos contigo son en un cementerio hahah 😜
      Ganas de verte pronto!

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    • Thanks Sally, I am enjoying every second of it. A big thank you for being part of the amazing people that have been encouraging me. Hope everything is good with you 🙂

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