Dont believe the truth-The World Turns !

There we was, Here we are.

Images about Relationships

Images about Relationships!

Many photographers in history have turned the camera on there own life's and the people around them friends and family.
Currently there seems to be a trend in a lot of work where this is the case.
I find it hard to make good work from this subject matter the "how to photograph relationships of all forms and make that appealing to publishers, galleries and magazines.
There are few who can do it well! , when i say well mean the has the power to connect with universal emotions and feelings , that is the human condition. www.billcharles.com

http://alecsoth.com/photography/www.magnumphotos.com Antoine d'Agata

Nan Goldin

john stadnicki

http://www.johnstadnicki.co.uk/johnstadnicki/Welcome.html

It Started Here !

this is the room where it all started for me at the Stroud School of Art , i look at this image and i can still smell the dev so much mesmerism with the magic of first seeing the image appear in front of your eyes.............

been feeling the black and white just lately , loving think oil blacks and milky whites with the grain like golf balls.
Daido Moriyama www.moriyamadaido.com/english/




Garry Winogrand www.mocp.org/collections/permanent/winogrand_garry



bill brandt www.billbrandt.com


ANDERS PETERSEN http://www.anderspetersen.se/selectedworks.html


Trent Parke http://www.in-public.com/TrentParke

END OF YEAR BLOG

I can't believe its the end of a decade already.
I finish on a high note as for December was a month full of activity.
Not that i thought it would be, more snow than i can remember tho.
Which left me spending alot of time at my computer editing and staring vacantly at the screen from time to time.
But i did get out and about.
On a commission for a Antique,s dealer which is a type of job i am new to , but like to mix it up a little. I was able the make a portrait of the owner who is a very interesting guy and i now know more kinds of marble too lol.

One the last exhibitions i saw this year was right on my doorstep in Stroud.
DOUBLE TAKE at the Space gallery was a collaboration between Jimmy Edmonds and he,s daughter Rosa Edmonds.
Jimmy's work was yet another take on one of the oldest arena,s of photography.
The street all the portraits are controlled with Jimmy asking he,s subjects to close there eyes.I was inspired by the work as i consider myself a Street Photographer and have found Jimmy,s work to slip in to a take on the genre to be fresh and any work that makes me stop and think , be provoked and ask questions has for me a substance.
The exhibit was filled with portraits by Jimmy.
The running theme he is dealing with in he's work is trust with subject and maker and this provokes debate.
Rosa's work is again dealing with this but in the subject matter she turns her camera towards youth partly nude, the Sally Mannish inspiration is clearly seen in the work,
But for someone just finding her voice with the camera, there is a language learned.
In all i must say one of the beat shows i've seen at the space this year on all levels.

Now on to what inspired me this month two portraits the first is made by one of my fav photographers.
Nadav Kander.
I made this image (below) a long time before Nadav Kander,s image lolNadav Kander shot Gary Barlow for Take That,s new Album
I shot Jamie when i was at Uni, the funny thing is people did say he looked a little like Gary Barlow lol.

I will finish on this a chance moment\encounter with a modern day Shakespeare
the one and only John Cooper Clarke!
Went to see him at the Thekla in Bristol, we went for some food right next door and WHO turns up..........
My mates son is sat next to John how by the way almost adopted him.
Happy New Year Bring On 2011 !

From the HardDrive Archive

From the HardDrive Archive
Some portraits i found in the bottom of me archive.
I dusted them off and am putting them on the mantle-piece.

Teaching,Protests and 1940's Weddings

I had chance to run a one day workshop in Portraiture (approach's and techniques). On the Visual Anthropology MA at Kent University, i could not of timed it better than i did as there was a student march, protesting the Uni fees. Which lent itself to some interesting work made by the students in the class. They was ask to make two portraits of someone you know and some you don't. Very productive it was and some strong work made by all. I shall be returning next year for more teaching which i come to enjoy and just love being in that environment again.

Below is one of the portraits made by a member of the class.




I then headed to London for more work but while there i could not miss out on seeing the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize at the NPG. As i entered two of my own portraits and did not make to the finals i was interested to see what DID. There seems to be a move towards more of a open mind about portraiture this year as one of the finalist images is semi nude also there is a image made with a lot of movement and not all images are eye to eye with maker and sitting.
I personally pleased to see this as the genre is changing rapidly in the digital age and the repersention of us now has to reflect that.
Well here is my selection from the show , which is one of the best i've seen in a while.
I'll just have to wait for next to enter again?

Finally a image i made at a 1940's themed Wedding.
There attention to detail was something to be desired a totally ACE job one of the best Weddings i have had the pleasure of being a part of and to top it all off the Pearly King kicked off the nights entertainment.

Sweat As !

October Horror

The Rocky Horror is in town and i got a behind the scenes peek at the madness from Almost Legal Productions. I must say that i have not laughed like that for a while, nudity , cross dressing and of course the transvestites from transsexual. All in aid of charity of course.

Reality Street

Street Photography is getting alot more exposure of late.
What with the publication and exhibition of Street Photography Now
http://www.in-public.com/

Street Photography Now from Third Floor Gallery on Vimeo.

A book that is on the heart beat of what is happening now in that world.
Also there is The Street Photography Now Project in connection with the authors of the book and The Photographers Gallery a Flicker group http://www.flickr.com/people/streetphotographynowproject/ has been set up that will go on for 52 weeks until the reopening of The Photographers Gallery.
Digital photography has aloud a burst of creativity for so many that the streets are now alive even more so then at any other time. Its exciting, the street holds so much possibility for spontaneity and wonder that its is a endless subject that will present itself each time with new happenings.

Rally's and Light's

Its been a eventful week. I was involved in my first protest rally "No Tesco in Stokes Croft". Always surprising myself as where the camera takes me, this is a issue that is close to my heart as getting in to photography has concentrated me to the issue of Community and the displacement of it. This i have covered in Bristol before , a few years ago. On this occasion the people of Stokes Croft were protesting against the building plan of a Tesco in a vibrant arty mixed culture part of Bristol. Think east London. I followed the day on the move from Stokes Croft to the council house's on collage green. I was blowen away by the energy that the people of Stokes Croft and touched by there passion for something they believe in and could not understand the arrogance of Mr Tesco! We have to keep the high street from becoming Town of Everywhere!
http://notesco.wordpress.com/







I was commissioned this week by a company called Trainspotters.
A specialist in the antique lighting market but industrial, pre-war and communist decor is just a slice of what they are involved in.
I had the task of shooting a advert that will be going in to Elle decor and World of interiors.
The product was the Dunlop light which to my amazement as been a design godfather, i mean this has been copied time and time again.
But i had the fortune of working two days with the original.
I found it such a pleasing form to explore and with so much to explore in the show room i was spoiled for choice.

http://www.trainspotters.uk.com/

I LOVE BOOKS

I have always loved photography books.
I think it is the one true and best way for the a photographer manifest there work and not only that , it in many ways makes you immortal in the photographic world.
Alec Soth has got this down to a fine art.
He's latest manifestation is Broken Manual http://littlebrownmushroom.wordpress.com/broken-manual/.

A instruction manual for those looking to escape their lives, he has worked with writer Lester B. Morrison.
The book is another angle Soth is exploring a different take of the world.
But for me more than this is the design of the book.
It is a book inside a book. Made in a edition of 300 the book is housed in a one off hand cut shell book with a signed and numbered 8 by 10 print by the artist.
This is what i love about photography right now is a massive change in the way we publish and produce books and the way we view the printed page.
This is a must as much is becoming digital and the book needs take a stand.
Alec Soth is also a book lover modern book lover.
Got to love books!

http://littlebrownmushroom.wordpress.com/broken-manual/

http://vimeo.com/14759277

Galleries !

Well what a month August has been to be honest i have not stopped so sorry for late blog.
I have been involved in a exhibition in Bristol.At ThePhotoGallery http://www.photographique.co.uk/gallery/"Portrait" is the first of many shows been put on Phillip Searle who runs the place, lovely chap.Photographer's in the show are Beso Uznadze,Mike Chick,James Kriszyk,James Stroud,Ellie Davies,Sam Holden and Victoria Hall

There is some really interesting photographic exhibitions on in
London at the moment too.I went along to the Exposed
Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera at the Tate Modern.
One of the main reason's for me to visit it is that Philip Lorca Dicorcia's work is on show and i rate Dicorcia as one of my main inspirations in the photographic world.He's street photography work is cinematic stark and surreal,full of tension and atmosphere.A slice from he's series "head's" is part of the exhibit alongside some the great street photographer's of the last hundred years.
Over at the Photographer's Gallery there is a stunning showcase of Sally Mann,s work The Family and the Land. Which takes you on a visual journey of Mann's work which for me is on the edge, there is a glimmer of spirit and soul within the work but this is continually fighting with a dark energy which seems the spill out of Sally Mann's work.
A must go see!