Thursday 28 May 2009

Cumbria.


Image copyright Stuart James Cree Parker (now that's what I call a name!)


The University of Cumbria, or to be more exact Photography at the University of Cumbria seems to be going from strength to strength. Certainly some interesting work coming out of both the under and post grad courses. Check here.http://cumbriaphotography.ning.com & http://maphotography.ning.com Also good to see work by the people who have been doing the teaching! http://cumbria.ning.com/

Question?

I like this shot. I like the patterns, the colour the shapes, but as a piece of Art does it show me anything more than the original idea that was on the sketch pad of the architect/designer? Unlike a lot of other Aeriel shots it seems to show me nothing more than what the original creator intended, so as anything more than an illustration of park design what's it's point? Discuss.......
P.S I have not credited the photographer who took this as knowing how google works I do not want this post to link to his name as it could be construed as a negative comment on his/her work and I don't want to do that, even though I am mearly using this shot to raise what I think is a valid quetion. Should you want to know more about the work you can find details here.


Tuesday 26 May 2009

For obvious reasons,

there will be no post tomorrow!

The National Photography Symposium, here in Manchester.

You can now buy tickets for this Redeye's major event for 2009. The tickets can be bought here. Although you may have to take out a small bank loan.

John Angerson (again) And Photographing Merry olde England.



Images copyright John Angerson
I first featured the work of Leeds based photographer way back in October 07
I am mentioning him again because of his current work in progress "English Journey" inspired by JB Priestley's 1934 book of the same title. As Simon Robert's says "these are interesting times for photographers documenting England". There's a few photographer's taking on this mammoth task at the moment, Angerson Simon Robert's, where I found out about this project and also photographing England is Mark Power and his superbly titled "DESTROYING THE LABORATORY FOR THE SAKE OF THE EXPERIMENT".

John's chosen to carry out the work on 5x4 which gives the work a whiff of Soth, (yes I know Soth shoots 10x8 stop splitting hairs) particularly with the portraiture, nowt wrong with that it's just an observation. Power's work is decidedly bleaker. It's a hell of a brave confident task making a series about a subject so large as a country, especially one with as much history (and baggage) as England, I wish them well.

Read an interview with John over on Ben Roberts blog

Southport.

Image copyright Mark Page

Friday 22 May 2009

Seeing As

This blogs coming up to it's second anniversary I thought I would decorate the old place a little. And to celebrate that fact, and the new decor I thought I'd take you all on the virtual piss.














Thursday 21 May 2009

New Cliches of Photography #10


Calling exhibitions and books things Like, (re)this or (something)similar where half the (fucking)title is (in)brackets........

Thomas Paine

What we need now is another drunken pamphleteer, ( a pamphleteer, that's just an olde worlde blogger ain't it?) to draft us out a constitution and start a brave new world in British politics.

Wednesday 20 May 2009

RJ Shaughnessy.



One of the bestest things about this blogging lark is that sometimes you get free stuff. A bit like MP's do but without the fear of being branded a thieving c##t.
So imagine my joy when through the post came RJ Shaughnessy's book "Your Golden Opportunity Is Comeing Very Soon"

There's 500 of these beauty's gone out there and I've got #200 and I feel blessed. I got a feeling about this book, it feels special It's a lovely thing, It's a first class example of The photo book as an item of Art in it's own right. The actual images inside are like no other images of California I've seen and it's shown me something and made me think about things that are new . RJ has his own vision, something that is all too often missing from a lot of the work I see being made. Tip Top!


Tuesday 19 May 2009

Alice Hawkins.

Image copyright Alice Hawkins
Sometimes there's more to fashion photography than flogging frocks. Alice Hawkins work flips between Fashion & Art, and can be seen at her forthcoming solo here at Blackpool.

Monday 18 May 2009

Reality TV by David Dunnico.

A timely film by longtime friend of Manchester photography,

Reality TV by David Dunnico
Screening on the BBC Big Screen
Exchange Square Manchester
All times are approximate
Sat 16 May 10:10am 2:10pm 5:25pm 7:00pm
Sun 17 May 9:10am 11:10am 6:40pm 9:40pm
Mon 18 May 9:10am 11:10am 2:10pm 5:10pm 9:10pm 10:50pm
Tue 19 May 9:10am 11:10am 2:40pm 5:10pm 9:10pm 10:50pm
Wed 20 May 9:10am 11:10am 2:10pm 5:10pm 11pm
Thurs 21 May 9:10am 10:55am 2:40pm 5:10pm 9:10pm 10:50pm
Fri 22 May 9:10am 11:10am 2:40pm 5:10pm 9:10pm 10:45pm

Film also be shown the following week at times to be arranged. Or see it at: http://vimeo.com/3956204

More about the Big Screens at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bigscreens

Glen Erler.

Image copyright Glen Erler
I've featured that many photographers here at Manchester Photography that I'm beginning to repeat myself! As long as the works as good as this who cares!

Friday 15 May 2009

Dead Pigeon's Society.

Image copyright Mark Page

This is a follow on from the last 3 posts, and it goes like so.

I'll be looking through a photographers portfolio, traditional documentary work usually about something "urban" by fantastic artists, powerful thought provoking work, original takes on gritty realism and then dunk like one bum note struck by an otherwise flawless Halle Orchestra an image of a dead pigeon appears. Why are photographers of our inner cities so prone to drop in an image of the poor dead birdy? Is it because in our sanitised society it's our only experience of raw death? Is it because it's an easy metaphor for so much that's wrong, of rot, filth etc?

And so it's there, another big screaming (or perhaps cooing) photo cliche,

But wait just a mo, this one is different than the 3 previous listings. This is one born out of accident out of not enough thought, out of taking your eye off the ball, at worst out of laziness.

It's different than the other cliches below and here. They are born out of cynicism, out of a desire to produce what the art establishment tells folk is good and therefore sells. Nothing more than pointless copies that have nothing to say and that end up devaluing the work of the artist who had the original thought, and in turn the art of photography as a whole.

So I accept that there maybe "no such thing as an original thought" we can all have "Dead pigeon" moments but as far as the Cliche crew and purveyor's of taste go, you're just fucking knobs.....

Tuesday 12 May 2009

You can take your ID cards and shove them up your fat corrupt arses.............

Nigel Grimmer.

Image copyright Nigel Grimmer

I've tagged up Nigel Grimmer under "Artists" rather than "Photographers" I couldn't decide. I almost put him down under "Photographers" coz he does take photo's clearly. Sometimes though he doesn't, he makes things, or arranges them. but then he photographs them. Sometimes he gets people to wear furry animal masks and directs them almost like performance, but then fuck, he photographs them.

Blurry boundaries, a look at popular culture and having some fun with Art/Photography smashing......

Monday 11 May 2009

Why Are we Such A Spineless Load of Fuckers?

Well we are aren't we. We'll tut, tut And moan and then as usual do sweet FA. I include myself, I'll write here so what? The economy's shot, civil liberties have gone, coppers killing people, BNP on the rise and now MP's robbing us. Never mind can't wait till Saturday and Britain's Got Talent.

The Daily Nice.

Jason Evans posts one photograph a day on his site The Daily Nice more of an ongoing art project than a blog, Jason uploads the one single image per day and that's all it lasts 24 little hours. No archive no other info just the one image. A quiet, calm place on the image saturated web. More info and other work on Jason's other site The New Scent.

Sunday 10 May 2009

Hey Hey Hey

Image copyright Jennifer Loeber

Hey Hot Shot, competition is now closed. This comp is a pretty big deal, and once again I've not entered it. It's partly down to money, the cost of entering it always puts me off and partly down to, I don't know, always waiting to make that slightly better image.

You can now see the work of all the people who did have the money and self-belief and entered this time, HERE Loads to see. Some good, some great and some well, expected work. Well worth a look though.

Albion.


Image copyright Mark Page

Wednesday 6 May 2009

Night photography & Me.



















































Images copyright Mark Page

The above pictures I made between 2000 and around 2005. I used to love photographing at night. I shot them using film and old medium format camera's. Bloody great exposure times, just me and my camera out at 4, 5AM, often in lonely backstreets, the Adrenalin pumping like fuck at every sound, aware of every ranting drunk, every blagging smack head.I hope there's some fear, some tension in these pictures, I hope so because often I almost shat.............

I loved photographing at night because of the above reasons and because I loved the work of Brassai and Rut Blees Luxemburg, they were my nocturnal heroes.

I photographed at night because of the subject matter. These old abandoned structures I thought suited the night, this is when they oozed atmosphere, history. And then there were the colours that were produced from the long exposure and the artificial light, oh some of of those plum Sky's!

There was no cold calculated concept behind my nocturnal adventures. It was as simple as, the aesthetic suiting the subject, It helped to conjure an atmosphere that I wanted to capture.

There's been of late a lot of snobery from certain quarters about night photography, I'll admit that sometimes it can be used as a "crutch" It's often easy to get wow factor with little substance behind the pretty image, but hey that can be levelled at toy camera photography, pinhole photography or old, antiquated techniques photography, but those for some reason seldom receive the same amount of criticism.

I may no longer make night time photography myself, I moved on as in the end I was getting lazy and for me it became a gimmick I had come to rely on, but I still love to lose myself in good night shots made by others, and I'm sure I always will.

Monday 4 May 2009

Written In Blood.

Although I can't help admiring the bravery and sheer vision of the authorities in New Zealand in using huge billboards that cry blood (no, you have read it right) when it rains, to highlight the danger's of speeding in difficult driving conditions, I'm sure that if I was driving past and it happened to start, I would shit myself and think I had had an acid flashback and plough straight into the path of oncoming traffic thus defeating the object of the exercise...................... HERE for full story.

Albion

Image copyright Mark Page

Sunday 3 May 2009

(Re)Presenting Poverty.

Manchester based photographer Mishka Henner is part of:
(Re)presenting Poverty, a major new exhibition which sets out to explore different notions, representations and manifestations of 'poverty' within a global context. The exhibition features newly commissioned work in film and photography by five artists who examine poverty in its many guises. The participating artists are: Jessica Dimmock (New York), Mishka Henner (London), Sharron Lovell (Shanghai), Subhash Sharma (Mumbai) and Ali Taptik (Istabul). Presenting contrasting styles and approaches to their 'subject', the artists reveal hidden and untold stories of communities and individuals in contrasting geographical, social and cultural contexts, where the issue of poverty is often underwritten by politics of class, race and migration. Mindful of issues of voyeurism, objectification and condescension, the exhibition and related events series aim to challenge thinking and encourage debate about the conventional modes and mechanisms through which poverty is often represented and understood.

Mishka's work for the project can be see here: http://pa.photoshelter.com/gallery/All-That-Life-Can-Afford/G0000NEdehpjB0TA It will be on show at The London School of Economics with an opening night on te 6th May. He will also be talking about the work HERE & HERE.