that's all folks,

at least for 2010. Have a great Christmas and I'll be back in January.

I knew one was coming and I'm glad it's come from Manchester's BlackLab. I thought it might be a CYBER CHE poster that came out but I'm liking this, and the whole broken dream irony of it all.

Stuart Griffiths.

Picturehouse Cinemas Present Isolation from Institute For Eyes on Vimeo.

"Many years ago I was a coffin bearer for a fallen comrade. I remember feeling the weight as we lowered the coffin into the grave and then afterwards folding the Union Flag and presenting it to the mother & father. Through photography I want to convey a sense of personal feeling about sacrifice. These journeys take me to many corners of the UK. I am fascinated by the people that gather in the wind and rain, whom line the sixty mile route with salutes and Union Flags, from RAF Lyneham to John Radcliff Hospital in Oxford, on each day a fallen soldier returns home."

Stuart Griffiths

I've been following Stuart's work for a few years and the above quote introduces a more recent series photographs called 'Final Journey'. Stuart Griffiths is making important records on the effects of conflict on British servicemen and their families, and more and more people are beginning to take note as can be seen HERE, HERE and HERE.

Image copyright Mark Page

A title page.

The Genius Of Photography.

The whole of the series from a few years ago THE GENIUS OF PHOTOGRAPHY is now on YOUTUBE. Cheers for the 'tipoff' DUCKRABBIT.

Gordon Stettinius

Image copyright Gordon Stettinius

Them crazy Americans. Gordon Stettinius.

Who says Britain no longer manufactures and exports anything? Sorry is that in bad taste? No you're right, taking the piss out of Britain's lack of a manufacturing base is no laughing matter....

NOORDERLICHT PHOTOFESTVAL 2011 Call For Submissions

Fuck me a call for submissions that wont cost you any money ! HERE for details. Well done that festival.

Percy Dean.

Image copyright Percy Dean

Manchester has the largest Jewish population in the UK outside of London and I live just down the road from them and have done for years, yet I know next to nothing about them. This no doubt says something about me as well as so called multicultural Britain. Manchester photographer PERCY DEAN has made more of an effort to get to know this community with his series 'Clouds of Glory' and in the process produced a fine set of images.

This Time Next Week......

I shall be showing pictures HERE as I'm one fifteenth of MEATYARD ARTS. Click on flyer to enlarge and then print it off as it's your invite.

Bag(s) of Shite.

Images copyright John Darwell.

Yep that's what they are, bags of shite. Bags of dog shit to be exact. Or to give the work it's full title 'DISCARDED DOG SHIT BAGS' by John Darwell. A typology of a very modern phenomenon and I'm guessing a pretty British one. Go to beauty spot to commune with nature, into the lovely park land and then when your dog shits place it in a plastic bag and hang it from a tree like some fucking hellish totem. Once you stop giggling at the idea and disgust of the series it 'throws up' (no pun intended) all kinds of modern life nonsense. Another spin knowing John is that the exhibition prints will be spot on so beautiful prints of horribleness. You'll want to look but then a bit of sick will be in your mouth at the same time as you have a wry smile on your face. It will be a messy time at The 2011 FORMAT FESTIVAL where you will be able to see the series next march.

Corrie.

UK readers will no doubt know that this week (actually Thursday 9th) marks the 50th anniversary of the worlds longest running TV soap opera. I make no apologies for loving 'The Street', almost as much as anything or anyone it's been a huge influence on the photographs I make. Above are two original pictures I was given of a newly built GRANADA STUDIOS dating from 1958 two years before CORONATION STREET went live, look at them ashtrays and HP sauce bottles on the table! In case you missed it on tonight's TV below is the first ever episode. Produced only seven years before I was born It seems such a different Manchester (or Salford) and a different country but has much in common with an England I can remember as a kid. It represents a different type of romantic vision of England. Not the chocolate box country cottage home counties England, but the close knit communities of a Northern industrial working class town, like the ones that throughout the next few decades were systematically destroyed by successive governments and councils of both persuasions. The continuing success of the show is probably due to romance and nostalgia for times past, as well as being bloody good telly. Tony Warren knew that the daily lives of ordinary streets and people could be both fascinating and comforting and were already beginning to disappear. Large areas of Salford had already been subject to the wrecking ball with communities being dispersed all over Greater Manchester several years before the show was aired. The episode below and to a lesser degree the modern show is a lament to an England that no longer exsists and many people miss.

Ivo Rafailov

Image copyright Ivo Rafailo

I know nothing about Ivo Rafailov other than he is Bulgarian. I found the series 'Come in' from which the above image is taken over on Visura I felt I was looking at something I'd not seen before, I'm intrigued. In this world of mass information it's nice to have a little bit of mystery. All I could find on him was his BLOG which is also mysteriously called The Watchmaker.

My MANCHESTER PROJECT has recently got a nice little write up over on CURATED PLACE.