Well after almost four years, 1,517 post's and 182,352 unique visitors I've decided it's time to hang up the blog. We've had some laughs, pissed plenty of people off and hopefully shone some light on some tip-top photographers and artist's. The time is right for me to call it a day. Nice one It's been a fucking laugh.............. 
Image copyright Mark Page
Can there be two greater intellects? Two minds with a greater sense of rhetoric and a more rigorous logic? This is how it must have been in ancient Greece.
Chinese New year today which is always a big event in Manchester. Found out that I was born in the year of the goat which apparently makes me fun to know but prone to pessimism. imagine me prone to pessimism? Anyway suitable occupations for me include gardening which I like a bit and beachcombing. Not many beaches in Manchester but then I thought whats photography if it's not a form of beachcombing?
Obsolete Studios is a new blog by photographer Rob Ball. I featured Rob way back in 2008 and it's great to see his new work along with the new blog. It's also great that we are still in touch albeit online. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I have made some great contacts and got to see some really interesting work over the years through blogging.
Image copyright Susan Burnstine
Photo; fuck knows I tried to find the author but......
As the name suggests CHINA SQUARE Gallery represents Chinese artists. Based in NY it's no good to pop into but luckily they have a decent website that let's you see stacks of work by Artist's from the big country that manufactures plastic shit by the ton and is obsessed with the colour red. Oh yes there is a separate photographers section full of refreshing stuff. Happy early Chinese New Year. HERE.
Recently I have been studying the work of David Williams and wondering how I can rip it off, sorry take inspiration from his series 'one taste: (n)ever-changing
Blurb. I've self published two books myself the Blurb way. I don't know what it is but it's just not, I don't know, not satisfying enough. A bit like buying a microwave kebab from Tesco's instead of a kebab from Kebabish (I know, my body is a temple) So for a while I've been thinking about different ways of putting POMONA together in book form, and binding it myself is probably the way I'll go. Besides it fits more with the inspiration for my POMONA the HEREFORDSHIRE PONONA."Sofa Portraits is a series of images showing my daughter, Isabel, as she watches television.
These portraits portray the flawed physicality of childhood and its mental and physical freedoms - but also the constraints that are applied by the adult world - the furnishings Isabel is so often pushing against, the dress determined by the educational system she is now part of, or even the attitudes to her physical self-expression as she watches television."
Should any of you be interested in having a crack yourselves at book making HERE'S a PDF on the Japanese Stab Stitch which is the method Colin chose to use. And here locally we have a complete firm dedicated to Bookbinding and oh yes you can learn how to do it HERE.
I'm crap at drawing. Oh I can draw say a flower, and get a passable resemblance and I can draw a portrait and make people laugh and the sitter all pissed off, "looks fuck all like me" they would whine. But when I was at Art School and it came to 'mark making' and really trying to express something in a say, Cy Twombly kind of way I was crap. Too anal. I think that's why photography suites me because it is a fairly anal activity all that 'collecting' and organising into 'a series'.
Anyway back to Naomi Kendrick and her music drawing. Naomi is a Manchester based artist who draws to music and is asking people to join her for a workshop at THE BAND ON THE WALL on the 27th January. So to get an idea what this FREE event is all about watch the above film (nice little film by Mark Morreau with a great little tune by Ronnie Ronnie) below for full details.
Drawn to the Beat
By Naomi Kendrick
27.1.11 7pm Band on the Wall Manchester
To reserve your free place follow this link http://bandonthewall.org/events/2919/
Drawn to the Beat is a participatory music drawing event using Silent Disco technology. This event is a chance for anyone to try out music drawing by drawing alongside artist Naomi Kendrick in the Band on The Wall club space, which will become both silent disco and enormous drawing surface for the night.
The fascinating method of drawing music Naomi Kendrick has developed has the act of listening and physical response is at its core. Through drawing in this way she attempts to bring an immediate connection between mind and body that results in a drawing. This process often involves working with her eyes closed sitting on the drawing surface, and while drawing around herself using both hands, building up an energetic drawing of layered marks. Listening intently, she moves both in response to the layers and speed of the sound heard and the emotional response it evokes in her. Naomi’s method of drawing music has recently been documented in ‘Drawing Music’ a film by Mark Morreau, commissioned by DaDa Fest International, and screened on BBC Big Screens Nationally and BBC2’s The Culture Show Nov 2010. http://vimeo.com/17345147
This event is to encourage other people to draw and respond to the music in their own unique way. The silent disco technology will silently deliver an eclectic mix of music, selected in collaboration with musicians, to headphones worn by the participants and myself as we draw. Two different channels of music can be chosen from via the headphones meaning you could be drawing classical music whilst your neighbour draws reggae! Every now and again the music will be 'played out' to be heard by everyone, connecting peoples movements and drawings with the music. This will create a playful space where the idea of a solitary, internal perception and a shared act of creativity can be explored.
About Naomi Kendrick
I am an artist based in Manchester and currently Artist in Residence at Salford University. I am interested in creating work that, by engaging people with the senses, offers a ‘full’ experience and personal connection to my artwork. My artwork includes multi sensory installations, sculpture, drawing and participatory events, where people are invited to explore my work through interaction and encouraged to respond, through creating something themselves.
My practice is currently dominated by drawing music. This began in 1999 when, as part of research into creating and experiencing art without focusing on the visual, I spent a week wearing special glasses that gave me the effect of having severe cataracts. Drawing music began as an outlet while briefly starved of vision, and has grown to become an investigation into the act of listening and response, and I have recently collaborated with musicians and dancers to expand on these ideas.
The drawings themselves have an aesthetic I can never exactly predict, as so many factors depend on their outcome. There is always a fine line I have to tread, between really listening, and therefore to a certain extent letting go of visual awareness, and using the eye to edit and control the drawings. My position in relation to the drawing surface, the materials, and how long I choose to draw for all influence the outcome. However the key to each drawing is the music itself. Music that I find ‘works’ to draw varies enormously from Gorillaz to Shubert and Miles Davis to Brian Eno. I find music with more complex layers of sound the most evocative. Rather than attempting to map the sound (directly translating the audio into visual), I want my drawings to be a record of the experience of listening. They are the visual evidence of how that particular piece of music has moved me, physically but most of all emotionally.
There is a performative aspect to the drawing, when I draw I am lost in the moment, only slightly aware my body is engaged with my mind in the act of drawing, however to the observer my body has become more literally entwined with the drawing as it develops. One person likened it to watching a crazed spider building her web, which I particularly like, as once I am drawing a piece of music I am on an intuitive mission, one I cannot stop.
In addition to the drawings I produce alone, I have drawn music with friends, colleagues and during workshops on many occasions and am often moved by the response it evokes in people. Responding to music can be so many things, personal, yet something we often do in groups, fun, thought provoking but most of all a release. Ultimately the incomparable experience of drawing music, of listening in this unique way, is one I want to share, which is why I have created the event ‘Drawn to the Beat’
My artwork is also informed by my workshops. I have been running ‘Elephant Workshops’ multi sensory & inclusive workshops popular with visually impaired and blind people, at galleries nationally for 10 years. Throughout my practice I aim to create opportunities, for a broad audience, to experience and respond to high quality art, allowing people’s interests and passions to dictate their encounters, rather than their social ‘category’.
Photography Benjamin Westoby
So there I was reading a back issue of SOURCE from a couple of years ago, reading about the work of Tim Edgar and then fuck me I'm over on the smashing Harvey Benge blog and he's just posted about Tim. Spooky eh? I'm agreeing with Harvey, I do like this work and would love to see more of the series 'Rookery' So Tim if you're reading this my address is ..................
Some proper interesting work over on Nicholas Grider's website. Would have liked a little bit of info about it though.
This has got to be one of the best websites I've seen! Bleedin well wish I'd thought of it. His work is right up my street as well. Matthew Sleeth.
I know MANCHESTER PHOTOGRAPHY readers are a clever bunch. I know that even now as I speak, some of you have recently finished your Master's and may be looking for your next challenge? Is there some burning issue to do with photography that you feel needs the time (and money) for some serious academic study? Read the below email go and have a look and I'll stick a link at the side for you if you decide to have a pop........ Good luck my fine MANC brains..............
I had this overwhelming desire today to start signing and dating my entire archive of prints. Not because I think this will add any value to them, it's just that I was thinking that if I got hit by a bus they wouldn't be complete orphans and if someone was to do a Google they would be able to put two and two together and at least I would have left some kind of a legacy. This is what having too much time to think and reaching your mid-forties does....Note to self; Start work on a MOMENTO MORI.
