Photographs Found Under Oscar Wilde's Bed Shock!

I know how folk love a salacious headline with their Sunday morning breakfast. It like most headlines is of course complete bollocks. This picture and lots of others taken at the start of photography, comes from one of the most off the wall photo blogs I've found. MY DAGUERREOTYPE BOYFRIEND whose tag line is "Where early photography meets extreme hotness" brilliant and really silly.  

Odd.

How the general public view photographers.

Good Morning Salford!

Chat.

A conversation between two of my favourite Manchester photo artists Mishka Henner & Seba Kurtis HERE.

Digital or Film?

Boring but not in a good way.

"The festival is not open to the new developments in photography, new technology, new names and faces. Film is gone. We have to stop clinging to it like some grail with the power to grant new life."

So writes Jean-Jacques Naudet  about this years Arles festival on LE JOURNAL De La PHOTOGRAPHIE. Now never having been (although I once showed work in a fringey bit) I can't possibly comment.

Henrik Malmström

I'll admit that one of the main reasons I started blogging back in 2007 was self promotion. It wasn't the only reason I also wanted to get a good go to link list of photographers who's work I liked, but mainly it was about getting a presence on the web. That probably reached it's peak a couple of years in, ran it's course, achieved as much as a blog by someone who is not part of the photo/art establishment can. "Hits" stats are fairly constant at around 9k a month so I'm not complaining but as a PR tool for yours truly it's maxed out. 

So that brings me to why I still bother. One reason is I like most artists love the sound of my own voice. The other increasingly important reason is that I get to meet, hear about and interact with all kinds of tip top folk. Over the years I've met and maintained friendships with photographers/artists from the other side of the world as well as just down the road. I also on occasion get smashing free stuff. Henrik Malmström continues that tradition. Henrik contacted me and asked if he could do swopsey's with my book 'Art is Godd'. he was offering his book 'On Borrowed Time' I nearly snatched his virtual hand off.

It's not an easy book. I was immediately transported to a very private family experience, cancer. Strangely enough it was a family situation that was very much at the forefront of my mind as it was almost twelve months to the day that my family were in the same situation as we watched my Father fall to "The big C" .  Henrik's moving series goes beyond being a darkly beautiful and touching personal tribute to his sister Maija and becomes a document of a shared human experience.

What England can look like in the summer. I remember showing this photo to a mate and telling him that it's where my folks had moved to. He looked at the picture for a couple of minutes and said "What are they fucking hobbits?"

Okabe Tokyo

Proper mad bollox that's what this is. Japanese, by Tokyo Okabe. I love it. Loads of self portraits wearing big pants and picking your nose. There's not enough of that in the photo world. HERE for his pretty crappy website and HERE for a better look at his unique work. I'm off to set light to my head.

Decided that this week it would be a complete waste of time bothering to send submissions or trying to contact European photo people as anyone who is anybody will be in ARLES.....You can find me in Manchester all week.

Stephen Wiltshire.

See more of Stephen's work HERE see more of my drawings in the bin in my office.