Inside The Pub 2014

 

Inside The Pub 2014 is the sister piece to Outside The Pub 2014!

Outside The Pub 2014

Every town needs a pub and Sodley-on-Sea is no exception. So here is The White Lion at Sodley. It's about half eleven in the morning and the regulars are already on their second pint.
It's loosely based on The Bulls Head at Swinton, although it could be any one of the thousands of pubs in the UK who, like many of their customers are trying to stay afloat. Next up we'll have a look inside The White lion at Sodley-on-Sea.

The Kebab Shop 2014, diorama adventures and the birth of Sodley-on-Sea.

 

 

The Kebab Shop 2014 

 

The Kebab Shop is the latest diorama I have made and photographed. I have been interested in the potential to use diorama in my photographs for a couple of years. It came about for two reasons. Firstly out of necessity when I was making my still life series STILL LIVES: Still Lifes For All. Being flat bleeding broke I needed a way of producing my props as cheaply as possible. I thought I would print pictures off the internet and turn them into models. Almost everything in the still life series with the exception of the flowers (which are artificial) is made in this way. The second reason was that one of my favourite artistic mantras which was made by the photographer Joachim Schmid and has been floating around in my head for a while. "No more new photographs until all the old ones are used up!"

Food Bank 2014 is what I consider to be my first full diorama (see last post) as although it was part of the Still lives series, once it was built I decided to leave the flowers out and just leave it with the models made from the internet images. Kebab Shop 2014 is the next step and the first picture from Sodley-on-Sea.

 

 

The whole of The Kebab Shop is made out of pictures. It took a while to build about a month what with gluing and searching online for pictures to pinch. It's gone now only it's photo remains. It's the first picture in a new series I'm working on. It's a new series and a question. 

"Can I make a kind of fucked up social documentary photography series about England using dioramas made up of images sourced from the net so I can stay at home and watch the telly at the same time?" 

 

Tricky sticky sticky.

Food Bank 2014

Food Bank 2014

New Work!

 

I've not posted here all summer, I've been busy what with MoTMA being in Bolton in July as part of THIS  and I've also been working on the below picture called EVERY TAKEAWAY ON THE A6 (through Salford & Manchester) AND MOST OF THEIR MENUS. It's a single picture which is nearly ten metres long so it's took a while. It's 60cm by 940cm to be precise. You can see it in more detail on my website HERE.

 

It is of course influenced by (ripped off from) Ed Ruscha. Alfred Wainwright and the drawings he made of his walks also played a part. I think of it as a map as well as an historical record. At least one of the takeaways have already closed and another couple changed their name.
The menus and dots along the top relate to takeaways on the left hand side of the road and the ones along the bottom to the right hand side of the road as you head along the A6 from Bolton through Salford and Manchester and towards Stockport a distance of around sixteen miles. There are eighty-two takeaways.
There is a book to follow.

Famous Artists Doing Nothing In Particular #1

Harvey Benge Has Great Tips.

Image David Kregenow

 

Photographer, artist, book maker and kiwi Harvey Benge recently posted his guide/ pointer/things to consider list, when making a photograph. I think this list may be of some use to lots of photographers. Even with this list I know I could never take the kind of effortless (looking) pictures that Harvey takes. Anyway if you want to have a go at being a photographer/poet (and this is the Holy Grail) then take a look at the list below.

 

1. The content, have an idea and think about what the pictures say.

2. The form, think about what the pictures look like.

3. Consider the context of the pictures, enough or too much.

4. Consider the sweet spot or punctum.

5. Consider the value of signifiers.

6. Avoid making decoration.

7. Don't make boring pictures.

8. Don't make a picture that somebody else has made already.

9. Don't make obvious photographs.

10. Avoid making cliches.

11. Don't make silly juxtapositions.

12. Avoid the one trick pony type of photograph.

13. Make pictures that are intelligent not clever.

14. Avoid fashion for fashions sake.

15. Make the work for yourself, if a few other people like the work, that's a bonus not a given.

Ten Ten Big Rubber Ducky Photo Fucky.

When I was about thirteen I had a friend called Ian who was a couple of years older than me. I say friend but in reality he just used to beat the fuck out of me. I'd put up with the beatings because he had a CB radio and for about two weeks in the summer of 1980 I was obsessed with CB radio's.

We would sit in a old Ford Escort at the end of his drive next to an old caravan that was even more beat up than me and talk complete bollocks into the handset. We seldom spoke to truckers who were trying to out run the police. No for some reason the demographic group that liked to use CB radio in North-West England at the time was fat sounding housewives with twenty Benson's voices.

They would have names or handle's like Angel  or Mother Bear, never just Debbie or Pauline. Over time you would get to hear the same names popping up again and again. A hierarchy emerged. When some people were "on air" there would be loads of other CBer's trying to talk to them, where as I would sit there lamely shouting "come back" till I was blue in the face and red in the arm where Ian had suddenly remembered to give me another dig.  Ultimately I got fed up with CB radio (and casual violence) and moved on to my next two week obsession, fishing.

What's this got to do with photography? Nothing, and everything. What with blogs, social media and photo festivals it takes me back to CB radio. "The online photo community" I keep hearing it called. Do me a favour "The online photo community" is often little better than a couple of little dicks sat in an old motor chatting shit.

This ones for SB.

STILL LIVES: Still lifes for all...

 

 

 

 

PLASTIK GANGSTA 2013

POSH 2013

THIS MORNING 2013

 

AT NAN'S 2013


 

ODDS ON 2014

TO SELF-MEDICATE 2013

ROADSIDE SHRINE 2013

 

ANGST 2013

 

 THE GLORIOUS TWELFTH 2013

THIRTY SEVEN PENCE 2012

A YEAR IN PROVENCE 2013

FULL ENGLISH 2013

YOUR ROOM 2013

THE HOARDER NEXTDOOR 2013

HENS 2013

AN INDIAN 2013

BIRD 2013

A CHRISTMAS DO 2013

 

 FOOD BANK 2014

Ongoing at www.markpagephotography.com

Fat Fuckers...

Jamie Oliver the patron saint of the middle classes as Grayson Perry calls him, was banging on again in the papers about us poor people being fat and it all being down to takeaways.
Anyway in view of this piece of wisdom I thought I would make a takeaway menu for the Michelin star restaurant that he trained in. No war only Class War as they say.

Even A Play Museum needs A Gift Shop.

Exit through the gift shop and all of that. Every cultural institution worth it's salt needs to make a quid and MoTMA is no different. Go shop. www.takeawaymenumuseum.blogspot.com

Remember Kids....

FUCK READY BREK EAT PIZZA

Grown men Playing silly buggers.

I love the fact that my old mate David Dunnico sent me a brilliant new flyer for MoTMA in an envelope addressed as such. You are never too old to play museums and galleries...

The Rotary Dryer

New set of pictures over at my website www.markpagephotography.com
It's a landscape set and I like to think it's in the great British tradition of landscape.