Sunday 21 June 2009

The National Photography Symposium.


Friday started with the Bolton Uni MA show and the most somber slideshow presentation I have ever been to, maudlin I think is the word I am looking for which is a shame because some of the work was pretty good if a little conservative, and Ian McMillan had kicked things off with an entertaining presentation, I'll feature my favs of the Bolton lot here over the next few of days.
Favourite talks were by Francis Hodgson writer on photography for The Financial Times and former head of photographs at Sotheby's he was "bang on the money" regarding the general state of photography in the UK compared to Europe/US. What did I make of the first National Photography Symposium? All in all a good first effort, I look forward to it growing over the next few years, although I think a different venue is needed. Beautiful though Hogwarts is, what with the creaky clunky doors, too small rooms and them bloody Cathedral bells........

4 comments:

Toast said...

I liked the venue i have to say, much better than a dedicated conference venue, stuff to look at when invariably drifted off....

highlights for me included:

- difference of opinion between chris steele-perkins and ian beesley on higher education... the man who woke me up punching the desk with similar thoughts on further/higher education.

- Len Grants piece on documenting the socially excluded was ace... hannah collins bit was also ace for soundbites like 'photography is inherently about the lack and its many lacks' - i didn't have the first notion what she was on about but i loved it nonetheless.

Low points for me:

- the projector was rubbish - this may have been the sunlight or it may have been setup either way most photos looked rubbish.

- no one told me about lunch... i bought a sandwich

- i was very hungover

- an overall distinctly pessimistic tone

- the fact that Geoff Capes did not get elected as spokesman for UK photography - he would be ace


i am prepared to take responsibilty for some of these points so i will say well done to redeye

toast

mark page said...

Yes over all I agree well done Redeye.

Anonymous said...

i agree the venue did need to be bigger and the association room door needed a hefty dose of wd40 and the projection was due to (i think) the exterior light from the windows.

i enjoyed:

the talk about the art market and photography. very interesting and not as pessimistic as some others.

knowing there was food put on! the beef was goooood, it also reinstated my love of custard.

the redeye guys holding everything together. a lot of them work for free and they are always incredibly helpful and friendly.

not so good points include, the usual snobbery and arse licking which whilst being quite contained was still apparent.

somebody calling taking pictures of celebrities 'legitimate news-gathering' in fact the whole talk about photography and anti terror laws did nothing to educate people about said laws and their rights and just seem to serve as as a chance for a lot of people to have a big collective moan.

overall i thought it was a success but i like most people would probably have a bigger more modern location next time no matter how nice it looked.

mark page said...

Yep,somewhere more modern and not that I'm a rattling alki but a bar would have been nice!