Spot Sodley-on-Sea.

As an antidote to a weekend of Match of the Day and the shirts..

http://youtu.be/LctPleLOgqk?list=PLQ2ZVW2TA2rgFAwmFcQ84Rxi0y_OpJ01I

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.

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.

Of Time & The City.

Terence Davies absolutely brilliant 'OF TIME AND THE CITY' is currently on BBC iplayer. A master class in social documentary and multimedia. I apologise to you 'foreign Johnnies' who can't pick it up.

I'm a 50 year old man and I like it...I'm a 50 year old man what you going to do about it?

Image from The Guardian.

"North Manchester is full of hard livers with hard livers" Miss quote from Mark E Smith. Watch THIS for some other pearls and some nice footage.

THIS IS ENGLAND 86

If you missed THIS then you are a bit of a knob.

Tracey Emin

Painting by Alan Hawkins

She's fucking bonkers Tracey, 'mad Tracey from Margate' that's how she gets portrayed. I love her, have done since I first went to Uni back in the 90's. Here was an Artist who didn't "have a plumb stuck in her mouth" as my Mum would say. She's still unaffected and straight talking and has loads of wise words for aspiring artist's. See her interviewed HERE.

The Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2010

We know of course (Come on Anna!) the four nominated (come on Anna!) photographers up for this years The Deutsche Börse Photography Prize (come on Anna!) Here's an introduction by The Photographers Gallery's Stefanie Braun. (Come on Anna!) Did I mention I'm Shouting for Anna Fox.

Video found HERE.

WWW dot........................

WWW dot THE GODFATHER dot COM

If you like blogging and I'm guessing that you may have a passing interest, then you maybe interested in THIS. I liked that it touches on the fact that already in it's relatively short life the web has hierarchies appearing, new establishments, big fishy types. I think we can already see them forming in our own little pond that is photography. Is it inevitable? does it matter? Shall we always strive to keep them in their place? Shall I have another bag of cheese & onion before bed?

Nadav Kander's Yangtze: The Yellow River.

I know I've said before that if all the western photographers currently in China left at the same time China would rise a good two feet. Nadav Kander's Yangtze: The Yellow River makes me glad that at least some go. This great film showing this masterpiece of a series found over on DUCKRABBIT.

Pop Will, Sorry Has Eat It's Self.

That's what the 80's/90's bands name PWEI prophesied. and last night that may have come true. Paul McCartney appearing on last nights X FACTOR may well have been the moment that Pop/Rock came full circle. THE BEATLES were great for amongst other things moving music away from mere light entertainment to something different something a bit more important. Last night it went back to how it was BB (before BEATLES)

Francis Bacon In His Own Words.

A true master of twentieth century painting, Bacon had a well publicised and honest relationship with photography as revealed HERE.

No post tonight (other than this of course) due to me having a bit on, oh yeah and watching the very brilliant GENERATION KILL.

Friday!

I've been saving watching THIS till Friday. So I'll put my feet up with a nice glass (or two). It's my reward, I've had a busy week helping to install THIS ready for it's launch on 24th July.

I submitted again and didn't get through. Never mind. "Always the bridesmaid never the bride"......

David Hockney.

Quick, you need to watch THIS I say quick because it's on iplayer and it only hangs around for a short while. It's a fantastic insight into the work of one of Britain's great artists. He also has some fascinating things to say on photography, he's always had a love hate relationship with the medium. Funny how one of the most innovative artists to work with and push the boundaries of photographic art is a bloody painter.

What Manchester Did For The Victorians.

Image copyright BBC
"The Victorians" last night BBC1, written and presented by Jeremy Paxman was a great bit of telly. It also showed the importance of Manchester to that period in history. Made me feel proper proud! God I'm welling up just thinking about it. If you missed it catch it HERE.

It featured one of my favourite painting's "WORK" which of course can be seen HERE.

Wrong?

Is the BBC wrong with this? It seems odd to me, and maybe just a little sinister.

The Antiques Rogue Show

Liz Smith By Andy Hollingworth

Sometimes the telly makes something really really good, even the BBC, which let's face it these days is prone to make shite like Torchwood http://www.bbc.co.uk/torchwood/ No this time they really did themselves proud with The Antiques Rogue Show. If you missed it you've got 7 days to catch it here http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00gn6y7/The_Antiques_Rogue_Show/ and if you want to see how the "little man" can joop the art establishment or perhaps more accurately the Museum establishment, and how even Bolton can throw up the odd genius then it's a must see. A fair amount of thought and pondering on Art in there as well, and as for the acting, brilliant! Do we have a better actress than Liz Smith?

All based on this http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/jan/28/ukcrime.art oh so British tale that makes me proud!

Robert Hughs on The Mona Lisa Curse, and of course me on it too.

For The Love of God

Fascinating look into the art market tonight on channel 4 with the art critic Robert Hughs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hughes_(critic) you can read the jist of his arguments if you missed it here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/09/18/nosplit/bvtvhughes18.xml I loved the bit when he asked a dealer who's name I have already forgot "Did you know Warhol?" An artist on whom he heaped puticular scorn, "no" replyed the dealer. "I did" says Hughes "I found him to be a stupid man"

Are Warhol, Koons, Prince, Hirst second rate artists who through PR, gallery owners and the like hyped and promoted purely for cash gain? Of course. Could this facilitate the death of art? No I don't think so. It may and probably is already making people even more suspicious of the art world but I think that most right minded folk have already written that off as the pile of shit that it is.

No, art will still get made. Ownership of art objects may become not valued as serious, important art, nothing more than craft or curiosities, as more important art is made say using digital technologies or as street art (obviously not Wanksey) and of course lens based media. This is where photography can come in. Photography doesn't have any monetary value as an object. Oh yes some galleries and photographers will partake in all that 1/100 shit but why? For no other reason than to inflate the price. Why is there only 100? There's no reason why there couldn't be 10 000 once the shutters clicked. That's the beauty of photography it's democratic like that.

Perhaps The Mona Lisa curse is just the death of art as object. perhaps that's just that. Perhaps painting's dead and sculpture and dead animals in glass cases, but ideas can't die photography is ideal for catching them and reproducing them over and over again, No good to Mr dealer, Diamond crusted skulls may be priceless one offs but short on intellectual rigour, photies are cheap as fuck and I love them for it....