Swap Shop!

Image copyright The Phantom Flan Flinger

Photo blogger Laurence Vecten has come up with a great little resource. An online photo book 'Swap Shop' called, wait for it....... 'Photo Book Swap'. 'It does exactly as it says on the tin' to keep the references to popular culture going......
I've got an (almost) untouched 'HOW TO TAKE BETTER BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHS' or some such title featuring some stunning 1980's (almost) nudes inside. Any takers?

creativetourist.com

I've just added a permanent link to www.creativetourist.com to the right hand side of the blog. That's an honor that I reserve for organisations that I feel are worthwhile and useful and mainly Manchester based. I can make judgement calls like that at manchesterphotography what with being both monkeyman and organ grinder.

creativetourist.com is a "collaborative project aimed at increasing exposure for Manchester as a cultural destination." So worthy cause. Don't forget to include us little people in your plans! Link HERE to a review on the site of David Osbaldeston's show at Castlefield Gallery written by Susie Stubbs. Right then creativetourist.com can I have a link on your site? I'll scratch your back and all of that........

What is England?

Image copyright Marcus Doyle

The next edition of the online project WHAT IS ENGLAND? is now online. This time the brief is 'Group'. I've picked my old mate Marcus Doyle's picture from Cumbria to illustrate.

What Is England ?

England has finally overtaken China as the place for English photographers to photograph. Every one's at it, as alluded to by Marcus HERE. Stuart Pilkington's taken the curator route to explore this sceptic Isle. He's drawn together 50 photographers, given them a county each and four loose topics in order to come up with a portrait of this land. He's done it before with America, roping in some stateside golden guys & gals of the photography world for that outing. HERE for that. So how will the England version pan out? Find out by following the progress HERE.

ROMKA #4

Always good to see interesting and creative collaborations using the web. Plenty of interesting images if a little "yoof centric" over at ROMKA free online magazine.

FESTIVE ROGUES GALLERY 2009

Welcome to Manchesterphotography's FESTIVE ROGUES GALLERY 2009. Over the last couple of years of blogging I have started to collect a right little network of friends and acquaintances, from people visiting here and leaving comments or "heads ups" for new shows and work etc. Nobody really knows what we are all building here in cyber space or how long it will last, so I wanted to celebrate our little relationship and take it to the next level. Each person has a link through to their website or blog so have a click through and get to know each other a little bit better. Think of it as Manchesterphotography's Christmas party minus the vomit & embarrassment!


All photographs copyright of respective bloggers/photographers.


CMS Lost in Manchester UK



Andy Adams Flak Photo US
(Image copyright Jonathan Saunders)






S Cousin Pentimento AUSTRALIA




David Dunnico Photism UK




Marcus Doyle B-Mode UK

Ed Watts Ed Watts Photography UK

Gill Moore Scatterdrum UK

Harvey Benge Harvey Benge NZ/FRANCE

Stan B Reciprocity Failure US

John Darwell John Darwell UK

Jonathan Blaustein Jonathan Blaustein US

Colin Pantall Colin Pantall's blog UK

Marc Burden Latitude Photographers UK

Julian McKenny Processional UK

David J Colbran D J C Design UK

Vron Harris Latitude Photographers UK

Martin O'Neill Martin Takes Photos UK

Pete Brook Prison Photography US

Brenda Burrell The Photography Pages UK

Melissa Tritten Cigarettes and Purity US

Robin Whittaker Rob Whittaker Photography UK

Seba Kurtis Seba Kurtis UK

Benjamin Chesterton Duckrabbit UK

Andy Glinka Andy Glinka Photography UK

Tom Rice-Smyth Tom Rice-Smyth UK

OK that's it then. Cheers to everyone who took part and boo to all those who did'nt! Have a great Christmas and a good New Year. I'll be back 2nd January so until then mingle............

RACE, DIVERSITY, PHOTOGRAPHY: Online Symposium.

I liked the way that Pete Brooks described his hopes for THIS

"I am perversely driven by the desire to test the power and limits of the photoblogshere. It would be a collective blogging bomb!"

I couldn't believe that this hasn't been done before, not blog bombing I mean discussions on race & photography. No time like the present though, not when there's still so much unbelievable shit like THIS going on. That's the obviously bad stuff, there's harder more complicated issues like THIS to also give more time to.

Shit, I am now aware of how many times I said the words "bomb" and "race" in this posting and I've no doubt woken from their slumber, someone from HERE .

Institute Of Critical Zoologsts.

Image copyright Renhui Zhao/ICZ


Considering that photography is still a fairly modern art form we can, as practitioners be incredibly conservative compared to other forms of visual art. Tradition is rife and on the whole, whether in art or life in general. tradition is seldom all it's cracked up to be. The Internet has opened up (or at least should have done) a whole world of exciting possibilities but still too many photographers/artists can see no further than a white gallery wall.

Imagine creating a complete museum/institute/research establishment for your images? Imaginative, thought provoking confusing and fraudulent? Just who or what can we trust? And on top of all that questions about the environment, mans relationship with other species and the representation of animals in art. And all around the bi-centenary of Darwin's birthday. That may well be a coincidence and nothing to do with anything but I'll give them that coz

I love the thought process and playfulness behind THIS. This is proper clever shit.

Those mysterious folk at mus-mus have done it again, and what a chance to see some great images of Paris by some of the very best photographers working today including Alec Soth, Brian Ulrich and Stephen Shore, and my old mate Stan Banos. @PARIS also includes writing's by Darius Himes & Ulrich Baer. This is something that is going to need more than a quick visit.