Coming Soon To Open Eye

Liverpool Biennial International 08: MADE UP Nancy Davenport20 September - 30 November.

Established in 1998, Liverpool Biennial is the UK's largest festival of contemporary visual art. MADE UP explores the power of the artistic imagination and takes place in venues and locations across the city.

Open Eye Gallery presents a newly commissioned video installation by Canadian artist Nancy Davenport, shown alongside earlier parts of her evolving project Workers (leaving the factory). Shot at the Jaguar car plant in Halewood, Merseyside, Davenport's new piece reflects on changing conditions and representations of industrial production, against the background of Ford's recent sale of Jaguar to Indian Conglomerate Tata. Openeye here:http://www.openeye.org.uk/current.asp?news=y

Blogger Arrested.

From the BBC: The Malaysian blogger,Raja Petra Kamarudin a strong critic of that countries government has been arrested. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7612845.stm

JH Engstrom

Images copyright JH Engstrom

What JH Engstrom has to say about "Trying To Dance" which is the first series in the trilogy that also includes, "Haunts" and "Wells".

"I’m always looking for presence.Whenever I try, my doubts get unmasked.Easier then to stick with absence.I’m not trying to prove anything.I don't have that many memories yet."

The Three images above are one image from each of those series. As you can see they are for want of a better word eclectic. This is an artist who isn't in the least bit scared to change style, method aesthetic at will, to show his vision. No single style or photograph is enough, different tacks, sequences and layer after layer of meaning. This is blurring boundaries between visual art and what? poetry? archive? diary? It's hard work, but rewarding. http://www.jhengstrom.com/index.html

Seba Kurtis, 700 Miles............

Image copyright Seba Kurtis

Sometimes you can get "blogger block" (that's copyright of me by the way) and then you end up fucking about doing silly posts like the last one, and that's what was happening tonight. I was just finishing off my bedtime glass of red, (a little more Rock n Roll than Horlicks but only just) when ping my inbox gets a new message.

Hallelujah, to that when I read it. It was from Seba Kurtis telling me about his new show entitled "700 miles" that's opening here in Manchester from 19 Sept - 07 Nov 2008 at Kiosk Gallery, AMC Foyer, Great Northern Warehouse, Deansgate, Manchester. Opening hours 10am-10pm.

In brief it's about illegal immigration in the USA largely Mexicans, and the worry by White Americans that their culture and lifestyle are under threat, (ring any bells UK) Anyway this is one exhibition I am really looking forward to. Also take a look at Seba's site for other great work as it doesn't stop with "700 Miles", oh no! http://www.sebakurtis.com/ and here for more details http://www.foto8.com/home/content/view/612/161/ and here as well http://1000wordsphotographymagazine.blogspot.com/ and here for details on Kiosk Gallery although as usual their site could do with an update! http://www.kioskgallery.co.uk/ Seba was born in Argentina, and having been an illegal himself in Europe for five years this work is seasoned with plenty of self-experience. Seba is now based here in the North-West and for that we should be truly grateful...............................

Falling Stars

At least you were pushed Noel, Look at that Beyonce.............

Call for Entries

BJP is once more (fourth year running) calling for entries for it's international photography competition. Details and past winners can be found here:http://www.bjp-online.com/public/showPage.html?page=282366

Glen Erler

Image copyright Glen Erler

Last tonight, but not least Glen Erler. www.glenerler.com some great (lots) of projects, with simple non wafflely statements for each one.

Show Me Yours.........

I'm always on the look out for new & exciting photography to look at and of course feature here. All sorts of people from all sorts of places stop by so why not show your work to a wider audience? It's free no catches, so if your interested send a link to markedpage2005@yahoo.co.uk look forward to seeing your stuff!

Rachel Barrett

Two projects that stand out for me from Rachel Barrett's online portfolio http://www.rachelbarrett.net/ are "Food I Eat" & "NYC Newsstand". If you were to attempt that last series here in Manchester it would be a very small project, as the only two I can think of are Portland Street an Cross Street. If you can think of anymore let me know.

Anyway I give you the excellent Rachel Barrett..............

Josef Koudelka Interview

Image copyright Josef Koudelka

A true great talks to The Observer's Sean o'Hagan. http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/aug/24/photography Found thanks to Martin Amis's Hipshots http://www.hipshots.co.uk/ (Glad your back and blogging Martin)

Changes

Those of you who stop by here on a regular basis will have noticed I've got a new banner. Well I've freshened up my homepage a bit http://www.manchesterphotography.com/ so I thought I would blow the cobwebs away here too.

The picture was taken from a tram window as it passed over The Irwell near Pomona. I used a digital camera and then flipped and tweaked the picture in Lightroom and Photoshop. Not my usual style but fun all the same.

and following on nicely

Following on from the link on my last post, Steidl have just released their winter catalogue as a PDF all 257 pages of it! http://www.steidlville.com/pictures/pdf/Steidl_Fall_08.pdf So you are going to encounter some of those gripes. Hell though it's worth it, there's some cracking new books coming out including Hiroh Kikai's "Asakusa Portraits". Here: for steidl homepage:http://www.steidlville.com/

Do I Moan A Lot?

It's just that Adrian Tyler, a great photographer whose work I love by the way www.adriantyler.net sent me an Email with "Hear you like to gripe" as the subject! well yes I suppose I do. You think this blogs bad you should try being my other half....... Anyway Adrian sent me a link here http://www.dearadobe.com/top_rated.php and having read through them, and agreeing with most of them, I can't help feeling that I 'm not that whingey compared to some.

One MASSIVE Night

Just a taster of a hell of a gig!

Massive Attack @ Castlefield.

Yep, I obviously had not been paying attention because I only found out really about this yesterday. I remember the "Becks Fusion"http://www.becks.co.uk/fusion.aspx thing going on last year in Manchester but didn't pay it much heed as the main event was happening in London with the Chemical Brothers. This year the organisers must have realised that if you really want a party then Manchester is the place. So yesterday my ears pricked up. Massive Attack and Art you say, FREE you say, I'll have a bit of that I say. So off I went down to Castlefield. "Can I have some FREE Massive Attack tickets please?" I asked waiting for the posh southern blond girl in the ticket booth to laugh in my ugly northern face. "Sure no problem" she chirped in an annoyingly pleasant manner.

Now of course non of this helps you lot unless you've already got tickets, as I believe they had to be won. Yesterday's give away was just a token for locals, so sorry if I've got you all excited. You could get on the old railway line behind, (But I never told you that, but it does bring me to a future post, more another day) Anyway if your not going to the huge FREE Massive Attack/Art extravaganza you could go to New Islington's folky festival thingy instead, organised in part by Urban Cash. Urm Becks & Massive Attack or homemade Ancoates cider & Banjo's?http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=102416808 Still, we will be united by the fact that we are all going to get piss wet through............ http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/5day.shtml?id=2613

Justin James Reed

Images copyright Justin James Reed

There's something very classy about Justin James Reed's work. For a start there seems to be an empathy with his subject. There's a trust thing going on. And although the people in his photographs are often young and appear to be, well lets just say appear not always to be living the American dream, Reed still manages to afford them dignity and avoids patronising them which would be an easy trap to fall into. The portraits sequence so beautifully with the non peopled images, and together add up to give an insightful poetic look at North Eastern USA.

www.justinjamesreed.com

Henry Iddon

Image copyright Henry Iddon

Once you get over the strange and "clunky" website design http://www.spots-of-time.co.uk/map.php You start to discover impressive landscape photographs of The Lake District by Blackpool based photographer Henry Iddon. Landscape photography especially of somewhere so over photographed as the lakes is not something that would usually register on my radar, but depending on whose review of the series "Spots of Time" you read, there is something more interesting going on than just another set of romantic pictorial images of one of England's most popular tourist spots.

These are no longer pristine natural wildernesses as they were in Wordsworth's day.They are now peppered with the glow of towns and villages. They appear like cultures forming on a petra dish, they prevent the viewer from ever finding an escape here from the onslaught of modern, overcrowded British life, and it's this, that for me, makes this work interesting. Iddon talks about the work at the next Redeye networking meet in Manchester on the 9th September 2008, start time is 6.30pm, drinks and networking from 6.00pm. The venue is: Manchester Digital Development Agency Lower Ground Floor 117-119 Portland Street ManchesterM1 6ED

Tiina Itkonen

From the series "Ultima Thule" by Tiina Itkonen

Itkonen'shttp://www.kashyahildebrand.org/zurich/itkonen/itkonen003_010.html personnel odyssey to find her place in the North. "Ultima Thule" is inspired by the story "The Mother of the Sea". It can be seen at The Michael Hoppen Gallery, London until October 7th. http://www.michaelhoppengallery.com/exhibition,current,3,0,0,0,56,0,0,0,tiina_itkonen_ultima_thule.html?link=exhibition%2Ccurrent%2C3%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C56%2C0%2C0%2C0%2Ctiina%5Fitkonen%5Fultima%5Fthule%2Ehtml&searchString=%5Flevel0%2Erow%5F0&index=12&iD=0&targetButton=%5Flevel0%2Ebutton%5F0&targetCover=%5Flevel0%2Ecover%5F0&targetBackground=%5Flevel0%2Ed%5F0&targetLabel=%5Flevel0%2Eb%5F0&onRollOver=%5Btype+Function%5D&onDragOut=%5Btype+Function%5D&onRollOut=%5Btype+Function%5D&onRelease=%5Btype+Function%5D

1000 Words

Issue #2 of the cracking online photomag 1000 Words Photography is now here at http://www.1000wordsmag.com/ This really is worth a visit as there's loads of really great photography featured along with some informed writing. This whole venture appears to be going from strength to strength.

Proms In The Park

You get Russell Watson on home turf, the BBC philharmonic and a firework display to boot!Here for more details http://www.visitsalford.info/proms