M25 - Free Parking

It is a sign of modern times to be stuck in traffic on the M25. There have been very few occasions when the M25 has been free-flowing and problem-free (in my experience), but it really came to a crunch last week when the motorway was completely closed (albeit, unfortunately, because of an accident) for nearly 3 hours. My wife and I, travelling down to Goodwood from Norfolk for the Goodwood Revival (to work with the Vintage Hair Lounge) decided to go 'left' at the M11/M25 junction instead of 'right' and found ourselves slap-bang in the middle of a carpark.

What does a photographer do with time on his hands and his cameras in the car? Go and have a chat with his 'neighbours' and document the situation. To my surprise, everybody I spoke to were quite upbeat considering the situation we were all in (good old British spirit) and were, without exception, very happy to have their photograph taken. I suppose having a camera pointed at them, and chatting to some stranger on a motorway, was a welcome diversion from the tedium of the traffic jam.

There are not many places left in this country where you get free parking - but the M25 is certainly one of them!

Degree Success and Exhibition

I'm absolutely delighted to announce that I was recently awarded a First Class honours degree in Creative Arts (majoring in Photography) through the Open College of the Arts (Buckinghamshire New University). It was the culmination of many year's part-time study with the College, exploring various aspects of Creative Writing and Photography, that has helped me to grow and develop as an artist.

As if that wasn't good enough, my final degree project, A Dozen Eggs, a socio-documentary exploration of my family, has been chosen for exhibition at the Bank Street Arts Gallery in Sheffield. It will run from 12 November to 3 December, with 2 gallery spaces exploring photographic display and a 'family home' installation.

I'm currently working on a submission for a PhD in Visual Culture, to begin next year, based upon photography within the family setting, so the exhibition will provide the foundation upon which to base the practical aspects of the study (especially from the viewpoints of anthropology and audience studies).

New Publications Update

I've been extremely busy recently, working on some new ideas (which I'll update in some forthcoming posts), but most importantly, I've been finalising some images in preparation for 2 new publications. The first, entitled Dog Days Greece, is a metaphorical tale of where Greece has found itself economically. The images depict a journey through Greece that I undertook last year, but viewed through the eyes of stray dogs, alone and wandering, without the surety of a solid future or comfort.

The second project is called One For The Album, and ties together images taken from various parts of the world depicting people living their experiences through the back of a camera. With a 'nod' to Martin Parr's Small World it shows how we live in an image saturated world, with images rarely taken with artistic thought or composition, but merely to show that they 'were there'.

I hope to publish them through the online publisher Blurb as a 'Have Photography' limited-edition publication in the very near future.

V&A Photographs Gallery

Visiting the V&A's Photographs Gallery this passing weekend was an immense indulgence; like walking through a Who's Who of the photographic world. It is well worth a visit, and considering the vast archives that the V&A have and the fact that the gallery will be regularly changed, it is a visit that can be made time and again. From the daguerreotype images of Andrew Pritchard (Antoine-Francois-Jean Claudet for example), through the exquisite cyanotypes of Anna Atkins (British and Foreign Flowering Plans and Ferns) to the classic documentary of Henri Cartier-Bresson (in particular one of my all-time favourite images Allee du Prado, Marseilles), this was a photographic feast.

I especially loved Harry Callahan's imagery depicting his family as 'points of interest' within a wider landscape, which reminded me of a project that I've been working on called Personal Space, and also the 'tourist' imagery of Francis Frith.

It was also a great pleasure to discover some photography that I hadn't seen before, including the works of Marianne Breslauer and El Lissitzky.

All in all, they gave me confidence in my own practise and (especially with my affinity with Callahan's work) a certain historical context for my own ideas.

Ed Burtynsky Exhibition

This weekend I took the opportunity to visit the newly-opened Photographers' Gallery in London (which I have been aching to visit - to get a good 'photography fix' - since it closed last year) and wasn't disappointed. The gallery is superb; much more spacious than the cramped building it had been 'shoe-horned' into after moving from its previous location near Leicester Square (although I must admit to having an affection for the old venue, if nothing more than my own nostalgia). The bookshop (my favourite place in the world) is bright and airy, and the print-sales area is now much more accessible alongside the bookshop (although you would still need a small mortgage to afford the prints on sale).

Importantly, the Burtynsky exhibition, which the gallery had chosen for its reopening, was truly monumental and rather apt for the occasion.

It's difficult to describe how wonderful these images are in print - to view them in a large scale and as a 'whole' within the gallery setting was both pleasurable and (importantly) educational; especially in the guidance that Burtynsky has offered through his thought process (covering oil's Extraction, Detroit, Transportation and End-of-Oil categories). My favourite image (which was extremely difficult to choose amongst so many outstanding images) was a portrait of a shipbreaker titled 'Shipbreaking 23 (Chittagong, Bangladesh, 2000)', the composition of which is exceptional. Altogether, an inspirational visit.

Classic Cutaways

I'm a complete classic car 'nut' (I only wish I had the cash to fill the 'dream space' at the end of my garden that is waiting for a Porsche 356B to be parked in it), so I've started to indulge in a project called Classic Cutaways. I had the idea at the Vintage Fair I went to recently, at which there were a delicious variety of classics to turn my head. I wanted to capture some great images of the cars, but without being so cliched (or boring!) with the shots; it may not have worked, but by capturing images that are full-bleed, block-colour, with a single point-of-interest from the car, I hope to have created something that is visually fresh whilst bringing to the fore a piece of the car that is glanced at but is often lost 'in the whole' - a 'Classic Cutaway'.

Vintage Fair Photoshoot

Fresh from completing my degree studies with the culmination of 'A Dozen Eggs', I got the opportunity to join the Vintage Hair Lounge team at a recent Vintage Fair, to take images of the fantastic work that the girls do. The hairstyles are absolutely amazing and it was wonderful to witness the confidence that it gave the ladies visiting the lounge; I overheard one of them say, 'I feel like a movie star' - and she really did!

Vintage fairs are popping up all over the UK, and for good reason; not only do people look incredible immersed in their 1940s, 50s and 60s gear (everything from cars to clothes to a myriad of period accessories), but they are also looking for some good old-fashioned, nostalgic goodness to take their minds off modern austerity (or at least to put things into perspective a little). People REALLY get into this, dressing up in their retro finery, and having some historic fun in a friendly, fascinating setting. I'm hooked - and I can't wait to get to the next event and start adding to my 'Vintage' images.