War - Tim Hetherington

Tim Hetherington's work as a war photographer has recently come to the fore again partly as a result of the hard hitting BBC TV Series Once Upon a Time in Iraq (you can find it on iplayer although the series is still running at the time of writing).

Hetherington was one of a brave band of photojournalists who cover global conflict. Born in Birkenhead on Merseyside in 1970 he later read English at Oxford before inheriting £5K on his grandmother's death and spending it on travel in the far east. This time convinced him that he wanted to make images and he went on to study photography at night school. Later he studied photojournalism with Daniel Meadows and Colin Jaconbson before becoming the only staff photographer on The Big Issue.

He then spent nearly a decade documenting strife in West Africa and the impact it had on daily life. Nigeria, Liberia and Sierra Leone were all in states of conflict during those years. After a spell with the UN he started to make trips with writer Sebastian Junger to Afghanistan for Vanity Fair. He won the award for the World Press Photograph of the Year in 2007 with the photograph reproduced below.

Hetherington and Junger were embedded with a single U.S. Army platoon (Second Platoon, B Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team) serving at a remote outpost in the Korengal Valley. They filmed the 2010 documentary film Restrepo there a film which clearly shows the ferocity of the fighting. At the time is was said to be the most dangerous posting with 25% casualties.

The film is online on various channels and I watched it recently on Chili for £2.49. 

Sadly Hethington was killed in Libya in 2011 covering the civil war amid indiscriminate shelling by Gadiffi's forces. He survived the initial wounds but died from a loss of blood later. He is buried in Brompton Cemetery.

If you are enjoying my Blogs then remember I will be publishing them less frequently from today (usually aiming for twice weekly). If you don't wish to miss any then you can fill in your email at the top right of this page and receive a notification whenever one is published. You can also unsubscribe at any time. I aim to cover a range of topics from revoiews and news to specific events in my own life as a photographer and I am always happy to hear the thoughts of others or suggestions for blogs from yourselves.

Reading the Landscape - Peter Heaton Review

Peter Heaton – Reading the Landscape

When Beverley Art Gallery re-opened in early July it did so with two new exhibitions, one a photography exhibition which I was asked to review by the Friends of Beverley Art Gallery for their newsletter.  This is what I wrote. The exhibition is open for some weeks yet. Let me know what

Peter Heaton is a professional photographer who studied at Nottingham Trent and Leeds Metropolitan Universities. His well established Vale of York Darkrooms in Stillington provide a base for his digital and traditional development courses.

This new exhibition at Beverley Art Gallery exhibits some of Heaton’s black and white landscapes taken whilst walking the Yorkshire Wolds. A lover of nature, inspired by writers such as Robert Macfarlane it is unsurprising that Heaton wishes to express his concerns, impressions and emotions beyond the photographs he takes. As Heaton identifies in his introductory notes to the photographs there are obvious limitations to their use as records. As John Berger rightly says in his essay

In order to overcome this perceived deficit Heaton experiments with overlaying words on the pictures themselves in an attempt to add a wider experience for the viewer. They appear in different scripts, sizes and transparencies. “

The photographs are lovely. Well crafted and composed. The words sometimes meaningful but sometimes more challenging to set against their backdrops. The idea is not new but uncommon and whether it works open to question. I found the words sometimes detracted from the images but that is the fun and fact of any artistic endeavour. It is up to you to visit and see for yourselves. It is certainly provoking and reminds us of the increasing fragility of our natural surroundings in these fragile times.

The exhibition is now open and good one way social distancing measures and tracking are in place.

Nigel Walker

* The John Berger quotation in my reveiw comes from Understanding the Photograph, a series of essays edited by Geoffrey Berger and originally published ( but now as a Penguin Cassic) in 2012.

The wood carver

In a small and anonymous town in Italy where I and three other photographers stopped for a coffee we found a curious little shop on the main road. It was small but stuffed with beautiful wood carvings.

The wood carver was welcoming and luckily spoke some English as our Italian had little in it that would have got us far in wood carving terms. He told us much that I won't repeat here but it included his preference to work with tools made in Sheffield where it appears his brother made (or maybe it was had made) steel and the array behind him was evidence of this attachment. He was garrulous and, while I do not want to use any stereotypes, as expressive with his hands and head movements as any Italian I have met.

As our visit drew to a close and we bought our examples and gifts to take home I asked if I may photograph him. He was happy with that and continued to talk while I snapped away for a couple of minutes. The light was great arriving as it did from the sunny street outside his workshop window lighting both him and the tools in the background. He didn't slow down and his movement, for me, adds to the portrait and my memory of him. My one regret is that I never asked his name. 

When we returned to our lodgings the owner knew the workshop. On my return to the UK I had a print made and sent it, via her, to him. Whether he ever received it or liked it I don't know...but if you ever go into a small town in Italy and see this photo on the wall of the local woodcarver you'll know where it came from :-)

Yes, but is it Art ?

It is almost two hundred years since the first photograph was made. Since then much has changed, both in process, technology and thinking about what a photograph is. Susan Sontag has considered the philosophy of the photograph ( "On Photography" 1971); John Berger has written extensively on the challenges of photography as an art critic ("Understanding a Photograph" -1978 and beyond) and many others have added thoughts, arguments and observations since on what photographs may achieve or be.

And of course they are many things to many people. They are holiday snaps and records of families. They are exaggerations to advertise and grow desire for objects. They are flattering portraits or memories of weddings. Pictures of pets and warnings about wars and other dangers. Still lives. Pornography. Illustrations for newsprint. What they are not, of course, is art. At least not uniformly. 

And yet some undoubtedly are. Some carry distinct messages and can communicate feelings and emotions in the same way that paintings can. They may use their technology to confuse or prompt some thought we may not otherwise have had. I have never advocated that all photographs are art but any medium that can be used to explore humanity and our psyche is always going to make the outcomes of these an artistic possibility. For me an important word to set alongside those words that are often used to describe art such as beauty, skill, imagination and feelings goes the word intention. Some photgraphers set out to use their skill and imagination to intentionally challenge us - and to me that makes those photographs art.

As photography has matured and become so many things it is worth stopping and thinking about the changes that have taken place and how cobjectivity has developed since the 1830's. Society and societal mores have altered considerably and it could be argued that photography has driven at least some of that - just consider the role of selfies...

Charlotte Cotton's book does this extremely competently and is well illustrated as a way of giving examples to the arguments. You probably won't agree with everything in here but that is not the point. The point is to think - and if you want to argue with her and cite some alternative views then please do. It is critical thinking and discussion that carries us forward. So - is it art ? You tell me ...

The Red Dress on tour

People who know my work will already have heard of The Red Dress and may have even seen the initial exhibition last year. In case you haven't it is a series of photographs which place a red dress in situations which range from the mundane to the threatening. In the exhibition and accompanying book I challenge people to find a picture that is striking to them and tell themselves the story behind it as they imagine it. I then ask them to consider why they thought that. The reason is that I would like people to think more about the position women occupy in the world today and consider whether they themselves consider equality and respect issues they consider sufficiently. Having two daughters and growing up during the second wave of feminism in the fifties and sixties this has become very important to me as a man.

The series continues to be photographed and probably will during the rest of my life. The Red Dress often accompanies me on trips out both in this country and abroad. I continue to read about and see ways in which women are severely disadvantaged and discriminated against and there are many ways in which women are given less respect than they deserve. These things are not always intentional. In some ways this makes it worse as it indicates a lack of thought.

This photograph was taken in Italy in an earthquake damaged house. The chair had been left there and the colours and darkness of the space appealed to me, especially the crumbling plaster and dark, negative space which seeps in from the left. The vines creeping in the window which invite you into the sunlight and the spotlight of sunshine illuminating the dress draped on the chair are all an invitation to make your own story about what has/is/about to happen here.

This picture has not yet appeared within the exhibition but may well do in the future. The company Exhibitours have taken on the show and it will eventually appear in smaller galleries around the UK although this year has, of course, been a challenge for all public exhibition spaces.

The book of the show, including an essay, can be viewed online here :-https://www.blurb.co.uk/b/9402176-the-red-dress 

If you would like to know more do email me :-)

Fan Ho

Ask a photographer to name a Chinese master of the art and Fan Ho is the name they are most likely to come up with. Many Chinese photographers are not well known in the West but Fan Ho was one who broke free and gained over 280 awards between 1956 and his death in 2016.

Born in Shanghai in 1931 he began taking photos on his father's Box Brownie and was largely self taught. By the age of fourteen his father had bought him a twin lense Rollieflex and he had learned to develop his pictures in the family bath tub. He used the same camera throught his career, working largely in mono.

The family moved to Hong Kong in 1949 and he made the city his own, prowling the markets and alleyways taking candid pictures of street vendors and children. As Hong Kong became a powerful metropolitan city he built a significant body of work. He was rewarded with Fellowships of photographic organisations across the world, including the Royal Photographic Society and the Royal Society of Arts in the UK. He was also named one of the top ten photographers in the world by the Photographic Society of America each year between 1958 and 1965. Later in life he also worked in film and served as a juror at a number of film festivals such was his reputation in this field as well.

In an interview two years before his death he said "As an artist I was only looking to express myself....I need to be touched emotionally to come up with meaningful works....My purpose is simple. I try not to waste my audience's time." 

The three photographs below are great examples of his use of light. The best way to quickly see some more of his notable pictures is this short You Tube presentation from Fotografia :-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJbBdu92Ky8 

A lovely thought - how a buyer followed up

A lovely thought

I was recently approached about a framed photograph someone had seen in an exhibition. They wanted to buy one for their newly decorated bedroom. We had a long discussion about the size etc and the purchaser was very clear that they did not want it framed as they had an idea of what they wished it to look like - which is all fine by me as I'm happy soemone likes a picture sufficiently to wish to buy it.

My printer, Visual Expressions -http://www.vefineart.co.uk/ made the print quickly and I delivered it. Often that is the end of the story and I never get to see the finished article or how it fits into the decor and room. 

Today however the picture ended up on the wall and I was delighted to receive a lovely message saying how delighted they were with the final placement. I have to say that the frame and photograph certainly suit the colour of the wall it is on. So thank you for letting me see it in situ.

It is always important when buying a picture that you have a sense of where it is going and how it will fit into those surroundings. Naturally you want to buy a picture that you like but the size and framing matter almost as much.

When I exhibit I often need to frame the pictures and the frames I use are a standard black. Whilst these usually work against the white walls in a gallery and with some space around them they are less likely to look as good in a domestic setting, especially if there is a dominant colour theme. Lately I have had some prints made on di-bond which can be mounted without frames. These have been very successful and can go almost anywhere.

So if you are buying a photograph think about where you want to place it and, if a framed version doesn't fit then buy a print and think about an unframed version. Talking to the photographer usually helps as it can make a difference to the print size and paper. 

Good framers will also be able to make recommendations. A framer that I often works with (and who is cheaper than most framing shops I know) always does a home visit and decides with the client what would work best.

I hope this helps next time you consider introducing a new photograph to your living quarters or office and thanks to this purchaser for following up with me. It was a lovely surprise.

Context - Dan Kitchener graffiti

Context

There is some great graffiti about these days all over the world and some artists move between cultures and cities easily. It was therefore a pleasure to see that Dan Kitchener, a world renowned street artist, was in Hull and painting the side of the King Billy pub. This is a freehand spray painting. The position is perfect and can be seen by all the traffic passing by on the A63. 

So it was inevitable that I would go and take some pictures there. This presented a couple of challenges. Firstly there is a large advertising hoarding/fence which separates the mural from the pavement. This makes it impossible to gain a top to bottom view. However I can quite understand the desire to protect this lovely work from passing oiks. 

The second challenge, which is linked to the first, is to give the picture context within the photograph. By that I mean that to only replicate the work seems like using some else's graft to make a photograph and claim the credit. Showing the scale and surroundings gives far more context to the finished work.

The first challenge was partially overcome by a couple of grey metal boxes which (I assume) carry some electrical equipment for the nearby traffic control lights. Standing on them meant that I could achieve some sense of the whole while also squeezing in the statue of King Billy on the far right of the picture as well as giving a sense of scale with the street light. A conversion of this particular picture to mono served it well.

The next two pictures I left in colour, saturating them slightly as the day had been very grey. In one I show the tower of Hull Minster which I hope gives both a sense of place and a sense of old and new. The second favours a shot which again gives context through including the pub frontage. In both the hoarding is inevitably present as is the phenomenal amount of road signage and furniture. I would have liked to have some people gazing up at it but having hung about for half an hour there was no-one about. I'll have to return at a busier time...

You can see more of Dan Kitchener's work here :- https://www.dankitchener.com/

Harvest - continuing a series

The Harvest 

At this time of year I start to look seriously for pictures related to harvest time. The genesis of this lies with the artist Peter Watson whose work I first came across and showed some years ago when I still had Creation Fine Arts gallery.

Peter was born in Beverley and attended school locally before going to art college in Liverpool. He has been a succesful artist over the years and there is a link to his work below which has a quality of graphic design which I like and admire.

About three years ago we met at an opening and he suggested that we might collaborate on a series of paintings and photographs. After some thought and discussion we decided that the theme of harvest was a very suitable one for the East and North Yorkshire area (Peter now lives near Scarborough) and that it could make an interesting juxtaposition if my photographs were in mono against his colour paintings.

So for the last three years we have been slowly gathering material. We still don't know when it will be finished or if we will ever find a space to show it in but we live in hope.

So if you see me standing near a field looking at the work of harvesting getting done, or the fields ripen and the tracks across them slowly disappear you'll understand it is all part of a bigger plan.

This picture is a new one which may or may not be used eventually. I happened upon the combine harvester as I drove out of York and the dust, the position of the trees and the darker sky all seemed perfect for a shot.

Below is a painting showing Peter's style and a link so you can see more if you wish. You may have already seen a series of his pictures if you have visited the coalmining museum near Doncaster from commissions he undertook for the NCB before the mines closed in the 70's and 80's.

http://peterwatsonpaintings.co.uk/ 

John Bulmer

John Bulmer - photograph by Veronika  Lavey

John Bulmer was born in 1938 and still lives in Herefordshire where his grandfather established Bulmer's Cider. He was a pioneer of colour photography in the UK and initially worked for the Daily Express but later became more associated with The Sunday Times Magazine.

Much of his early commissioned work in England covered deprived areas and his acclaimed book "The North" (Bluecoat Press 2021) contains many of his photographs from this time. Whilst much of his photogrpahy at this time focussed on provincial Britain he was also commissioned by The Sunday Times to visit Africa following Harold MacMillan's "Winds of Change" speech. Together with journalist Richard West he visited and photographed fourteen countries in two months reporting on the changing politics as colonial powers lost their grip on the continent. An entire issue of The Sunday Times Magazine was devoted to the report and his photographs. His book "Wind of Change" (Bluecoat Press 2014) recalls this and later work in countries facing challenge and change.

In the 1970's Bulmer changed course and moved into documentary and travel film making for the BBC, National Geographic Magazine and the Discovery Channel among others much of this work took him to unexplored and largely undiscovered parts of the world.

Now in his eighties he is still cataloguing his vast archives and his work has appeared in exhibitions at The Photographers Gallery, Gallery of Modern Art in New York and Bradford's National Media Museum. Recognition may have come late but if you are my age and see the photographs you will probably realise that you have known his work all along!

More here :- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bulmer

Bluecoat Press books can be viewed here :- https://bluecoatpress.co.uk/

Re-editing

Use your back-catalogue to the full

When you have taken the photographs and edited those you deem fit there are several things that can happen to them. Some get immediately shared on Facebook and Instagram or whatever other media you use. A few may get used for exhibitions, something quite common with a number of mine as they are shot in related sequences with that in mind. 

A few may get printed as I have had outlets in the past (local cafes or exhibitions etc) who have been happy to have their walls decorated and sell them if there is the interest. It always strokes the ego to know that someone else likes your work. One or two might even make it into print somewhere if you are lucky too. Most however end up stagnating in your hard drive's back catalogue and will rarely see the light of day.

If lockdown has taught me anything it is that back catalogues can hide some pictures which you may have missed first time round. It could also be that your post production techniques have improved or changed since the first edition of your photograph was made. Improvements and additions to the tools you use can also make modifications more accessible or just add differences. So looking at older pictures with a view to seeing what you might be able to alter is always worthwhile when you have some time to spare.

The two pictures here are both re-edits of photogroaphs that are at least a couple of years old and which I missed in some way the first time round. So instead of always feeling the need to get out and take new pictures use your rainy days or lazy days to have a backward glance and see if you have something that might be worth a second glance and give you the first sight of a new old photograph!

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Henri Cartier-Bresson

A French photographer born in 1908 it is almost impossible to consider the development of modern photography without his presence.

Originally training as an artist and attending Cambridge University to study art, literature and English (in which he was fluent), he discovering photography in the 1920's and settling into the early useage of 35mm film. He acquired a Leica camera in 1931 which he used continuously for many years, even burying it during the war (he served three years as a POW under the German Occupation of France) digging it up once the war ended.

His first exhibition was in New York in 1933 and that later transferred at Madrid. He was heavily influenced by his study of, and close contact with, surrealists during the 1920's and realised very early on the importance of candid, street photography which became his stock in trade. The informality and unexpected actions of people was important to him. Throughout his life Henri was a left leaning humanist and worked with many of the French Communist party although he never joined the party himself. This often shows in the tenderness of his approach to people in his photographs.

MOMA mounted an exhibition after the war which had originally been conceived as a posthumous show following rumours of his death but became a celebrating retrospective.

He founded the Magnum agency with four other photographers in 1947 and achieved international recognition for his reportage of Ghandi's funeral in 1948.

In 1952 his book Images à la sauvette, published as The Decisive Moment in English but actually translating as Images on the Sly, brought to the fore his idea that, having seen a composition you wait for the key moment to press the shutter. Miss it and it has gone. His photograph Rue Mouffetard (below) taken in 1954 is often used as an example of this. The triumphant look on the boy's face sealing the deal with the photographer.

In later years he travelled widely but gave up photography to concentrate on drawing apart from a few private portraits. He died in 2004 at 95 and is buried in the local cemetery at Montjustin having left a lasting legacy of work and influence.

Composition

Composition

When a photographer points their lense at something and clicks they are mounting a frame around the object. They are trying to show something to viewers as a piece of the world at one moment in time. What they are doing is making a composition. A monkey banging on a piano is composing but it is likely to be less pleasing than giving the piano to a composer. So photographers are learning to be good composers and frame something that is pleasing to look at.

Science has shown that the human brain can respond to certain mathematical patterns and so there are some basic "rules" which can be followed when learning to compose a picture. These rules will make it easier for a viewer to "read" the picture and allow the photogrpaher to lead the eye of someone looking into a picture.

The "Rule of Thirds" is one of the most commonly used by new photographers and "phi" is a Greek expression of harmony in nature and also known as "The Golden Ratio" or the "Fibonacci sequence". You can find out more about these by following the links below:-

Rule of Thirds -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GcpP-n-94I

Phi - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CiS3SU4lk0 

In some ways these rules are both helpful and misleading. To work with either can certainly help make your photograph interesting but to believe they are the only thing that will make your picture outstanding is naive. Aand anyway, rules are made to be broken! In looking through the lense the photographer also needs to consider colour, balance, action, light and shade and might even use nothing (known as negative space) or depth of field (where some of the picture is in focus and some out of focus) to accentuate the object they wish you to look at.

In the West we "read" from left to right and look at pictures in the same way. The picture of the rape field above has a patch of strong yellow leading down to a track which then sweeps up and ends near a hedge on the horizon. This automatically leads the eye towards the lone tree which stands proudly around one third of the way into the picture from the left. So the picture uses some elements of a classic rule but not all of it as the horizon cuts through the centre of the picture.

The photograph below is a completely different type of composition. Many people looking at this photo will immediately recognise the Liver Building on Liverpool's waterfront as an internationally recognised landmark. However it is dwarfed by a new office block which takes up half the photograph. Nonetheless this is a picture of the Liver Building and the new offices have been included both as a contrast and to draw attention to the older, better known building. It might also add an emotional element as we consider whether newer buildings are as elegant or iconic as older architecture. The street lights at the bottom are included to give a sense of scale and the blank blue of the sky leaves the negative space which helps focus on the Liver Buildings pinaccle. In the photograph of the rape field the clouds add a sense of the sort of day it was and also fill the sky. A blank sky in that photograph would have made it rather boring whereas clouds in the photograph below would have distracted from the main topic.

So when you take a photograph these elements should be in your mind. However remember Edward Weston's quotation - "To consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk". In other words practice until you don't need to....

In a fjord near Kirkenes

In February 2017 my daughters and I took a cruise with Hurtigruten around the North Cape of Norway.

As we sailed down the fjord from the Arctic Circle port of Kirkenes the February sun began to set around 4.30pm. 

The snow clouds were building above the Russian border a few kilometres away and it was minus 5C outside. Floating just below the water ice sheets took in the last of the sun and gave off a mist that created a surreal spectacle, ever changing and needing to be captured then and there. Four minutes later this panoramic shot was not possible. 

It had an eerie feel then and still has when I look at it now. A few hours later we gloried in a spectacular display from the Northern Lights.

This is three photographs stiched together after minimal post production taken with an f4 400mm lense at 1/13th of a second. 

Photo London exhibition - 7th - 11th October 2020

Photo London   7th - 11th October 2020 

As cultural life staggers back into some sort of normality plans for this years' Photo London continue to be laid. Taking place in the largest privately owned gardens in London (Gray's Inn Gardens off Chancery Road). 

Hopefully we will still be free to travel and mingle, albeit in a socially distanced and masked sort of way, by the time it arrives. I certainly admire their faith in taking this, the sixth, forward at such an uncertain and difficult time, but the site allows for careful control over the admission and exit of visitors as well as allowing plenty of space and thus reasonably assured safety.

Galleries and publishers from across the world will be taking part and Nikon are partnering up as sponsors. Further announcements are to be made over the summer.

More information and the ability to sign up for their newletter can be found here :-

https://photolondon.org/overview/

Minimalism

Minimalism....

...is about separating something out to increase the attention paid to it. In many cases our photographs can get swamped by too much detail or colour and the reason we originally spendt time taking it gets lost.

When we look at things as a photographer it is easy to see the object you are photographing and concentrate on that. Why else so many holiday snaps where a pole sticks out of someone's head? Because we fail to consider the object as a part of the wider scene.....and that wider scene can easily distract from our intention.

There are several ways to create a minimal effect. One is to have a strong contrast of colour as in the pink flower above against the brown and khaki of the wall and tree. The khaki of the wall on the right of the picture is known as negative space. This really means that not much is happening in it but it gives the picture scale and allows our eye to be drawn to the part we would like people to see...

One is to use colour to define the difference in a space, as in the cone which looks totally out of place against the architectural stillness of the corner of this building.

A third is to use a lack of colour to emphasis the subject.  The overhead branch below encourages us to consider the branch as pretty much the only thing in the picture, apart from the clouds. We do not need the colour to explain this to us as our brain tells us that without our thinking about it. This is often used in street photography where light fills the space we want people to look at and darkness provides a contrast of emphasis.

Minimalism has a mindfulness to it which concentrates the eye on single area or object and help us to consider that without any major distractions. It is a meditation and for some the pictures may seem frivalous or bizarre. But it has its place and I like a good minimalist photograph that makes me think.

Michael Kenna - landscape photographs

Black and White landscapes

Michael Kenna was born in the North of England in 1953.

From an Irish Catholic family with five siblings he ditched his original intention of becoming a priest and graduated as a commercial photographer from the London College of Printing in 1976. He honed his craft commercially and sold prints of Cartier-Bresson, Lartigue and Riboud through John Hillelson Agency in London. 

Moving to San Francisco because of an upsurge in photogrpahic galleries he met Ruth Bernhard who hired him as her printer. Over the next eight years he learned and practiced how to creatively manipulate and translate a negative.

Since 1986 he has mainly used a Hasselblad or Holger camera and his square format pictures are accounted for by this. Shooting in early light or at night he can make 10 hour exposures which give his pictures a unique and ethereal look.

He has shot around the world but says that his favourite country is France due to the variety of landscapes. Nonetheless he was strongly influenced by visits to the Far East and especially Japan where he describes learning how to par pictures down "like a haiku". 

He has photographs in galleries around the world and has more than twenty books in print.

You can see an interview about his work and influences here :- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z66z6u3LZBc 

This second link is to a series of "minimal photography" tips learned from Michael Kenna's work :- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuK0yrRulkU

A Photographer's Playbook - book review

A Photographer's Playbook

Edited by Jason Fulford and Gregory Halpern

Published by Aperture (2014)

As the cover says this is a book of ideas - 307 of them from photographers worldwide. The editors, having had some involvement in teaching, wondered how others gained inspiration, had fun or tested limits, so thought they would ask. This book is the result. It is what I sometimes use when I feel in need of a challenge or inspiration. It doesn't work all the time but there is good advice available.

The page below by Sasha Rudensky uses a quote by novelist Anthony Burgess as the starting point for her challenge.

You can even download as a pdf and try it for free (well for 30 days anyway) here :-

http://ebookmediastar2.over-blog.com/20e4s_347ke36e0q 

Classic Ribblehead Viaduct shot

On a week's break in the Dales last year we had already driven past Ribblehead and admired the view. I was not especially expecting to get a classic shot at any point in the holiday but when we met some rail enthusiasts the next day they were excited about this train passing through. We noted their comments and the time and day of the visitation and the fact that this train was known to put out steam as it crossed the viaduct.

On the day the weather was pretty perfect and so we arrived early and walked to what we imagined would be a good vantage point and prepared the cameras with a few introductory shots of, well, nothing really apart from the surrounding country.

In the picture it looks empty but the reality was that many people where about but mainly in the same spot as us!

We heard the train before we saw it and then, there is was. Billowing steam and fluffy clouds with that wonderful engineering feat of brick and steel gave me the perfect picture at first attempt. An hour later we were at the Ingleton water falls. Who needs to go very far in this country for some spectacular photo opportunities :-)

So if you want a shot like this find some experts to talk to and follow their advice. They know what they are talking about!

Joel Meyerowitz podcast

Today a link to the recent FRAMES Magazine interview with Joel Meyerowitz.

Joel Meyerowitz (born in New York in 1938) is an award-winning photographer whose work has appeared in over 350 exhibitions in museums and galleries around the world. Celebrated as a pioneer of color photography, he is a two-time Guggenheim Fellow, a recipient of both National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities awards, and a recipient of The Royal Photographic Society’s Centenary Medal. He has published over 30 books. Meyerowitz lives and works in New York and in Italy.

W Scott Olsen interviews Joel Meyerowitz for FRAMES Magazine : 

https://readframes.com/frames-podcast-with-joel-meyerowitz/ 

This is one of several podcasts that FRAMES has online. You can also explore from this link.

Brimham Rocks

When I woke up yesterday I realised that if I didn't make it to Brimham Rocks before the weekend  then the school holidays would probably make it a challenge to find space. I had meant to go for some time but the weather had been awful and the skies leaden so I had put it off. In fact the weather wasn't that great yesterday either but in the spirit of adventure I set off. As I drove down the motorway and up the A1 into North Yorkshire the clouds shifted into manageable cottonwool balls and the rain disappeared. Arriving shortly after the car park opened I was pleased to see few cars.

Underfoot was damp but with my super waterproof boots it didn't matter. Two and a bit hours later I was back in the car and heading south and home for an afternoon of editing as it started to rain again. Perfect timing as it happened.

Somehow the moodiness of this 184 hectare site calls for mono treatment in my eye. The rock formations, left behind when the ice melted 18,000 years ago, are striking and have been weathered by wind, rain and ice ever since. A bit of scrambling around by children and (largely) dads wanting to show off has helped as well. Now a site of Special Scientific Interest as well as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty I was lucky to have it largely to myself for a while.

A weekend sale by Taschen

A quick blog today. Taschen, the art book printers, have a sale on over the weekend. They have many books on photography as well as art and the production values are high. 

Sebastiao Selgado's "Genesis" (see above) is just £30. 

First published in 2013 this massive coffee table book of black and white photographs from across the globe is described as "A love letter to the planet". Eight years in the making it is a beautiful set of pictures as well as making us consider our place in it and our responsibilities to it.

Of course there are other books but this is the one I focussed on. A big bargain. A link below - 

https://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/photography/all/05767/facts.sebastio_salgado_genesis.htm 

and an interview about the project here - 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ESGW7HovOA 

Deconstruction or a different way to shoot a sunflower...

Sunflower

Flowers are a constant source of inspiration for me. Whether in the wild or the studio there are numerous varieties, colours and shapes. Of course all have been photographed before and so the challenge I find is to try and take pictures that have something different about them. A new angle or way of seeing something.

Planning my show FLORA last year I wanted to include sunflowers because their vibrancy and colour. Their deep yellow stands out on any wall. But how to do this when so many other excellent pictures already exist? 

Setting up a light in the studio and then placing thick perspex on top and over that a sheet of tissue paper meant that I reduced the glare. I had already raided the kitchen for some sunflower seeds. I carefully dissected the yellow petals from the centre of the flower and arranged them on the tissue paper, scattering the sunflower seeds on top. Switch on the light and shoot away. 

The overlay of leaves produced deeper and lighter yellows. The seeds on top barred the light but they are clearly not the proper sunflower head. I allowed any natural flaw in the leaves to remain rather than edit them out as some might have done. I felt that it helped retain some of the truth of the original flower.

I did this several times over a couple of days and ended with well over two hundred shots of which I post produced about thirty, one of which is shown here.

At the time of writing FLORA is still in SALT Architects gallery in Beverley because of lockdown. Although the office is not open currently you are welcome to peer through the window and see it :-)

My influences - Francesca Woodman

Francesca Woodman - Self Portrait

It is never a happy occurrence to know that someone died too young. Sadly Francesca Woodman was only 22 when she jumped from a window in New York. She left behind some 10,000 negatives and around 800 prints. Her parents now manage her estate and much of her work has still not been seen.

Having found photography whilst at High School she quickly developed her own style. Much of her work involved herself or friends, mostly women, in isolated situations. They are often naked which increases their appearance of vulnerability, a key feature of her pictures, although some also seem a form of celebration. The long exposures which became a part of her trademark, blur the movement and can provide an unsettling experience which makes the viewer question the events they are seeing. Almost all of her work is in black and white.

She had little acclaim during her life and it is said that a combination of the industry rejection of her work coupled with a failed relationship led to her death. Her work is now critically acclaimed however and seen as a statement, in part, of her vulnerability and as a major contribution to the developing view of women in society. Certainly the surreal influences that she acknowledged from photographers such as Man Ray and the Gothic and Surrealist movements are notably present in her work. She is also known to have admired the work of Deborah Turbeville, a fashion photographer whose work was dark and dreamy and far more feminine than her more edgy and erotic counterparts such as Helmut Newton.

Since her death books, articles and worldwide exhibitions have abounded and a critically acclaimed film "The Woodmans" released in 2010. (  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zqNUdtCwkU ).

Many museums and galleries now have prints of her work (including my local gallery The Ferens in Hull) and to me they are always immediately recognisable. You can see some of her work at Tate Online ( https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/francesca-woodman-10512 ) or Art Net ( http://www.artnet.com/artists/francesca-woodman/ ).

There are a number of books available too and I recommend Francesca Woodman by Chris Townend published through Phaidon although the new hardback version at £360.32 seems a bit steep even for such a comprehensive tome. The softback version is a more manageable £35.00.