I am getting close to the end of shooting for the East London Project. Whilst I fully expect to keep making images right up until the end, from now on this will be directed at trying to improve existing images, rather than exploring completely new sites. Last night I visited what might prove to be my […]
May 13, 2014
I went along to the Photographers’ Gallery for the announcement of the Deutsche Borse Photography Prize (a perk of being an Associate Member of the Gallery). I also had the time to have a good look around the exhibition before it got too busy. Before going along I had looked at the PG website and […]
April 3, 2014
At the Uncertain States exhibition back in November (see here) I learned about another exhibition of photographs of London’s East End, Archive Imagined East End, which was due to take place at Hoxton Hall in November. The exhibition featured photographs by Don McCullin, Ian Farrant, Spencer Rowell, David George, Mick Williamson, Tom Hunter and Stephen […]
November 25, 2013
I have been to a few exhibitions recently and have decided to capture some thoughts on these on the blog. The first port of call was the Uncertain States 2013 exhibition at The Bank on Whitechapel Road in the East End of London. (see here). I visited this exhibition with John Umney and Catherine Banks, […]
October 16, 2013
I have just returned from a holiday in Hawaii. The trip was not meant to be a major photographic expedition, but I could not resist the temptation to take a camera with me. I travelled light taking my Leica M9 with 35, 50 and 75 mm lenses. I had no particular project in mind before I […]
August 26, 2013
I have not posted for a while but have been quietly thinking about how I will take forward my work on my final course Photography 3: Your Own Porfolio. The course is more structured than the Advanced module. I will be required to undertake a number of projects, a written critical review and a major […]
August 1, 2013
This is my second post setting out my thoughts on my trip to Arles. The previous post is here. I indicated this post will cover my impressions of Pieter Hugo, Marion Gronier, John Davies, Wolfgang Tilmans and Gordon Parks along with my thoughts on the nominees for the 2013 Discovery Award. Pieter Hugo – There’s […]
July 13, 2013
I’ve just got back from a visit to the south of France. The trip combined a short family holiday with a trip to Arles to see some of the photography on offer at the Les Rencontres Arles Photography 2013 (LRAP13). This post is the first of two setting out my thoughts on what I found […]
March 9, 2013
I have been gathering together more thoughts on influences to my thinking on photographic portraiture. This has involved re-reading some of the books I’ve gathered along the way during the Advanced course. The Portrait Photography As Stage is the book associated with an exhibition of the same name held at the Kunsthalle in Viena in 2009 […]
March 8, 2013
I have been to the Taylor Wessing Portrait Award Exhibition each year from the last five years and have always found the experience interesting and intriguing. I believe that my decision to work in the genre of portraiture for my OCA Advanced course may well have been influenced by my enjoyment of this event. This […]
March 3, 2013
About 25 students from the OCA had the opportunity yesterday to listen to Tom Hunter speak about his work and to ask him questions. The event was organised by OCA tutor Sharon Boothroyd. I was one of the lucky few to go along. Tom gave a fairly long presentation about his work. He started with […]
February 25, 2013
I’ve just been reading a new book by Lucy Souter called ‘Why Art Photography’ and in it she recounts how she always asks her photography students the same question during her course. The question is ‘What is the difference between an art photograph and a designer handbag?’ (Soutter 2013, Location 179) She says she always gets […]
February 25, 2013
Roni Horn is an American artist who works in a range of media including photography. Her photography has relevance to my own because she makes frequent use of multiple images of her subjects to explore issues of personal identity and how this is (or is not) represented by the photographic portrait. In You are the Weather Horn’s […]
February 24, 2013
I discovered Bettina von Zwehl’s work late in my exploration of ‘Disarming the Pose’, whilst investigating the question of how long exposure times inhibit self conscious posing by the photographic portrait subject.. It is a pity I didn’t ‘discover’ her earlier as much of her photography is highly relevant to my own work. Von Zwehl has […]
February 22, 2013
I wanted Uncle Vern standing by his new car (a Hudson) on a clear day. I got him and the car. I also got a bit of Aunt Mary’s laundry and Beau Jack, the dog, peeing on the fence, and a row of potted tuberous begonias on the porch and seventy-eight trees and a million […]
February 18, 2013
Paul Graham’s Television Portraits was another reference for my Urban Artists at Work project. I have commented on this previously here. Graham’s influence on my work has however been much more profound. Graham is a photographer who is impossible to pigeonhole. He is perhaps Britain’s most revered art photographer, but his work has extended to documentary, portraiture and […]
February 17, 2013
I came across Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin’s Trust (Broomberg & Chanarin 2000) whilst researching reference sources for my Urban Artists at Work series. Trust is relevant to my own work as it is an investigation into ‘absorption’. It is a series of photographs of people emersed in various activities such as video games. I have posted a review […]
February 1, 2013
I first came across Elina Brotherus’s work when I was researching photographic self portraiture for my I am an Ironman series. Brotherus’s work is well documented on her website (http://www.elinabrotherus.com/news/). She has also recently published a ‘retrospective’ monograph of her work (Brotherus 2012). Much of Brotherus’s early work was made at times when she was going through periods […]
January 31, 2013
I have made several previous posts about Rineke Dijkstra – a photographer who has greatly influenced my approach to portraiture. These posts are listed here. Dijkstra is a contemporary Dutch portrait photographer who works with the format of the photographic series. This approach creates opportunities for typological observation, adding to the fascination of her portraits. Her style […]
January 30, 2013
I have just come across some work done by Chuck Close and modern day daguerrotype expert Jerry Spagnoli. They teamed up to photograph many artist-friends with Gregory Crewdson, Andres Serrano, Cindy Sherman amongst them. The resulting daguerrotype portraits are fascinating. The daguerrotype portraits are recorded on polished metal sheets and are quite small at 8×6 inches. […]
January 27, 2013
Philip Lorca DiCorcia was a reference for my Museums work. Specifically I quoted his Streetworks and Heads series (Simpson 2007, pp 46-63) , both of which are candid portrait series shot in the streets. DiCorcia work stands out from most other candid street portraiture because he used remote flash guns to illuminate and isolate his subjects. The Heads portraits […]
January 25, 2013
I made it to the National Gallery’s ‘Seduced by Art’ exhibition in its last few days. I am very glad I did. It gave me much food for thought. The exhibition had pretty mixed reviews and seemed to unearth old prejudices about the status of photography as art. The National Gallery is clearly hallowed ground. […]
January 22, 2013
I’ve been looking again at books I read on the Landscape module of the OCA photography degree course. I’ve been getting my mind back into landscape mode for my trip to Scotland in two weeks time. The book I’ve just re-read is the Oxford History of Art Landscape and Western Art. This is a good overview of […]
January 14, 2013
Tom Hunter is a British photographer whose work I referenced for my Markets Assignment (see here). He had produced a series of group portraits of local traders/shopkeepers in Hackney, Trading Places which was relevant to my work. Hunter’s work centres on his local environment of Hackney. In his essay which prefaces his new book The Way Home he […]
January 14, 2013
I have yet to enrol for Photography Your Own Portfolio which would be my last module on the OCA degree course. I expect to do so in a few months time and hope to complete the course by the middle of next year. Through research and reading I’ve been gathering ideas which could be of […]
January 11, 2013
Walker Evans was one of my key references for my Museum project. In my supporting text for this work I commented on Evans as follows: “In the late 1930s Walker Evans made candid portraits of people on the New York subway. He later said that the Subway portraits were “[his] idea of what a portrait […]
January 10, 2013
Following on from the last post I have been reflecting on which photographers have most influenced my work since I began the Advanced course just over a year ago. I have identified 10 photographers who have been very important to my development. I want to make sure that my blog properly reflects my thoughts these […]
January 10, 2013
For my final assessment submission for the OCA Advanced Photography Course I need to submit a Reflective Account drawn from my learning log. The idea is to present my thoughts of what I have learned throughout the course. I have given this some thought and feel that I need to plan the structure of this […]
January 9, 2013
At the beginning of February I am going on a photographic workshop in Scotland. The leaders of the workshop are Joe Cornish, David Ward, Eddie Ephraums and Adrian Hollister. I attended the workshop last year and thoroughly enjoyed myself. A particular highlight was learning about book production from Eddie who is a publisher – we […]
January 7, 2013
Just before Xmas, I completed my selections of photographs for this long standing project, prepared my accompanying text and sent these off to Jesse Alexander my tutor for his feedback. “Ironman Family” is a series of portraits of friends who compete in the endurance sport Ironman Triathlon. My idea was to document this group of people […]
January 3, 2013
I have now been to Tate Modern’s Klein/Moriyama exhibition twice. I have delayed posting my thoughts on the exhibition because I was unsure if I might go again as part of the OCA Study Visit – I am on the waiting list for this. It now seems unlikely that I will be attending the OCA […]
December 16, 2012
In my last post on this project, here, I had outlined an approach for making pairs of portrait photographs of a group of Rotary colleagues where the exposures in each were to be around 45 seconds and the diptych presentation would allow the viewer to compare the two poses. The idea was to explore Walter […]
November 10, 2012
I have been making some excellent progress with this project. I have now signed up 12 ‘models’ from my Rotary Club. I will be scheduling sittings in my home studio in four/five afternoon sessions over the next four weeks. I hope to finalise the schedule by the end of next week. I really only need […]
November 9, 2012
Last weekend I attended the OCA study visit to the Brighton Biennial Photo Festival. The event was very well attended with around 25 students, four tutors and Gareth. The theme for this year’s Festival was Agents of Change: Photography and the Politics of Space. The website for the event is here. University of Sussex Gallery We started […]
November 8, 2012
I have once again revisited my Artist’s Statement for my portraits series of friends who compete in ironman triathlon. I have been progressing the work throughout the last year and have now made around 24 portraits. I expect to make a few more before the end of the course but essentially the work now on […]
October 31, 2012
I am being very indecisive about the long exposure portrait project! I have now decided to pursue two avenues in parallel. The first will be the portraits of my Rotary colleagues in the style of David Octavius Hill as outlined in the last post. The second is the series of long exposure self portraits which […]
October 25, 2012
Paul Graham is a highly influential British photographer whose work spans a wide range of work. His work has never settled into a niche. He has always seemed be able to move on. His books A1 – the Great North Road, Troubled Land, and New Europe are likely to be significant influences on my East End […]
October 19, 2012
Born in 1934 Lee Friedlander has been a prolific photographer over the years. He is best known for his photographic documentation of the American social landscape. He has tended to work in long run series, leading to the eventual publication of a book. At Work is one such series. The book lee friedlander at work is a […]
October 18, 2012
I have decided to document on this blog the work of photographers who have influenced my own work, as evidenced by my assignments. My intention is to be able to bring these together into my Critical Review text document later in the year. The subject of my next assignments is Urban Artists at Work. This […]
September 23, 2012
The Scottish painter and arts activist David Octavius Hill formed Hill & Adamson studio with the engineer and photographer Robert Adamson between 1843 and 1847 to pioneer many aspects of photography in Scotland. Amongst their subjects were a few that have particular relevance to the history of photography and photographic societies in Edinburgh. I have collected […]
September 21, 2012
The rather enigmatic title of this post is the name of an exhibition and book by photographer Taryn Simon. Simon currently has an exhibition at MOMA in New York and which I visited on my recent trip. Simon is regarded as the current ‘queen’ of typological studies. She appears to be totally committed to the […]
September 10, 2012
I recently passed through New York for a few days whilst visiting the USA. Luckily there is currently an retrospective exhibition of Rineke Dijkstra on show at the Guggenheim. I spent a few hours there looking at her work. It was a great experience as I have studied her work quite a bit during the […]
September 8, 2012
Its a long time since I have posted to the blog. This should not be taken as inactivity. I have been progressing on a number of fronts simultaneously. My Urban Artists work is now very well advanced. I have had feedback from my tutor on Assignment 3 – I am an Ironman Self Portraits. I […]
July 22, 2012
I went along to the David Bailey exhibition at the Compressor House in Newham. I am working on an idea for a long term project which will be about London’s East End. I am thinking about using project this for my Level 3 Your Own Portfolio course. Bailey’s exhibition offered the opportunity to see a […]
July 18, 2012
I have just returned from a visit to Frankfurt, where I competed in an Ironman triathlon…the race went as well as I could hope for as I don’t think that I was at peak fitness….too much photography!! (I finished in 12 hours 44 mins) Whilst I was in Frankfurt I had a break from the […]
May 2, 2012
I have visited the Gillian Wearing exhibition at the Whitechapel twice. It is a time hungry exhibition with several video pieces which are quite long. Overall I found the work interesting but only to a point. Much of Wearing’s work is founded upon the same premise which is that the public face is quite often […]
February 25, 2012
I have continued to work on my Museums project, which is a series of candid portraits of people looking at exhibits in London’s museums. The idea is to capture people in moments of reverie whilst gazing at exhibits. My aim is to make photographs which are sympathetic to the subjects whilst capturing the engagement between […]
October 2, 2014
0