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musings on the photographic experiences of keith greenough
Bettina von Zwehl
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 […]
OCA Thames Valley Group Workshop 23rd February 2013
February 23, 2013
I just got back from a workshop with 8 students from the OCA photography stream. The workshop was lead by OCA tutor Sharon Boothroyd. It was a very useful session. It’s always very stimulating looking at other people’s work as well as getting feedback on my own. We also spent some time talking about the […]
Lee Friedlander
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 […]
Portraits in the Landscape
February 19, 2013
I’ve just got back my developed film from the trip to Wester Ross. I made several portraits with the 4×5 using Kodak Portra 400. The film is a lacks punch in the dull conditions and seems to have a blue cast. I clearly need to search for more interesting light!! However, that said this was […]
Paul Graham
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 […]
Posted in: Advanced Studies, influences, OCA Advanced, Paul Graham, photographers, Portrait, Uncategorized
Broomberg and Chanarin
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 […]
Posted in: Advanced Studies, Bertholt Brecht, Broomberg & Chanarin, Ghetto, influences, Mr Mkhize, OCA Advanced, photographers, Portrait, Trust
Outline Presentation for OCA student workshop on 23rd February
February 14, 2013
A number of students from OCA Thames Valley Flickr pool are getting together on the 23rd February for an away day….this looks like it will be a fun, interesting and instructive day. I have been asked to give a presentation of about half an hour on my experiences on transitioning from level 2 to level […]
Back from Wester Ross
February 11, 2013
I’ve just spent the last week up in Scotland getting reacquainted with the landscape. I was on a workshop with about 20 other photographers, most of whom concentrate on landscape work. Amongst them were the well known British photographers Joe Cornish and David Ward. Eddie Ephraums a book publisher was also one of the leaders. […]
Rotarians (after Hill & Adamson)
February 2, 2013
I have renamed my series of portraits of my local Rotary club members, Rotarians (after Hill & Adamson). This is more specific and avoids unwanted connotations such as football, nightclubs, golf and so on. I have completed 11 portraits….11 is an odd number (both literally and in terms of a project like this)….I think 12 might […]
Elina Brotherus
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 […]
After Hill & Adamson Portrait Comparison
February 1, 2013
As I said in the previous post I thought I would make a comparison of the digital ‘smiling’ version of the portrait of Gwen with the 5×4 ‘serious’ film version. Here are the two photographs side by side: So how do I think these images compare. First some general observations. For this portrait I much […]
Rotarians (after Hill & Adamson)
January 31, 2013
I completed my final shoot for the combined series of portraits of my Rotary club members (after Hill & Adamson) and 45 seconds… It will be a short while before I finish developing the film. As a thank you for my sitters I have been making a digital portrait at the end of the shoot so […]
Posted in: 45 seconds..., After Hill & Adamson, Assignment, Hill & Adamson, OCA Advanced, Rotarians, Rotary
Rineke Dijkstra
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 […]
Chuck Close – A Couple of Ways of Doing Something
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. […]
Posted in: 45 seconds..., Assignment, Chuck Close, Daguerrotype, influences, OCA Advanced, photographers
Rotarians (after Hill and Adamson)
January 30, 2013
I’ve been continuing to make portraits of the members of my local Rotary Club, Rotarians (after Hill and Adamson). I have been doing this work alongside my 45 seconds… project, using the 4×5 camera. The poses are based on those used by Hill and Adamson in their Calotype photographs made in the mid 1800s. When looking at […]
Photographic Charity Work…
January 30, 2013
I’ve been helping out a local company. They wanted some portraits of their staff for their website. I spent a little time with them on three separate occasions. The idea was that I would make their portraits (good practice for me) and they would make a donation to my Rotary charity if they liked the […]
Philip Lorca diCorcia
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 […]
Posted in: Advanced Studies, influences, Inspiration, OCA Advanced, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, photographers
Seduced by Art
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. […]
Thoughts on Landscape Photography
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 […]
Posted in: aesthetics, critical theory, influences, Inspiration, Intention, Landscape, OCA YOP, Portraits in the Landscape
45 seconds….
January 19, 2013
I have been progressing with my diptych portraits of friends and Rotary colleagues as per my previous post here. I have now completed 8 portraits of which I think I may use 6 in my final submission for the assignment. One of the ones I have retained so far is also a possible for exclusion. […]
Tom Hunter
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 […]
Posted in: Advanced Studies, influences, Inspiration, Market, OCA Advanced, photographers, Tom Hunter
Thoughts on the cultural significance of landscape
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 […]
Posted in: East End London, influences, Inspiration, Intention, Landscape, OCA YOP, photographers, Simon Norfolk, Uncategorized
Walker Evans
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 […]
Influences – 10 key photographers
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 […]
Developing my Reflective Account
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 […]
Portraits in the Landscape
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 […]
Posted in: Advanced Studies, Albrecht Tubke, Alec Soth, Ansel Adams, August Sander, Bernhard Fuchs, critical theory, Galen Rowell, influences, James Ravilious, Joel Sternfeld, Landscape, Mark Power, OCA Advanced, photographers, Portrait, Portraits in the Landscape, Rineke Dijkstra, Scotland, Uncategorized, Workshop
Assignment 6: Ironman Family – Submission and Feedback
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 […]
Klein and Moriyama
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 […]
Posted in: Exhibitions, influences, Inspiration, Klein, Moriyama, OCA Advanced, Tate Modern, Uncategorized
Long Exposure Portraits – Update
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 […]
Black and White Darkroom Skills
December 2, 2012
The OCA course structure does not include any darkroom processing skills. It is pretty obvious that this is because the OCA course is structured around distance learning and access to a processing labs would be a major problem. As I have explained previously I am keen to use a large format camera for some of my […]
Final Cut Pro X
December 2, 2012
I have been using video as a medium for showing some of my work. Specifically I have made two videos which will very probably form part of my submission for the assessment at level 3. So far I had made the videos using the Export Slideshow facility of Adobe Lightroom. This works very well but […]
Old beech makes The Big Issue
November 30, 2012
My photograph of the 500 year old beech tree in Burnham Beeches was published in The Big Issue of the North last week….this tree deserves attention.
Initial Thoughts on Ebony
November 24, 2012
It is just a few weeks since I took the plunge and decided to start shooting portraits with my 4×5 large format camera. I thought it would be useful to set down my thoughts on my early experiences with the camera as a reference point for future reflection. The Camera First of all a bit […]
Assignment 5 Urban Artists at Work – Submission and Feedback
November 21, 2012
I recently sent off my work for Assignment 5 – Urban Artists at Work to Jesse Alexander for his review. Here is the note which I sent to Jesse along with the images which places it in context. My key references were Broomberg and Chanarin’s Trust, Lee Friedlander’s At Work, and Paul Graham’s Television Portraits. Assignment 5 Urban […]
Long Exposure Portraits – Further thinking
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 […]
Brighton Biennial
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 […]
Assignment 6: Ironman Family
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 […]
Large Format Portraiture
November 7, 2012
I want to start using my Ebony 5×4 camera for portraits. I will probably use it along with digital for the Long Exposure Portraits. This is a test shot I did a while ago…Very plain lighting – just available light…and my poor wife dragged away from painting and decorating. Still I think this approach has […]
Long Exposure Portraits Update
November 7, 2012
This project is proving the most elusive I have undertaken so far. I have moved my ideas around quite a bit as I have tried things and they have not worked as well as I would have liked. This post sets out my latest thinking as a result of work I have recently undertaken. I […]
Pinhole Self Portraits
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 […]
Long Exposure Portraits – Further Thinking
October 26, 2012
I have been developing my ideas on this project which I need to work on over the coming three months. I have decided to do a series of portraits in line with the ideas expressed in my previous post here. The portraits will be modern day takes on the portraits made by Hill and Adamson. […]
Paul Graham – Television Portraits
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 […]
East End London – some images for discussion at OCA Brighton event
October 24, 2012
I plan to sign up for my second level 3 course in the new year. I have been continuing to scope out the nature of a major project for this course based on London’s East End. I have been carrying out some exploratory photography in different areas of the East End to clarify my thinking […]
Lee Friedlander – At Work
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 […]
Broomberg and Chanarin – Trust
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 […]
Venezia Camera Obscura – The Movie
October 17, 2012
I have turned my Pinhole photographs of Venice into a short movie…thought this was a good way to look at them as I am able to control the pace and order of the viewing…add a bit of atmospheric music and it hangs together as a nice package.the photographs are a series of urban landscapes/interiors captured […]
iphone photo makes it into Big Issue of the North
October 16, 2012
One of the iphone photographs from Venice has been published in Big Issue of the North. It is a photograph of the Communist headquarters which has a religious shrine alongside the doorway into the office…it grabbed attention because it could be read as suggesting that the politicians might needs divine intervention to overcome the current […]
Venice Pinhole Landscapes and Portraits
October 16, 2012
Whilst in Venice I experimented with my Zero Image 2000 pinhole camera. As I have indicated elsewhere in this blog I am trying to get to know how to use pinhole cameras so that I can use them for my long exposure portrait project. I was a little disappointed with the results from the trip. […]
Posted in: Landscape, OCA Advanced, Pinhole, Street Portraits, Technical Development, Venice, Zero Image 2000
photo-graph 
February 24, 2013
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