Sunday 29 April 2012

FD104 email...

So I got an email from my client for FD104 and he says to arrive early to the Bike Night I am photographing so that I can be given my official photographer hi-vis jacket and a free meal voucher for the night so really looking forward to Thursday where I can go crazy with my camera and hopefully get some good shots, and I am printing off lots of model release forms too, even though I hate asking people to sign them as it seems so formal and unpersonal - bleurgh!! Still excited for the night though as I love motorbikes and the whole biker culture and there will (if the weather is good) be a local band playing so will be a good opportunity to experiment with music photography and maybe sell some of my pics to them too.

Saturday 28 April 2012

Film from Barcelona...

Here are the photographs I took in Barcelona on a film camera, just scanned them into the computer so not great quality but really happy with them:
















Friday 27 April 2012

Work...

So today at work I was asked to be our company photographer!! And one of my colleagues asked if I would do a portrait of her daughter sometime soon. I was also asked by my cousin to be the photographer for her wedding next year so I am really happy with the work I'll be getting and it will give me good practice for the industry, although wedding photography isn't something I want to do in the future it will be good practice in terms of planning a shoot and photographing people in the landscape as well as what prices I should charge. May ask one of my tutors for wedding photography advice closer to the date so that I am prepared for anything!

Thursday 26 April 2012

Robert Bergman continued...

I have quickly been researching further on Bergman and just read this interview he had with Dazed Digital (a magazine I have previously mentioned) http://www.dazeddigital.com/photography/article/8930/1/robert-bergman-more-than-human
I admire his approach to his subjects - the distance and the raw frankness that he answers them with e.g. " Taken using a handheld 35mm camera, and always with available light, Bergman will usually spend a short time with each “collaborator”. “I’ve had very few refusals. But at least half of the time, the person says, ‘Why?’ And I say the simplest thing and the most honest thing: ‘I’m an artist and I like your face.’ They could be what the world calls ugly, but I have to like their face.”
I have to say I am exactly the same when I think about how I would approach someone who I would like to photograph and I am going to use this approach when I photograph portraits of bikers next week at the Bike Night in Plymouth. I have to use digital to fulfill the project aims but I may take some colour film out for my own collection.  

Just Beautiful...




























 









Wednesday 25 April 2012

What I Learnt From New York...

Going to New York was a real eye opener for me as I realised that I was so comfortable there and this showed me that I do have the awareness and 'make your home where you land' attitude to travelling. I know that in the future when I wish to do my own travel/reportage photography for editorials or exhibitions that I will be able to handle it and direct myself, it has also made me seriously think about an idea I had for a project a while ago called 'In The Footsteps Of Bill Gedney' and my plan was to one day go to Kentucky where he photographed coal miners and re do this myself.
Talking to Steve Pyke and seeing his studio and hearing about how he came to be a great photographer inspired me to actually concentrate on doing more film and more of my own work, not just college work. It is hard to find the time between college and work but hopefully over the summer I will work more on film and see if I can get some good shots together. To see what I could possibly be doing in the future at Steve's studio was just phenomenal, to see what you can acheive just my perserverence and confidence in your own style and work ethic is a guiding light for me. I also saw some fantastic work at MoMA which held a retrospective of Cindy Shermans work, it was great to see her untitled film stills, my favourite of her sets. I also visited the International Center of Photography, which was not something I had planned so I didnt know what exhibitions were on, but it turned out to be great photographic work and one of my favourite photographers: Weegee, Murder Is My Business with over 100 photographs and an installation piece that showed what his home/studio looked like. There was also the Magnum Contact Sheets collection and a show called 'Perspectives 2012' which hosted work by photographers; Anna Shteynshleyger, Greg Girard and Chien-Chi Chang. There images were much more contemporary and I loved the exploration of an immigrant family in New York, America in 1998 and the catalogue of their lives by Chien-Chi Chang.

USA. New York City. Chinatown. - USA. New York City. 1998. A newly arrived immigrant eats noodles on a fire escape.  - Asian - Far East origin, Bare chest, Bowl, Chopsticks, Clandestine, Eating., Exterior, Fire escape, Immigrant worker, Man - 25 to 45 years, Poverty, Sandal, Seated, Street, Summer, Traffic, View from above

There was also the Francesca Woodman exhibition at the Guggenheim which I have to say was fantastic! There was 120 photographs and a moving image piece that I watched. She was so young and had so much talent, I can't even begin to imagine how her photographs could have developed if she was still alive. Her exploration of the self is something I would not be strong enough to do but her work is so revealing and everchanging, she portrays confidence and yet her images often seem sad and confining. It was amazing to see the prints up close and see her Angel series as well as her larger prints using different printing methods. Overall, a worth while trip that I look forward to following up again!!

Tuesday 24 April 2012

The City That Never Sleeps...

Got back from New York on Sunday and I have just about recovered from my jetlag but wow what a trip! My aim was to take photographs similar to my usual photojournalism/reportage style which I hope I have achieved, I still have to develop the 6 rolls of film I took out there - can't wait to see the results! I also took some on my digital, though I mostly did snapshots rather than photographic quality images. But here are some of my better pictures below. The first one (Brooklyn Bridge) captures the gritty city that is NYC through the use of black and white and I also put the contrast up to bring out the blacks as it was at first a flat image as it was a bit of a grey cloudy day. I love the boat foam on the left which just fills that side of the image, evening at the whole composition.


Monday 23 April 2012

Interview with Steve Pyke

So I interviewed Steve Pyke on Saturday 21st April 2012 at 1:30pm at his studio in New York. He allowed me to record the interview, so my video was created more for audio purposes than visual but unfortunately I have spent a very long time trying to upload the video but blogspot is being a pain so you'll just have to read the transcript for now!!

Steve Pyke

Interview with Steve Pyke – Transcript 

Sarah: Why did you choose photography?
Steve: I was in bands, used to be in bands and before that I used to race motorcycles so I had these different early careers and then when I was about 23 years old somebody gave me a camera and I was already in bands so I was photographing around bands, no sorry I was playing in bands and then they gave me a camera and I started to photograph around bands, so I just picked it up and was sort of self educated and I didn’t go to any like training in photography or anything.
Sarah: So you sort of tutored yourself…
Steve: Yeah, so it came kind of instinctively to me, I just, you know, I just started to photograph and got caught up in the magic of it.
Sarah: I’ve looked at your website and you do a lot of portrait photography, is there a reason for that?
Steve: That’s where I gravitated toward early on, so when I first started photographing I started to photograph the people around me, I mean I’ve always been interested in people so I’m a people person, so it seemed kind of natural placed, natural placed for me to photograph people and I find it interesting and I still find it interesting, the interaction, so the thing is I don’t just shoot portraits of people, I do photos of still life and landscape as well.
Sarah: Yes, I haven’t seen many of your landscape ones actually…
Steve: They're in I Can Read The Sky, have you ever seen the book I Can Read The Sky?
Sarah: No, I haven’t but I have heard of it though.
Steve: Yeah it’s kind of rare, it’s out of print now, I’ll show you a copy. But that has landscape in it, but I’ve not shot landscape for a few years now. I live urban you see and I don’t live rural situations.
Sarah: And you do a lot of black and white, I mean is there a balance between your black and white photography and your colour or do you prefer one to the other?
Steve: No, I don’t prefer on to the other, I photograph both but a lot of the time the people see black and white for some reason. Maybe I do, maybe I like black and white as well and also a lot of the early work, like some of the iconic pictures I see as black and white images not colour, I don’t really understand why after all this time really. I mean there are things, like the philosophers are all black and white.
Sarah: And do you have a favourite photograph from your selection?

CLR James, 1989

Steve: No, it’s difficult, I mean there’s not a favourite portrait because they all have different places, I mean that portrait over there of CLR James (1989), I really like that one but I can’t say it is a favourite portrait because there are all the pictures that I have done of my kids over the years which are the series; Jack and Duncan and now Lola Ray which is not on the website. So it’s difficult to say that you have one favourite photograph, in fact impossible, there’s thousands of sessions, thousands and thousands of sessions that I photograph.
Sarah: So have there been any photographers or even artists like painters that have really influenced your work, I mean in the early days?
Steve: I love the surrealists…
Sarah: So Dali and…
Steve: Man Ray and a lot of different photographers, this collection of work in here is mostly not mine, its other peoples so all these pictures…
Sarah: Oh yes I recognise those up there (pointing to Bill Brandt’s images).
Steve: So yeah Brandt of course, I really like Brandt because he crosses all these different areas, he’s not just a portraitist, he’s does still life, he does landscape and he does all these different things.
Sarah: Yeah I think I’d like to do something like that, a range, I mean at college they tend to try to steer you towards one specific…
Steve: Yes well you should photograph what you want to photograph, I like Walker Evans for that reason as well.
Sarah: So nowadays are you influenced by anyone or are you just focused on your own thing?
Steve: Well, you’re always influenced by what you see, you see so many things now with everybody photographing so you see interesting images all the time, there’s always different things to see and new work to see. I really like that Cindy Sherman show that you saw today but I was like, I knew all the pictures but it was very interesting to see like a retrospective, it gives you a broader view of it. I like Nan Goldin…
Sarah: I love Nan Goldin, she’s one of my favourites along with Robert Mapplethorpe…So where do you see the future of photography heading?
Steve: I don’t know…
Sarah: Yeah, very unpredictable…
Steve: I don’t know it’s too wide a question because of your place within it, its going to continue, of course it’s going to continue, it’s going to get broader and broader and wider and wider, everybody photographs now so everyone’s a photographer, but how coming out of college and going through college, how you’re going to work out a way that you can make a living out of it, I mean even not make a living but enjoy it and work with it.
Sarah: And you probably get asked this a lot, but what advice would you give a student photographer?
Steve: Well what you just said about the college narrows you down because they are trying to train you for industry, but the industry is changing so fast, it’s changing all the time. So a lot of the time people…I think it’s very difficult to understand right now exactly where it’s going, but it’s being recreated all the time. So I think the most important thing you can do is photograph and continue to photograph all the different things that influence you around you. Photograph your family, that’s really important, if you photograph your family you photograph it like a document, it’s very very interesting. And don’t be limited to what other people or courses are pushing you towards, just focus on photographing everything.
Sarah: Okay and do you shoot mostly on film or do you explore digital at all?
Steve: I shoot film, I’ve got a phone….
Sarah: (laughs) Well newer phones nowadays are often better than digital cameras, megapixel wise. Do you think film is going to die out? Because I personally love it whereas Jen here loves digital so we are two sides of the coin.
Steve: I think you can work with both, whether it’s going to die out or not, no I think there will be people who are specialists, I mean I photograph completely with film, even when I shoot for editorial, I mean I don’t shoot that much editorial anymore, but when I do I still shoot film. I mean people used to wait before so I don’t understand why they can’t wait now.
Sarah: Yeah, well it’s very instant now.
Steve: Yeah its important to digest photographs of a shoot, not just see it straight away, the idea is to digest it because if you photograph something you need to be able to think about it and process it in different ways. In order to be able to edit something, I couldn’t edit something straight after whilst the person is still there.
Sarah: And what camera do you shoot on?
Steve: Well I shoot with a Rolliflex.
Sarah: And have you shot on any other camera?
Steve: A Hasselblad a bit but I just like the Rolliflex, it is the first camera I bought and I still have that same camera.
Sarah: Wow have you had to repair it much then?
Steve: Yeah it gets repaired, turned inside out. It’s all mechanical you see so you can’t vacate, all they’ve got to do is put a new part together for it, they never really wear out.
Sarah: (looking at board behind) Are these your mood boards?
Steve: Yeah and this white space is for the projector we watch movies there but yeah the whole wall is kind of like a working wall.
Steve: (looking at I Can Read The Sky book) this sort of starts at the early works, I first became a photographer in Dublin.
Sarah: So what made you move to New York then; was it just job opportunities?
Steve: No I have always loved New York, so I always knew I would come and live here, I came here in 76, I came up a long time ago.
Sarah: Was it a lot different?
Steve: Yeah well it’s the same city but it’s radically different.
Sarah: Yeah always changing, it’s my first time here as well and I didn’t think I’d love it so much but we were saying…you don’t want to leave and I feel so comfortable here I mean compared to London.
Steve: Do you live in London?
Sarah: No, no I just have been there a lot, I mean I go there quite frequently but no I grew up in Devon, down in the country.
Steve: Where abouts?
Sarah: Well it’s in this little village called Bere Alston near Tavistock and Plymouth area, so I’m used to that but I do love the cities.
Steve: Yes it’s really engaging, I think people on the whole are very friendly, much friendlier than they are in London.
Sarah: So is this your work and another’s? (looking through book)
Steve: These are photographs I shot over a long period of time.
Sarah: There’s such character in them.
  
Circus, London, 1981

Steve: So a lot of these pictures are from the early years, in fact that picture you have your finger underneath was from the first roll of film I ever shot, along with this section here. So this section here is the first photographs I shot, this is shot in Dublin in late 79 and this one, this is the Wall of Death. This one was early too and this one (flicks through book) and this one is very important, it’s all about surrealism and it is a completely surreal image. (Circus, London, 1981)
Sarah: Yes it is, and back then you didn’t need a model release form or anything like that.
Steve: Well I didn’t sign model release forms, I mean you couldn’t shoot something like that and go up to them.
Sarah: Yes it can make it quite impersonal.
Steve: Yeah I mean it’s kind of like people put importance on model release forms and it’s not, it’s just litigation.
Sarah: Yeah we have to do quite a lot of model release forms at the moment.
Steve: So like people on the street?
Sarah: Yeah.
Steve: Well that’s ridiculous, it’s absolutely ludicrous.
Sarah: Yeah and even if you just do a portrait of someone, if afterwards you then ask them to sign a form its like they are signing away, people put their front up.
Steve: I think if you’ve entered into an exchange with someone, then you say to them you want them to sign a piece of paper its like saying you are going to make a profit or expose it in some way, it’s all really horrible, it’s not set up by anyone who is creative it is set up by lawyers, so I don’t like them. I’ve never asked for a model release form in my life.
Sarah: And you’ve never had any problems?
Steve: No.
Sarah: Well that’s good to hear.
Steve: Yes well most of the time people understand that it’s an exchange but you know it’s crazy. I mean when Garry Winogrand took photos he would never have asked for one. How can you ask? Like if you were doing a street scene it’s ludicrous, you can’t ask for forms from all the people you can see. What, do you think Gursky does model releases?! I don’t know, its all lawyers, because it immediately infers an imbalance between you and the person you photograph.
Sarah: So do you know roughly on average how many photos you have taken in your life?
Steve: No…
Sarah: I imagine its thousands…
Steve: Millions
Sarah: And these early ones…are these early? (looking through book)
Steve: Yeah this is maybe about 10 years in, about 1990.
Sarah: And are these just people you meet on the street?
Steve: Well I knew her because she is a poet in Ireland so a lot of these are people that I meet, they’re not shot cold.
Sarah: Do you ever shoot cold?
Steve: Yeah I’ve done that. It’s a shame you weren’t here…when was that lecture Nik? Was that Thursday? I had a lecture on Thursday which you would have found interesting; it’s at SVA, the School of Visual Arts here in the city. I gave a talk; it was a lot about what you’ve been asking actually.
Sarah: (Looking at picture in book of men bowling in the street)
Steve: That was bowling.
Sarah: Really captured the moment there. So do you have any exhibitions coming up then?
Steve: Yeah I’ve got one right now in London so right now, this minute it’s actually going on in London, which is a celebration of Eve Arnold because she was born 100 years ago today so they put together in a new gallery called Margaret Street Gallery, they put together…well it was the first show…so they put together a series of her photographs by all other different photographers that had some kind of connection with her so that’s on and there is a show that opens on May Day, you know May 1st.
Sarah: Is that in London as well?
Steve: No that’s here called Los Muertos, its pictures of the dead that I photographed.
Sarah: Is that recent work?
Steve: Yeah about 7 years ago.
Sarah: So what sort of images are they, I mean…
Steve: Well that’s one up here…mummified.
Sarah: Oh right so is that sort of going to a museum and…
Steve: No they were shot in a camp called Guanajuato in Mexico and they're photographs of people who were cholera victims who died around 1815 but their bodies were preserved so I photographed a whole series of them. Someone made this magazine and that has a lot of the photographs in it. So the prints so far are all about this size (shows with hands) but I had a show with them and now I have another show which is like a different edit but it’s just 12 images.
Sarah: They are so well preserved aren’t they, look at all their clothing; you can still see their shoes and were these over head shots?
Steve: No they’re standing up.
Sarah: Oh, that’s a little creepy actually. Is that his tongue?
Steve: Yeah and that’s an eyeball, the eyeballs would normally rot.
Sarah: Well that’s everything really I intended on asking you; I mean it’s been great to see your work.

END OF INTERVIEW

Thank you to Steve Pyke (interviewee) and Jennifer Crowther (fellow student and friend)

Sunday 15 April 2012

Random stuff I read on the web...

Just found an interview of Nan Goldin, one of my favourite photographers!! She doesn't often comment to the press so this was a great read: http://www.dazeddigital.com/photography/article/12184/1/nan-goldin
Only just found this magazine website and they have so many articles on photographers that I may have to subscribe!!
http://www.dazeddigital.com/photography/article/13145/1/hanania-brunnquell-la-guerre-de-feu another great photographer with very surreal work, mixing theatre, art and modelling in one...love it!

Robert Bergman

Just found this article on a fantastic photographer who has finally gained recognition at the ripe old age of 65!!! His colour portraits are fantastic, with unearthly qualities and anonymous stares:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/nov/02/robert-bergman-photography

© Robert Bergman

Friday 13 April 2012

B. Abbey photo...

So the panoramic photo I took for the Abbey is up on the facebook page - 8 likes baby!!! Check it out on the link below (they've also made it the page cover photo):
https://www.facebook.com/BuckAbbeyNT/photos?ref=ts#!/photo.php?fbid=336817436377053&set=a.336817383043725.77279.185792204812911&type=3&theater

Here is the original image:

Tuesday 10 April 2012

Portrait commission...

Just did a portrait commission which went well, had to improvise with equipment (used a table lamp with some tissue paper to diffuse the light and had my brother holding up the backdrop!!). She is a writer so wanted an intellectual, serious looking image for her journalism work (bottom left) and then a softer one for her work with children (bottom right). She went away happy with the photographs.

Sunday 8 April 2012

So I emailed Steve Pyke and he said he would be happy for me to interview him!! So will call him when I am in New York and meet up. So excited as I love his work, here's a link to his website and photographs:
http://www.pyke-eye.com/main.html

Saturday 7 April 2012

New York - 8 days to go!

Next Sunday I am off to New York for 5 days and I have just been doing some research on exhibitions there and at the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) they have a Cindy Sherman exhibition from Feb 26th-June 11th with her untitled film stills (1977-80) and so I will definately be going to that!! There is also an exhibition of Eugene Atget's work which I would love to have seen but it finishes on the 9th April.
The Guggenheim has 120 photographs of Francesca Woodman's work from Mar 16th - June 13th so will also visit that as I am a big fan of her work.
Other than photography I will hopefully see the Diego Rivera murals at MoMa and the Thannhauser Collection at the Guggenheim which contains work by Picasso, Manet, Gauguin and Van Gogh!!
Should be an enriching experience :)
I am also going to email Steve Pyke, a new york based photographer, and see if I can interview him whilst I am in New York - fingers crossed.

Buckland Abbey Competition



Since last year I have been a volunteer photographer for Buckland Abbey, a national trust property in Devon, and I was invited to enter a competition by Cornish Interiors that asked for photographs of the Abbey to put up in the newly refurbished restaurant. I entered three images and two of them got chosen and I received the news a few months ago and yesterday I finally went to Buckland Abbey to see them up on the wall!
I am so proud to have my work displayed alongside many other great photographs, my mum's felt wall hanging's are also on display there so it was great to go along with her to see our work together up the wall. I also took a walk around the grounds and took some photographs that I will email the manager to add to the photo archive at the Abbey for advertising uses etc.

My Photographs from Barcelona (digital)

 
 
Here I really got into taking panoramics because it was difficult to capture the vastness of the skyline in a 35mm format - it was also something I havent done much on before (using panoramic) and i am really looking forward to using it in New York!!







Barcelona

So I just spent 3 days in Barcelona (said to be a very arty city) and it was great to wander round the streets and see what it had to offer. It was host to many small photo galleries and art museums such as the Museu Nacional d'art de Catalunya (MNAC) which displayed works by Picasso, Velazquez, Gaudi, Dali and Fortuny. It also had some work from documentary photographer Agusti Centelles:
It only had a small section of photography, that being the latters work, but it was good to see that it was documentary photography - and Centelles was considered one of the initiators of photojournalism in Spain, photographing the Civil War and setting up a photolab in Bram concentration camp.

I also visited the Arxiu Fotografic de Barcelona where there was an exhibition on the work of Mark Klett - rephotographing Barcelona, displaying images by John Frederick Anderson and Adolf Mas.


Aside from the larger galleries there were some smaller places that hosted other photographers work, a particular favourite of mine was the Josep Alemany photographs at the Sala Dalmau gallery which was hosting an expose of his work. http://www.saladalmau.com/en/actual
Chinese Lanterns (c.1936)
I don't usually like sepia toned images, but
I found myself really liking Alemany's images, especially Song of The Whale. His photographs seem in a way nostalgic and delicate, with many of them exploring the subject of trace, something left behind.

The Song of The Whale (1939)

I also went to YellowKorner, which is more a shop than a gallery, however it also hosted a great variety of work in large prints. http://en.yellowkorner.com/galerie-barcelone.aspx
It held a lot of digitally manipulated images and there was one that really caught my eye; Elephants by Thomas Herbrich. There were also two fantastic photographs of Salvador Dali by Jean Dieuzaide which was part of his collection entitled Dali in the Water (relating to the artists fear of water). There were also some photographs of Alfred Hitchcock who was snapped with props that mirrored his films, such as a Mrs Bates directors chair for his film Psycho and a crow for his film The Birds - which has an Edgar Allan Poe feel to it.