Saturday 27 November 2010

The Snow is Coming!



I have been trapped in a strange mood lately, not a negative one but something that has prevented me from making images this last month. I have done nothing of consequence except take pictures of the rapidly growing kitten, not something I would normally do but then new kitten new baby I suppose everyone has a fascination for a while. As for having no theme or focus this month I expect that is because I have been distracted with the prep for the exhibition. I can now move on, it is down had some great response but I would have liked more sales but that is the current climate here.




The climate is my focus now, I'm hoping to travel tomorrow and the impending snow is a little worrying it will possibly delay me or at worst it just won't happen another day will be on hold till later. In some repects though the change will give me something to do. I have been wanting to get on with my pinholes for some time and I am feeling surrounded by lots of potential activities. The snow is something I made images of last year and it will be great to revisit the subject. Last year the images were also made using a Diana F+ as well as a Pinholga here are some of them.

Friday 12 November 2010

Pinhole and Plastic Book


I'm feeling more relaxed now, my exhibition is up and my book is out and getting some nice feedback, I haven't done as much promoting as I should or could have done but now I have a bit more time on my hands to do that. It took me a while to put together and I left the book to brew for a few months, I think it's a good thing to do as you come back to the book with fresh eyes and a new perspective. Some images remained and others were removed, the theme was narrowed down to give more focus and hopefully the final result is something intimate that people will want. The hard back version,though I say so myself is beautiful, blurb's production on the print is great.




The majority of the images are centred around the beach I grew up on, so I have a strong emotional connection with this area. The fleeting nature of the human figure in this landscape is what interests me, the beach has not changed much over the years but I wonder how many lives this piece of coast has had an impact on. The images contained within these pages hope to capture that transcience of the figure, the lack of impact, fortunately, that we have on this landscape.

A lot of the images if you follow my flickr or lomo homes you will be familiar with but there are also new ones in there.



Wednesday 10 November 2010

PInhole and Plastic Exibition


Wow! talk about a long sleep in of course now that the exhibition is up and running my body decided it had had enough of three hours sleep a night for the past week or so and it caught up in a grand fashion. All eighteen pictures are up on the wall and all are for sale, I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I have had some great feedback already. The Pavilion Cafe in Dulwich Park is a meeting point for all park goers, especially when it rains. A hub of life and bubbling conversation it's walls are a well known gallery for those in South London and often further afield.

I decided on a mixed theme Exhibition as it was so difficult to narrow down the thousands of images I have but also the current work was mostly based around water and the coast and I wanted something that park goers could connect with especially if they are not regular beach visitors. The images were made with a number of different cameras, mostly Toy cameras old Dianas and a Rand from the sixties and new Lomo Diana+ and F+ along with my fave the Holga. Pinholes have also featured heavily and I have used the Pinhole Blender Mini 35 for most of these. Eighteen images are featured and most of those that know my work online will be familiar with them.
Also featured is a picture of the cover of my newly published book with the same title "Pinhole and Plastic Shots on a Beach" this is available in softback, hardback and imagewrap from blurb.com my next post will feature some pics from this.





Wednesday 3 November 2010

Missing month!

A little image for Dia de los Muertos!
October seems to have vanished in a blaze of glory or at least glorious colour, it has been filled with many events that would have been worth talking about at least at the time but in retrospect seem a little pointless to comment on at great length. I am a year older but also a year younger...than I thought! now this worries me because if I'm doing this forgetting thing now then it's really all down hill from here.

Did I mention I now have an allotment?! well I shall be taking images whilst I convert the plot into something more useable, it wasn't wildly overgrown but it has and is still being cleared slowly but surely and I have some great ideas for the biodiversity side of things with a living roof on the shed, that is soon to be erected. I have developed a new ability to sense where waste scaffold boards are hiding and grab them for raised beds. I also have great plans to use the shed as a Camera Obscura at the same time as a potting shed! I shall post pictures of the developments once I'm not using a film that is meant for the Art of Waiting project, though I have been using a number of cams including a Diana mini holga and LCA to record the changes.

Halloween celebrations have also been and gone but here they are a little bit of a damp squib but we are catching on, I should have pics of an Anime/Manga convention with some very 'cool' costumes which was held at Excel on the last weekend of October.

I have also been busy putting together a new book which I can now say is published and ready to view. This one has been a while in the making as I wanted to get the feel right. It is available to buy from Blurb and I have also been able to get a local bookshop interested. I hould at the moment be preparing for an exhbition in Dulwich, South London but I'm waiting for Frames and of course my prints are not quite as expected so the little time I have is now being wasted with waiting for corrections. I shall post again with details soon as I only have a few more days before it is supposed to be up. Love the pressure!!