The short film below – shot that evening at the Rudolf Steiner House Theatre in Regent’s Park – encapsulates only a tiny bit of what Roger Ballen talked about. And I won’t pretend it does more than just scratch the suface of the complex and at times dark world of Roger Ballen’s art.

He relocated to Johannesburg, South Africa, several decades ago and initially photographed South African villages (or ‘dorps’ in Afrikaans, hence the title of his 1986 book), and their houses. But, as he himself admitted, he knocked at one of those houses’ doors once and his life changed forever then and there.

He discovered a different world inside, a world which fascinated and inspired him for years. His subsequent works focused on the people who inhabited those dorps, on their relationships with the world around them and with themselves.

While Ballen’s focus might have shifted throughout the decades, his technique has remained constant. As he admits in the video, he is “obsessed with the square format” and  believes that every part of the picture has an equal purpose or role to play. Ballen doesn’t believe in photo manipulation or use colour in his photography.

This video should offer a tiny glimpse into his world. It definitely offers the best, and the most succinct advice for photographers of all abilities I’ve ever heard from a seasoned photographer …

If you live, or happen to be, in Manchester before 13 May, you should definitely spend some time at the Manchester Art Gallery, where Roger Ballen’s images are displayed as part of his Shadow Land exhibition.

Two Paris-based photographers, Lucie and Simon, produced a series of images from four major cities – Paris, New York, Rome and Beijing – but without the usual crowds, without any cars and, ultimately, without any life.

Some images do feature people, but usually just one lonely person, two or three in a handful of cases, which only adds to the overall sense of gloom and unease.

“In the Silent World project, we wanted to study and transform our world’s most symbolic metropolises (New York, Beijing, Paris, Rome) into imaginary, fictional, impossible places,” Simon and Lucie say about their project. And I guess they succeeded.

See the entire series on their website or watch the video below (although I prefer the images, it’s easier to spend more time studying each location).

This short “before and after” clip shows a busy junction in smoggy Beijing and helps understand how the images were created:

If you like their work, make sure to check their previous, equally (or at times even more) unsettling project, called Earth Vision.

Now, if only someone visualised Victoria Station in London without any people…

OK, it’s a spoof, but it’s strangely informative. Well, in places. Made by Kevin Good, it pokes fun at all those (numerous) snotty vids with lame Canon Vs Nikon comparisons. No lame comparisons here, oh no.

It’s a good piece of videomaking too, by the way, it held my attention for 6 minutes and it even made me giggle.

Despite the fact I own a Canon.

via Wired RAW File

Paul told me his story and explained how he became a successful and respected event (but not only) photographer.  He’d worked on somebody else’s images before he decided to invest in professional gear and take pictures, initially as a hobby, at various events.

But expensive gear again is not a prerequisite for great photography. As you will see in the video below, one of his all-time favourite images was taken with his phone.

What I’ve always liked about Paul’s photography is the fact he makes otherwise bland (in some cases at least) events look human. He himself describes what he does as making “art with suits”. And indeed, his images have a soul: human emotions are present, human flaws are not photoshopped out.

And that’s what – I would imagine – makes Paul popular not just as a photographer, but also as a person in general.

You can find more of Paul’s photography on his website, you can also follow him on Twitter. And if you missed the first episode of this series, it’s here.

Coming soon in the same series, a brilliant photographer, Niall McDiairmid.

It’s the fifth edition of the contest and the deadline for submissions is fast approaching. So if you fancy submitting yours (fees apply), see the submissions page for categories, terms and conditions and other details.

The page fails to mention the prizes – a 16GB WiFi iPad (which generation?) and inclusion in the IPPA Interactive Annual (apparently available on iTunes, although I couldn’t find it; maybe they didn’t publish them in previous years, who knows?). There’s no info on who the judges are either.

But there are some galleries with winning entries from previous years, so even if you decide not to participate, there are a few lovely iPhone gems to see there.

The new roof is a fantastic structure to photograph. It’s been built in a way which draws light in through a relatively small (compared to the size of the structure) section closest to the main station building, but big enough to provide most of the concourse with enough natural light during the day.

The gallery below includes a handful of images taken late in the afternoon, but I’d love to go back and see how the light changes there at different times of the day.

Oh, and ten points to whoever came up with the idea of ‘recreating’ platform 9 3/4 with its partly-on-the-other-side luggage trolley. The crowds loved it.

And now it’s hosting a brilliant – but with many sad undertones – exhibition of Eve Arnold’s photography, All About Eve. Which you can’t afford to miss as that would be a real shame.

So why is it sad? First of all, as you can see on the pictures, there were very few people there when I went. Of course it doesn’t mean anything as there might be other days when the room is packed, but it still struck me that such a brilliant exhibition received so little attention (although it was widely covered, and largely positively received, by the mainstream media).

But the saddest fact was Eve Arnold’s death literally weeks before the exhibition opened and three months before her 100th birthday. The photographer, despite her age, was actively involved in the preparations and helped select the hundred photographs on display.

And what photographs they are. Eve Arnold picked up the camera quite late, she was in her forties when she became a professional photographer, but her legacy is immense.

One word I constantly thought of when looking at her pictures was ‘human’. Human and sensitive. You can see Arnold’s human side and great sensitivity in her portraits of Marilyn Monroe – depicting a lonely and vulnerable woman – as well as in her documentary shots from China, Mongolia or Afghanistan.

She was as passionate as she was compassionate. When you watch the clips and snippets of interviews with Arnold, or about Arnold, shown in the gallery, you get to know a fantastic human being interested in  other human beings and, more importantly, interested in showing what’s human about them.

One other thing that really impressed me – even though I had seen it already in a book – was Eve Arnold’s very detailed notes regarding her every assignment. All those details – from the date to the location, subject and even the number and type of film rolls used – are displayed on one of the walls in the gallery and make you realise how huge her contribution to world photography was.

Eve Arnold chose London as her home for many years and if you live or at least pass through London before 27th April, you should find that quiet gallery at the back of Army and Navy and travel back to the times when photo assignments took months, cameras were bulkier, and human emotions – the same as always – were captured by an extraordinary photographer.

I first heard about Gareth from a close friend of mine, who used to live next door to him. I called Gareth to find out more about his story and to ask whether he would be keen to tell his story on camera.

Luckily, he was. Listening to his story, I realised Gareth was very strong, determined, yet humble and very rational about what can only be described as one of the worst tragedies a parent can endure.

So over the next few months I’m hoping to spend some time with Gareth and his family to try and understand better how they coped with the tragedy – and to document his attempt to complete thirteen half-marathons by September.

A couple of weekends ago, I filmed Gareth during a half-marathon in Wokingham, Berkshire and we decided to use some of that footage to put together a short video to promote Gareth’s donations page and help him achieve his goal.

It was a sunny, crisp winter morning and Gareth had barely recovered from a chest infection, but decided to run anyway. Not only did he run, but also finished in what looks to me – barely-able-to-run-for-10-minutes-in-the-gym editor – like a decent time. So, if you can, please support Gareth via his JustGiving page, where you can also read more of his story.

Share the video with others (there’s also a YouTube version) – and hopefully by autumn I’ll be able to share with you our film documenting Gareth’s ’131313′ project.

This week my former employer, BBC World Service, is celebrating its 80th anniversary, but also preparing to leave its iconic headquarters in Bush House in Central London.

I had the privilege of working in Bush House as a journalist for several years before the axe fell on many sections, and before parts of the building turned into ghost newsrooms.

This year the whole building will turn into a ghost town as the remaining World Service staff relocate to the newly-built BBC hub in Regent St.

The building itself will go back to its Japanese owners – with its grand marble staircases, frayed carpets, endless warrens of corridors, makeshift studios, unique memories and snippets of thousands of political and social debates these walls have witnessed over the years.

Owain Rich has captured some of those memories, and some of the building’s beauty, in this beautiful and – for me at least – very moving video.

New Flickr screengrab via Betabeat.com

If you missed the news last night, Flickr is getting ready to bite back. All, it would seem, thanks to its Head of Product, Markus Spiering.

An article published by Betabeat claims Spiering is getting ready to unleash the revamped beast by the end of February. This is likely to happen in stages, but, as the screengrab above seems to suggest, the changes are likely to be more dramatic than the previous cosmetic ‘improvements’.

So what can we expect? According to Betabeat, who sat down with Spiering to go over the new features, we’re likely to see:

•  much bigger images, and a new layout (judging by the screengrab, it mimicks the Google+ photo albums layout, which confirms everyone’s suspicions that the launch of G+ must have spurred Yahoo!, Flickr owners, into action)
•  new upload page, which “looks more like an app than a website” and offers drag-and-drop capabilities
•  bigger focus on mobile aspects of the site
•  new pricing structure (announced in January)

But I guess there will be more features and more catching up with the competitors who’ve been given enough time to attract disillusioned Flickr users over the past few years. In a way, the timing might play into Flickr’s advantage, as those who’ve migrated to 500px and Google+ have had enough time to get familiar with these services, and if Flickr can offer a vastly improved experience, it can still woo them back. After all, it still remains the most popular dedicated photo sharing site and, as Spiering claims, users upload over 3.5 million images to Flickr every day.

What I really want to know is whether Fenix, sorry, Flickr in its new incarnation will allow me to take control over what displays where. After all, one of my biggest gripes with the service was its insistence on displaying the latest image as the first one in the stream.

Roll on Feb. 28!

UPDATE 1 (28 Feb): As promised, Flickr has just rolled out the first change – if you go to your Contacts page, you can now choose between justified view and lightbox. The latter is the traditional Flickr lightbox, the former however gives users options to switch between 1 and 5 most recent images uploaded by your contacts (see screengrab below).

The images fill the width of the page neatly and each image displays the author’s name. Mouse over an image and a grey overlay appears, showing some basic info: title, number of likes and comments, plus an option to switch to lightbox view for that image.

Pretty neat. I never thought I’d say this, but so far the change has been more successful than the recent 500px refresh, which annoyed many users with its ‘flow’ and endless repetitions of images liked or commented on by others.

Now I’m *really* curious about the next wave of Flickr improvements…