Stray Light Foto

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Sloe Learner

2010-01-08T17:43:00.003Z

Just a digi-snap of what it looks like out the back of my house at the moment. -18C last night, and quite a shock for these usually temperate parts! You know something unusual is happening when people are building igloos in South Manchester...

Being snowbound - and the turn of the year, natch - tends to induce reflection about the year just gone. And, for me, the biggest thing about 2009 was upping sticks and moving to my new house. It's been strange to move much closer to the centre of Manchester, and simultaneously feel like I can have a quasi-rural experience thanks to the huge areas of open country, woods and river just out my back door... One of the products of this has been sloe gin:

A lot of people had bottles of this for Christmas from me this year! As well as the sloes that grow everywhere I've also been able to pick - either growing wild or at communal orchards - apples, pears, blackberries, gooseberries, plums, damsons, cherries and hazelnuts. Hopefully there'll be lots more of this in 2010...

And, as for the whole photography thing... I know 2009 has been, for various reasons, a bit lean in terms of new work, but this year will definitely see a conclusion to the Radium Street project, and at some point some pictures from new series that I'm working on starting to appear here.

Gayn Gone

2009-12-21T13:57:00.003Z

Goodbye to science lady and model extraordinaire Gaynor - Manchester will be that little bit more gray in your absence.

PS/ thanks to all the bands and everyone who braved the weather and came to the Stray Light. It was a good night.

Xmas Invite

2009-12-04T00:12:00.001Z

Dark

2009-11-12T14:21:00.002Z

Capitalism Run Amok

2009-10-24T17:35:00.002+01:00

Kat recently noticed that our 2002 album, Careers, is currently going for more than £40 on Amazon. Can I just point out that it is still available for just £6 from here, and there are still quite a few copies ... unlike the last one, Waves Broken, which is well on the way to selling out.

While I'm on the band thing. We're in the middle of writing new material at the moment (going very well) so not much going on otherwise, but we will be playing at The Bay Horse in Manchester on November 19th, and then on December 19th everyone is invited to the Stray Light festive event at The King's Arms. We'll be playing some new stuff, alongside sets from Fat Elvis, Satnam's Tash and Serpentine Pad - and the first 50 people through the door will get a free mince pie baked by my mum!

Photography content = zero

2009-10-11T16:37:00.002+01:00

I've just finished reading Thomas Pynchon's latest novel, Inherent Vice. It's actually a nice, quick, light read - like having a scoop of melon sorbet after the four-course banquet of hulking great metanarratives like his previous one, Against the Day (which I'm now reading for the second time and having a whale of a time with).

Anyway, what I've been finding interesting is Pynchon seeming to break his cover a little bit more these days. First it became known that he personally wrote the Amazon blurb for Against the Day, and now he's actually narrating promo videos like the one above. Of course the strangeness of this is kept in perspective by his - and, yes, that is really Pynchon - appearance on The Simpsons:

Two things about this really. Firstly, although - yes - I was fascinated to hear Pynchon's voice, I don't particuarly WANT to know anything about him. These days it's de rigeur for authors, artists, directors to do endless interviews - and I do think sometimes it becomes an intrusion on your experience of books, art, films &c to have this authorial presence looming over the whole thing. To be topical for a moment, does it affect your appreciation of a Polanski film to know that the person who made it went on the lam after molesting a child? In contrast, when I first read Gravity's Rainbow it might as well have dropped from the sky, and I was able to enjoy it wholly as a thing in itself (and, later, as part of a body of work) because the author was, at most, a spectral figure on the margins. I don't think it would have added anything to my experience to know what ol' Tom dresses like, who he votes for, whether he likes Mexican food, or anything at all about his personal life. Maybe the puppeteer should remain behind the curtain.

The second thing is really about people who are very concerned with the opposite of that last point. There are a few articles and films around that - rather creepily - are obsessed with Finding Pynchon. As if he was lost somehow, rather than just someone who doesn't like to do interviews very much. And so, in the absence of an external way of gauging the author's intent you end up with people earnestly suggesting that Pynchon IS JD Salinger, or - very popular at the time - that Pynchon IS the Unabomber.

Anyway, my point - to the extent that I have one - isn't that we should view art as totally abstracted from the people who make it, but just that if, say, you like my photographs it shouldn't perhaps matter too much if it turns out that I'm a jerk in real life...

Black Page

2009-08-31T19:20:00.002+01:00

I can - a bit belatedly - report that a good time was had at Rhubarb. There was a bit of a feeling of deja vu about it - it did seem like mostly the same faces from last year, and a lot of the same work too. I thought it was quieter too, probably reflecting the state of the photography market at the moment ... and certainly the American contingent was notably lacking this year. I did still manage to go to the pub before the portfolio promenade with photographers from Korea, Holland, Hong Kong, Belgium and Israel though!

After a peculiar - and often horrible - first half of this year, I have been getting down to some more serious work lately. Hopefully Radium Street will feel like its complete shortly, and I'll start to show some work from the new series that is just getting going. Musically things are moving apace too ... although for some reason all the new songs we have at the moment are lumbered with working titles like: 'Voice of the Lebanese Snow Tortoise', 'Toad Mafia', 'Saudi Copyright Infringement', etc... What this says about us I really can't imagine...

...And Custard

2009-07-31T14:49:00.002+01:00

Well I've finally got myself installed and settled in the new house ... just in time to get things ready for the Rhubarb festival this weekend. Just thought I'd post something from the past week's print making and portfolio sequencing - which, as you can see, has mainly been taking place on my new living room floor...

Hopefully I'll see a few familiar faces in Birmingham this weekend (even if you're not attending the review you can still come to the Portfolio Promenade on Saturday night), and then back to more regular updates and suchlike from next week.

Just to...

2009-07-04T11:01:00.001+01:00

..keep this sucker ticking over...

For Radium Street.

Rock And/Or Roll

2009-06-21T12:03:00.002+01:00

Friday night - a pub in Salford - walking back from the bar with a glass of Black Cat past two men in an embrace:

"It's difficult. Really difficult though."
"But, your brother - he'd want you to live."

Off I go to play out-of-whack guitar noise, never to know what that conversation was all about.

Ps / There's a picture of mine in the new issue (#104) of Shots.

Rock Action

2009-06-18T15:12:00.002+01:00

Mired in some pretty unfortunate stuff at the moment, but here's something a little bit distracting. Aiming to get back to normal business by July...

My New House

2009-05-15T11:36:00.001+01:00

I'm sorry for the lack of updates - I do actually have some new photos to post, but I'll let Mr Mark Edward Smith explain what's been occupying me:

Completely OT

2009-04-11T21:33:00.001+01:00

Nothing whatsoever to do with photography, but I think everyone should read this.

Cat's Cradle

2009-03-26T13:42:00.003Z

Leaving aside the snow forecast for this coming weekend, it seems that the worst of the winter is now behind us ... but there are still some photos coming like the above and this one that feel particularly wintery to me. In the middle of summer I do sometimes find myself missing the shape of bare tree branches, or the soft acoustics of a frosty morning. Something to do with my northern European heritage I suppose. Or just being loopy.

I'm still engrossed in the house thing - all been a bit trickier than planned, and still not all resolved yet. So, not a lot of exciting photo stuff to report on - but I will mention that the Imagine show in Los Angeles is on for another week, and there's a closing party on the 4th April.

Just a quick note...

2009-02-27T23:09:00.003Z

The snow has melted, crocuses are poking their heads through the soil, green buds are starting to appear on branches - at times like these a young man's thoughts naturally turn to ... the exhibition of fine-art photography. Ahem. So:

'Imagine' at the Deborah Martin Gallery, Los Angeles from March 11th to April 4th.

'Mind's Eye' at the Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins CO. from May 29th to June 20th.

I have pics from Radium Street in each of these (thanks to Chris Rauschenberg and Susan Burnstine!) so it's nice that the series is starting to get an airing, even if it's still not really finished.

Did notice, when pricing the prints for sale, that since the value of the pound collapsed it's become much more affordable for overseas buyers to purchase my prints. In US dollars it's nearly a third cheaper than just a year or two ago. Take advantage of the UK's economic malaise!

All Change

2009-02-15T15:31:00.002Z

After a few weeks of moderately stressful negotiations it has been confirmed - I appear to have bought a house. Crikey. This may turn out to be a bad move if things don't pick up economy-wise, but for the moment I'm just enjoying the prospect of more room to work and wallspace to hang pictures. And, of course, the freedom to strut around the place in my undercrackers if I so choose.

Seems to be the season for changes, as I also have to report that the band's next gig (in Chorlton on the 28th) will be our last with our current drummer. Danny and I started the band - oh so many years ago - so whatever comes next is bound to be a big transition...

Rendezvous

2009-02-01T21:36:00.002Z

OK, so the "be more active on the blog" thing hasn't really been working out. So far 2009 has been divided up into alternating periods of being overly busy and overly unwell. I'm trying to move house too, which isn't exactly a help...

But, anyway, I shall try to do better!

I was at the Chinese New Year celebrations in Manchester's Chinatown today, and stood watching dragon dancers, next to some people eating a Massamun curry with chips, while snow came down in powdery, gusty sheets. The combination seemed very Mancunian, and is something I'll remember from this winter, which is what bought the above photo to mind. This was another winter morning - G and I were on a hillside, not long after sunrise, looking down on the city, but only seeing the tops of the CIS and Beetham towers sticking up through the freezing fog. Up on the hill, though, it was crystal clear, so cold, so still, frozen grass crunching beneath our feet...

Waves Broken

2009-01-08T21:01:00.002Z

Well, the limited edition hand-made-packaging version of the new Stray Light record is now available. Pre-orders have already been sent out, so get in quick to order your copy - they won't last forever! Only £6, including delivery from Doubtful Sound Records.

I'm feeling a bit behind with 2009 already - partly because I was ill between Christmas and the new year - but there's lots going on, and I'll try to be a bit more active on the blog this year.

At least one interesting thing did happen while I was ill. There were 4 or 5 days when I didn't eat anything (which as a foodie / glutton was kind of unusual in itself...), and I had absolutely no appetite, and yet I found myself reading several food books. Freed of the elements of hunger or greed, this seemed like a very pure aesthetic experience somehow... I was able to disinterestedly appreciate the culture of food and the whole mix of sensations that make up the practice of good cooking and eating. It helped that I had Fuchsia Dunlop's books to hand though - her guides to Hunanese and Sichuanese cooking, and her memoir Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper are fantastic, and highly recommeded.

Errata

2008-12-14T16:44:00.002Z

I'm up to my neck in unprinted negs at the moment, but wanted to take a second to mention the arrival of the first "Books on Books" from Errata Editions. I'm particularly excited about the Chris Killip In Flagrante volume, as this is a book I've always wanted but been unable to afford. The other three in the initial releases are classics by Walker Evans and Eugene Atget, and Fait by Sophie Ristelhueber which I admit I didn't know beforehand.

The bulk of each book is an exquisitely printed reproduction of the original book, yellowing pages et al in the case of Atget's Photographe de Paris. (It's worth reading Jeffrey Ladd's excellent 5B4 for some interesting blog entries on travelling to China to oversee the printing process.) Also included are the original essays - translated where necessary - plus new essays and information on the photographers and book.

The excitement for me though, is in seeing the amazing work by Killip from 1980s England. This is the England that I was born into, and grew up in, and that seems so distant now. This book captures not only what that place and time looked like, but what it felt like.

Unexpected Events

2008-11-14T15:13:00.002Z

I've been meaning to mention a bit of band news... We've decided to do a sort of bonus limited edition release of the new record "Waves Broken" - there'll be 200 numbered CDs, with packaging hand-made by the band. I've already been using a very antique letterpress set to do the text down the slipcase spine, and I'm now learning how to screenprint. There'll also be some other individual and unique touches on each CD package, which will come in a sleeve made from recycled card.

And, just so this hasn't been totally off-topic, the plan is that each one will contain a miniature photo that I'm going to do. Also, the process for making the screenprinting stencil does involve coating and exposing a light-sensitive emulsion, so that's virtually photography anyway!

I feel 8 years younger

2008-11-05T17:08:00.003Z

Well done America. And thanks.

Interrupted

2008-10-19T18:02:00.002+01:00

Christina Falise was good enough to send me this picture of my print (it's this one) at the opening of the After Life show at the Watson Gallery in Texas, so I thought I'd post it.

Sorry that I've not updated for a while. I've been pretty busy, but I'm working through a lot of new photos now, so should be posting a bit more soon.

In the meantime, I can highly recommend getting hold of the new Jonathan Meades Collection DVD set. It was originally billed as a complete works boxset, but for some reason ended up as a seemingly random selection from Abroad, Abroad Again etc... For those of you not familiar with Meades ... well, I could try and describe his programmes by saying something like "intelligent discussion of the built environment combined with surreal humour", but you'd probably be best off heading over to The Meades Shrine on YouTube where you can see practically his entire TV output...

Sunday Ramblings

2008-09-21T21:20:00.002+01:00

Just a couple of quick notes...

First, I should mention that I have a photo in the new issue (#101) of Shots. Once again joined by some fellow Filmwasters: Rebecca Pendel, Aline Smithson, and Susan Burnstine.

And while I’m talking about things in print, I also wanted to mention a book I found recently called “The Brutality of Fact: Interviews with Francis Bacon” by David Sylvester. It’s out of print, but seems fairly widely available. Regardless of what you think of Bacon’s paintings this is a must-read for anyone seriously interested in art – of whatever kind – and, more importantly I think, the nature of the creative process.

This last point is something I started to think a lot about through playing music, and particularly when doing a lot of improvisation. Often when improvising things happen that seem to arrive from nowhere – and often things emerge that you can’t possibly imagine doing or having thought of. And, yet you did do them…

In photography I have tended – at least recently – to have some very clear ideas of what I was trying to achieve, and yet often it’s the random events in the process of making them that seem most significant. I’ve also often been struck by the idea for trying something that, if I stopped to consciously analyse what I was doing, would seem probably very silly, and yet after the fact it’s these things that seem right somehow, and tell me more about what I was trying to do than anything I had really actively planned. I don’t have any answers or grand theories about any of this, but it does fascinate me.

(As an aside, when I googled for more info on the book I found it recommended by Adam Savage of Mythbusters fame…)

Also, I plan to see the new Bacon exhibition at Tate Britain next month, so I’ll report back on that.

I’ll also briefly recommend Dr Ben Goldacre’s new book “Bad Science” – not only for its frequently hilarious debunking of various popular health scares and pseudo-scientific charlatans – but also for its excellent chapters on the placebo effect (which is weirder and more interesting than anything new age lunatics can dream up) and statistics. Not the most exciting sounding, that last one, but I tend to think that if as a citizen in the modern world you don’t understand the rudiments of the scientific method and how numbers are used and abused you’re leaving yourself wide open to all sorts of exploitation and bullshit…

Reflect this Evil

2008-09-08T14:53:00.002+01:00

This is one of those pictures that I wasn't sure anyone else would get. It's all about symbols and inference ... and it's personal. Strangely enough though it got picked out by several reviewers at Rhubarb as being particularly strong... It is - I'm sure you're fed up with me saying - much better as a print.

(There's a little video about Rhubarb up here by the way - you can see about half of me for around a second. Thrilling!)

I was very happy to hear that one of my pictures (this one in fact) is to be included in an exhibition entitled After Life at the Watson Studio Gallery in Texas. Also delighted to hear that my fellow Filmwasters Phil Bebbington (a.k.a. Terrorkitten) and Becky Ramotowski are in the show too. It runs from September 27th to November 22nd.