The Photography Pages

Explosions

TPP — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 00:32:25 PDT

Explosions have been a major feature of my life in one way and another, so this work by Sarah Pickering speaks to me in many ways. I know there are lots of other people similarly affected. I saw a young man, nary more than a teenager, pushing a buggy aimlessly through the streets in the way you do when trying to settle the baby. His eyes were dark and blank, he wasn’t in the present at all. My father, a survivor of unspeakable horrors in Korea, had the same look from time to time, and would startle from it in terror.

Sarah Pickering. Take a look at her work. She spoke to the North East Photography Network at last year’s symposium, and it was interesting to discover that she went to the dreaded Newcastle College. She’d nothing but praise for the people who taught her there, none of whom taught me, so yes, praise where it’s due. She showed us her Fire series: pictures taken inside mock-ups of domestic settings as they burn for firefighting training. Fascinating subject matter in itself, but powerful emotions billow around, and the lofty Mining Institute lecture room was eerily chilled.

Sara’s been commissioned by NEPN and Locus+ to produce ongoing works in her Muzzle Flash series. It’s going to be shown in the NE later this year. More when it arrives.Similar Posts:

Side Gallery Needs You!

TPP — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 00:25:52 PDT

To end my year off (which became nearer 18mths) with an appeal from Kerry Lowes for exhibition proposals is wonderful, really wonderful. I’m definitely sending something. If you’re a local documentary photographer, or have regional work, even if you’ve never exhibited before, go for it. Apart from anything else, it will be wonderful for their discussions with the Arts Council to be able to say there were thousands and thousands of submissions.

Here’s Kerry’s letter:

EXHIBITION PROPOSALS

We are continually looking for bodies of work that fit within our programming agenda at Side Gallery.

If you would like to submit work for consideration, please see the notes below:

1. As Side Gallery dedicated to documentary photography in the tradition of the concerned photographer, please do not submit fine art or conceptual proposals.

2. It may help to have a look at our list of previous exhibitions, if you are unsure whether or not your work is suitable. Please visit www.amber-online.com

3. Images & narrative are far more important to us than CVs.

4. We accept submissions through the post, email or in person. Please note that unless a SAE is provided, we will be unable to return any submissions.

5. We accept submissions in a variety of formats eg. Disc, contact sheets, prints, email or links to websites.

Note: Having said that, please take into account that we receive a lot of submissions which can be quite time consuming to work through, so please be considerate and make your work easily accessible. (ie. no 2gb image files that have to be opened up individually on disc please).

6. The Side Gallery exhibition selection panel only meet up every few months, so if you don’t get a response immediately, please be patient with us, we’re only a small team.

7. Photographers who exhibit at Side Gallery are always paid an exhibition fee.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Please send proposals to:

Kerry Lowes
Director
Side Gallery
9 Side
Newcastle upon Tyne
England

or

side.gallery@amber-online.com

Go for it. You know you want to.

In completely unrelated news, there are 186 comments awaiting approval, and Askimet still works, so they don’t look like spam. I switched off comments when I put everything to bed. It’s lovely to know you’re still interested, but frankly, it’s unlikely that any of them are going to get through at this stage. So if you were one of the commenters, feel free to complain to the management about it or preferably comment again.

It’s time for a bit of a site refurb, but if you’re still following via RSS or email, nothing will change. WP needs updating again and there’s going to be a reshuffle, keeping personal stuff like the family cookbook and various off-topics over at brendaburrell.co.uk. Follow that one too, if you want.

It’s good to be back.Similar Posts:

Side Gallery – Help!

TPP — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 13:19:18 PDT

In case you didn’t know, Arts Council England announced its list of arts organisations that will no longer be funded. In the north-east, the big players, Baltic, Mima, The NGCA all did really well, and got more money than before.

Everyone has been left reeling though, with the news that Side Gallery, the region’s most loved photographic collection, archive and showcase, the one that exhibits work by and about mis- or under represented groups, the only documentary photography gallery in the country, is to lose the paltry £60,000pa, the whole amount of it’s grant, all it took to keep this incredible programme of work coming and coming.

SIDE GALLERY TO RECEIVE NO FUNDING IN THE ARTS COUNCIL’S NATIONAL PORTFOLIO: A PROFOUNDLY STUPID, CULTURALLY ILLITERATE AND ILLOGICAL DECISION

In a spirited and typically upbeat move, there’s a note on the door of the gallery, and there’s a statement to read and a petition to sign. Please help!

This is what you can do:

Read the Collective’s response in this newsletter and on the Amber Website.

Write to them using their Contact page giving them your support.

Sign the Petition.

Comment on the BJP article and any others you find, especially those in the mainstream press.

Join in Duckrabbit’s campaign to get the Photographers’ Gallery to give Side the loose change from behind their settee.

Come to A LUTA CONTINUA tomorrow, the opening of their latest most magnificent piece, curated and presented by the lively and dynamic Dean Chapman.

Follow them on Twitter and Facebook to keep up with any next steps and for any updates.

Look! Weegee!

See you tomorrow.

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A Year Off

TPP — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 05:28:23 PST

The last post here was sometime back in October 2010, so this might’ve been happening anyway, decision or no decision. There’s a lot of stuff in the archives, so it’s probably no bad thing to leave everything here on line.

There was going to be a bit of a 2010 retrospective, and a round-up of where I am professionally, but the elements of the first may well inform some future, and if so, references may well be made. In terms of the second, where I am is ah, probably nowhere, although good work does happen from time to time, none of it is being published, or sold, or shared.

Thanks for everything, all you commenters, people who have this in your RSS. I’m grateful for every insight, every question, every small word. It’s been lovely. Might see you again somewhere else, might revamp this space at some point, who knows? Nothing for a year sounds like a really good idea at the moment. I’d say it might help get my head together, but I’m not sure it will.Similar Posts:

Military Censorship in Iraq

TPP — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 15:23:51 PDT

“If he takes another photo, shoot him.”

Watch this.

Via the very perceptive David White over at DuckRabbit.Similar Posts:

Unboxing!

TPP — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 14:35:41 PDT

“It’s got nice little program modes on the bottom.” Make sure you click through to read the comments.

And it’s yet another timely reminder to finish the rest of that Kodachrome. Similar Posts:

Quotidian Ends

TPP — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 00:32:17 PDT

It’s been a long and rather interesting summer. No posts since August are the result of an hugely extra-busy personal life, changes in the big new collaboration, diversions at the local art group and a big increase in work on the weddings, all of which has been accompanied by the usual frustrations with digital darkroom hardware.

More on all of these to come.

And there’s an impending equipment clear-out as the practice is consolidated. Watch out for some sales of camera bags and equipment. The darkroom surpluses have been redistributed to a couple of local enthusiasts, but no doubt there will be more on this too, soon.

What has continued gently, throughout this period, is a humble little series of iPhone photographs that after a hesitant start, really began to take off when there began to be no time for anything else.

You get the idea, hmm?

The series was published exclusively to my Facebook pages, where access is restricted to people who mutually follow, and ran from 11th June to 10th October 2010: 121 pictures altogether. People seem to have either loved or loathed them, which is exactly the response we’re always seeking, especially since the people who loved them include several fine art photographers of some stature. But you’d have to be following me to know who they are.

There have been suggestions for publishing possibly a little book, and the temptation to send them off to get a set of little prints seems almost too great. They could, of course, look rubbish as prints. iPhone photographs may need to stay purely in the digital realm, and the sense of impermanence is wholly in keeping with the rhythm of the piece. But we shall see.

The master of the daily photograph is of course the mighty Russell Higgs, whose series of self portraits in a huge range of head embellishments has been featured here before. There are 999 of them. It’s hard to imagine the level of stamina it takes to make one of those every single day for 3 years, and they are rather compelling. Here’s Russell’s slideshow on Shutterchance.

And a piece of his work you may not have seen before:

Things to see this week include Jill Cole’s magnificent Training Land at the Decisive Moment Gallery in Darlington, and the DMG members’ show including my Jabberywocky low contrast darkroom prints moves to the Lamplight Centre in Stanley. The Sunderland MA Photography show opens on 17th, oddly enough with a drifting voile as its promotional poster. These happy little co-incidences are possibly a result of the rich cross- fertilisation of influences we experience in this broad and very eclectic community.

Long may they continue.

This ever-changing collection of photographers’ cards on the back of my blackout cupboard door includes gifts from Thea Panter, Craig Stephenson and Simon Norfolk, postcards from shows by Marjolaine Ryley, Jill Cole, and in the middle there’s the artists’s statement from my final show at college, and one of my own favourite polaroids from a series that never really gathered much momentum.

Polaroids, mmm… and Kodachrome, mmm. So much to write about, so little time.Similar Posts:

A New Topography of the Durham Coalfields

TPP — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 08:53:17 PDT

A New Topography of the Durham Coalfield by Adam J Brown

Found on Contact Editions’ blog, this wonderful book, which we know you’ll love to see. Oh for a copy but funds do not at present, allow. Couldn’t find a website or blog for Adam, but would appreciate knowing more about the project and his work. Newly graduated from Farnham, but a Durham lad, maybe?

A longer hiatus than expected, apologies for that. Normal service will be resumed here soon, promise. Similar Posts:

Natchwey, Griffin and a Brief Hiatus

TPP — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 02:46:04 PDT

Somewhat hypnotic film from Asa Mader.

Natchwey’s clever cousin Martin has joined the team at Duckrabbit. “Martin Nachtwey does a masterful job of capturing the dystopian cacophony of conflicting rivers of delusion of our modern day irrational existence.” Describes that film quite well, wouldn’t you say?

The authentic James: “I have been a witness, and these pictures are my testimony. The events I have recorded should not be forgotten and must not be repeated.” here.

Martin Parr (whose brow is nothing like as furrowed, and who needs no linking from me) is going to be at Port Eliot Festival this weekend. He sent a contribution to the Falmouth Students’ fundraising cookery book. They asked famous photographers for recipes, and he sent them “beans on toast..“. Not a recipe for beans on toast, that would be too generous of him, too giving of his precious time. Just those three words. I’ll tell him what I think if I see him wandering about, but will not be going to watch him hold court.

It is perfectly possible in this industry of ours to get famous and even notorious, without pomposity or arrogance. We know that. Brian Griffin liked my photo on Facebook this morning, not for the first time. We can only love an artist like that, at the top of his profession and free, still, with his opinions and praise.

Griffin’s Road to 2012 Olympic preparations photographs at the National Portrait Gallery are here. Go and see them: I certainly will.

So while work progresses in the studio on the sculpture, for me, a few days in a tent, in Cornwall! I’ll be taking a sweet little rangefinder and some rolls of 3200 and 6400 Ilford Delta for the evenings, and possibly a monopod.

More from the darkroom, including a short one-take film so you can see exactly how organised and tidy it is, sometime around the end of next week. Meanwhile, this is my first, hopefully of many more, moving photos, as I believe they are becoming known. Turn off the sound, I haven’t worked out how to do that in camera yet. Feel free to follow The Photography Pages on Youtube.

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How to Hang a Picture

TPP — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 05:23:48 PDT

From a BBC arts blog I’m following. Very useful indeed. Please share freely!Similar Posts: