Festival organisers DanceXchange delivered an epic festival of dance across Birmingham and the West Midlands, featuring a number of innovative outdoor dance events that provoked and excited new audiences.

It was also the first time I’d really pushed shooting video on the Canon 5DMKII so was delighted when I heard a chunk of the footage was featured on BBC 4 documentary ‘The Most Incredible Thing About Contemporary Dance’.

It’s a fantastic doc in which presenter and orchestral conductor Charles Hazelwood gives a lovely insight into the world of contemporary dance. With key interviews from director of DanceXchange David Massingham and a montage of my IDFB footage during the opening gambit and then again around 50mins into the piece.

It was originally broadcast on BBC 4 last week but you can still go catch it on iPlayer until the end of this week! Inspiring, insightful, well worth a watch!

I love simple ideas and The Burning House project asks the simple question - “What personal belongings would you take with you if your house was on fire?”

The photographed responses of these items make for some interesting viewing…

The show tackles issues of grief and loss set against the incredible backdrop of a woodland setting constructed inside the main gallery space at the mac.

Jane commissioned me as photographer and film maker for all press and marketing material and to also make a trailer of the piece which gives a brief and beautiful glimpse into The Woods...

The curators selected my Prefab Tom work as they thought it fitted well with their theme of the darkness & uncanny. I’m delighted to have my work in the exhibition, showing alongside a number of big names and highly respected artists such as Richard Billingham, Brian Griffin, Idris Kahn and Gillian Wearing.

The Withing Hour is part of Art of Ideas, an Arts & Business initiative which aims to promote contemporary visual art making it more accessible to audiences and new potential buyers. The exhibition only runs for four days, from Thursday 11th until Sunday 14th November, so be quick if you want to see it. 

Sound from the 5D isn’t great so using a separate audio recorder I captured decent sound via a radio mic, then in the edit I synced up the 5D and radio mic sound in seconds with the remarkable Plural Eyes sound syncing software. You have to use it to believe it!

The doc itself is an interview with the Jonathan Watkins, director of the Ikon Gallery discussing the work of artist collective MadeIn and their edgy, hard hitting show that asks us to rethink and question our political and cultural perceptions.

It’s the first time I’ve been able to create the video first to then pass on to a sound designer to do their thing. Really impressed with the great work of sound designer and composer Lewis Gibson!

The show uses three items of bespoke designer maker jewelery from which it draws thematic narratives, as an audience member you experience this by yourself with the performers leading you around and immersing you into the story of your chosen piece. Treasured runs at the newly refurbished MAC from 9th - 27th June!

Just spotted the new Lomo 360 Spinner camera! Pull the cord for some panoramic madness! I want one of these! Check out the techniques especially the timescan technique, reminds me a lot of the work of photographer Jonathan Shaw, who experiments with time and motion in his practice.

Best known for her folk-inspired work, Rojas uses a wide range of media, including painting, installation and print-making, with a smart sense of humour, to make observations on gender relations and representation. This then translates through into her music, which she writes and performs under the alt-country alter ego of Peggy Honeywell.

For the exhibition opening Clare performed her music to a packed out audience and this provided the perfect live soundtrack and backbone to the film.

The video is now live on the Ikon site, so enjoy…

I didn’t get to see the show but did get to photograph some of the incredible puppets created by artist Caroline McDowell, a few of which can now be seen on the Arts Council website...

This time I got to spend a week following the installation of artist & writer Matias Faldbakken.

His exhibition Shocked into Abstraction features a mix of appropriated objects including a wall of Marshall speaker cabinets, a burnt out car and his own home made pedal pumping video!

Take a watch of the video to hear Matias discussing his work and if you watch to the end you’ll see the artist creating a unique wall painting in his own destructive style…

I worked with a small camera crew to document the City Sings event at Artsfest…

The show consisting of 52 unique portraits runs from today until the end of November in the main gallery space at C4FAP

and artist Victor Alimpiev. Both can now be seen on the Ikon website...

I recommend a trip to the gallery to see both shows and in particular the incredible video work of Victor Alimpiev which I found both mesmerising and slightly disturbing with intricate choreography set against a backdrop of nothingness…

The Art of Photography Show 2009 is a world-class international exhibition featuring all forms of photographic art. This year they received over 16,000 entries from 57 countries, 111 pieces were chosen for the final exhibition and my image of Franz Joseph Glacier was one of them! The selection was made by Charlotte Cotton, curator and head of the Wallis Annenberg Department of Photography at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Cotton was previously curator of photographs at the Victoria & Albert museum and head of programming at The Photographers Gallery.

It feels a great achievment to have my work selected by a leading authority on photography today, especially from such a vast amount of entries! The show opens in just a few hours at the Lyceum Theatre Gallery next to Horton Plaza, Gaslamp quarter, downtown San Diego. It runs for two months until 1st November. So if you’re around this part of the world then go take a visit!

I’m off now to get ready for the opening… Exciting! 

I interviewed Reverend Billy and documented this important, powerful and at times hilarious performance which can now be seen on the Ikon site…

Go get converted!

The current Joyful Bewilderment exhibition at Here Gallery in Bristol has been receiving some local press attention from Venue magazine. I was delighted they decided to use my piece to represent the show… Brilliant that they chose a photographic work as the show mainly consists of illustration… So extra special to be featured!

As they say it’s a corker of an exhibition.. so if you’re in Bristol get to the Here Gallery and have a gander! 

You can now see all the print submissions from the night on the Synth Eastwood site, plus if you look down at video of the night below and scroll to 0:51 you should see me having a banter about my work…