London trip

Trip down to London to go to a talk, well a question and answer session, with Andrew Graham Dixon and David Bailey.

Went down a little early to take in the Whitechapel Gallery and the new Saatchi Gallery before heading of to the D&AD organised talk at Logan Hall.

I was really looking forward to the talk as it was going to be an 'in conversation with...' type. I love watching Andrew Graham Dixon discussing culture, art and food. An image of Andrew walking up the beach in his Caravaggio programme inspired my 'Small World' project. I decided to print off the image I captured that started all the work and take it along with me. If I got the opportunity I would ask him to sign it.

Not only did I get the opportunity to ask him but had a quick chat and he was delighted to sign the back of the image for me.

The talk was very interesting and some great advice and tall tales from Bailey. As this was a D&AD Presidents talk it will have been recorded and it will probably be on the website at some point in the future. Will put in a link when that happens.

Enjoyed the Saatchi Gallery - massive space beautifully converted and offering more than 15 galleries - all devoted to photography. I really liked work by Viktor Johanssen (I cant find a website for Viktor so have linked you to the BBC website with news about his win)

Viktor Johanssen

It was good to see work I have seen before by Chris Levine, Mitch Epstein, Hannah Starkey and Broomberg & Chanarin were the outstanding images for me. But like I have said before perhaps familiarity works.

Only downside to the day was the rain - oh boy did it rain. We thought we would be indoors all day, but it's surprising how much walking through puddles and being outside it all involved. I went to parts of London I have not been to before and they were actually quite pleasant.

I do not recommend Nandos. What a bewilderingly confusing menu when all they seem to offer is chicken and chips. Plergh. Will not be going again.

Good company - good time.

Received a text whilst I was in London asking if I did Wedding Photography. Hmmmm

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Jill Cole

Very lucky to get to hear about work Jill has been creating during her time as artist in residence for the National Forest 'Photo~Canopy' project.

Had the chance to speak to her about my plans for my work to meet this brief. I want to explore the scars that remain in the National Forest local to me and to attempt to create a PhotoFilm of the guys that run the clayworks and landfill site within the Ashby Woulds. One day it will all be covered by a glorious country park at the very heart of the National Forest - but I want some record of it before it goes.

Jill described some of the issue she had whilst undertaking this work:

• Access
• The distance she lives from the National Forest
• The weather
• Finding the big idea
• Her conflict concept (land use and change)
• Processes
• Is it about the trees?
• How do you look at a Forest?
• Your background will determine the way you approach the brief
• Challenge to say something new about an area that it nearly 20. Is there an iconic image?
• Avoid getting overwhelmed
• Have focus

I made notes during her lecture:

Reflection:
Icing on the cake was to meet up with Jill the following day before she headed back home to North Yorkshire. We shared ideas, anecdotes and thoughts on coming to photography as a second career and the challenges that involves.

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Erik Knudsen

Well our first guest lecturer of the year - a long time to wait but I hear there are many more booked for the new year - which will be fantastic.

Erik has been about to visit for the past year and finally he arrived. In doing my research before he arrived I discovered that he would either be a white teenage actor from Canada or a black 40 something film making Salford professor. My money was on the second.

Here are my notes from the talk:

Films he showed clips from: One Day Tafo - his first feature length film. Vainilla Chip (2009) - which was very moving.

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Reflection:

I find the visiting lecturers very stimulating - even when it is not a subject area I am familiar with. I think this is because they are passionate people, clever, talented and gifted. I always feel motivated after a lecture and they get my ideas flowing. Erik was full of words of wisdom and routes to be creative by. I scribbled an idea for a portrait shot, which I will try out soon.

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Jill Cole

I realised this morning that I had not put a note on my blog about a talk given by Jill Cole. Here are my notes:

After her talk I asked:

"Do the Army vet the images you have taken on the firing range before you exhibit them - or do they trust you?"

She replied:

"I started by showing them but they trust me now. I have to ring the day I want to go - this is to make sure where I am going there is no firing taking place."



Birds

Her words of wisdom were that small things in a local area can have a bigger message. This reinforces the message that I took from the talk with Ian Beesley in that all you need to photograph can be found within one mile of your front door. Add these two together and you have a winner.

I am pleased to learn that I will be working with Jill on the National Forest Photo-Canopy brief as she is the first Artist in Residence for this. I am looking forward to this very much.

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Helen Saunders

Very interesting talk by Helen Saunders about her work and her commissions. Very illuminating. I do believe I have found a kindred spirit in the kind of images she creates and the work and artists that have inspired her.

 

Here are my notes:

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Joel Meyerowitz

Trip to QUAD on a lovely Sunday morning to listen to a talk by Joel Meyerowtiz. I have seen him on a number of TV programmes and also after hearing him speak at the opening ceremony of FORMAT on Thursday evening I was particularly looking forward to this talk.

Joel working the audience before taking the stage.

Here are my notes:

1960s

Spain in 70s



Ground Zero



As I was leaving I realised that Ed Swinden had been sitting directly behind me. I had read something on his blog about attending a talk and had not put two and two together, I would have said hello otherwise.

Also in the cafe after the talk I noticed Brian Griffin in the corner chatting to his friends. 

Brian Griffin

Photography is a very friendly world to work in and FORMAT brings out the best in people.

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Ali Lomas

Ali visited to discuss how she manages to find work as a photographer based in Burton, life after graduating and what happened after she won a category in the Taylor Wessing Portrait Competition in 2009 with this image:

 'To Feel Beautiful' by Ali Lomas.
This won the Godfrey Argent Award for the best portrait
in the Taylor Wessing Portrait Photography Competition.
It now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery.

My notes:

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Rut Blees Luxemburg

Rut showed her work and spoke so passionately about it that you cannot help but to love it and her.

Steph has her bloc party album signed

An inspiring talk and so many interesting and exciting ideas. Thoroughly enjoyed this. Here are my notes:

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Julian Germain

This was a fantastic talk from a man with  some fantastic projects to talk about. Here are my notes - but starting with an image of the speaker... 



The pre-talk work out



Notes:

I will add thoughts and comments to this because I thoroughly enjoyed this talk and have many comparisons to make and points to make to move my work forward.

Thoroughly enjoyed this talk - just wish the seats were more comfortable.

Update: There is an ongoing discussion about whether photographers take photographs or make them - Julian summed it up and clarified my thoughts. I am in charge, these are my ideas, I have, therefore, made them. I like the moniker of being a maker of images - that sits well with me.

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Finding your inner writer

Wayne Burrows set us a task when we met him at Nottingham Contemporary... to view the exhibits in the British Arts Show 7 and let a piece of work or artist inspire us to create a story.

The story then needed to be about the artist - real or imagined - or about the piece and how that inspires us. Finally for the following week we needed to produce a piece of work that this fictional person had created.

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Joe Cornish

What a treat we had on Wednesday (8th Dec) we had Joe Cornish with us for 8 hours. In the afternoon he gave feedback on the brief he gave - which I shall discuss elsewhere - and a lecture in the evening talking about his life, his work, his passion and his photographs.

Evening Lecture

Chris introduces Joe Cornish

I wasn't expecting to like Joe as I am tired of seeing images with pretty rocks on the shore in focus with a mountain/castle/sunset in the background in focus. The amateurish monthly magazines encourage you to take images like this and I am fed up of seeing them month after month. However I was delighted to find I rather enjoyed Joe's talk and his images. I realise what I am seeing in the magazines are very poor, and I really do mean poor, imitations of some fantastically stunning work.

To be able to see the work and hear the story behind the image was a real treat, so was being able to stand right in front of a mounted print - which were much better than the projected images... full of depth, colour and detail.

My notes from his talk:

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Studio Output

Rob Coke - Creative Director

Interesting talk by Rob from Studio Output this afternoon. This is the world I am from and so it all made perfect sense to me. It also helped me realise I am glad I am away from it now. A lot of work and little to show for it was always my impression of working in a design agency and this came through from the way Rob described some of the pitches and campaigns he has overseen.

The Lectern awaits its speaker



The team get Rob wired for action


Here are the brief notes I made:

Whoops didn't realise how bright the screen would be - but look closely in the shadows

I am enjoying the guest lectures. They are providing a much wider and varied group of people this year. Last year seemed mostly to be photographers - which was no bad thing. It is interesting to hear from people that work in other areas of the creative world - helps give you a more grounded view of the world that will be awaiting us when we have finished this course.






Year 2 students are so excited that Sarah attempts to eat her pen ...
Sideways!

  

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Images of War

As promised the images from the War Photography talk.



'Belfast Dots' www.choppedliver.org.uk




'After Life' www.choppedliver.org.uk




'The Day Nobody Died' www.thedrawbridge.org.uk



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Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin

The Day Nobody Died 

Whitechapel Gallery, London 

I was going to adorn this piece with images - but I shall leave it as my notes and thoughts. I shall put images in another blog. 

Adam and Oliver are war photographers and have worked together on 6 books. They talked through three bodies of work. Belfast, After Life and The Day Nobody Died.

Photography and war are linked - in both you are shooting people.

The camera is part of the event - if it is there it is impacting on what is happening.

Belfast Dots - they printed the parts of the negatives that had been hidden by the sticky dots on the contact sheets. These photographs had originally been taken by the people of Belfast during the troubles in the 70s and 80s.

After Life - using the original contact sheet they showed what had happened to each of the men during the 36 exposures the photographer had taken at the time the 11 men were shot dead. The photograph was taken in August 1979 showing the Kurdish prisoners being executed by firing squad.

The Day Nobody Died - they took 50m of photographic paper to the front line and exposed the paper (in the style of a photogram) to be "a register of the time rather than of the meaning".  

I left this talk feeling angry, disappointed, insulted and disgusted in equal measure.

Disappointed

Disappointed that they did not show us any of their photography within these three bodies of work. In Belfast and Afterlife the photographs were manipulations they had done to other peoples photographs. And in The Day Nobody Died the exposed paper showed abstract splodges of colour and only made sense when accompanied by a talk or viewing the video - but that made little sense until you were given the context. I felt that they were curating not creating work. I felt cheated. They said they were being subversive by showing nothing in their images.  

Disgusted 

Disgusted by having to watch the 4 you tube videos which showed people being killed or dying. I very nearly got up and left. After seeing those videos however I did expect their work to better that in some way, with sympathy, with facts, with information, with something. I was also disgusted to see British Soldiers being used to carry around their box of light sensitive paper. 

Insulted 

I am in awe of what people will do to protect and help others. I believe that we should congratulate and celebrate what people are sacrificing by being a Solider. Suffering deserves a witness. On a day somebody did die to come back with just a splodge is just insulting.

Angry

I understand that to be heard, to be noticed, you have to be controversial - but to have gone to all that trouble to get to the front line and to come back with splodges does not do justice to what the men and women over there are doing for us. They asked "Do we think we are at war?" "Are we too removed?" There was discussion about how the media (and the MoD) sensor images taken. We might feel we are not at war as the images we see on TV and in newspapers show smiling soldiers - we do not see the horror. But it would take a foolish person not to realise what is going on. In my opinion it is the job of the war photographer to risk their life to show us what is happening, to show us the reality, to show us the truth. I do not feel this body of work does that. 

  

Lesson learned:

That even if something is not to my taste or of interest it can fire you up enough to try something new for yourself. Either in reaction against it or to show how you could do it better. I shall never pass up the opportunity to go to things I do not like the sound of in future.

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Ian Beesley

What a great talk from an entertaining and engaging man.

Ian signed Chris's book

Top tips from Ian:

• experiment
• always think professionally
• develop contacts and networks 
• build portfolio
• work on your USP
• learn to present yourself - it will make or break your career
• you are not just a photographer - you have to sell yourself

"It's more than being a good photographer, you have to be good at photography."

I will add my notes from Ian's presentation once I have written them up - they are currently on scraps of paper.

As promised - my notes. Please excuse the wonky writing in places as I was on the train!

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Dan Stier

Guest Lecturer on Wednesday was Dan Stier. I thoroughly enjoyed this lecture and it helped me put more pieces of the jigsaw together.

His collections of work are sublime. His website is in Helvetica. He is amusing - what's not to like.

Chris and Richard deciding who is going to introduce Dan.

Dan about to use the newly installed lectern.

My notes from Dan's lecture:

Dan was quite nervous - he said it was the first time he had given a talk about his work. It didn't help that we always video talks from guest lecturers. I saw him looking at the video camera a few times.

Good lecture though and I might get in touch with him.

Update:
Emailed Dan to say thank you for his lecture and to ask if he was interested in being my mentor. He very graciously declined as he is going to be very busy over the next year. I thanked him for getting back to me so promptly and totally understand. My hunt for a mentor continues.

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