Beth #1

I've been working on a series of portraits of musicians and this is the first one to be posted here. This is the beautiful Beth Rowley, an amazing singer/songwriter who kindly gave up her time to work with me. It's a little on the soft side (sorry Mr Scarff!) but I am still waiting for the rest to come back from the lab and am excited to share this image.

Random

A few images from a short photofilm I'm collaborating on. It's been great to work on a new project and even better to taste some truly gorgeous food.

Rachel Mummey

I've been looking around at people who are producing multimedia/photofilms and really like this one by Rachel Mummey.

Caeshel Sue Rae Allen from Rachel Mummey on Vimeo.

little bear

I mentioned in a previous post that I've been working on a few small photofilms to try to improve my skills. I've now finished one I started in the summer and I've moved away from using Soundslides. It's been a learning curve to make this new piece so any feedback will be greatly appreciated! It's best viewed with the HD off otherwise it takes ages to buffer but annoyingly doesn't give so much resolution on the images...I'm still working it all out.

little bear from rebecca harley on Vimeo.

How to become a star...

Here's a very cool little animation that the singer and songwriter Jane Taylor has co-produced as an innovative way to raise money to promote her latest album.

Fund-raising video from Jane Taylor on Vimeo.

A little bit of luck

As the days get shorter and colder there are only a few couples who brave the Autumn and Winter to get married. I was working with a friend at a wedding on a crisp Saturday morning, feeling a bit rusty and wondering how I was going to get some good shots in a badly lit hotel room full of people. Then the bride who had just finished getting ready, put on her veil ready for her big day and there, fleetingly was a special moment. A little bit of luck can go a long way.

Wild things

Looking out of my window at the grey sky and the drizzle on the window remembering a trip to wild west Wales in the summer...

Funk legend

OMG (can I use this past the age of 30?) - had the best night dancing away last night to the funk/jazz/sax legend that is Maceo Parker. Brilliant brilliant night, the saxophone playing was amazing and he was joined by Pee Wee Ellis and the very cute Dennis Rollins on trombone. The atmosphere was amazing, check out 'Pass the peas'. He also played a very cool version of Marvin Gaye's 'Lets get it on'. I've not seen much live funk before but loved the fact that most of the time Maceo was congratulating all the other players and playing tribute to other jazz legends.

Photomonth - Overexposed City

This Friday 22nd October many of my good photo friends will be showing their work Overexposed City as part of 189 Collective. 'This collection of micro stories explores people. psychology and geography within London, revealing suprising and hidden visul anecdotes.' The exhibition will take place at Apairy Studios (The Hackney Rose) and is part of Photomonth - East London Photography Festival. I can't wait to go along and see what they've all been up to.

There are so many shows to see but I'm going to try get to as many as I can and I'll blog a little bit about my findings. A definite date in my diary will be Kirstine Fryde's Travellers exhibition at the Woolfson & Tay Gallery. The lovely Miss Fryde will be giving a talk at the opening night on 9th November.

Kirstine Fryde

scooter noobes, skaters and duckrabbit training

Wow what a brilliant three days I've just spent on a duckrabbit training course with some very inspiring people.

We spent time working on a short photofilm at a skate park and I know it sounds cheesy but I seriously think I have come back a different person. Who knew 12 year old kids could be quite so philosophical and remind me that one of the most important things in life is to believe in yourself.

Stuart Freedman and Martin Ellis along with Ben Chesterton who led the training, made the whole experience really fun, as well as passing on some great new skills.

The Swahili coast

Whilst hanging out in Zanzibar I met an interesting Belgian photographer by the name of Griet Hendrickx who has spent the last two years making images along the Swahili coast. I sometimes feel slightly wary about work produced by Western photographers in Africa, but after seeing a small selection of her work I'm looking forward to seeing her full set of images which will include some interesting portraits and stories she has collected along the way. There is an amazing fusion of cultures in Zanzibar and along the East Coast and I'd like to learn a lot more about Swahili culture.

Griet taught me a thing or two about travelling and had a very cool medium format camera of the likes I have never seen (a Plaubel Makina 670), but I did show her the best place to get a banana lassie!

Here is her short description of her work in progress which will be exhibited in Belgium and Zanzibar next May.

"The African continent is almost invariably portrayed as a source of poverty and misery. A personal project made out of belief that Africa is much more than these few minutes people get to see in the news."

Nairobi wedding

I am currently enjoying some time away in Zanzibar after a busy time shooting a wedding in Karen just outside Nairobi in Kenya. It was an amazing event where I spent my time running around trying to capture everything in the beautiful surroundings, ending with tired feet and sunburned neck!

Next stop to stay with friends in Zanzibar's Stone Town eating the most gorgeous food at their restaurant Archipelago. I also met a lovely lady by the name of Rachel Hermada who has started up an interesting online magazine called Mambo featuring Zanzibar culture, life and travel information written by jouralists living on the island. Worth a look if you are interested in Swahili culture.

The bride's feet covered in henna

Forgotten photographs

Whilst putting together an edit of some burlesque work for my new website I found some old film scans that had been hiding on a hard drive. Note to self - get more organised with hard drive. Lovely to find them again though and I suspect some more to come. PS. Thanks Freya.

The little bear

I've been slow to blog lately as I've been working on a few small multimedia projects to remind myself how it's all done. One of them is a short piece about a good friend of mine who has just become a mum. She's on her own and doing a fantastic job. I've spent some happy times hanging out with her and her gorgeous little girl. I'm hoping to finish the piece in a week or so. In the meantime a coupe of shots I particularly like.

The little bear

Bedtime

The high life, the simple life and the good life.

I've just spent a few days working and visiting around and about. Firstly I was working at the Jacques Cider launch in London, then I went to see my Grandma, back to the launch, and then waiting for me when I got home were some lovely ripe red tomatoes. Yum.

Looking up how to spell tomato (no e, I always get it wrong...) I came across this site for all those who hate the humble fruit/vegetable. Tomatoes confuse people like me, not only with their spelling, but are they a fruit or a vegetable? I've now found out they are considered to be a fruit when raw and a vegetable when used in cooking. Must be true as I looked it up on Wikipedia.

Sophie Ellis-Bextor

Grandma's kitchen window

Ripe tomatoes

The Press Photographers Year 2010

My story Memories of a House is currently showing at the National Theatre (Lyttelton foyer) on the South Bank in London as part of The Press Photographers Year 2010.

"Do or do not, there is no try." - Yoda

Good advice. I watched an interesting webinar hosted byPhotoshelter the other day with photographer Tim Mantoani called Focus on Your Passion: Finding Yourself in Photography. Not all my type of imags but his words were inspiring and it was an interesting hour and a bit. He touched on a few things to think about when trying to find the right story/subject. He discussed the barriers that photographers tend to put infront of themselves - eg. 'If I only had the right camera/lens/lights/subject I could shoot this or that project'. His basic message was if you want to get out and create something, choose a subject you're passionate about and let this shine through, don't wait for it to happen. Start small and work your way up, sooner or later your opportunity will come to gain more commercial work.

His ongoing project Behind Photographs shot on a huge 20x24 Polaroid camera shows the person behind the many iconic images we all know and love.

Mary Ellen Mark

Elliott Erwitt

Glastonbury40

Went to a brilliant exhibition in Somerset last night. If you are heading that way it's well worth a look. Glastonbury40 celebrates 40 years of Glastonbury Festival by seven Somerset based photographers and is on at the Atkinson Gallery in Street just down the road from Glastonbury itself. It's an amazing retrospective with black and white images of the 70's, with beards, horses and motorbikes up to the past few years with mud fights, crowds and crazy outfits. There's also some tents and straw with screens inside showing different elements of the festival. You can sit back in a camping chair and pretend you're back there drinking cider and watching some great music. The legendary Michael and Emily Eavis were in attendance and it was a lovely Somerset night. Smile. A big congratulations to the talented Anna Barclay and Matt Cardy for putting it all together.

Some exciting news

I just found out I have won first prize in the Press Photographer's Year multimedia section with my project Memories of a House, which is extremely surprising and very exciting! You can see my entry and all the other brilliant work on the PPY website, especially the talented Oli Scarff who won first prize in the 'The Arts' section with the image below.

Sky television film a performance of Swan Lake by the English National Ballet in 3Din The Painted Hall of the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich. 9th April 2009.

Not capturing Kirstina

My lovely friend and photographer Kirstina Fryd has set me a challenge. To take a portrait of her - we talked about this some time ago but haven't got round to it. I tried one sunny morning in Brixton but I'm not remotely happy with the results. All my blogging about portraits hasn't seemed to rub off on me. It was all wrong for some reason - too posed - not right at all. Well next time we'll try again - until then my friend.

The lovely Kirstina

A whirlwind of inspiration

Well I’ve shamefully not written for a while. I’ve been around and about doing all sorts of things. I went to a multimedia training day hosted by duckrabbit which I must say was fantastic. Panos multimedia producer Anna Stevens was one of the guest speakers and showed some interesting multimedia she has worked on in the past. We all viewed Robin Hammond's Tuvulu multimedia piece which included some amazing medium format triptychs. There was an interesting kit talk and all important tips about how to make money using 'mm' with lots of good audience participation. Both duck and rabbit were fun and concise about the whole process. I also popped along to slideluck potshow in the evening, saw the beautiful Sally Mann exhibition and spent some time with my nan. I’m now trying to come back down to earth from shooting a Sikh wedding at the weekend...

Almost back in a vague routine I’m remembering how I felt when looking at Sally Mann’s photographs. I’ve admired her work for so long in books it was wonderful to see them in a gallery and stand in front of them for a while. There is something about her images especially seeing them in the larger size not shrunk to a page that really communicates an inexplicable beauty. I found it very hard to tear myself away and watched an interesting interview with her when I got home.

Shiva at Whistle Creek, 1992

Vinland, 1992

Three Generations 1987-1997

Between Then and Now

Whilst looking around the Bristol Festival of Photography and blogging on the life.still site about the interesting photography at the festival I came across some images that really stood out from a lot of the work I've seen. They were on the wall at the Arts House as part of an open submission. I felt like I had seen the images somewhere before but the photographer did not have a sign up next to her name. After some digging around I found out they were by Evi Lemberger and her work was featured in foto8 magazine sometime ago and I remember seeing them there. I really love the feel of her images, there is something nostalgic and dreamy about them that leaves me feeling that these people are somehow familiar to me - that they belong to a past we all share and are waiting to tell me their stories. You can see her story Between Then and Now on the foto8 blog here.

"Between Then and Now is a documentary project about people and places from a vanishing world. This vanishing world is situated in the Bavarian Forest, which is characterised by its rural structure and is undergoing massive shifts from a traditional to a modern society. As a result of this change is the loss of an old lifestyle, along with its values and traditions."

Kolmar Xaver

Boasn Sepp

Brandl

Adam, Cambridge and the six toed cats

Well I have just got back from a shoot near Cambridge with some six toed cats. The cats were very cute but very uncooperative. It was all very glamourous crawling along on the floor to get at the same level as the cat in the pouring rain, only to get within an inch of the cats and then them legging it.

Six toed or polydactyl cats are not nearly as weird as you would imagine. Apparently Ernest Hemmingway was particularly keen on six toed cats and around sixty of them live at his home and museum in Key West, Florida. They are also said to be the best cats to take to sea, presumably because they have better grip on ship.

After my time with the polydactyls I headed to see my friend Adam. A very clever man who used to study Volcanology and now does something equally as clever at Cambridge University. It's such a beautiful city and I was obsessed by all the lovely old bikes.

Adam in the morning, Cambridge

Tabitha

The portrait # 2

I have another new offering of wonderful portraits. I discovered Charlotte Oestervang's work about a year or so ago and I particularly like her series from Freetown Christiania, or Fristaden Christiania in Danish. Christiania is an autonomous neighbourhood in Copenhagen and is governed by it's own special laws. I find her portraits very simple and thoughtful. I like the mixture of simple plain backgrounds and the people in their own environments.

Walter

Jonathan (L) and Clare and Emilie (R)

Nina

The portrait # 1

I have been pondering for some time about my own portraits and the wish to move in a new direction when using my lovely old Bronica. The Bronica was a gift from a very kind friend from who didn't need it anymore. The first time I picked it up I had a good feeling about it, it is sturdy, a little clunky and even though I have dropped it once, it still works like a dream. I have loaded film in muddy fields, in the rain and on the beach and still it produces wonderful images time and time again. Best of all they sit inside a very satisfying square frame like a dependable old friend - except for user error of course.

I now want to experiment within my square frame and will post work here soon. As inspiration for portraits I've been looking at many photographers over the past year and have found some truly beautiful images. I will post them on here as often as I find them and dig out the links to the ones I found a while ago. They are not necessarily photographers who use square format but are portraits that made me stop and sit for a minute to enjoy them.

My friend Julian Lass a journalist and photographer first drew my attention to Laura Pannack after he interviewed her for the BJP. Since then she has won numerous awards including World Press Photo 2010, 1st Prize in the single portrait category.

Here are two of her images.

from the series the untitled

Life continuing

Janne Orelis, 26, sales woman and mother of two, Central Hospital, Port-au-Prince

A woman preaches in downtown Port-au-Prince

Picking up the current issue of foto8 Crosscurrent I was inspired by images by Louis Quail . He has combined portraiture and quotes from people he photographed in Haiti. Now forgotten by the mainstream media through this work they are able to share their stories.

foto8, Crosscurrent, issue 27. p. 132.