1000 Words Workshop: Anders Peterson

1000 Words have just announced their new workshop, this time with Anders Peterson in Morocco.
More information can be found here.

Pieces of a Song: It's Open

So HOST's 5th anniversary is upon us, and the exhibition celebrating this, Pieces of a Song, is now hung and open to the public, all the prints are also available online here...
It has been a collaborative effort with HOST and Ruth Grimberg, The show runs until the 18th, more info here.....

Ewen Spencer: Three's a Crowd

For those of you that missed the book launch at HOST, I have just been told that there will be an exclusive book signing of Ewen Spencer's THREE'S A CROWD at YOUTH CLUB pop-up shop off Carnaby St.THREE'S A CROWD is the first volume in a series of four celebrating Ewen's four year journey with arguably the last great rock n roll band The White Stripes.
Each page in this large format unbound book pulls out to form a full colour double sided A3 poster of previously unseen images from behind the scenes with the elusive duo.

Beautifully designed, each copy in this small edition of 500 is also hand numbered. Come on down to pick up your copy and get it signed by the man himself! Also on sale exclusive THREE'S A CROWD posters & OPEN MIC.
Where: YOUTH CLUB, 35 Marshall Street, London, W1F 7EX / When: 6.30pm, 3 December

Rain, Floods and Photographs

Not too long ago I posted something about Seba Kurtis' Shoe box series, you can see them on his site here.
And then looking at Blake Andrews Blog (which is fantastic) I saw his post about the photographs Bryan Wolf showed him, I thought now they make a nice match, this is the start if something.. Also nice title for a show Rain, Floods and Photographs
You can see Blake Andrews Post here.
Top Image: Bryan wolf:
Bottom Images: Seba Kurtis
Also I cant recommend enough Blake's posts entitled American Prospects Revisited, a lovely investigation into Joel Sternfelds classic book. See them here

Maurice Broomfield, a Tribute by Jon Levy

As many now know Maurice sadly passed away recently, Jon has written a tribute to the wonderful photographer, gentleman and explorer of both the world and of life itself...
Read it here....

Infidel Tattoos

Your not really anyone these days, unless your are sporting a HOST approved Infidel Tattoo, now available free from the gallery to accompany Tim Hetherington's Show Infidel....

Teller has landed!

Just delivered to my desk is the first issue of Teller Magazine, which is a really exciting venture. A Magazine of stories, both in pictures and words. Distributed and published by Trolley. We are going top have a launch party on the 29th Oct, from 6:30 so please do come along and see the magazine, and hear a couple of short readings over a drink.... Anyway more about the magazine from the editors Katherine Hunt and Ruby Russell....

""Teller is a magazine of stories. Stories told in pictures, in words, or in both: contributions are drawn from any medium or discipline that can tell a story on the printed page. They may report a real event, or be works of pure fiction. Often they are both and neither, combining fact and invention, documentation and imagination.

Issue 1 unearths the work of Charles Trotter, a commercial photographer based in Nairobi in the 1950s, whose pictures of high society show us the decadence of colonial rule in its dying days. Meanwhile Flavie Guerrand’s photographs shot at all-nighters in Paris and Berlin present a narrative of the ultimate party.
Other stories include Julia Hayes’s commemoration of a cleansing ritual held by 1930s London slum-dwellers, a savage tale of mortality by writer Lee Scrivner, and Swedish artist Nina Mangalanayagam’s exploration through words and images of the complex cultural identity of her Tamil family in Europe.

Issue 1 out October 2010. ....."

The Creative Habit

Currently dance artist, with a keen interest in photography, Hannah Buckley, has been helping out in the gallery. Hannah works with her photographer twin sister to combine the two art forms, and you can see their work at the negotiationofspace website, which is really worth looking at
The other day she told me about a book by Twyla Tharp called The Creative Habit, and it sounded pretty fascinating, so I asked her if she would mind writing something for the blog about the book, so here it is:

"I don’t give to charity very often, and a compensation for this if I read a good book I like to buy it for the people I care about and who I think will benefit from that particular book. My books for giving so far have been Og Mandino’s ‘The Greatest Sales Man In The World’, Patrick Holford’s ‘Low GL Diet Cookbook’ and Twyla Tharp’s ‘The Creative Habit’.

Twyla Tharp is an American dancer and choreographer, but so far, as well as a dancer, I have given it to a musician and a photographer. I also have a jewelry maker and fashion designer in mind as future Twyla receivers. The Creative Habit comes from the perspective of the dance world but it is a creative manual for all anyone involved in any art, and the world outside art for that matter.
In a nutshell Tharp believes that creativity, is not a gift from God but the product of hard work. She believes through structure and habit, the very things that people label the creativity killers, you can achieve the most freedom, be creatively productive and work your way out of blank spots on uncreative days. In The Creative Habit she shares her own creative experiences, methods and exercises that have helped her achieve running, and choreographing for, a dance company from 1965 until the present day, choreograph more than one hundred thirty-five dances, five Hollywood movies, direct and choreograph four Broadway shows, receive one Tony Award, two Emmy Awards, nineteen honorary doctorates, the Vietnam Veterans of America President's Award, the 2004 National Medal of the Arts, the 2008 Jerome Robbins Prize, a 2008 Kennedy Center Honor and become a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Even if you disagree with the fundamentals of what Tharp writes about, (habit breeding creativity), I think every creative person, young or old, could learn something from her informative book. It is well written, with passion, intellect, experience and integrity dripping from its pages."
Hannah Buckley

One of the things this reminds me of is David Hurn in his, and Bill Jay's On Being Photographer talking about how it is so important to be strict when one is researching and shooting a body of work. He goes on about making check lists, in order to almost know what your going to shoot before you go out into the field. I think its often forgotten that being "Creative" can go hand in hand with having very strict rules....

Quick Rant II: How Dare You!

Quick Rant....: How Dare You!

I sometimes do not understand why photographers don't have their phone numbers on their websites, it is really frustrating, why would one not?
Admittedly it's also an excuse to use these picture from the artwork for 10cc's record How Dare you !..... Which is a great record

Perpignan Now #11

Day Seven:6 September. 8p.m, London, England

Back in the rain, back home…
Is our mission, our search, completed?
Seems like it’s hard to tell…
Will the superiors be happy with this report? We don’t know...

But, one thing is certain, we will never forget the kindness of the Greeters of Maine in Paul Jeffers’ photographs, or the extraordinary story of Vissarion by Sergey Kozmin…

And so in that sense, the many photographs and stories we have seen here in Perpignan, have affected us after all… And maybe a few others along the way…
Stories we will never forget…

That was Perpignan 2010…..

Perpignan Now #10

Day Seven:5 September. Perpignan, France

Perpignan is quiet now as we stroll through the streets…the accredited have left, flown home to follow the chase, both on their own turf and across the globe…

Now the exhibitions are open to the public, the civilians. We head back to the Couvent one last time…

It’s busier than expected, packed with locals and tourists…Surely that is exciting…that the work of photographers such as Stephanie Sinclair and Craig F. Walker is being seen on the walls of public spaces deep in the South of France…
The photographic stories, the photojournalism, that is on display here, in Perpignan, are studies of people and places, beauty and horror, and, like any study of this kind, they may not show the full picture, the whole story….

Hearts and minds....

They may even open a few Doors.....
To be continued...

Perpignan Now #9

Day Six: The Party. Perpignan, France Upadate: Counvent des Minimes

We return to a transformed Counvent…
A few days ago we were here considering the stories that hang on every wall… and now…tonight…there are just bodies, writhing, pulsating to a music that we both agree and thought had been dead for a long time…
And everywhere Mojitos…

Yes Mojitos…The smell of that tropical drink hanging in the thick air…

We try to stay calm, collected…
We try to speak to people we have met during our stay…But the music is too loud, the dancing too fast…
And then the Mojito paranoia kicks in…

…Everything is moving…



Faces from the week, whether known or unknown dance in front of us…

The Wolves dance with the Shamans, the Pioneers seduce the Hungry….

We no longer know what time it is or why we are here…

The questions and answers…the search is slipping away, into what? Where? Another Mojito?…

Maybe there is an answer here, at this party…Maybe, in order to move this world forward we all need to dance together more…Maybe that’s it?…Or, just maybe, that’s the Mojitos...
To be continued...

Perpignan Now #8

Day Six: 4 September. 4 p.m, Perignan, France

Today, we continued our mission, our search, whose goals are becoming more confused and blurred as time goes on…
Photojournalism is alive here, we know that, we have seen it with our own eyes, but here it seems trapped…not able to move on….

The simple question is: Why has it not changed here at Visa Pour L’Image?… In the search of clarity, of answers, we decided to head back into the old buildings of this town where the pictures hang.
To be Continued...

Perpignan Now #7

Day Five: 9p.m 3 September. Perpignan, France

So.. The Wolves…

Looking back at this journal.... This diary, we realize we may have been a bit harsh on these fellow pilgrims…

Yes, they hounded us at the Café de la Poste, but that’s because we have access to a portal... We have white walls, and blank pages... And they are hungry for all of that, and frankly, that’s just fair enough…. Today we sat ourselves in the burning sun of the Hotel de Pams, sweating not just from the sun but from the endless espresso’s that kept us going as we met photographer after photographer, one story teller after another…

A few things struck us as we sat there: yes, it may be true that many of the stories we saw today have been told previously….
But, nevertheless, we saw a lot of work that took us to places and introduced us to characters we hadn’t met before….

Paul Jeffers took us to Bangor Airport in the U.S State of Maine. Bangor is often the first or last port of call for U.S troops on American Soil before they head out to the war zones of Iraq or Afghanistan.
Paul’s photographs focus on a small non – profit organisation called The Maine Troop Greeters, who are based at Bangor Airport. These greeters’ role is to act almost as family to the troops that pass through the airport (whose real family, more often than not can’t be with them) offering phones, food, a shoulder to cry on and a cheerful face.

Vissarion is the title of a body of work by Russian Photographer Sergey Kozmin. Vissarion is also the self given name of an ex traffic cop formerly known as Sergey Torop, who after being made unemployed decided he was definitely the second coming of Christ….
Jeez! We thought, now here’s a story! Vissarion and his Church Of The Last Testament lies deep in the Siberian Mountains and he currently has over 5000 followers, many of whom gave up their lives and apartments in Russia’s big cities to live as disciples in the villages that populate what Vissarion calls The Promised Land.

Moving on. We know many a photographer has visited and documented the utter devastation that Hurricane Katrina caused to both the landscape and people of New Orleans on August 29th 2005. One of them being photographer Jason Andrew , whose project Jazzland is a study of a specific place in New Orleans; a place that used to deliver happiness and sunny days out to families that have probably long moved on…This Place is Jazzland, New Orleans Six Flags Amusement Park.
Shot on square format film Jason Andrew captures this place of fun slowly becoming prey to the ever-growing swamp. Although there are no people in these pictures, there is poignancy in fact that one can almost hear the laughter that emanated from this site up until that fateful day.

So even after a long day, we feel refreshed, awakened…and it wasn’t just the espresso, we have seen some great work, some great stories by photographers, young and old…
And the above is only a small selection.

There is something new though: Multi Media…Sure it’s only another way of showing work but that is just it, it’s another outlet, and possibly an empowering one for photographers in this day and age….

But sadly the question remains… There is this great work, but who is it for? Who is going to publish and exhibit it?

We have no doubt that the general public, the civilians want to see these stories, but as the saying goes:
"If a tree fall in a forest and there is no one their to hear it, does it make a sound?"...
As we rest back at base this question stays in our thoughts, the taste of something unresolved…

The wolves are hungry but the hands that can feed them are tied…

To be continued...