Farang Hat

The Sea

2011-06-02T15:00:00.001-07:00

Two Old Slides

2011-05-31T16:04:00.001-07:00

Roll No. 1 (Death and Photography)

2011-05-31T15:13:00.001-07:00

As promised, tonight I took a very vague look at the massive folders of negatives that sit in the corner of my bedroom. This was the first roll of film I ever shot. I used some kind of Ricoh 35mm, which now lives with my brother. There's so much I don't remember about these pictures. Whose arse is that? Who is Lauren?

This picture, however, always stuck with me. At the start of my degree we went on a trip to the countryside. The girl, who I think was called Naomi, died in a car accident sometime during the our first year, which shocked us all. The boy in the fleece, I can't remember his name, had gone to college with her and had a very obvious crush going on.

I remember when we were told about her death I looked at the boy and thought about this image. Suddenly I had this picture that was so melodramatic and stuffed with clumsy symbolism (him photographing her from afar, on the edge of a cliff, her hair covering her face, etc, etc) that I felt guilty. It was like I was in possession of something strange and illicit, reductive and potentially damaging, so I never showed it to anyone. That was probably a good decision as a human being, but maybe not as a photographer. It's certainly not what Araki would have done.

And isn't that the question by which we should all try to live?

"What would Araki do?"

Walking Around Film

2011-05-30T14:27:00.001-07:00

Inappropriately Snowy

2011-05-26T12:11:00.000-07:00

I really need to turn around my film processing a bit quicker...

At Work

2011-05-13T11:59:00.001-07:00

A Wet Picnic

2011-05-09T13:40:00.000-07:00

Flowers.

2011-05-07T13:58:00.000-07:00

Scanningscanningscanningscanning...

2011-05-06T16:13:00.000-07:00

Seeing as I finally bought my own scanner, I'm going to turn this place into a little repository for new and old scans. Currently going through 12 rolls that just came back from Peak, and then I may turn my attention to nosing around in my old negative files.

So in other words, there's going to be a lot of photographs, and not a lot of words on Farang Hat from now on. Much like the last few posts, I guess.

Here's my Dad in the rain in Yorkshire Sculpture Park to kick things off...

Ilkley Beer Festival

2011-02-13T01:55:00.001-08:00

Malham Sunday Funday

2011-01-26T05:31:00.001-08:00

Winter

2011-01-23T12:33:00.001-08:00

Heart-Ships at Cannonball Studios.

2011-01-16T07:57:00.001-08:00

Hasselblad pics on the way.

From Back Home @ NMM Bradford

2010-12-14T07:57:00.001-08:00

In looking for images for this post, I found this great little quote (poem?) from Anders Petersen:

"please be horrible!
tear down your photography into pieces.
don't bother about glamour,
destroy the surface,
take care of your innocence,

your fantasy is more important than reality,
remember your pictures are jumping like rabbits into your camera
when you understand photography is not about photography"

Today I was at the From Back Home exhibition at the National Media Museum. It kind of slipped in under my radar. I was pretty staggered that there had been a major exhibition of two of my favourite photographers on in Bradford for two months and I had completely failed to hear about it.

I always approach photography shows at the NMM with a certain amount of trepidation, as I have a real dislike for their tendency to try and shoehorn related images from their (impressive) collection into the gallery. I can see that this stems from a desire to provide context, but generally I find it ruins perfectly good exhibitions. In particular, I thought the prints in Simon Roberts' We English were drowning is a sea of archive images about 'the English at leisure'.

This show thankfully suffered from no such decoration. Aside from a bizarre carry-around card featuring a map of the Varmland area of Sweden (as if this were some kind of macabre travel guide), there were just a couple of quotes from the artists, and the prints.

J H Engstrom's images comprised the first half of the show. His usual mish-mash of styles, diary style snapshots mixed with harsh flash-lit portraits mixed with super contrasty landscapes mixed with muted colour prints. I tend to agree with Marc Fuestel's viewpoint that Engstrom's images suffer slightly when placed with Petersen's work. Especially as the former's prints were rather small and subdued next to Petersen's honking great grids of contrasty full-bleed black and white imagery. That is, however, not really a criticism of the work itself, which remains totally inspiring and is, if anything, actually printed and curated with more care and finesse than Petersen's work.

The second half of the show was taken up by Anders Petersen's work, which was also pretty amazing. Much more physically imposing than Engstrom's, everything unified in that gritty style of his. It's a huge cliche to say that it means nothing to see a photograph on the internet, but totally true. The image above looks tame on my little screen, but the print itself gave a powerful, rather gruesome impression when viewed in person. Petersen's portraiture is certainly the more revealing and powerful of the two artists, with his portrait of his mother acting as the headline image for the show.

It's worth mentioning (seeing as this seems to have turned into some kind of review) that Petersen's section was marred somewhat by the gallery lighting. The highest line of prints suffered terribly with hideous reflections from the rows of lights all the way around the room. I can't help but think they could have been bounced off the ceiling for a more enjoyable experience.

Minor peeves aside, the whole show is beautifully put together, and it certainly did no favours to the the Fay Godwin show upstairs, which seemed like the tamest, most boring collection of photographs I'd ever seen in comparison.

Ektar Nights...

2010-11-21T11:03:00.001-08:00

Trip 35 + Wireless Flash + Ektar = Gold

Fashion Photography Retouching Trend News!

2010-11-16T16:00:00.001-08:00

This...

...is the new This.

As ever, seen on TouchPuppet.

Dollop Dollop...

2010-10-19T11:05:00.000-07:00

I did some photography for club night Dollop's launch in Heaven. Always a pleasure to work with Matthew the Horse, who handled art direction, props, copy and also lent his arms to the picture. Thanks to Sammi, Jim and Soph', for patiently straddling each other in order to get the right shapes. The final piece was put together by Rich at Foe Design.

Out-takes!

The Value of Detail

2010-09-23T01:53:00.000-07:00

During the final year of my degree there was a thought that popped into my head, which kinda set the rationale for most of my photography that year. The thought was this:

'So long as you are striving for the highest, finest, most dense and detailed quality in your photographs, using the finest equipment you can manage, then the aesthetic will take care of itself.'

That was my thinking. In a sense I still think that way, although lack of equipment and money has somewhat driven me back to using my little digital SLR, I still fundamentally believe that better camera = better pictures. It's a tough thing to argue, as so many people will tell you it doesn't matter what camera you have, or, it's the photographer, not the camera, etc, etc.

But think of it this way. Almost any picture I've taken recently, and I've mainly been shooting digital and medium format, would be better if it was shot on large format. Sure, there are instances where that would be completely impractical, or where it would transform the picture beyond recognition, but fundamentally, in my mind, if it is shot on large format it is better.

This idea brings me to this review of Mitsiru Fujita's Zaisyo on Japan Exposures. Upon discovering that Fujita has used an 11 x 14 camera to make his negatives, Peter Evans states 'this man deserves a floor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography to exhibit thundering great silver gelatines of what we see miniaturized in the book.'

There is something in that, however throwaway the statement. The idea that simply because this man has created these supremely detailed, archival images that preserve a view of the Japanese countryside, almost regardless of their photographic merit, they should be immediately preserved in a museum. I tend to agree.

Through the never-ending glut of vernacular images that bombard us everyday, at some point we have lost the idea that there is tremendous value in simply documenting life as it is, and in creating that photographic document in the finest detail possible.

This rant for the quality and beauty of large format photography brings me to Mr Alec Soth. A huge inspiration during my education, I now find Soth's projects increasingly lightweight, and occasionally ridiculous and borderline offensive.

I have, however, not seen Soth's most recent large body of work, Broken Manual. There are a few images in this lengthy interview which show that maybe he has returned to his previous way of working. In-depth, large format, slow, powerful, with gravitas. We can only hope.

Some test shots for this weekend...

2010-09-17T12:37:00.000-07:00

A Brief Foray Into Scotland.

2010-09-09T12:10:00.000-07:00

Matrimonials

2010-08-30T05:42:00.000-07:00

There has been very little Farang Hat activity this month because I've been booked absolutely solid assisting. This happy state of affairs will probably continue for the next couple of weeks at least.

However, today is different. Today I have free time to lounge about and post photos.

I know I have this big thing about not shooting weddings, but just being present at one with no responsibility to take proper wedding pictures is really good fun.

Congratulations Vicky and Tom!

Room Without a View.

2010-08-15T07:56:00.000-07:00

I have been on the road this week. Today is looking like my only day off this month. It's lovely to be working, but I am just exhausted. I won't say where I've been (or what I've been doing), rather, in the style of A Room With a View, simply present the delightful view from our hotel.

Can you guess where it is?

Anyway, the photographer I've been with has a big thing for Joey L. I took the time to look at his site today, having heard the name bandied about by a few people.

Wow. Not only is his work really unattractive, over-lit and over-processed, there's something about taking this style on the road to photograph remote indigenous people that makes me really uncomfortable. I'm too tired to try and articulate why. I'm sure he'll be very successful.

H--O--R--S--E

2010-08-07T07:21:00.000-07:00

I'm happy to announce that my good friend and uber-talented illustrator Matthew the Horse has just launched his fine little T-shirt company www.H--O--R--S--E.com

This was one of those happy little commissions where the whole collaborative process was tremendously enjoyable. The shoot went great, the edit (from about 500 images, down to 62, down to 8) came off without too many differings of opinion. I've actually had the final series on my website for a while now, but now that the site has launched I'll be promoting the hell out of it.

Time for a few out-takes...

This was my original pitch (I am nothing if not professional). The plan was to hang a white backdrop and have our horsey friend intersecting the frame in various amusing ways. Originally the product shots and the location shots were going to be one and the same. Sadly on the day it was just never going to happen, what with the location being windy and hilly and having to deal with a MASSIVE HOOVEN BEAST tearing about all over set. Have you been near a horse recently? They're HUGE. So we just freestyled it.

All credit must go to the awesome Victoria Baker for being my assistant on the day. In addition to holding my reflectors, loading my film and conquering her fear of horses, she also hopped in and modelled for a few shots despite being massively hungover and operating on about an hour of sleep.

Final shout-out must go to the owner of these pugs. We bumped into them in the woods and he was totally cool with us borrowing them in the name of fashion. This lead to possibly my favourite shot of the day. It took a lot to stop Jim and Eli cooing over them long enough to snap a photo.

Enough of this jabber. Go and buy one.

Chop Chop.

2010-08-03T14:21:00.000-07:00

This effect (does it have a name yet?) seems to be the new tilt / shift. Except nothing like tilt / shift, actually, because it only really crops up in high-end fashion shoots.

Seen on Touchpuppet.

In the Guardian...

2010-08-02T14:35:00.000-07:00

Facebook and The American Right.

Having just left FB myself, I can tell you that the view from up here on my high-horse is pretty fucking good.

Also, whoever took this picture must be making a mint from stock sales...

...Something Substantial...

2010-08-02T10:13:00.000-07:00

'The sign at the entrance to my gym locker room says “no cell phones please, cell phones are cameras.” They are not. A camera is a Nikon or a Leica or Rollieflex and when you strike someone with one, that is take your camera and use it as a weapon, they know they have been hit with something substantial.' - Danny Lyon

Seen on A Photo Student.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park

2010-07-23T09:55:00.000-07:00

"I'm shooting Motion now..."

2010-07-20T15:42:00.001-07:00

Someone should make a t-shirt that says "You're not a videographer, you just bought a 5D Mark 2".

Via APE.

Looking back at 'Zone Ends'...

2010-07-20T14:55:00.000-07:00

Prior to a recent house inspection, I delved into the cubby-hole in my bedroom in a fit of house-cleaning-mania and discovered a MASSIVE PILE OF PHOTOGRAPHS. Hidden amongst them was my Final Product from my degree, a self-made photobook called Zone Ends.

Now, it should go without saying that any art students shouldn't really be blamed for their output. The 3rd year of an art degree is a confusing time. You get pushed and pulled around, suddenly you're in a mad rush to find a suitable idea, then it's not wide-ranging enough to satisfy the marking criteria so you expand it, then you need to edit tighter, then you need to shoot more, then you scrap the whole idea, then it all starts again, etc, etc...

The main problem with Zone Ends, really, was that I didn't have an idea. My rationale while I was shooting was that it was a 'topographical study of the margins of cities' and that 'by studying the edges I can make a visual statement about the whole'.

But that's all just rubbish, really. The truth is that I was very into a certain type of landscape photography at the time, and I made up an excuse to go and shoot some photos in that style. The 'idea' was exactly that, an excuse.

And despite all this, I would still count the project as a vague success, if only in the sense that the excuse to go out and shoot all those photos worked and I learned all the lessons that you can learn from spending 4 months doggedly shooting obscure landscape photos of the grimiest areas of Leeds. It was fun, in a way, and I'm still quite fond of some of the images, even if they don't 'fit' into my portfolio anymore...

As for the book itself, being in a mad rush is no way to produce a fine handmade photobook. The printing is terrible (my fault entirely), the edit is messy, the paper stock was a bad choice, the fine type at the end is way too big (for Christ's sake, photo kids, collaborate with a designer!).

That said, my favourite thing about the whole book, more so than all the images put together, is the title page.

BOOM! Check THAT out! Yes. Finest piece of typography I ever committed to the printed page, right there. Can't beat a bit of Futura.

Welsh Fields.

2010-07-11T08:48:00.000-07:00

With apologies to Hans van der Meer.

The Oeuvre

2010-07-05T07:24:00.000-07:00

This pile is my combined photographic output from the last five years (or, ever). This is every photograph I have ever taken. 450 gigabytes of digital spread across 30 CDs, 58 DVDs, 2 hard drives and a laptop. Hundreds of negative files in 1 folder and 5 boxes. 5 carrier bags, 1 box and 3 portfolios of assorted prints.

And 1 book.

I should really look after it better...

Early Birds

2010-07-04T21:06:00.001-07:00

Fun with Cutlery.

2010-07-02T15:21:00.000-07:00

Apologies for the techie post but...

I finally (FINALLY) got around to buying some flash triggers. Only the cheap and nasty eBay kind, but they seem pretty decent i.e. they're still working.

So the whole exciting world of off-camera-flash photography has opened up to me, and all I can think to shoot is just whatever happens to be at hand.

When is it OK to embed music...?

2010-07-01T05:01:00.001-07:00

Given my recent (now deleted) bitching about everything that can go wrong on a studio website, I was surprised this morning to stumble onto the website of Tokyo design and photography collective Nam.

Basically they break two of the golden rules when it comes to creative websites.

1. Don't fullscreen my browser.

2. Don't embed music into your site.

But it totally works. Lovely stuff. (Plus, it helps that the music is nice ambient noodling in the vein of Tenniscoats)

The only other site I can think that gets away with playing music is Sam Jones Pictures. It's a risky move.

Seen on It's Nice That.

While England were playing...

2010-06-23T09:33:00.000-07:00

...the world was a very peaceful place.

The Ongoing Saga of The Photograph of The Cowboy

2010-06-14T06:47:00.000-07:00

Saw this today on APE and 20x200. I won't go into the background of this ridiculously convoluted story, but sufficed to say I admire the balls of Greg Allen and Jen Bekman in putting the piece up for sale (at such reasonable prices!), and I also admire this response by original photographer Sam Abell.

I think it's pretty clear who the good guys are, here...

Skateboarding and Photography...

2010-05-27T07:17:00.000-07:00

...seem to have this beautiful symbiotic relationship. I'm sure it's been written about before, but they are intertwined in a very unique way. Skateboarding as a sport is basically about... showing off, so skaters have a vested interest in capturing their tricks as sexily as possible. Most skaters seem to be better with lighting than a lot of pure photographers, and this use of flash means skate photographers tend to lean towards using Hasselblads (for the high sync speeds). This in turn has pushed the whole aesthetic of modern skate photography towards the kind of territory normally reserved for fine art work.

I'm not sure how I came across George Marshall's work recently, but he's a great example of this kind of photography. (Looking on his site, most of his work actually features BMX (the words Skate with BMX throughout this post are pretty much interchangeable). There's plenty of skate stuff on his Flickr, though)

And on the other side of the relationship, skateboarding as a concept translates very nicely into the kind of subject photographers love to make projects out of. It's really about the repurposing of an environment into something more interesting, and photographers love to make series' about 'the transformation of urban space' (etc, etc)?

Two nice projects involving skating recently are Yann Gross' series Kitintale, which documents a new skate park in Kampala, and Andrew Phelps new book 720 (Two Times Around).

Phelps has made a nice run through of his book...

Andrew Phelps "720" from Andrew Phelps on Vimeo.

And finally, also blowing my mind recently are Tim and Eric's constantly funny and inventive tricks.

Tim and Eric - Roger of the Month Mar 2010 - Outro Video from Roger Skateboards on Vimeo.

Steven Brahms

2010-05-08T02:55:00.001-07:00

Just stumbled onto the work of Steven Brahms through TriangleTriangle.

Don't really know anything about the artist. His work seems to deal with the end of the world, survivalism, ramshackle communities, people smoking bongs, strange homemade sculptures... All sorts. Some of the more interesting photography I've seen for a while.

Also, ZANG!!! How's THAT for a first image on a website!? This guy's not messing around.

Hetherington's New Old Work.

2010-05-03T09:39:00.000-07:00

Long time no post. The thing that has roused me from my blogging slumber is some new work by old favourite Andrew Hetherington. I've been waiting for a website update from him for ages, so it's great to be able to check out some work on the site of his new representation JulienRichards.com.

Colours!

2010-04-07T12:12:00.000-07:00

GREEN!

BLUE!

ORANGE!

Sometimes you don't realise what you're doing for quite some time. These three photos were taken on location while assisting, all with my little 3 megapixel Ixus. Now I'll be on the look out for more colours, and the whole thing will probably fall apart...

David Lynch on iPhone Movies...

2010-04-06T09:02:00.000-07:00

And so on, and so on...

Today In Assisting!

2010-04-01T12:00:00.001-07:00

On our way to Chester to photograph some furniture...

Beautiful day...

...until Google Maps directed us into a scene from Deliverance.

We were shooting on a building site, hence the hard hats and withering stares from scary builders.

Exciting.

So exciting, in fact, that by the time we'd finished everyone was gone...

...and we were locked in.

Finally on the road again...

...and two gruelling hours later, Pulse and Cocktails heralded our return to Leeds!

A Bundle of Links on Straight Photography

2010-03-25T06:40:00.000-07:00

Chris Floyd makes an excellent case that subject-on-white-background is the equivalent of three chord blues in photography. Read it here.

Nick Turpin is twittering away with various links in praise of straight photography, including this and this.

And finally all this talk of straight / street photography makes me think of John Sypal (he of Tokyo Camera Style). It seems that there is a much higher tolerance for straight-up black and white non-conceptual street photography in Japan, and Tokyo seems like the place to practice it, judging by the amount of exhibitions Mr Sypal seems to attend.

What exactly does a Digital Tech do?

2010-03-18T16:03:00.000-07:00

Amazingly frank and informative post on APE from Wonderful Machine. They go into loads of detail about the process of bidding for a job and the various factors involved in their decisions. This kind of openness can only be a good thing.

One question I'm left with, though, is what the hell does a digital tech do? On the final invoice, the rate for assistants is $250, and the rate for the digital tech is $1500. What could possibly justify that kind of mark-up in rate?

The only other reference to the tech is

"1 digital tech: so the client could see the results as we went along."

So, assuming they're shooting medium-format digital tethered to a Macbook, is the digital tech just running Capture One? That doesn't seem like enough to do, especially as I could almost imagine it being counter-productive to have one person shooting and one manning the laptop. Is the digital tech doing something more complex, like running cables to a separate monitor booth for the client to view images on? They're obviously not involved in retouching, as that is billed separately.

On the invoice, I notice there's no fee for equipment rental, which either implies that the photographer owns the digital backs / laptops / monitors, etc, or that providing such items falls to the digital tech? Is that what they do?

I am genuinely mystified... If anyone can shed any light, please...

Mainly I want to know because running Capture One occasionally is a part of what I do as an assistant (it is, after all, not that hard...). Should I be charging a hell of a lot more? I always assumed that a photo assistant should be more than just a dogsbody. You have to have at least some skills and knowledge regarding cameras, lighting and software, otherwise you're just some goon who's there to carry things around and make tea (not that I don't do that aswell).

Thomas Broening's new still life work...

2010-03-17T17:29:00.000-07:00

I came across Thomas Broening through an interview on HMAb recently. Really enjoying his new still life work, which has a real nice sense of 'straight-on-ness' and attention to tonality and form.

(Now that I've written that sentence, I'm not sure if it makes sense, but I can't think of a better way to put it. I may try and clarify 'straight-on-ness' at some point. Anyway, more work on his blog.)

On the Spot With Kim Jong-il

2010-03-13T04:54:00.000-08:00

One of the more pleasantly loopy photo stories on The Big Picture is this collection of photos from the North Korean News Agency of Kim Jong-il showing up unannounced at various businesses to give handy advice.

Maybe I'm imagining it, but some of the factory workers faces are FILLED WITH FEAR, and his advisors seem to have mastered the art of milling around behind him like toadying lackeys.

Documerica on Flickr

2010-03-12T05:46:00.000-08:00

The U.S National Archive has been scanning the massive collection of slides from the (awfully named) Documerica project from the 1970s, and turning them into an enormous Flickr collection.

Apparently this project was an attempt to replicate the success of the Farm Security Administration's work earlier in the century, but it does seem to me that these large scale documentary projects are something that the American government does particularly well.

Seen on Wired.

I think it's quite charming that photographers can go on a commission "to photograph America’s environmental problems, to document America’s natural and man-made beauty and to photograph the human condition" and come back with photographs of Greased Pig Wrestling.

PDN 30 2010

2010-03-10T08:22:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again. Check out the PDN 30 here.

Two things...

1. Yes, the online gallery is better this year.

2. No, they still haven't provided site links in the slideshow. As ever, APE has stepped in and done the right thing.

As for the selection, my first impression is... underwhelming. But I haven't given it much time yet. First photographer to pique my interest is Matthieu Gafsou, but I'm sure there'll be more gems in there.

The Photographer

2010-03-07T12:43:00.000-08:00

"Well, light is very important to me. I suppose it's a bit like sound is to a blind person..."

People Like Us - The Photographer

FOAM on Issuu.

2010-03-04T10:14:00.000-08:00

FOAM Magazine has put it's entire back catalogue up to read on Issuu. Absolute goldmine of interesting, well curated photography.

Clickety click!.

Seen on Colin Pantall's Blog.

Hyeres 2010.

2010-03-04T02:41:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure if the Hyeres site has any details (Acrobat Reader nécessaire), but Creative Review has details of the 10 photographers included in this years festival. Interesting selection this year...

What's not to like?

It's not the foot-removal that bothers me...

2010-03-04T02:28:00.000-08:00

...it's the massive crop and the ugly, ugly process.

World Press Photo Nominee Speaks Out Against Disqualification.

It must be pretty galling to have to show the world your RAW files, especially when the gulf between the images is as massive as it is here. Damn though, why would you enter an image into the WPP if you were scraping the barrel with a crop like that. Never mind the foot that he removed, what about all the other people he cropped out. Just because you're not 'moving pixels' doesn't mean it's not manipulative.

The sad thing is, the utter mundanity of the RAW photo is actually much more interesting than the processed file. Competitions like this need to have a rule against BIG DIRTY VIGNETTES.

Things I Wish They Had Taught Me

2010-03-02T07:03:00.000-08:00

This idea has popped into my head a few times since leaving Uni'... What would I say to a class in their 3rd year of a photo degree, based on my experiences since leaving...?

I guess the main one (which I'm attempting to fix at the moment) would be Learn To Drive. Or perhaps a nastier way to phrase it is: If You Cannot Drive You Are Not A Legitimate Person.

The logistics of photography generally revolve around problem solving. If you are doing a good job as an assistant, the photographer shouldn't have to worry about much beyond taking pictures and barking instructions. You are the problem solver, the obstacle remover. And a great many problems that might crop up on a shoot or in a studio involve cars. Driving them, moving them, nipping down to the sandwhich shop in them.

I used to rather enjoy my status as a non-driver. To be perfectly honest, I still don't want to learn. I don't want to become one of those tetchy, angry people, but sometimes you have to compromise yourself in order to get somewhere. The fact remains that if you cannot drive you are not a legitimate person.

Jeez... Other nuggets of insight might include Learn Both Versions Of Capture One, Don't Be Ashamed to Make Endless Rounds Of Tea, and Figure Out Cambo Quick Release Plates Before You're Called Upon To Use Them. I would write more about these but I'm suddenly emotionally exhausted from my driving lesson this morning...

The Persistence of Sadness

2010-03-01T08:16:00.000-08:00

I have posted some of Rafael Rozendaal's work in the past, and he's just put out a new page called The Persistence of Sadness.

I'm not even sure if *things* like this have a name yet. I would guess Mr Rozendaal thinks of himself as an artist. Although you definitely experience each of his pieces as you would a piece of art, there's something about the nature of a page on the internet that defies a lot of the conventional (probably wrong) qualities I apply to ART in my head. i.e. ART is singular (or at the very least limited), inaccessible, monetise-able, etc. You should be able to put ART in a museum or a gallery.

Anyway, crank up your speakers, click on the link and tap away. All my rocks have gone and now I am sad.

Silas Clothing

2010-02-26T05:31:00.000-08:00

It is a source of endless happiness to me that there is an obscure Japanese (started in London, but why is their blog in Japanese...?) clothing brand that bears my name.

Have a flip through their 2010 lookbook.

I used to have two Silas tees. One ("Silas is Decadence") that I wore out completely, and one with my name written in bones that I accidentally left in a small village in Northern Thailand. It's now probably adorning some Karen kid.

I think it's time for another. Quite fond of these.

Leeds student photo competition....

2010-02-25T05:44:00.000-08:00

...DOMINATED by LCAD students.

Six of the ten finalists in Unite's annual photo competition are from Leeds Art College students. And they all look stylistically kinda... similar.

I entered this competition last year, totally sure I was going to win (my entry was shot on 5x4, forchrist'ssake!) only to be beaten out by that rascally self-promoter Mr Paul Phung (and *ahem* 4 other runner's up).

A quick browse through the rest of the entries reveals all the usual awful, awful photography. Including such delights as:

- a homeless person holding a timepiece.
- an HDR shot of the town hall.
- an inexplicable selective-desaturation shot of the Headrow.
- a photograph of someone's housemate sleeping.

Now obviously I'll be keeping my vote a secret (OK, not THAT secret. I can tell you now it'll be going to one of the LCAD entries. That's not rampant favouritism, they're just clearly more interesting than the other 4) but, if I could vote for any photo out of the whole selection, it would be this one, by automagicccccccccccc.

Pleasingly bonkers.

(Apologies for screen-grabbing your photo, automagic, but Flickr is a pain when it comes to embedding....)

Sight Unseen

2010-02-24T04:50:00.000-08:00

To make up for this morning's unbelievably mundane post about street lighting, go and have a browse through Sight Unseen, a new blog focusing on design, photography, etc. All the interesting stuff.

The site was designed by Timko & Klick. I really admire anyone with a website that provides nothing but some beautiful type and some contact details. Imagine that!

To be honest, at first glance, it just kind of looks like a regular (albeit nicely designed) blog format, but once you get into a story things start to pan out in interesting directions.

You have the main story text running down the left panel (scrolled with a regular scrollbar on the far right) and a slideshow affair in the right panel. It's pretty slick. Some of the captions are actually additional interview questions, and in the photography stories I've read you get a nice sense of the text working with the images, enhanced by the main story, so you really progress through the post in an interesting, non-linear way.

Everyone's harping on about tablet magazine development right now. I imagine a format like this would translate really well into a tablet magazine.

Seen on It's Nice That.

Mundane Excitement

2010-02-24T04:09:00.000-08:00

In an example of something that is probably a complete pain for everyone else, but has me rather excited (maybe excited is a strong word), this came through the post this morning.

Yes, they're getting rid of the orange street lamps that are the bane of every night-photographer around England. Beautiful, daylight-balanced light is gonna flood the streets. It's going to be like living in a goddamn Tomoyuki Sakaguchi Wonderland!

In Ilkley There is a Puddle...

2010-02-23T02:48:00.000-08:00

...in the shape of a heart.

Everytime I walk past it's either too full, or too empty, or some bastard has parked a car over it.

Where did all the Hasselblads go?

2010-02-23T01:36:00.000-08:00

So I'm finally (due to one of those glorious rent mix-ups that happen every few years or so) nearly at a point where I can afford a Hasselblad. I don't want much, just a reasonable condition 500cm complete with 80mm of some sort, for about £500. I've been eyeing one on Ffordes for a while, but when I excitedly moused over there this morning, some bugger had bought it.

After searching around all the internet used camera stores I could find, not a single 500cm for sale anywhere. I thought all the pros were supposed to be selling theirs, leading to a 'vibrant second-hand market'...?

And then I remembered where all the Hasselblads have gone...

Curse you Japan!

(Photo courtesy of Tokyo Camera Style)

A Conversation With Leeds' Only Pro Lab...

2010-02-19T03:02:00.000-08:00

Me: So, what kind of files do I get?
Lab: You get a folder of high-res and a folder of low-res files.
Me: How big are the high-res files?
Lab: About 6 meg.
Me: Sorry, I mean, what res will you scan the 35mm at?
Lab: ...Well, 300 dpi.
Me: You're going to scan it at 300 dpi? Surely that won't produce a printable file...?
Lab: Yes it will.
Me: But if you scan it at 300 dpi, and print it at 300 dpi, then the print will be exactly the same size as the negative.
Lab: *blank stare*
Me: Let me put this another way, when I open the file in Photoshop, roughly how many pixels wide will it be?
Lab: Well, if you open it in Photoshop, it'll be 72 dpi.
Me: Well obviously I'll be viewing it at 72, but HOW MANY PIXELS WIDE WILL IT BE? Regardless of dpi...
Lab: It should blow up to about 6 by 4 feet...
Me: Aaaah, fuck it...

I don't know why dpi and resolution is such a hard concept to grasp (for the record, I'd say the conversation above was simply a sleepheaded misunderstanding. I refuse to believe they actually don't understand how scanning works...). I'd say about 50% of my course didn't understand it properly, and that's at the end of a 3 year BA devoted exclusively to photography. I've had requests from clients for 300 dpi files before, but no-one seems to get that the term '300 dpi' means nothing without a print size alongside it.

Apologies for the geeky and ranty nature of this post, but it's been a rough morning, and I'm feeling stung for having to pay for something I used to be able to do for free.

Portfolio Videos at Wonderful Machine...

2010-02-17T08:56:00.000-08:00

Go here to see loads of portfolio videos from photographers on the Wonderful Machine roster. Looking at portfolios this way is obviously nothing compared to the experience of flipping through one yourself, but it's a nice way to get a feel for how different edits and styles of book hang together.

Seeing all these videos has also set me off doing a redesign of my own book. Nothing huge, scrapping a few shots, adding some new ones, and I've been wanting to get rid of my sleeves and have everything printed and scored on nice double-sided paper (can anyone recommend a good paper for this...?) Obviously this means reaching an edit I'll be happy with for a while, so expect to see an Issuu test dummy on here soon.

Politically Engaged / Orphan Works

2010-02-17T06:21:00.000-08:00

Read this.

Go here.

Send this.

Honestly I have no idea how this Bill will pan out, if it will cause the Death of Photography as we know it in the UK, but it has me scared enough to write to my MP for the first time EVER.

You should do the same.

In fact, while we're at it, give the Guardian some stick as well.

Paul Phung

2010-02-16T14:29:00.000-08:00

Paul Phung was (is) in the year below me at Leeds Art College, I always liked his work, but recently he seems to have hit upon a style that's really working for him. He seems to have started processing his images in a much more naturalistic way. These images (I think...) are from a series called Night and Smoke, which I imagine is going to be the final piece of his degree. I have no idea if he's planning to make a book, etc.

The other thing about Mr Phung is that he's a relentless self-promoter. Every week he seems to pop up on a different photo website. He seeks out obscure zines and sites all over the world and sends them his work. Paul is also living proof that you don't need a website to create a worthwhile online persona. He uses Flickr for all his photography and somehow manages to make it look professional rather than shoddy and scattershot.

If I wanted to give myself a headache, I could probably imagine all the things my old tutor Adrian is saying about this series (I won't). This years 3rd year are just getting to the point where they'll have to start dealing with the edit of their final project, and I remember what a goddamn nightmare that was. The Cull. Going from 50 images to 20 images to 4 images, and realising you've got to shoot more but you're running out of time...

New Website The Photography Post...

2010-02-16T05:45:00.000-08:00

...seems to have taken my RSS collection and turned it into a website. I can't decide if this kind of mass aggregation into a single site (ala The Huffington Post) is actually a good thing (surely a software solution is less politically contentious, in terms of stealing hits, etc). I'll hold off judgement until I've flipped through some of their original content.

Also today, the Paperchase affair comes to some kind of conclusion. That contact page is a monument to big companies acting like children. Paperchase should have taken responsibility for selling copyrighted material. Gathers No Moss should have grown some balls and protected their designer, who in turn should have been left alone to learn her lesson without getting her name dragged through the professional mud. Shit rolls downhill.

Giacomo Brunelli - The Animals

2010-02-13T16:03:00.000-08:00

Seen on Eyecurious.

Leeds Retail News!

2010-02-11T06:19:00.000-08:00

Sad news today for lovers of awful camera shops, as Bligh Cameras on upper Briggate seems to have closed its doors for good. Anyone who has studied or shown any interest in photography in Leeds will have bounded optimistically through Bligh's doors, only to be greeted by that miserable mustachioed git, sneering contemptuously at anyone with the sheer nerve to make an enquiry or ask a question. Even if they had the item you wanted, you had to negotiate their tests to discover if you were worthy to purchase said bit of shoddy second hand equipment. "What do you want it for?" must have been the most frequent words out of that guys mouth...

Add to that a terrible selection of overpriced 35mm stock, sub-standard C-41 processing (no E6), and a blanket refusal to offer any kinds of custom processing service (Want your negs cut in sixes? Tough. Want them uncut? Tough! Want them in a Kenro holder rather than that impossible to manage plastic thing? TOUGH!)

God forbid I should come off like a heartless bastard celebrating the death of a small business, but, well, tough. Hopefully the store and equipment will get taken over by someone who actually gives a shit.

Also in Leeds Retail News:

NEW HEADINGLEY CLOTHING STORE MAKES ITS RECRUITMENT POLICY ABSOLUTELY FUCKING CLEAR.

Out of focus wedding out-takes...

2010-02-09T06:37:00.002-08:00

Two pictures that I never sent to my friend, but that I like for various reasons...

Araki owns my heart.

2010-02-09T04:38:00.000-08:00

From Valerian.

The List of Lust

2010-02-09T03:04:00.000-08:00

Given that my last two lengthy bits of assisting work have involved helping to set-up new studios, I'm starting to get a pretty good idea of the kind of effort and expenditure it takes to get a proper studio running. I've been vaguely planning to start putting together a massive list of everything I want to buy when the time comes to start up on my own (presumably with the help of a massive business loan...).

(Obviously that time is a long way off, and hopefully in another country, or at the very least, not in Leeds...)

So with that in mind, and also the notion that if something is worth doing, it's worth doing publicly, I present the first iteration of the List of Lust.

Cameras

Hasselblad 500CM (or something thereabouts) with 80mm 2.8 - £500-700
Lenses (120mm macro / 50mm CF) - about £1000 from ffordes.com

(I like Hasselblads. They looks sexy. The lenses are nice, and they're reasonably cheap. And hopefully the whole V system thing will carry on for a while so it all won't become horribly redundant in two years...)

Contax G2 with 45mm f2 - £500

(To be honest, a Contax G2 is a stupid camera to put on a studio list, but screw it, it's my list, and I want one.)

Some kind of full frame Canon Digital SLR. Whatever is top of the range at the time. - £1500 - £4000 ish.

Phase One Digital Back for V system.

(Damn these things are expensive, and it's almost impossible to find prices for them. Let's just say that for anything above a P25 we're looking at £10,000 plus.)

That's the cameras out of the way and we've only spent about £15,000. Awesome.

Lights

For location lights, a complete Elinchrom Ranger kit (two heads and a battery pack) goes for £1522.60.

For studio lights, let's say one Elinchrom Digital 1200RX (£750) and one 600RX (£500).

While we're at it, let's throw in an Elinchrom Ring flash for about £1000.

And some softboxes, call it about £400.

Grips

For stands, 4 ARRI lightweight light-stands come to about £250.

Why the hell are tripods so bloody complicated? I can't get a sense for scale or understand any of their sales rubbish online. But a Manfrotto 055xPROB (snappy!) is about £150, so that'll have to do.

For a Cambo camera stand, it seems they sell the base and column seperately. £887.13 for the base and £916.50 for the column on Calumet. Damn! (Maybe I can live without a Cambo...)

...

That's all I can be bothered to research now, and already we're up to a quite incomprehensible sum of money. Obviously a few things on this list could be done a lot cheaper (replace the Elinchroms with AlienBees, etc) but the fact is that setting up a studio / kitting yourself out for location photography is an insanely expensive business. I suppose it's good to come to terms with that early...

iPhone photography can fuck right off.

2010-02-08T11:15:00.000-08:00

Two recent posts about iPhone photography from Eyecurious and Conscientious.

I'm not even going to discuss this, I just wanted to make my position absolutely clear, and that position is that ('serious') iPhone Photography Can Fuck Right Off.

That goes for you too, Chase Jarvis.

...a beautiful narcissistic stream

2010-02-07T13:47:00.000-08:00

In a vain attempt make my online activities a bit easier to follow I've hooked this blog and my Flickr stream up to Twitter. I've had it for ages, but generally I just use it for spying on interesting people. Right now I have precisely zero tweets and one follower, and he's just a bloke I met while I was travelling years ago.

However, if my internet wizardry is working correctly, both the posts on this blog and random pictures I put up on Flickr should flow to Twitter like a beautiful narcissistic stream.

Follow me, my children!

As an aside, I was talking to an aspiring journalist friend of mine recently. I asked his opinion about blogs / twitter / social media, etc, and he replied, I quote, "I don't bother with all that shit!"

In a world where even the fate of new print publications is decided online, surely anyone interested in the future of journalism has to be at least keeping one eye on "all that shit"...?

White walls and on camera flash...

2010-02-07T13:12:00.000-08:00

...seem to be my thing at the moment. (About 10 years too late...)

Blatant Photo Theft!

2010-01-23T03:51:00.000-08:00

I stole this picture from my sister's facebook page. She's off swanning around Asia at the moment. I think this was taken when she was 'tubing' in Cambodia.

Anyway, I like it because it looks like a low-res web copy of a very finely shot fine art photograph. Imagine it as medium-format slide film, full of rich detail, printed huge on a wall somewhere.

Whereas in reality, this is it. The file doesn't get any bigger than what you see here, except on a laptop hard-drive on the other side of the world.

Wall Jellyfish (again)

2010-01-23T03:25:00.000-08:00

Most photographers have their little pet 'collection' projects. I worked with a guy recently who couldn't help photographing certain types of light fixtures. I think it's a harmless activity, after all, it's good to have a reason to keep photographing, so long as we don't start thinking we're the Bechers or anything. (And many of the best photographers are driven by that strange collectivist urge, whatever they choose to shoot.)

Anyway, my strange collection impulse is these things. I know there's a mundane explanation for these odd little reflections that appear occasionally, but really I don't want to know what it is. That would spoil the fun of finding them. This one was sitting right outside my door this morning.

Technically I only have three photos in my collection. I took another on my little Olympus Mju1 and it failed to find focus in a perfectly normal bright outdoor scene. This must be the smallest, crappiest obsessive photo collection ever.

I Shot a Wedding

2010-01-10T07:49:00.000-08:00

People who know me might find this a bit of a shock, seeing as I've always been pretty violently opposed to the idea of being A Wedding Photographer. But let's be clear on this, I'm not A Wedding Photographer. I very deliberately refused all payment (so no-one can call me one), and really only did it because of the circumstances by which the wedding came about (which I won't go into here).

So just to be clear, if anyone is thinking of asking me to shoot their Wedding, the answer is still categorically No.

All that said, a couple of things struck me about the whole experience. The first was how, once I'd been introduced as The Photographer, people involved in the event started going out of their way to stage photo opportunities for me. The Chauffeur kept asking me if I wanted him 'to do anything' when the Bride was heading into the reception (I have no idea what he thought I might want him to do). The Registrar set up a whole staged 'signing the registry' tableux, although she prevented me from photographing the actual signing. Even the Maître d' seemed intent on engineering situations exclusively for the purposes of photography once we got to the reception.

Presumably this just comes from having worked with other, more intrusive photographers (and their more demanding clients), but it did rather undermine my desire to shoot the whole thing documentary style. It also very nearly changes the ceremony from being an event that needs photographing, to an event which is taking place for the purpose of being photographed. I admit this is probably the least original observation anyone has ever made about Weddings and Photography, but still...

(One of the nice things about Weddings is the fantastic job titles of everyone involved. The Chauffeur, The Registrar and The Maître d'. Nice.)

The other strange thing is the way I feel about the images themselves. On the one hand, I feel proud to have taken them. I can see that they are Good Wedding Pictures, and that they'll have tremendous sentimental value to the families involved. On the other, I feel a bit conflicted, like I've sacrificed a small piece of my photographic moral high-ground. But I suppose if that's true, at least I was motivated by friendship, rather than by money.

Anyway, see below for one more nugget of Pure Wedding Gold. Unstaged, naturally...

The Leningrad 7

2010-01-08T03:14:00.000-08:00

I went into Oxfam today to look at a tripod (which turned out not to have a head) and picked up this radical lightmeter for £3.99. It's called the Leningrad 7. Brilliant.

Andrew Phelps

2010-01-06T07:11:00.000-08:00

Andrew Phelps' series Not Niigata has been all over the internet recently, and I've kind of filed it away with a sort of 'Yeah, it looks interesting, but...' kind of attitude. Anyway, today I finally had a proper look through his site, and it is full of very beautifully done, very interesting photography.

Originally I was thinking I would say something about Not Niigata and the way that the hook (essentially, that these are photographs from Niigata that say nothing about the place itself, only Phelps' experience of it) has allowed people to really get behind the series. A concise, well written artist statement, combined with that snappy title, seems to have worked wonders in terms of publicity for the series. Also the pictures are very nice, but that goes without saying...

Actually, though, all the other series I've looked at from Phelps have a similar balance of statement, intent and images. It's the kind of photography I was aspiring to with Zone Ends (my now-forgotten final project from University) but I never managed to strike that elusive balance. Also, my subject was too flimsy and I could never put it into words properly.

Check out Baghdad Suite by Phelps, for a tidy little sequence of images.

The Most Charming Book in the World.

2009-12-25T15:21:00.000-08:00

Pictured on my lovely yellow desk.

Boshed-on Globe

2009-12-15T11:35:00.000-08:00

The Boston Globe's continually brilliant Big Picture series is doing a 3 part '2009 in Photos' affair.

There's all sorts of Fried Gold in there, but I just wanted to share this little beauty.

Also, don't be afraid to click on the one that has an 'objectionable content' warning on it. There's nothing objectionable about a photo of a matador getting boshed.

Japan Exposures

2009-12-15T10:55:00.000-08:00

My first piece for Japan Exposures has been posted here.

One nice comment so far... I've actually been feeling remarkably nervous about putting my writing out into a wider arena. (Especially as I've never been to Japan, and my whole dissertation was basically just 'book learning'.) I'm waiting for Takashi Homma or Ivan Vartanian to spring up and brand me an idiot.

Expect more soon.

Olympus Adverts.

2009-12-11T08:47:00.000-08:00

Yes!

No!

One Day Photo Story - Grim.

2009-12-11T08:02:00.000-08:00

Last Christmas in 8 Polaroids.

2009-12-10T13:40:00.001-08:00

DRAFT @ The Art Market

2009-12-10T13:26:00.001-08:00

Just got back from a show of illustration at The Art Market in town. Lovely work all round, especially lovely contribution from the ultra talented Matthew the Horse. Matt has kindly asked me to do some photos for a T-shirt website he's putting together, nothing yet, but expect me to be pimping it heavily on here when it's up.

Two observations from the show. I enjoyed the variety of budget-conscious framing options on display (some Wilko's, some clip-framed, some bull-dog clipped), and I always find it amusing that you can fit the entire LEEDS ART SCENE into a small room, and even then half of the people there are too nervous to talk to the other half.

(Side-note, isn't my desk a lovely shade of yellow? I shall have to photograph some more objects on it.)

RSS and the Guardian Camera Club.

2009-12-02T13:30:00.001-08:00

At some point over the last year, when the amount of blogs and websites I read on a regular basis became overwhelming, I did a bit of digging around and downloaded Shrook (other RSS readers are available).

If you're not familiar with the concept of a news aggregator, basically it collects stories from sites that you specify and delivers the content to your computer without the need to visit the actual website. One of the odd behaviours that this encourages is a strange sort of impatience (although nothing on the level that regular Twitter users must experience...). Because you can click through stories with one button, your tolerance for the kind of news you're not interested in goes down massively. I'm not sure if this is a good or a bad thing...

The point of all this techy rambling is that I just made the decision to unsubscribe from The Guardian's photography blog. They have some good regular features (in particular, the 'My Best Shot' series) and occasional interest writing and news, but recently they've seen fit to flood the blog with posts about The Guardian Camera Club. Now, I can see where they're going with this, I imagine they'd like to tap into the whole community vibe of something like Strobist or Burn (and naturally there's money involved, or so says the heavy Nikon sponsorship). But instead of getting me involved, it has driven me away, and here's why...

Mixing amateur content like this with their more serious photographic news and writing basically just pitches the focus of the blog far too wide. It assumes that because I want to read their more in-depth stories (therefore I am interested in photography) I will also want to see 'portfolio reviews' and 'monthly assignments'.

I am not still marvelling at the sheer fact that there is a device called a camera which records still images and sometimes they look pleasing and pretty. Quite the opposite is true, I believe there are way too many photographs in the world. The whole reason I downloaded an RSS reader in the first place was to limit my exposure to all these images. Photography has become a sort of weird ubiquitous visual noise, and The Guardian's choice to lump everything photo-related together in one place belays a profound misunderstanding of both the value of their original content and the desires of their readership.

Admittedly, this is a minor point (undeserving of the space and time I seem to have given it here) but what really got me thinking about blogs/photography/content, etc, was that I wanted to get on my letter-to-the-editor high-horse and let them know that I had unsubscribed and why, but I couldn't find any facility to communicate with the people running the page. Their blog is masquerading as a part of the new, exciting, web-2.0, socially-networked world of the internet, but actually the format is very traditional. No comments, no contact details, just stories and opinion and very little interaction.

Phew...

(Also, the other reason I'm sick of The Guardian's photography coverage is their continual rinsing of Jane Bown's back catalogue. Give it a rest. Stop banging on about her work and give that kind of support to a contemporary editorial photographer.)

Wowzers. Rant-tastic...

Kate Kirkwood

2009-11-22T14:54:00.000-08:00

I've just been asked to shoot a band whom I've known for a while, they're putting out a record and getting their press material together, so they want Promo shots. Shooting band photos is a goddamn minefield, no one wants photos of 5 people standing around looking glum, but wander too far in the other direction and sudden you've got 5 people looking like idiots who've been roped into posing for a photo.

Minefield.

So I've asked them to come back to me with a clear brief. I'm much happier treating this as an assignment. I want to know exactly what we're going for before we start planning the practicalities.

So anyway, I was clicking around through my (increasingly huge and unwieldy) list of photographers looking for inspiration, and I came across Kate Kirkwood's site. Her second Gallery has absolutely NOTHING to do with band photography, but it does illustrate something I was thinking about while I was mousing around.

Sometimes great photography is all about a simple idea, executed concisely.

The animal's backs look like LANDSCAPES!

Ockenfels / Awesomeness

2009-11-22T05:18:00.001-08:00

I'm a bit late posting this, but there's a massive interview with Frank Ockenfels over ar APE.

Recently when people have been looking at my book, I often get asked what kind of images I want to shoot. Generally I answer that I want to shoot people, but basically I don't care what I take pictures of yet, I just want to be awesome.

Mr Ockenfels is awesome.

Utter Twaddle

2009-11-20T15:01:00.000-08:00

Old coursemate of mine Jo Crawford has been on a placement at the BBC for the past couple of weeks, and now that she's leaving, the kind folks at the Big British Castle have seen fit to publish a selection from her Flares series on their photography blog.

Scroll down for an entertaining read as the commenting masses absolutely tear into the photos. For the record, I think Jo's final Flares book was absolutely the strongest piece of work in our end of year show, with the possible exception of Layla Rassouli's portrait series (only a couple of which are available here)

Naturally I don't think Jo will be remotely bothered by these comments (though it did sting a bit when someone described my intro to the series as 'utter twaddle'), but they do raise the question just who are we producing work for? I experienced a similar (though less extreme) reaction when I (foolishly) showed my final project to a commercial photographer. The kind of criticism leveled at both of our work included comments that there was no composition or technical merit.

The thing to realise is that by the 3rd year of an art-based photography degree, all of your concerns over composition and taking good pictures have been replaced by some kind of strange impulse to not only reject all notions of what makes a good picture, but to actively seek to subvert people's expectations of what photography should look like (and at the same time vaguely theorise this subversion and justify in your sketchbook).

I'm not saying this is a good thing or a bad thing, I'm still in two minds about the utility of any kind of art education. It is, however, judging by the amount of 'Speaking as a serious amateur photographer...' type comments on the BBC blog, clearly an elitist thing.

The question is: what do most people want from photography? And who is going to give it to them?

Who took this photo...?

2009-11-19T09:32:00.001-08:00

Well, not THIS photo. I took this photo. What I'm asking is, who took the photo that I was thinking of when I saw some swans today and thought "Hey, I should rip off that photo that I saw once..."?

Serious question, because if anyone knows I'd like to buy a print of the original (which is much, much better than mine) as a kind of apology for stealing his (or her) idea.

Populist Art

2009-11-18T06:37:00.000-08:00

Seen on Colin Pantall's blog, there was an interesting program on BBC 4 recently about populist art. In particular she looks at that Ullswater photograph of the pier (which was on the wall when I moved in to my last rented house and subsequently got taken down so I could repurpose the frame). One of the interesting things is that many of the artists she speaks to seem quite embarrassed about the iconic and successful images they created early in their careers.

It also made me think about the things on my wall, which are:

A Fraser Irving print of Iron Man blasting Iron Monger in the chest with his hand cannon.

A black and white portrait of a young Nick Cave wearing a T-shirt that says "A Good Cop Is A Dead Cop"

A Gregory Crewdson Print from Beneath the Roses sneakily stolen from Google image search (apologies to Mr Crewdson).

The Robert Doisneau kissing couple, which I inherited from my Mum (and which was responsible for my first 'revelation' that photography could be something I might get interested in).

Josh Poehlein's Call of Duty. Go to his site and you can download high-res TIFFs and make your own prints.

And movie posters for Chinatown, The Secretary and The Rocketeer.

What do these choices say about my taste...? Perhaps only that the things most people hang on their walls are more down to circumstance than refined choice.

Shooting like a tourist...

2009-11-01T04:17:00.000-08:00

Generally when I find myself in a tourist spot with a camera on me, I get this weird, self-righteous attitude about me, where I'm sort of trying to take 'more sophisticated' photos than everyone else walking around with a camera. I suppose it's a way of justifying the amount of time and money I've spent educating myself in photography.

Yesterday I was in this situation, but I somehow managed to break out of it and start taking pictures for the sheer joy of it. Sure, occasionally I would do something like photographing the real foliage mixed with the wallpapered background (above) in 'an attempt to highlight the strange artifice of tourist spaces'. (Or something like that. Those are the kind of phrases that pop into my head when I think I'm being clever.)

But yesterday, for once, I managed to get past the arty dickhead impulse and take some pictures for fun, and it was a real pleasure. "Ooh look, a Meercat, snap snap snap."

See? Fun.

What does your aspect ratio say about YOU?

2009-10-28T07:19:00.000-07:00

Odd topic, this, but perhaps it's a little under-discussed in the photo community... (or maybe it's just not that important...)

Recently I've been noticing a few comments (mainly on more cinema-focused sites) about which aspect ratio films are shot in. In particular Andrea Arnold's decision to shoot Fish Tank in 4:3 (I'm sure I read in Sight and Sound that this reflected the claustrophobic nature of the council estate experience...?).

(Similarly, on Ultra Culture today, they have high praise for an 'aspect ratio shift' about 5 minutes in to the new Coen brothers movie A Serious Man. What does an aspect ratio shift denote? I have no idea...)

In photography, aspect ratio, (or image format, or whatever) carries with it some baggage, some technical, some theoretical, that really needs to be acknowledged.

For instance, the 35mm format (3:2) seems to be perfectly acceptable for hard-core documentary work. It is, after all, the ratio that was adopted by unimaginative DSLR manufacturers at the start of the digital revolution. 3:2 is a stupid format for a variety of reasons. It's uneconomical, both in terms of paper usage and the sensor itself (most lenses take in a circular area of light and then waste about 40% of the image). It looks ugly when used vertically.

Fine Art photography generally rolls with 4:3, 6:7 or 5:4. You can group these together because they are clearly NOT 35mm. They occupy the sort-of-rectangular-but-definitely-not-shot-on-35mm area that seems to be preferred in the fine art world. 6:7 is often referred to as the king of still photography aspect ratios, possibly because it's as big as you can go without lugging around a large format camera, and possibly because a contact sheet of 6:7 negs fits perfectly onto an 8 x 10 sheet of paper.

(It bothers me immensely that Canon and Nikon have never bothered to make a 'studio DSLR' that shoots in 4:3. Now that they're making these 24 megapixels beasts it seems a shame not to. I'm sure it would sell like crazy.)

Finally there's 1:1. Square format. No other aspect ratio makes a stronger statement about your work than 1:1. Basically you're saying "I'm shooting film, using a Rollei or a Hasselblad, and I am BETTER THAN ALL OF YOU."

Maybe you're not saying it outloud, but you're probably thinking it.

I'll end this strange little geeky rant with a note to people just starting out in photography. These are the aspect ratios you can use. Nothing else. As soon as you think it's a good idea to try some crazy long slim crop and stick it on Flickr, just be aware that there are thousands of smug photographers all over the world, quietly sneering at you.

More goodness...

2009-10-20T11:37:00.000-07:00

While I'm busy being completely suffused with nice photography. Lens Culture has posted a massive slideshow of images to preview this years Paris Photo.

Good magazines...

2009-10-20T11:18:00.000-07:00

One of the finest presents I ever received was a two year subscription to FOAM Magazine. This issue is the Talent double issue. It is HUGE.

Also bought today, Creative Review's Photo Annual. Not so huge, but full of good stuff.

(Although I was a bit shocked/dismayed/disappointed to find that a couple of tilt-shift 'Oh look this big thing looks small' images' had snuck in there. Can we not all agree that they are COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE by now...?)

Vivian Maier

2009-10-17T14:33:00.000-07:00

All these images are from Vivian Maier - Her Discovered Work, a blog started by John Maloof after he acquired a box of 40,000 negatives at auction.

My Dissertation...

2009-10-15T07:16:00.000-07:00

It's been on my mind for a while to do something with my dissertation. It is, after all, probably the piece of work from my degree that I'm most proud of.

Instead of laboriously rewriting it and looking for some journal that might want to publish it, I thought I'd just whack it on here, so hopefully it'll show up on Google, and at the very least if any other photo students are writing about Japanese photography, they'll be able to take a peek and steal some quotes.

Anyway, it's below. I've posted it back-to-front, so it should appear in the right order should anyone actually wish to read the whole damn thing. Obviously it goes without saying that all copyright belongs to the respective image-makers, and all copyright for the text belongs to... me.

The Japanese City: Introduction

2009-10-15T07:14:00.000-07:00

Throughout this dissertation, I intend to look at the effects of post-war history and the economic crash of the 1990s on the cultural tone of Japan, and how this in turn has affected photographic representations of Tokyo. There is a consensus of opinion that New York dominates the landscape of American art photography (Ferguson, 2001 p29). Even more so, Tokyo has come to be the inspiration, subject and context of the works of several generations of Japanese photographers. I will explore how photographic artists such as Takashi Homma, Osamu Kanemura, Naoya Hatakeyama and Asako Narahashi have responded to the floundering city in their work.

Central to this, I intend to consider Ivan Vartanian's statement that these artists represent "a new generation of Tokyo rebels/creators". In his introduction to Takashi Homma’s Tokyo (2007), he states that these artists are part of "a newly enfranchised youth who, despite inheriting a legacy of disorder and confusion, found ways to create their own mythologies, structures and heroes." I intend to examine the ways in which these artists have responded to the changing social structure and mood of Japan. What does their work say about Tokyo itself? Can we grasp something of the intangible nature of the city through their images? How has the "legacy of disorder" informed their photography? In such a post-modern and fluid space as Tokyo, is it possible, or even desirable, to make a concrete statement about the 'way things are'?

There are some notable and relevant texts that will go largely unmentioned throughout this essay. Although I intend to give detailed semiotic readings of a number of images, I will generally do so without reference to Roland Barthes' early seminal works on photography, as to do so would undermine my quest to understand the social structure of Japan as theorised by the Japanese. With that in mind, it should go without saying that the essay is underpinned by Edward Said's Orientalism (1978), as by necessity, I will be commenting on a country I have never visited, from the unavoidable position of a westerner. That said, I will attempt to come to my conclusions through accepted historical facts and my own readings of the works involved. Also, some of the concepts explored, such as Takashi Murakami's Superflat, are the product of Japanese artists and thinkers, and do not stem from westerners looking east, as it were. Indeed, one of the main points I hope to demonstrate is that following the economic collapse, Japan has witnessed the first truly unique post-war art movement.

In the first chapter, The Legacy of Disorder, I will outline the economic and cultural history of Japan, demonstrating how a combination of market forces, natural disaster, terrorism and shifting values brought about a crestfallen, downbeat and occasionally paranoid national mood. I will offer definitions and explanations of several inherently Japanese social concepts in order to show how economic conditions have shaped the national character.

In chapter two I will look briefly at the phenomenon of photographers completing major bodies of work on one city, and attempt to bring meaning to the phrase 'The Photographer's City' in order to provide a context for discussions of Tokyo represented photographically. I will look at Tokyo itself, the structure and infrastructure of the city, and begin to examine various contemporary photographers' approaches to the urban space.

The third chapter, The Burned Field, will look more closely at the work of one photographer, Takashi Homma, and his ten year study of Tokyo. I will explore Takashi Murakami's art movement Superflat, to determine whether it provides a framework for understanding Homma's photography. I will undertake detailed semiotic readings of a number of key images, in order to show how Homma has engaged with the social concepts established in chapter one, specifically Otaku and Kawai, and how his practice has changed following the economic collapse.

Read Chapter 1: The Legacy of Disorder.

Chapter 1: The Legacy of Disorder

2009-10-15T07:10:00.000-07:00

The collapse of the bubble economy was the predetermined outcome of a poker game that only America could win. (Murakami, 2005, p152)

In this chapter I will provide a more detailed history of post war Japan in relation to the economic bubble and subsequent collapse. I will look at the social and cultural trends that have affected and inspired photographers working in Tokyo today.

Post-occupation Japan began in 1952, when the Treaty of San Francisco came into effect (Duus, 1988). This treaty, which reinstated the sovereignty of the country at the expense of land and reduced defence spending, marked the beginning of a period of westernization and of development that would last until the economic collapse in the 1990s. With reduced defence spending, Japanese industry expanded rapidly (Henshall, 2004), and the country became a major exporter of both goods and culture. This emphasis on economic expansionism created a highly regimented corporate society.

Once 'democratization' was replaced by economic development as the overriding objective, most Japanese had little choice but to become socialized to corporate and national goals. As time passed, such regimentation was sweetened by the material rewards of prosperity and hardened by nationalistic appeals. The emergence of a mass consumer society created an ethos of 'middle class' homogeneity and contributed immeasurably to depoliticization. (Dower, 1993, p31)

So it was that the system that lead Japan to worldwide economic leadership was one of homogeneity and labour. The Japanese Nikkei Stock Index hit an all time high on December 29th, 1989. This represented the pinnacle of more than half a century of economic prosperity. The following collapse was not sudden, but rather a slow deflationary spiral and depreciation of the housing market that took place during the 1990s. This period, after the bubble burst, came to be known in Japan as "The Lost Decade". (Friis-Hansen, 2003)

In 1995, Japan suffered two events that further affected the national mood. On Tuesday January 17th, The Kobe Earthquake struck the southern Hyogo Prefecture, causing over 6000 deaths and 200 billion dollars of damage. And on March 20th, members of the extreme religious cult Aum Shinrikyo released Sarin Gas into the Tokyo subway system.

It is no exaggeration to say that there was a marked change in the Japanese consciousness 'before' and 'after' these events. These twin catastrophes will remain embedded in our psyche as two milestones in our life as a people. (H. Murakami, 2002, p206)

There were, of course, other factors that attributed to the morose national character during the 1990s. With the economic collapse came increased unemployment. For those who were still employed, wages fell into a 9-year slump. (Zaun, 1995) A more subtle change, and one less attributable to economic reasons, was the attitude towards the youth of Japan. A multitude of factors, including rapidly advancing technology and a number of high profile murders, led to a general moral panic regarding the younger generation. (Miyadai, 1998)

This moral panic was tied to the rise of a unique subculture. Since the 1970s Japan has witnessed the rise of the Otaku generation. First popularised by the essayist Akio Nakamori in 1983, the term Otaku typically refers to fans of anime or computer games, with similar meaning to the English words geek or enthusiast. The comparison is not entirely accurate, however, as Otaku has darker connotations of obsession and perversion. The word Otaku literally means home, and connotes the tendency for Otaku to stay at home watching Manga or playing videogames, a generation of shut-ins.

This increasing demonisation of Otaku culture stems from a 'moral panic' that arose following a number of high profile criminal cases, including the 'Otaku Murderer' Tsutomu Miyazaki. Miyazaki was sentenced to death following a series of child murders, and a general panic followed the publication of a photograph of his bedroom, lined from floor to ceiling with videotapes and magazines, a typical Otaku bedroom. (fig. 1) Whether or not this panic was justified, it points up the way in which Japanese youth has become estranged from the social (adult) norm. The 'constructed category' of youth can easily become 'the Other, the enemy, the spectre of evil in anxious times' (Frymer, 2008, p339)

While Japanese children bonded with each other on an unprecedented scale by means of the homogenized media environment, the generation gap between them and their parents proved to be more profound... (Sawaragi, 2004, p188)

This estrangement, and the Otaku culture formed on the back of it, formed the beginnings of the Superflat art movement. I will look at the concept of Superflat in more detail in the third chapter.

Another uniquely Japanese term that we must understand before discussing contemporary photography is 'cuteness', or Kawai. Kawai has become such a pervasive feature of Japanese society it is now one of the defining stereotypical characteristics people refer to when thinking of the country. Cuteness is everywhere, to the extent that even the police force has a Kawai mascot, in the form of Pipo-kun. (fig.2) In his book Wearing Ideology: State, Schooling and Self-Preservation in Japan (2000), Brian McVeigh describes the sociological function of 'cuteness' as a form of soft, 'consumptive' resistance to the homogenous, nationalistic labour culture.

Resistance consumption does not forcibly question, it raises some doubts; it does not directly challenge, it playfully provokes; it does not deride, it humorously mocks; it does not threaten, it ignores... ...it is not insurgent, it is carnivalesque... (McVeigh, 2000, p158)

So it is important to note that while those engaged in kawai activities might feel like they are actively opposing the statist labour culture, they are in fact reinforcing the status quo. 'Cute' activities fundamentally involve buying things, and participation in consumerism is essential to the post-war power structure of Japan.

Cuteness is also, conversely, a tool with which the institutions of authority can 'soften' their image (now the real reason for Pipo-kun’s existence becomes apparent). In order to more easily control the populace, it is desirable for authority figures (the government, large companies, educational institutions, etc) to appear less intimidating (McVeigh, 2000, p150). As a satirical example of this, it is telling that in Kinji Fukasaku's film Battle Royale (2000) (in which an unruly high-school class is sent to a remote island and forced to murder each other until there is only one 'winner') the video message from the government informing them of their fate is presented by an attractive, smiling teenage girl, dressed in an oversized hat and colourful mock-army attire.

These concepts, Otaku and Kawai, are important because they represent two of the modern, post-collapse concerns of the Japanese. They are symbolic of wider problems in Japanese society. Specifically, the increasing demonisation of the young, an attitude of malaise towards labour culture and the state's pervasive influence over the populace. In chapter three, The Burned Field, I will explore how Takashi Homma's photographs explore and challenge these societal trends. First, however, it is important to look at Tokyo, the city itself.

Read Chapter 2: The Photographer's City.