To The River

'To The River' by Sophy Rickett is an installation based on the Severn Bore. This is a natural occurrence that happens once a year on the River Severn where, during the moon’s equinox a very large group of waves runs down the length of the river.  The piece comprises a mixture of audio and video that portrays the excitement that the crowd feels whilst waiting for the event.

Rickette;s work was first shown as part of Artsway's New Forest Pavilion at the Venice Biennale this year this is an amazing achievement as many will know. To the river doesn’t just show the noises and sounds of the river but also the community that waits and watches. For most of them it isn’t about the actual seeing of the Severn Bore but of the atmosphere and hustle and bustle of everyone getting together and having a good time. The instillation consists of three screens set in dim lighting, this shows the film work she created. Each screen turns on and off at different times this means that the viewers attention is needed at all times to really understand the piece. There are also speakers handing in the middle of the room playing parts of the crowd and the river. Because the instillation is set in a large open room the sound travels and echoes across. As if it's traveling, just like the river.

HTC One

I was casually watching TV the other night when an advert for the new HTC One  phone came on.

20-year-old photography student Nick Jojola was sent by HTC to take "the perfect picture" in the 0.8 seconds available during free-fall. It was his first every photography shoot. Both him and the model he was photographing were falling at 126mph during the shoot . HTC said the stunt demonstrated the qualities of the new One phone's camera, because it demanded video and photo shooting, in low light. The device used 'burst mode' to take a number of shots over a short period.

As I am currently studying photography at university I  couldn't really believe this advert and ended up laughing at it. Firstly, it was his first ever photography shoot? I don't think anyone would be so lucky to do this for their first shoot ever. especially being so inexperienced. Secondly I also don't think that he would be using a camera phone for a high end shoot like this surely you would be using an SLR. Thirdly wouldn't either a camera phone or an SLR simply fall out of you hands as lets not forget you are falling through the sky at 126 mph. This advert just seemed so unrealistic to me as well as many of my course mates as i have heard many people discussing this ad. See for yourself, what do you think?

Film or Digital?

A recent debate forum that I have been involved in about whether digital photography is taking over film got me really interested in the debate so I thought I would research and talk about it on here.

Here is a quote from an interview with Ricky Adam about his new book 'Destroying Everything' he tells us his thoughts on the matter at hand.

"So long as the image hasn’t been manipulated in any way a good photo is a good photo, regardless of what sort of camera was used to take it. You have to be a lot more resourceful when shooting film. For one you shoot fewer photos, but in doing so I think you learn a lot more about composition, lighting, etc. I often wonder how many more photos I would have if I could have shot digital when I first started out? Would I even have pursued photography? Possibly not… "

To me the sad but true fact is that analogue is dying out as not as many people use it as they used to. Digital is seen as the future of photography which is both good and bad in my eyes. I love using film and having to think about every detail from the lighting to the composition as well as processing it myself. It gives a great feeling of achievement. But with digital if you make a mistake you can see how you have done it and change it straight away without having to process the film and do the printing only to find out you have made a mistake. So I think they are both amazing in their own rights. As my tutor rightly said to me I must take a lot more care when shooting with film compared to shooting with digital. This is because with digital you aren't forced to think about each individual shot you just snap away for as long as you like. 

I have always loved Polaroid cameras from a very young child I would always have my own and take it everywhere. so i find it very sad that things like this don't exist any more. To me it doesn't make a great deal of sense because so many people use things like Instagram on their phones because they like the effect it gives to the image the effect of a Polaroid camera. I think if this sort of camera and film was brought back in to today's world it would be lapped up and thoroughly enjoyed across the world. So lets hope that maybe one day.

David Cotterrell

The John Hansard Gallery showed an instillation based exhibition by David Cotterrell. The exhibition was called 'Monsters of the Id'. Cotterrell wanted to show art in a completely new form. Through a form that has not been explored in art so far. Through technology. The idea for this instillation derived from the photographer/artists journey to Afghanistan. The exhibition is all about being an observer and seeing what is happening in Afghanistan through Cotterrell's journey. 

On first entrance you are met but a large curved wall. On to this wall a projection is shone of people in a deserted rough area which is meant to represent Afghanistan. You as the observer soon come to realise that the longer you stand there and the more people arrive in this area of the gallery more people appear on the wall, the appear to walk up to you as if maybe they are you? This piece is called 'Observer Effect'.

Once finished the exhibition leads you in to another room. The piece in this room is called 'Search Light 2' it reveals tiny bug like characters which are meant to represent humans crossing over a bumpy terrain that represents the desert landscape Cotterrell witnessed in his travels. This piece is related to 'Observer Effect' as more people arrive in this area more small human figures appear on the desert surface. The figures walk from one end to the other. 

Although the idea of showing art through technology is a great and new idea I couldn't help but think that it wasn't quite there yet. the gallery had to close several times due to the machinery not working, even when I went to visit it wasn't running all to smoothly. Also the figures that crossed the landscape were hard to make out as humans rather they looked the insects.  Maybe in the future this could be the way of art.

 

Metaphors and Allegory

What are metaphors and Allegory? A metaphor is a figure of speech. It involves comparison to the same as another otherwise unrelated object. An allegory is something seen as symbolic rather then in the literal sense.

And how is it shown through art and photography today? Here is Sarah Lucas's image called 'Self Portrait with fried eggs' from 1996.

The key metaphor here are the two fried eggs. These are there to represent her breasts. The image suggests that she has done this to reiterate that she is in fact a woman, despite the masculine slouched pose she is sat in. She is also wearing masculine clothing and large industrial shoes. I think that Lucas is trying to bring up the debate about stereotypes and if in fact you have to dress in an overly feminine way to be a woman. Are you not allowed to dress like this and still be proud to be a woman? The fact that she is sat in a kitchen also adds to the stereotypes of women belonging in the kitchen making food. This is a great image because Lucas has portrayed so many messages in various ways some subtle and some obvious. On close inspection there is a pack of cigarettes on the floor adding to this. The camera angle Lucas has used also indicates that maybe woman are looked down on in to days world. The camera angle also makes Lucas look vulnerable.

Semiotics

Semiotics is a key part in everyone's day to day life. We use semiotics so much that we do it with out even realising. Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols. It involves the meaning and thought we instantly have when looking at certain imagery.


This quote from Peirce, Collected Papers:Principles of Philosophy, 1931 tells us just this.

“Logic, in its general sense, is…only another name for semiotic…we observe the characters of such signs as we know, and...by a process which I will not object to naming abstraction, we are led to statements, eminently fallible, and therefore in one sense by no means necessary, as to what must be the characters of all signs used by scientific intelligence, that is to say, by an intelligence capable of learning by experience.”


When looking at signs and certain imagery there are two things, the signifier and the signified. The signifier is the actual subject matter that we see before us, what it really is. The signified is the thought we have when seeing this, what we have been brought up knowing through society and culture. For example in the image bellow the signifier is the white woman wearing a skirt but the signified is that we all know it is a ladies toilet sign. We all know this because society has brought us up knowing it.












Semiotics is also used in advertising all the time. It is a way for companies to get the customer to buy their product. Subliminal messaging. This is a great example.







Even though the food shown here is cheap tinned food the customer is left with a different impression because the rich red colour gives off the feel of power, luxury and royalty. The food is also surrounded by Italian fresh produce that isn't for sale, leaving the customer thinking the food is fresh and organic straight from Italy. Meaning the signified plays a big part in this.

Wildlife Photographer Of The Year

Knowing that I was going to visit the open gallery Wild Planet at the Natural History Museum I wanted to look into Wildlife Photographer of the Year a bit more as I'm not all to familiar with it. Through browsing I found an interesting article about 2010 winner José Luis Rodriguez. His stunning image 'Storybook Wolf' caused a lot of controversy as many photographers recognised the wolf and the location of the photograph, Canada Real wildlife park in Madrid. They believed that the wolf was a tame wolf called Ossian and had been hired to create this photograph. This contradicted José Luis Rodriguez claim that his image was taken in the wild after months of tracking the species. It is clearly stated in the rules of Wildlife Photographer of the year that no models or tame animals are to be used.

After studying the photograph wolf experts questioned why the wolf would have jumped over the fence as a wild animal would be more likely to squeeze between the bars. The judges contacted José Luis Rodriguez to ask him some questions about the photograph and its authenticity. Although he denied the wolf was tame his answers were inadequate.

"I remember thinking, my God, this really is a wild wolf, what an achievement," said Mark Carwardine, chairman of the judging panel. "I don't understand the mentality at all. People feel very disappointed with the photographer."

José Luis Rodriguez was stripped of his title and his £10,000 prize money was taken away. By the time this decision was made the photograph had already been published in thousands of books as well as postcards and posters being made and sold but a notice was put up by his photograph in the gallery explaining what had happened and why.

Take The Stage

The Challenge, a series of competitions that are part of Adidas's Take The Stage campaign are opening on the 14th of April. The competitions range from opening for music artist Wretch 32 on his debut tour to playing basketball with Chicago Bulls star, Derrick Rose. The Challenge is a great opportunity for young people to get a chance to follow their heart and their passion. A chance that they would not normally get. To some an opportunity of a life time

"Adidas is providing young people across Britain once in a lifetime opportunities that could change their lives. We feel the campaign is a great way to celebrate London and inspire the rest of Britain."

- Nick Cragg.

The Take The Stage campaign is also to help promote the Olympic games in London this year 2012 as well as Adidas its self. A wide variety of stars are backing this campaign including athletes taking part in the Olympics such as Victoria Pendleton, Louis Smith and Tom Daley. A 60 second ad including these stars was released on the 7th of April to showcase the biggest Adidas campaign in the UK to date.

"Our new take the stage campaign is designed to showcase London but also the talent that exists within Great Britain." Adidas Marketing Director Nick Cragg.

The Challenge that I am most interested in as an aspiring photographer myself is David Beckham's photography challenge. He has asked for one image that will capture his eye and show him the passion and love you have for photography. It can be any image of your choice it just has to have a winning quality. David Beckham shares how a photograph taken of him celebrating a goal against Wimbledon is one that he will never forget. Hopefully the winners photograph will leave the same effect. The winner receives 500 pounds of Adidas gear and a photography shoot with David Beckham himself,  as well as working with him in the studio. Once you upload your photo to the Adidas website the aim is to get as many people as you can to vote for you and your photograph. The final decision will be made from the people with the highest votes. The photography challenge ends in 34 days 16 hours and 28 minutes so get sending!

 

Robert Doisneau

Today is the 100th anniversary of the birthday of world famous Robert Doisneau, so today's post is in celebration of his life and work.

Robert Doisneu was born on the 14th April 1912 in Gentilly, France, and died aged 81 on the 1st April 1994. Unfortunately, both of his parents died by the time he was 7, and Doisneau was left in the care of an unloving aunt. This misfortune did not have a negative effect on his creativity, as he went on to become one of the greatest photographers of all time. Aged 16, he started amateur photography but was so shy that he chose to photograph the cobble stones of the Parisian streets, instead of the buzzing street life and people that later appeared in his work. 

In 1930, Doisneau became one of the first photographers to use a Lecia film camera, and alongside Henri Cartier-Bresson, brought photojournalism to life. Despite trying his hand at different areas of photography, such as work for French Vogue magazine and Post-war photography, Doisneau ended up where he started: photographing the people and the atmosphere of Paris. 

"The marvels of daily life are so exciting; no movie director can arrange the unexpected that you find in the street." Robert Doisneau

His most famous piece, taken in 1950, is Le baiser de l'hôtel de ville (Kiss by the Town Hall). The piece shows a young couple sharing an intimate moment with a kiss. This photograph became internationally famous and was an inspiration for young love around Paris. The added excitement of the mystery of the couple ended in 1992 when French couple Jean and Denise Lavergne believed it to be them, and took Doisneau to court for taking their photograph without their permission. This lead to Doisneau revealing that he had staged the photograph and asked actor and actress (and couple) Françoise Delbart and Jacques Carteaud to kiss in front of a busy cafe. This meant that Doisneau won the case but the mystery was lost. 

As it is Doisneau's birthday today, Google have honored his work by producing a "Google Doodle", comprising of a collage of his photographs. This is shown on the search engine's home page to remember one of the world's great photographers and an inspiration to many.

Shadow Catchers

I was recently reminded of a Gallery I went to last year Shadow Catchers: Camera-less Photography (13 October 2010 – 20 February 2011) at the V&A. The gallery showed 5 different artists who push the boundaries of photography by not even using a camera. Do you need a camera to be a photographer? To make amazing photographs?

I went to this exhibition when I was first really getting into photography so I was amazed at the idea as it had never even occurred to me that it was possible. To be honest I'm still pretty amazed by it. All five artists use different techniques and have completely different end results. But all classed as photography.

The V&A commissioned 5 short films to be made about these artists and to allow someone like me to get an insight in to their work and their world. Also showing me how they have made camera-less photography possible.

The Gallery was set up in a strange layout with individual sections that were clearly divided for each artist. The gallery winded around in an S shape with door ways leading to each part including the area where the 5 short films were shown. I Don't think the gallery were expecting many people as there were about 3 seats so sitting on the floor had to do.

Floris Neusüss method was photo-grams. He re did a piece by William Henry Fox Talbot of a large magnificent window at Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire, England. Leaving photographic paper over a certain amount of time, leaving the natural sun light to cast an image on to the paper of the window. He also gets people to take a certain position on the paper to cast shadows.

Pierre Cordier who treats his work as if he is more a painter then a photographer. He uses wax and varnishes, oil, glue and eggs. He uses these to create art on photographic paper. The process itself becomes the artwork and his style is his technique.

Susan Derges creates her work at night using the moon and a flashlight to be the exposure. She puts large sheets of photographic paper in to river to capture the movement she also manages to capture small animals such as tadpoles. Out of the five artists Derges was my favourite and I want to try recreate some of her work. Plus her ideas are always at the back of my mind when thinking of projects so who knows what I will come up with.

Adam Fuss works with the expression of life and death. He uses dead and alive animals in the studio to create his works his technique is called daguerreotype. Fuss's work is all about meanings symbolic and metaphorical.

Garry Fabian Miller creates glowing photographs that are abstract and not like any other kind i have seen before. He does this by casting shadows, or blocking and filtering light on photographic paper in the darkroom. His home landscape of Dartmoor gives him his inspiration for all his work.

Shadow Catchers Camera-less Photography

Book Art

Su Blackwell is an artist and sculptor who iv known about and loved her work for a while so I thought I share. Her most well known work is book sculpture, she cuts and carves bits out of books to make a 3-D fantasy image.

"I often work within the realm of fairy-tales and folk-lore. I began making a series of book-sculpture, cutting-out images from old books to create three-dimensional diorama’s, and displaying them inside wooden boxes". Su Blackwell.

She uses such great detail in her work and thinks about everything for example if she was doing a book sculpture on love she will use a love book and be careful to choose certain words to incorporate in the piece to do with love. It takes her so long to do one piece because it is so delicate and takes a lot of skill to cut out amazing scenes with a knife and paper.

Here are some of my favourites.

I decided to give it a go as she inspired me. Mine are clearly nothing like as good but it's a try.

Terry O'Niell

I was recently watching This Morning and Terry O'Niell was on, talking about his new project 'Reworked' and the gallery showing of it.

To celebrate 50 years of Terry O'Niell as well as all the famous stars he photographed he has allowed several young and upcoming artists to take his original photographs and rework and reinterpret the masterpieces using their own style and medium.

“I have been looking at my photographs for decades and they’ve become very familiar to me. What I love about this collaboration with Rook and Raven is having young artists with a fresh eye interpreting iconic images for a new generation. I am excited to see what they do and why they do it. For me, there is nothing so rewarding as working with new talent and fresh ideas.” Terry O'Niell

He goes on to say that his own images have become to familiar to him and need updating.

The original photographs sit next to the reworked to let the viewer compare and see how one piece can be transformed into something so different but still so marvelous. The reworked pieces are all one offs and come at a hefty price. The reworked photographs include Pam Glew: who created the bleached Union Jack covered Shrimpton and Stamp portrait and James Dawe who has reworked the  Brigitte Bardot image, adding beautiful coloured and black and white locks into “Bardot, Hair Waves”.

I actually went down to the gallery to have a look at this work only to find out that the Rook and Raven Gallery doesn't open on Mondays which is a shame but what I could see through the window looked impressive. The gallery ran till the 31st of March 2012.

rookandraven.co.uk

Illusions

Street art at its best. 3 Artists that I think are the best at using a projection called anamorphosis to create a 3-D illusion when viewed from a certain angle. Some of these chalk paintings look so realistic that it's hard to see that it is in fact a flat pavement.

Edgar Müller.

A German street artist who takes everyday locations and turns them into fantasy scenes. Rivers flowing through streets and sheer drops in what appears to be a crack in the ice.

Kurt Wenner

An American artist who uses such great detail in his street murals. He was originally an architect, and former NASA illustrator. His work includes both Baroque religious murals and a Salvor Daliesque surrealism. 

 

Julian Beever

Julian Beever is one of the most famous street artists with his work the most well known and in my eyes the most convincing as well as the most different and creative ideas. He is from the UK so maybe I have to support him a bit more. He has been creating drawings on pavement surfaces since the mid-1990s. Julian is a freelance artist who creates murals for various companies, having created pieces around the world.

Screw Art

I have no idea how you get the idea to do this or how you get the skill but I wish I had, absolutely amazing!

A Californian based artist/ sculptor Andrew Myers draws a vague sketch of a portrait on to plywood and then drives thousands and thousands of screws in at different depths to create a unique 3-D portrait. Taking up to 3 days on these pieces after driving the screws in he paints each individual screw different colours to make the portrait realistic. He does this all by hand! On a step backward the sculpture looks like 2-D portrait rather then a 3-D sculpture. Absolute masterpieces. Pure skill. I love finding art that iv never seen been done before.

Keaton Henson

Keaton Henson is a favourite artist of mine. He is an artist in all the sense of the meaning. His drawings are simplistic but still have emotion and a strong message. He directs all his music videos and not to mention his music is amazing. He makes album covers for many other artists including Zane Lowe from Radio 1. He also has he own clothing range with his own illustrative drawings on. He seems so genuine and seems to put his heart and soul into everything he does.

He even paints all his own advertising for god sake!

Keaton Henson's Advertising 

This is how all interviews should be:

Lachapelle

I have always been a fan of David Lachapelle's work. I love how he combines photography with painting with digital manipulation.  He isn't scared to tell it how it is and shows what comes straight out of his mind.

He has recently released a new series of work called Earth Laughs In Flowers a still life series that merges the lines between painting and photography. He showed his work in the gallery Robilant + Voena on the 20th of February unfortunately I only just found out about this gallery showing so I missed out but hopefully I'll get to see his work next time he comes to the UK.

He can say what I am trying to 100 times better so watch this.

http://www.davidlachapelle.com/video/robilant-and-voena/

Invation

Whilst looking through YouTube videos I came across this. A genius and really funny idea called the 'Fulgurator' it allows you to manipulate a landscape by projecting an image or text as soon as the built in flash sensor is triggered from another camera. This means the image or piece of texts is only visible in the photograph taken, leaving surrounding members of the public very confused when they see something in their photograph that isn't there in real life.

This is what it looks like.

Julius von Bismarck and Santiago Sierra go to certain famous places all over the world where there will be lots of tourists taking photographs to use the Fulgurator. For example Julius used it to project a cross on to Barack Obama during an important speech. its funny to watch the public around him looking in disbelief at their cameras. My favourite is when they projected NO above the Pope at World Youth Day in Madrid. I'm not quite sure how they get away with it as I'm sure both the Pope and police wouldn't be too happy to see NO written in large in every photo taken with a flash that night. Take a look.

Holga

I was recently having a conversation with my friend and he was saying that he doesn't see the point in using Holga and Lomography cameras. His argument was 'why would you want to use a camera were you can't control anything and the outcomes are normally crap and blurry or have red stains on them but everyone seems to think that effect is really cool'

Seeing as I have my own Holga I completely disagree. I love that the 'unknown' when taking a photograph. The fact that every single photograph you take will look different with a different effect. the fact that the camera is so cheap is what first attracted me to the idea and of course because it's so cheap this means the quality is poor allowing light to leak in and displaying vignetting. The colours are also vivid and bright this type of photography is unlike any other.

It is becoming so popular in today's society that hundreds of mobile phone apps are available to take photographs that give this effect digitally straight away instead of using film. This kind of vintage look is definitely in style right now. For instance Instagram.

Simon Hoegsberg

After contributing in forums on my course for Representation about voyeurism and about legal rights when taking a photograph I felt the need to delve in a bit deeper and research in to the matter. I found a photography called Simon Hoegsberg who created a project called 'We are all gonna die - 100 meters of existence.' He photographed 178 passers by over 20 days sat at the exact same spot on a railroad bridge in Berlin in 2007. He has put all the images seamlessly together to form one long image at 100 meters. I like the fact that this project wasn't about how good the photographs were as he kept the camera at the same angle and height meaning some peoples heads are cut off. It's about just how surprising few of those people realise he is taking a picture of them. They are too wrapped up in there own lives and what they are doing to realise what is going on around them. It's also really interesting to get a split second insight in to their lives.

 http://www.simonhoegsberg.com/we_are_all_gonna_die/slider.html

With this kind of photography brings with it the debate of if it is morally right to take a photograph without the subjects consent. Would you mind if a photography photographed you and profited from it without you knowing? 

Alexandre Duret Lutz

For a long time I have been browsing Flickr looking for ideas and inspiration. Looking for ideas and photographs that amaze me. That I didn't even know were possible.

Flickr is where I came across a photographer called Alexandre Duret Lutz who is a computer scientist who lives in and is from Paris, France. Alexandre travels the world with a pretty average camera and creates these amazing planets called stereographic projections. Or as he calls them "wee planets"

when seeing his images I immediately set out trying to make them. After doing a whole project on them for college I realised just how hard it is. You have to take continuous images in a 360 of the sky, the ground and straight in front of you. You then have to carefully piece these images together to make a panoramic. After all of this is done there is software that allows you to transform the 2-D panoramic in to a 3-D sphere.

I find these kind of photography so interesting because its pushing the boundaries of what you can do within photography making a change from just a simple click and shoot. Here are some of my own stereographic projections.