Sustainability

I was looking into the theme of Sustainability for the Westphoto Photography Prize competition I entered last month. Luckily, I've been shortlisted, which I'm pretty pleased about. Here are some of the images I shot for it, I wont tell you which one got shortlisted, maybe you'll come and see the exhibition at the P3 Gallery in London to find out! The exhibition is on from 16-20th December with the private view and prize-giving on the 15th December 2009.

In the first image, my nieces Chloe and Leila help look after the chickens that produce their eggs for breakfast; maybe a metaphor for how we need to look after those resources which help sustain us? Its the goose and the golden egg analogy. The second image is of a typical retail park recycling centre; often these places do not have enough facilities for recycling and people are left discarding waste wherever they can. Its shows some effort in recycling before giving up and for the authorities, it shows a lack of resources in place for recycling effectively. The third image is of the inside of the bottle bank, I used this partially full bottle bank to show that despite facilities for recycling existing there are still many who dont recycle.

see attached flyer for the exhibition details...

2046

Here is a set of six film still images, the narrative is loosely based on the film '2046'. May, is the model, big big help from Alina, thanks also to Matthew and Kalpana. Jeez, constructed photography sure is hard work...(click on each image for a better res rendition)

All images were shot on digital with a single off-camera flashgun and sometimes a reflector. Locations were my sisters cottage and the Randolph Hotel in Oxford. Big thanks to Shaun Thomas at the Randolph for permission to shoot and use of the presidential suite.

landscape in portrait

Not something that I've done before; taking landscape shots in portrait mode. This is a view towards the south east of Berlin.

gibraltar (GB) - new story

This is one image from a series shot in Gibraltar. An afternoon spent on the rock has been added onto the website in 'stories'. See here. I wanted to create a faded snapshot or postcard aesthetic to these digital shots and I did this using some mild photoshop. In fact I like using photoshop to degenerate images as opposed to digitally enhancing them.

La Jetee (1963) - Chris Marker

This great story was the base for the film '12 Monkeys' by Terry Gilliam. It uses photographs with text and narration. This is an english translation from the original french version.

the end of photography..

''Photography Is Dead' was the name of a seminar I went to recently in Birmingham. It was hosted by Rhubarb Rhubarb who brought together some big names in photography to panel a debate on whether following the digital/internet revolution, photography as an medium, art-form, practice had died or was dying. It is no secret that digital technology has made film based photography almost redundant in commercial and popular use terms. The internet and computer use has of course transformed how we view images; in fact it was pointed out to me recently that older people often miss out on seeing the latest family photos, as they don’t spend any time on computers...Images directly uploaded onto computers could now mean the death of the popular use of the photograph, as a valued or cherished object. 

The future looks bleak for film photography. The recent demise of Polaroid and Kodachrome 64 is a trend likely to continue as film based materials become less commercially viable as product demand decreases. The digital camera is cheap and widely available now and mobile phones come with good quality cameras as standard. The pace of technology change is so fast moving that every year higher quality and features ensure that photography is increasingly foolproof, ‘just point and shoot - the camera does the rest’. Technical skills in operating a camera are no longer essential.

The digital camera has, as with all technological enhancements in the photography’s history, made it easier and more accessible. But the implications now are changing the way the image is perceived. In the digital age, seeing is no longer believing. As the image is manipulated it is losing is strength in veracity, as evidential, factual truth.

One change expressed by Stephen Mayes, director of VII photo agency; previously, photography was always concerned with 'fixing' the image, an optical to chemical process. The digital sensor had now liberated photography and more specifically, the data; now, once the photograph is taken the raw data is free to be presented how the photographer or editor would like. But photography is not just about how the image is created but also how it is edited, presented and it what context. The image is invaded by language as soon as it shown. 

So as technology makes photography easier, less skilled in a practical sense perhaps, maybe this will be marked by an increasing requirement of a greater amount of thought on what is photographed and how it is presented?

More to come...

family shots

Various members of my family at various places and events this summer. All shot on 35mm film. Fuji NPS 160s and Ilford FP4 here. It makes a huge difference when the people you photograph temporarily lose their awareness of the camera and of being photographed. Portrait becomes snap or capture. The very word 'portrait' conjours up a pomposity and an artificial, upright, statue-like pose; people go into portrait mode. I guess successful portrait photographers go to great lengths to relax their sitters and get the shot, one which appears to capture the inner essence of the person. Barthes comprehensively elaborates on this in Camera Lucida. However, whether a shot is posed or is captured, in the end it is our own relationship with the subject, whether as photographer or as viewer that is established.

Foto8 competition entry

'The multi-storey and underground car park is presented here as a portal into another psychological dimension. For users of these spaces they play a fleeting part in the day. However, in the brief moments during departure, we are pulled towards this portal, towards an alternative reality, before ‘clunk’ the door is closed and we are on our way. It is only when we allow ourselves to look beyond the car that we start to notice something drawing upon our consciousness…'

Cologne abstractions in colour

Cologne this spring was awash of light and colour in the sun. Exposed onto slide film here, I couldnt help but be in almost trance like mode in capture of everything as it caught my gaze. I was oddly inspired to do this after visiting an Adam Jeppesen exhibition at the Kudlek van der Grinten Galerie. Jeppesen's work is simply fantastic, I love it, although without connection to the photos I would subsequently take.

The images were shot to form the basis of a colour module assignment. Five images were to be presented as a series based on abstraction. The idea being to demonstrate a view of what abstraction is. Clearly, everyone has their own view; for some it is where the image content is unrecognisable or non-representational, purely appreciated in terms of shape, colour, texture, light, lines and so forth, as in the popular notion of abstract art. I wanted to take a step back physically, presenting scenes that are almost apparent in terms of what they are, but at the same time provide some formal interest; in this case, the effect of light on surfaces.

I think the series is a success; I like the clear differences between the images and I'm not too concerned about how these differences draw each of them apart. The individual photographs are more important than the series as a whole. I sometimes wonder how defined and specific it is necessary to be in terms of all cohesive factors when presenting a series. If we consider the series too heavily while we shoot, surely we are missing opportunities to flow with what the brain registers and the eyes see, instinctively?....an important part of the feel for any subject. If we try too hard to lead the viewer into meaning, do we end up leaving valuable content or perspective behind? or worse still, result in a dilution of intent? I guess the answer may come from what meaning is intended and how important it is to ensure its destination; in the consciousness of the viewer.

In this case the series is established post-photographically, its aim is to provide a container for the idea, not to help reinforce a concept or promote further discussion on the phenomenon of light reflection. I think each image reaches a formal photographic balance to be appreciated as a singular entity, which may be enough.

The Vision of Peregrine Worsthorne

This photograph was taken in Cologne, Germany. I like how it reflects the current economic crisis. None of this crossed my mind while taking the picture, however retrospectively, the context takes effect. The mannequin heads represent/reflect those people in the world who live to consume (not consume to live), what future awaits them in the current light of things?

I was listening to a band called McCarthy, an English band from the mid eighties and this song by them works well as a backdrop to this theme.

The Vision Of The Peregrine Worsthorne

In Fleet Street I lay down to sleep

In the seediest journalist bar

And in my sleep a vision I dreamed

From afar

In celestial mist made of light

An angel that blinds mortal eyes

This vision I knew knew no wrong

Only right

He took my hand and showed me things I'd never dreamed

The veil blinding me was lifted

And truth shone, a beacon beaming

The vision said softly to me

"The people are becoming too free

And if you want to sever the tea

Oh baby

Peregrine is looking grim

The economy is falling to pieces

It seems quite hopeless

Stand steadfastly by the friendly in exchange with free

Broadcast calls for order and law

Yet all shall be well, all shall be well"

The Holy Ghost bid me be bold

For wisdom that's weight out of old

Could will if it was spread among men

Once again

The vision departed me then

And I awoke cold and distant

I knew my mission

From: McCarthy, I am Wallet, 1987.

See: http://sances.info/mccarthy/about.htm

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd4YYVk_S4A

 

notes: Sir Peregrine Worsthorne is apparently a right-wing political commentator in England, and formerly the editor of the Sunday Telegraph.

sunilphoto.com

Having just checked the main site I have to apologise for the lack of updates and new material. Its also a total mess. Watch this space, I'll get it straightened out, its time for a spring clean.

Sunilphoto fragments is some kind of half experiment with the aim of  testing some ideas behind abstractions and photo fragments across projects. There is no intention to provide a narrative or message. Pure and simply a thread of disconnected images.

...and here's the cropped cham pic. Big up G.

chamonix, fr

This place never fails to blow me away... click on images to enlarge. Pentax 67 75mm lens on Fuji Velvia 100. The first image is the Mer de Glace glacier, the tiny specks barely visible on the lower right-hand corner of the frame are skiers on the Vallee Blanche, a 20km run, returning to Chamonix. The second image is looking towards Chamonix Sud at dusk, the glacier creeping down the mountain is the Glacier des Bossons.

parking spaces 2

These photographs started as an idea about recreating the feeling of returning to your car in an underground car park or multi-storey. The fluorescent light, shadows and emptiness were on my mind before I arrived. I needed security clearance at this place and got it easily from the puzzled looking guards who let me in to get on with it. The results blew me away, the project continues...

High rise

High rise housing estates, this one is in Poznan, Poland. Large communities living in high rise estates, leftover from the post war, cold war era. Have you noticed how such places are no longer built? History suggests that this was affordable housing in limited spaces, easy to manage, easy to control through communist and socialist political ideologies. What social dynamics exist? With many people living in close, ordered proximity what kinds of boundaries are created? These are some of the questions that I felt compelled to ask. Perhaps a subject worth looking into?

image and text

'office space', 2008

Before now, I've never added titles or captions to any of my photographs, instead preferring to write a short written piece which will set the context on a series of pictures rather than any one single image. Its been like this because working in a documentary style, I try to make the images form a open ended narrative, with the text providing just a starting point. Its just a system that works for me and furthermore, I've never liked the idea of captioning pictures with cliched or worn out notions about the content of an individual image.

I think once you start displaying your ideas to a wider audience, you do need to find techniques of getting your point across, as your ideas may not be obvious to everyone. Titling provides one such way of channelling the viewers thoughts down the path you want them to go. The text and hence language can be applied at different levels; a caption, a project title, a description, a text, even the space in which the images are viewed provide a language. Are they necessary or essential? Not always perhaps, I guess it depends upon your intentions for the image. What does it do to the image? does it take anything away from it?

The project 'Man made the land' is the first where I have really considered text and the language used. The project title 'Man made the land' refers directly to the fact that these are photographs of human intervention with the landscape. It has denotes human construction, I liked it also because of the way it sounds. The photographs themselves are titled with very basic titles indicating a description and a location. The written text collaborates with the images, it provides the idea, the context and the feeling which fuels the work; the ubiquity of man made landscape and its relative invisibility.

See 'Man made the land'

landscape 2

Since the last landscape post I learned something new, so here goes... Landscape as a photographic genre is usually associated with the picturesque or beauty. Most often images of rolling hills, sunsets and sublime natural scenery spring to mind (fnb). The purpose of these images is maybe to create a feeling of awe, fantasy or transcendentation or some other. However, we all know the landscape, is not always so easy on the eye, it can be pretty neutral or even ugly, it can be city, rural or suburban. But whether it is picturesque or topographic, in any landscape image there will be content within the image that says something about us; our social identity, our political environment, our ideologies, our interaction with the environment. For me this puts a completely new slant on landscape photography; it tells us about the land, the people and their culture.

fun fair

This is a selection of shots from the trip to Holland recently. Staying with good friends, Kasia and Tomek in Nistelrode, we hit the fun fair in a small town one night. I've never been one for fairs, to me, theres too much going on and too many kids; it frightening. When I was a kid it was the same , I felt I had to like fairs cos everyone else did. I think the pictures I shot in Holland reflect some of this feeling. I can see what is is about fairs though....some kind of sensory saturation. I did win a cuddly toy though !

jerez, cadiz and ronda

In Spain we took in three very different places; Jerez, Cadiz and Ronda. A strange thing also happened in that at first I wasn't reaching for my camera very much. Not sure why that was and I thought perhaps its got something to do with the fact that I've been to this region of Spain before and possibly recorded all the images that caught my eye first time round. What I was left with was a feeling of dread with the anticipation that maybe I'm not gonna be inspired on this trip and will come home with nothing new. Luckily for me this feeling didn't last long. The streets, people and markets of Cadiz caught my eye. Once I'd reached for my camera, I was transported into a another blissful dimension. See the photo journal site for a small selection of photographs from Spain.

parking spaces

Got many strange looks photographing this car park this year. Westgate multi-storey car park in Oxford is due to be demolished in 2009 sometime. We used to skate here when it rained and before they furnished it with a load of anti-skate measures. The car park is run by the city council and it is no longer really cleaned or looked after, its a well used city amenity though, which when compared to the affluent, historical and well-visited side of Oxford, is in stark contrast. Multi-storey car parks are intriguing spaces; they are cold and empty at night, for a few, providing shelter from the rain and a dry place to skate or ride flatland on a bmx. During the day, while drivers hurriedly look for spaces in the narrow parking slots, the sound of tyres and closing car doors echoes.

landscape 1

Not sure what the rules are to landscape photography and not sure I want to read some book about it. I'd prefer to try look at pictures and work out what works for me and what doesnt, I think this image of Southborne beach on the south coast of England provides some clues;  it has some interesting looking lighting and clouds and some subtle colours and landscape features, an English beach with no sign of people, the day drawing to an end. What I am nearly sure of is that the things we find aesthetically pleasing maybe due to some random or fleeting moment or event we recall from our memories, the picture we make is the picture we are moved to take. Had I experienced this moment before ?