Bree, London, 2010

my beautiful allotment

This has been a long time in the planning.... I have wanted to publish a book for a long time, but have never felt like I was completely happy with the book I had designed. I spent months working on a big hardback (and therefore expensive) volume, but then I thought about how many of the book I have wanted to buy of photographers I admire, but couldn't afford to... so I completely revised my idea of what book I wanted to publish. Its simple, its paperback, and its cheap. So get one now ! Just click the button below....

Oh yes... Here is my latest self-portrait. Influenced by katy Grannan.

Katy Grannan has been an influence of mine for a few years now, I first came across her work in the book Art Photography Now and was morbidly fascinated by her portrait series Poughkeepsie Road, in which she photographed individuals she had found by ads in newspapers in the area of significant events. She would meet the individuals and go alone with them to, for example, the location of a local murder and photograph them ( I originally wrote 'shoot them' but realised how wrong that sounded). Simplstically the first thing that fascinated me was her apparent fearlessness and how important that was to the theme of the portraits. That element of danger or going with a stranger to a remote place, indeed, the trust required by both parties gives a strange tension to the photographs. This reminds me of the kneejerk fear and mistrust we have in each other. Isn't that sad ? I mean, most people are decent, we all know that. It also reminded me that I need to take more risks in the development of my ideas. Grannans are so complex and multi-layered. More often that not, my photographs are snatched. I am scared of being seen (I think of it of being caught), like taking a photograph of myself is doing something wrong.

Anyway, back to Pughkeepsie Road.... The awkwardness one can feel with a stranger is both displayed in the stiff poses adopted by the sitters and contradicted by the openness of nudity in shots such as Angie and Mike, private property... So many things appeal to me about these portraits. The inherent americana, the dull, dank weather, the blueish greens and sharp large format clarity, but mostly the blossoming of an idea into something affecting. Something I haven't stopped thinking about for years, and that I believe has made me a better photographer, although I still need to put a lot more that I have learnt from her into practice.

A more recent series that I saw in The Photographer's Gallery, London is Another Woman Who Died in Her Sleep, here, Grannan depicts the same person, Nicole, in various Northwestern landscapes and interiors. Grannan photographed Nicole over a period of 3 years after approaching her on a street corner. In every picture Nicole looks like a differnt person. It is this transformation, performance that is at the core of this series.

Look up these series for more info, but the point is, both of these series relate to my own self portraiture. The sense of isolation, the scars left on a place by intense emotion and the need for transformation, acting and unselfconscious abandon possible in front of a camera with no photographer but oneself. The trust I can only have in myself to capture my essence and my pain and joy is an important element of my work

.

These types of pictures are also the antithesis of the photos I dislike most. The ubiquetous self-portraits (and indeed other photos) with absolutely no intention other than to flatter the taker/model. A picture that says nothing leaves me cold. Most fashion photography leaves me cold.

Even if the meaning in a particular photograph isn't clear, it is always clear whether or not there is one.

Next, a few examples of flickr contacts who do just that. Loud and clear.

It's time for a change.....

Romance in Durango

Because I have been working away in France for most of the summer, I have not had time to give my photography the attention I want to, but it has been a good chance for me to reflect on what I want from it, and where I want to go with my work. I won't bore you with all the details here, but I am ready to take my work very seriosuly again. I am freshly energised and full of ideas !

This shot represents for me a return to the passion I had for photography at the intensest period of self-portraiture.

This is an image composed of two separate photographs and worked in photoshop CS2 to produce this final artwork.

The images I used were both taken during a recent holiday in Andalucia, in the beautiful hill town of Vejer de la Frontera....

I was asked today on my flickr site why I didn't just take this photo of myself in this place if that is how I wanted it to look..... well the truth is, I use a lot of composites in my work, because often I am in the situation that I was here, in that I was wlking around a town with my sister and friend, snapping away at great streets and locations, and it wasn't until later I realised while scrolling through the images I had shot that I wanted to create a self-portrait in this place. I couldn't go back to the location I had shot, because of understandably impatient co-tourists, so I stopped where I was and took the shot for the 'self' pit of the picture, careful to make sure the light was on the right side.


I knew I could combine the two images later, with careful layering and masking, as well as manipulations of colour balance and dodging and burning.


Various other manipulations were done to tie the whole thing together, I adjusted the hue of the sky so that it matched my dress and added my own hair from another picture to get the sense of movement, as if I am whipping my head around to glare back as I run away down the quiet street. As you cans ee, I also flipped it, it just felt right that way...


This is a return to me putting a lot of work into an image to create a picture that I am completely happy with, and it was great to do again....

Now I am home, I will be undertaking shoots like this again, starting today, the sun is out, and I have a new lens to play with.

Oh, by the way, this was taken with my point and shoot, a Panasonic Lumix, with a lovely little Leica lens. I found the inability to shoot manual and the subsequent inability to correct the images in RAW really limiting, but all considering, I think it is a great little camera and I am quite surprised it could be used to create an image like this.

New blog !

Until now this blog has been very much a place to post my photos, and keep them somewhere I can direct potential clients and interested galleries to see work without the 'extra stuff' on flickr, including all my 'snaps' that I don't necessarily consider my artwork.

BUT... I have decided to start blogging here now too :) I am going to start adding my musings on my own work and that of others and my thoughts on art, photography, equipment and inspirations.

So welcome, I hope you enjoy reading !

le miroir

seventeen

Revelry

dirt

I am very pleased to announce that this image has been used on the cover of a book ! The book is called Dirt Sandwich and it is a book of poety by the American poet Linda Annas Ferguson, published by Press 53. I am very proud :) See here for the cover and more information about the book... http://www.press53.com/bioLindaAnnasFerguson.html

Witness

Saturday Sighed

come here with me

settle down, from the morning

pin up

carpe diem

The Social

heathen

now.

The Coming : Part I

Hallelujah

where you were

still

east of eden

to wherever

Softness

The Secret

shelter from the storm

candid

the edge of town

morning

I believe in a promised land

Civil War

Flock

Bradys in the Woods

yes (ter) day

north country

two lifetimes

into the wild

faith

the meadow meeting place

one evening in May

a fine balance

small worlds

doppelganger

the way

where we travel in dreams

the kind of girl who would eat the apple

electricity

black dog

talamh glas

sleepwalk

a taste of whats to come

Little Green

take heed the western wind