It seems as if it’s been hard to move on the web this last week without stumbling on somebody (rightly) mouthing off about the latest issue of Newsweek, which has as its cover story “Losing Afghanistan” across the whole world, except in the USA where there is some fluff on Annie Liebowitz’s family with the headline “My Life in Pictures”.
There are implications in this so plain to see that it’s easy just to present the covers juxtaposed and say “look” and leave it at that. So it’s very refreshing to see that the excellent political/photography/photojournalism blog Bag News Notes has a much deeper look into the issues and implications including much on the fact that Liebowitz’s late partner, Susan Sontag, was perhaps the last century’s most widely respected theorizer on photography and renowned for her avoidance of the glare of publicity.
Two of my photos - this one and this one - have been selected for inclusion in the Mobformat gallery show, part of the biennial Format festival of photography in Derby.
Here are my most interesting pictures on Flickr (as judged by Flickr’s rather mysterious “interestingness” ranking).
This Friday night/Saturday morning, at 12.35am, make sure you’re watching BBC2. It’s the last episode of a TV show called Blast, a magazine programme aimed at under-25s and covering art, dance, film, music and writing. From what I saw of it last week, it is quite inspirational (and nothing like the “yoof” label might lead to you to expect).
And the show also contains a feature on the great people I met at last week’s Noise art show at the Liverpool Biennial, part of Noise Festival, and will hopefully include the rather beautiful and heartwarming surprise that met us once we got to the pub (congratulations Kate & Jack!)
There may even be a little interview with me on what I thought of the art show. Although I’m sure that part will end up on the cutting-room floor once they realise my age (hell, the BBC won’t even let me post on the Blast message board because I fit their profile of a potential paedophile, only hanging out on the board because I want to lure unsuspecting 24 year-olds into my evil lair).
Oh, and on beforehand is a documentary on the Fall (from 11.35), so I know you’ll all be watching anyway.
PS. You can also watch the show via the Blast website.
A new set of photos, inspired by my kids’ way of looking at the world (the first photo was taken by one of them): Light of my Life
Interesting to hear that at the Liverpool Biennial there is an exhibition called Virtual Grizedale - since 1998, I’ve had the only Virtual Grizedale on the web!
As promised, another set of photos - from the Auto da Fe Freenoise gig.
Maciej Dakowicz has some great late-night photos of Cardiff. Plus great photos of India, Cambodia, China, Poland and beyond, but I especially love the Cardiff ones as they inspire me to try more of the same myself - from time to time, I’ve captured snippets of the late-night street-life in Sheffield, but usually a little half-heartedly (I usually have to be at least as drunk as my subjects if I’m to get the courage to roam the streets at night with over £1k worth of camera wrapped around my wrist, but I do occasionally catch stuff like the Saveloy Girls).
Thanks to Paul Russell and the Street Photography Forum for the pointer.
I watched Taxi Driver last night. Last time I saw it was over 15 years ago, and I remembered very little about it. Great film, especially the cinematography. I’m not sure how much this just reflects my current interest and frames of reference, but the photographic style of the movie seemed very much influenced by American street photographers. All of those hazy, sleazy neon-lit night shots made me think of any number of different things. A lot of the scenes of political ralleys put me in mind of Gary Winogrand’s book Public Relations, but most of all the general grainy night-time feel, and in particular the bloody crime scene towards the end, made me think of the (much earlier) photos of Weegee.
Update: OK, I was just watching TV for a couple of hours (the longest in months) and I realised that everything on there also looks like various forms of photography I’ve been looking at recently. Realised that I also haven’t watched any movies for a long time. Hence, this “Weegee influence” is probably more a reflection of a change in the way I look at things than it is specific to this movie.
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