A few weeks ago I went to the Photographers’ Gallery for a lecture by the Dutch photographer Hans Aarsman. I’d never heard of Aarsman before, but the description piqued my interest, particularly the line "if, and how, artistic ambitions, aesthetics and useful photography can coincide". I’m so glad I went! Aarsman described his journey through photography, and I found strong echoes with my own feelings and development as a photographer.
Category Archives: Art
Working Nights photobook
Six months ago, I published a book of my photos. Then I got caught up in a whirl of job-change-commute-business, and for six months most of the books remained in boxes in my hallway.
Well, I finally got around to putting up a web-page where people can order copies of the book. Please buy Working Nights here.
Empty Space
I just got my own radio show!
The first “Empty Space” will broadcast on Sheffield Live next Tuesday from 10am until noon (GMT). It will continue every week, either in that slot or at the same time on Friday.
Continue reading Empty Space
Leonard Cheshire art show
I will have three of my photos exhibited in an art show this weekend. The show is organised by Leonard Cheshire, an organisation who provide support for people with a disability, and part of the proceeds will go towards this cause.
The show is at:
Mickley Hall
Mickley Lane
Totley
Sheffield
S17 4HE
Opening is on Friday night (£6 tickets) and the exhibition continues on Saturday and Sunday (free entry, donations welcome). Click here to see a flyer with full details.
Other local artists will also be showing their work, including Pete McKee, Joe Scarborough, Trevor Neal and Geoff Kersey.
Talking Trough Lollies
I saw this in the latest edition of Private Eye:
I’d love to get my hands on some of these things and “modify” the script. Imagine the fun you could have leaving them in random bar toilets…
Photobooks for sale: Ponderosa and Party People
I am planning to publish two books of my photos. This is something I’ve been thinking of for some time now, but I’m opening up my house and showing off my photos as part of Open Up Sheffield open studios event, and I want to have a few things available for sale.
I am going to use Photobox for the books – so they will not be of quite the kind of quality of a properly published and bound photobook, but from what I’ve seen they are pretty good for an off-the-shelf type product. I would like to do more than the standard 20 pages, but I really don’t think I can afford to at the moment.
The first book will feature images and text from my Ponderosa (traces of crime) project.
The second book will feature a selection of my as-yet un-named (suggestions welcome) project which I provisionally call Party People.
I have one small problem, which is the complete and utter lack of any funds, so I hope to be able to get a few pre-orders in to help pay for this. So… I am offering the book to any of my blog-readers at a special reduced rate of £24 per book (or approximate $/€ equivalent) – this should just about cover my costs including postage to you, but because there is a 2-for-1 offer on it means I get an additional book for each one ordered. I intend to sell the books for £35 at the open-studio event.
So… please email me or leave a comment here if you are interested in buying a copy.
I need to move quickly on this – I would like numbers confirmed by next week (22nd) and payment (Bank transfer or Paypal) by 25th.
Women and Abu Ghraib
Bee Flowers’ new exhibition Liberation – Women and Abu Ghraib is simultaneously beautiful, shocking, funny, wonderful, terrifying, thought-provoking and incredibly insightful, everything that good art should be.
Washtock & Beyond
I have my first ever photo exhibition opening next week – Washtock & Beyond, live music photos from Sheffield. Opening night is next Wednesday (14th February – bring your valentine!) at the Washington, 79 Fitzwilliam Street, Sheffield S1 4JP. Map here.
The exhibition will continue until early May.
Dan Mueck
Following my last post, Guy very kindly sent me this composite:
My Other (Creepy) Celebrity Look-Alike
I just got a strange and slightly disturbing email, from somebody I barely know, accompanied by a photograph of a severed head. The email said:
no doubt you have seen this or not
I have been following a poster on the subway all month thinking, that face is familiar….
coincidence-no??
At first, I was at a loss to work out what coincidence he was referring to. The head in the photo looked a little like me, although not so much that I would have jumped up and said “it’s my long lost twin”. Then it hit me: the head in the photo looked a little like me. More specifically, like a particular photo of me, the one I have been using on the home-page of my photography website, and also as an avatar on Flickr and other various forums I’m signed up to.
So, compare and contrast, Mask II by Ron Mueck, and Self-portrait while sleeping by Dan Sumption:
Update: see also this composite.