Life Less Literary

Tonight I taught my first photography workshop in Wath-on-Dearne. I had been dreading it - was on the verge of panic attacks last night - but actually it went very smoothly, the kids were wonderful (there were only 4 of them - I had been prepared for 2 or 3 times that number) and everyone had a good time. It’s been a massive confidence boost to me, managing to get this under my belt.

We started the session with a quick slide-show of about a dozen of my photos, then I showed them in about 30 pictures from the National Portrait Gallery Photographic Portrait Prize over the last four years. I got them to to talk in detail about each picture - what it told them about the person pictured, and how different things like the background, clothing, possessions, pose, framing, angle, lighting etc. could all affect our understanding of the person shown, and could add up to a story about that person.

Then I got them to split into two groups of two, and take photos of one another, thinking about some of those different elements and how they could be used. I just let them use the cameras on fully automatic settings, with flash (although a couple of them worked out how to turn the flash off).

Then I mixed up the groups, and gave each group two halogen desk lamps to play with, switched off the main lights and got them to play with lighting.

Finally, we downloaded the photos and looked at them.

I’m really looking forward to next week now! And on Sunday, I’m giving another workshop to a local Muslim girls’ group.

Several more photography commissions rolling in - I’ve got a conference to do on Friday, and it looks like I’ll have another party to do next week. Suddenly, all systems are go!

It’s funny how photography assignments are like buses, you wait ages for one to come along, then loads appear all at once.

It’s been a little like that recently. December and January were barren months for photography, then at the end of January I got my photo exhibition
and a few other little things.

A few days ago I got asked to photograph somebody’s birthday party, then today, all sorts of exciting emails & stuff. First of all, this lot arrived at the door, courtesy of Amazon’s fastest ever “Super Saver” delivery (approx. 5 working hours):

Then I got an email asking me to photograph an art event on Thursday (for money!), another email from Vice Magazine asking to use some photos I took at one of their Vice Kills gigs (for no money, but what the hell, I owe them a few and they ended up linking directly to the photos on my site, which is nice). And then I sold my first framed print (this one). In between times, I got an email from somebody saying they wanted to model for me (I don’t really have anything for models to do, but it was a nice offer anyway).

Not bad going for one day. Let’s see what tomorrow holds…

I was recently interviewed by the members of the Sheffield Flickr Group.

The interview is online here.

Last night was the opening of my photo exhibition at the Washington. There was a fairly good turn out, almost all other photographers.

First of all Lloyd arrived all the way from Leeds. We had a really good chat about the photography workshops I’m running next month, Lloyd had heaps of useful advice and I feel far more confident about how I’m going to approach the workshops now.

Next Christiane turned up fresh from a talk at the Site Gallery by Jerwood winner Daniel Gustav Cramer.  Jacqui and Steve turned up, as did Paula (polly.jane) from the Sheffield Flickr group . Geraldine arrived with her family, only to find out that kids aren’t allowed in the Washington, so she sent them home and came in herself. And I finally got to have a proper chat with Moses/0742 (who I have photographed before, but only managed to talk to in brief drunken fits) and his friend Steve Withington, AKA Carlos Barcode. Steve and Christiane seemed to get into some sort of very heated debate over whether one needs formal art training to be an art photographer, or something like that (I didn’t catch very much of it), which I would like to have got involved in but I was busy talking to half-a-dozen other people. Moses told me all about the making of his Fargate video, and a bit about his past - working with the Human League, burning a million quid with the KLF…

Nort and Mark T turned up, and around about that time, things started getting a little fuzzy and I only have pictoral memories to remind me of the rest of the evening.

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.

Thanks to Marcin for design the poster and flyers.

I’m in a(nother) band! I’ve joined up with the Tajalli Vortex as their full-time bass-player. Great though it is to be able to play structured music & recognisable tunes, I’ve really missed the freedom of free-improv and it’s so refreshing just being able to go into a room with three other musicians and to have to listen intently and survive on your wits.

We had our first jam on Tuesday, all of which was recorded and a couple of segments of which made it onto our new demo tape (available on the audio vault).

We also have a gig lined up: 26th April, in Sheffield, we’re supporting, and also playing with, Damo Suzuki, former singer with Can. I’m very excited!

Well, this year took a while to get started but now, all of a sudden, it’s all kicking off. I already mentioned the Washington exhibition and Open Up event that I’m going to be involved in. In the last 24 hours, a couple more possibilities have come it.

Firstly, I got an email from fellow Sheffield photographer Andy Brown. He is organising a show “6*6″ - six Sheffield photographers each showing six photos, and with each photographer choosing a different subject matter or genre. Andy will be showing documentary photos, and also involved so far are Chris Saunders (music portraits), Denzil Watson (travel) and Stevlor (nudes). Andy emailed me along with 7 other local photographers to see if any of us were interested in making up the final two places. It remains to be seen whether I’ll make the cut, but this is something I’d really like to be involved in.

Just as I was getting over all this excitement, another email comes in, this time from Maramalade Magazine. A couple of months ago, they announced that they would be putting together an issue entirely composed of submissions via their Myspace page. This made quite a hit with the mainstream media looking for the latest Web2.0 bandwagon, and I sent in a few photos although I imagined they would get lost among a tidal wave of submissions. But no, I have been “selected through to the next stage of the myspace issue” - which is obviously no guarantee of being in the issue, but at least it means I managed to cut it through all the dross and now will at least get a fair crack at it. 45Mb (!) of high-res photos now winging its way to them via email (!)

My biggest problem now is finding a way to finance my burgeoning printing costs (I just had to spend £50 on my latest set of 12×8s) and framing (I don’t even want to contemplate that - I need to frame at least 10, preferably 15-20 photos to get a good base for exhibiting, and I’ve been quoted between £10 and £30 per frame & matte).

Some exciting new photo-news. Firstly, I have been asked to hang some of my pictures at The Washington. This is quite an honour: the pub is the centre of Sheffield’s hyperactive music scene (it used to be owned by Pulp drummer Nick Banks, and ex-Pulp members can often be seen in there, along with various Monkeys of one sort or another) and has just taken down an exhibition of very fine musical portraits by local photo-whizz Chris Saunders. At the moment I’m frantically getting photos printed and framed so that I can install some in there, I hope, early next week.

I’ve also decided to participate in this year’s Open-Up Sheffield. What this means is that I will open my house up for people to come and inspect my photos (again, I need to print lots to stick up on the wall, or at least matte them for browsing). Hopefully I’ll sell a few, or at least get some commissions out of it.

Finally, for some months now I’ve been touting Photobox as the place to get photos printed (admittedly it’s not the best, but it is among the best of the bargain photo-printers: cheap, quick and pretty good (and consistent) quality. As I’ve uploaded so many photos there recently for printing, I thought I’d shift a few of them to a public gallery. So here it is, my own personalised photo-shop, you can buy some of my prints and other photo-based gift products here direct from Photobox.

By the way, if you are thinking of signing up to Photobox, please email me first. I have some special offers which means that you & I will both get some free prints when you join.

As part of my preparation for Richard III next month, I have been immersing myself in the source material. Including several viewings of the movie versions by both Lawrence Olivier and Ian McKellen. The McKellen version, set in an imaginary 1930s England of civil wars and facism (close to the England that may have transpired had Edward VIII not abdicated on his marriage to Mrs Simpson), is stunningly beautiful in its choice of eccentric locations (as well as in the costumes and props used). Every scene brings on a new and mouth-watering piece of architecture. I have just been reading more about the locations used on Ian McKellen’s website, where I saw this:

Earls Court Exhibition Center is frequently used for rock concerts and opera but no one has ever shown interest in the bowels of the building. The barren, concrete lower levels provided the behind-the-scenes area of the arena where Richard held a Nuremberg style rally. Soviet and Italian inspired murals proclaiming a new order of prosperity, productivity and full employment decorated the walls of the green room.

When I was 17, and was acting as photographer for a new Richmond College newspaper alongside reporter Andrew Gilligan, Andrew and I visited Earls Court station. He told me about the elaborate network of tunnels that existed underneath the station, and together we sneaked inside them while the railway staff weren’t looking. The tunnels really are quite incredible, an underground city. We wondered around them lost for some 30 minutes, dodging into alcoves whenever we heard footsteps approaching, before finally ducking through an unmarked door and finding ourselves in the exhibition space, right in the middle of the Earls’ Court Boat Show (making a significant saving of some £20 on entrance fees). Truly an experience to remember.

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.