Reflections

This afternoon I hobbled painfully to the NHS 'walk' in centre, Why do they put a walk in centre in the middle of an industrial estate away from any kind of public transport? Is it like some kind of weird joke on the 'differently' able with no cars. After (suprisingly speedy) hour wait the nurse told me that Id been walking too much - no sh*t! and that the painkillers I was usuing wouldnt work on me - fan-friggin-tastic! (Apparently this certain kind of pain killers only works on 2/3's of the population - whilst the rest arnt supposed feel pain or something?) Needless to say I want in the best of forms on collapsing into bed arriving home, in an emotional (frustrated) state. So I aplogise for my rant and grumblings, but it helps...

To the photo...! The workgroup this afternoon kinda flummoxed me a little, I needed some new Idea's but then thats easier said than done, as Im sure all of you know. Im happy with the ones in the mirror, although there only so much you can do infront of a mirror (Ill let you interpret that how you like) So I thought the thing linking them together was reflection, a few idea's emerged. One was for a reflection in a store front, although on my lonesome its difficult to get the second head to toe shot, so Ill give that one a go another time, i wanted to try something in the bathroom with reflection in water - then I looked at my bathroom. A dark dingy dank hole and realised it probably wouldnt work, no joy there then.

Reminiscing on old times in a snooze, I came up with this. I wanted to try and represent memories here, which is really rather difficult. So with the aid of photos littering my wall I used these and tried to re-enact the reflection of my face from the gloss of the prints. I took one photo of the photos and another of myself. I used a mask to cut out all of my face except for the bits reflected by the photo. Those parts not masked I blurred to try and immitate the certain lack of defition in our memories.

Im not 100% on this one, also can people let me know if you cant see it on your screens.. I wanted it to appear faded. Hopefully I shall think of some more fruitful Idea's over the weekend..

Shadow of a slice of time being sliced

Whilst most were snuggled up infront of a warm tele or around a pint in a nice cosy pub, Sean Alfie and myself did a little exploring. One thing which the project has helped up (and encouraged us) to do is to take more photos, in turn Ive found myself doing a little more exploration around the city. On our ramblinging tonight we found what looked to be an old depot of some sorts. Quite interesting with chimneys towering behind. I mainly took photo's on film (I only ended up taking 4 photos - but thats not the point) so unfortunately I dont have any to stick on here at the mo.

Most of today Ive been spending developing and scanning film, and Im kicking myself a little for not taking more photos of thsi everyday task. Anyway I thought it appropriate to get a picture (indirectly) of myself taking a photo..

Guitar Hero...

Well, probs not so much to the hero...Ive been playing averagely for about 9 years or something. Im not very good to be honest, but I play it for enjoyment as opposed to 'show off.' I tend to fidget when I get bored and theres nothing better than a musical instrument to fidget with. I mainly play when watchin tv or listnin to music, its very relaxing and enjoyable. You can blast out some rage with rage or chill with some chilli peppers. (see what i did there?)

This was a bit of a bitch to photograph, to put it bluntly. In ways harder than the contact lens one. I ended up jammin the camera under my chin whilst wrapping the straps round my neck. Giving me the chance of suffocating myself in the first camera related death...

Mirror mirror on the wall

I think this may be the last in this kinda style, mainly as Ive run of idea's. Hopefully i shall think of something before the end of the project. Ah well, I think it suits the mundane-ness of most peoples morning routine.

Tomorrow i get my fish-eye back again after some deviant sole stole it! Lookin forward to havin a play with that again. Perhaps some more mundane-ness, although Ill try and push myself towards some of the ol' barty style stuff.

poker in the pub

After a bit of a long journey back from Newcastle I met up with flat-mates-to-be to a pub where we sat and played all the games we knew. Texas hold-em this time, and dispite the appreances of this hand i still lost. Oh well at least there was some nice beer to soothe the pain.

Im not quite sure how well this can tie into my project (or indeed my theme towards Roland Barthes) - well unless ol' Barty was a gambling addict... Still, I think it represents where my evenin went..

Sweeney Tom

Inspired by Annies countryside photo's I was tempted to get on my bike for a ride in the country. Unfortunately it was pretty windy so I thought best not. And went for an afternoon of procrastinating all over the internet and then to have a play with photoshop. Inspired by and add for the new film I thought Id do this little series of images. Pretty mundane once again, with a similar style to the one of my contact lens.

Vertigo

Dont look down. Today I visited Newcastle's Baltic art gallery, although there was sod all on show as they were in between exhibitions it was still interesting to photograph around the quayside in Newcastle. Ive a few more pictures from my wanderings here.

This was taken at the top of the Baltic, an old converted flour mill now a (sometimes) excellent gallery. Recently hitting the news with the rejection of some of Nan Goldins work.
Anyway, I thought this picture was a little more suitable to the Barthes theme of death my blog is joyfully morphing towards. This extentuated by the red iris at the bottom from the greedy devil, or perhaps the flames of hell - who knows? It could even be a light installation...

Another view from my day.

Just another mundane scene. One of the things you never age of - sitting on the top front of busses. Today I had the excitement of strong winds, nice relaxing little rock-a-by. This pictures less towards a Roland Barthes theme, just a mundane scene. I was thinking of perhaps trying to do some pictures even more mundane, so shockingly dull (can I use those words together?) it may be interesting - At least thats my hope...

Freeedom!

Joy at last! Got my cast buzz-sawed off today. It makes an un-nerving sound - exactly like that of the dentists. Im sure theyre typically silent but they have a little speaker with that high pitched grinding noice. More ticklish than anything. I can now feel metal in my ankle through the skin - very odd!

Im not quite sure what relation this has to Barthes. Can anyone see a puntum? or is this pure studium?

Agent of death!

I was reading Barthes, passing away the ever-so-slightly duller hours in a waiting room and heard about his references to the photographers as 'agents of death'. Classic term, I love the kind of nerdy-ness with the idea of a video gamer escaping from the games workshop to don his camera to become an 'Agent of death!!' Its like the title of a crappy spy movie. Yet I love the phrase for that. Agent of death is the relation between the photo being dead and ourselves the instigators.

Anyway, a slightly darker image. Similar to yesterdays in the slightly uncomfortable view of ourselves, yet it not being quite real. Here is a blurred (alike our mind and memories) notion of self is projected onto the wall.

This would of probably worked a little better with a wider lens, i infact used 2 pictures combined together. So its less of the first person view. I may work on it a little more to emphasis the creepyness in photoshop. But here I posted the rawest form.

Lost in time

I know this doesnt have too much relevance, but It served as kind of lesson for me relation to tagging with photo's. A while ago I saw a photo-project about a Hotel lost in time in Bratislava. Built in the '70's and unchanged since. His recent photo's are like a step back in time, like watching an old film.

Anyway, Annies blog reminded me off it, yet i hadnt had it bookmarked. So began my search, bookmarks, history and all that. To google - I knew it was a hotel in bratislava although I couldnt remember which on or by whom it was photographed. To google, eventually I found the name of th hotel in a travel site, yet even typing that (along with a hoard of other key words) brought nothing up. Eventually I found it through a blog someone created about it. I wonder how these people expect to make a name for themselves when they cant publisice themselves with just the few simple keywords.

Thought Id show the link with you, it also has some interesting portraits and documentary style photographs in.

Homewards journey.

Two today, as I made my way back to Newcastle - despite the signage. Although I thought it was quite interesting because apparently the train calls in both at Aberdeen AND Aberdeen. Joy. Also the first class passengers are directed to the back of the train, usually reserved for the 'second class' people of society. (as we all know people with less money are not worth the same as those with) Not that Im a socialist or anything of course....

Second is me copying up notes on the train, I found the 'virtual' image in the window quite interesting. Im sure there is a reference to Barthes somewhere in this, although I shall need to re-read it before I can comprehend trying to repeat anything. Nevertheless I find the notion of these kind of reflections quite interesting. You see yourself - yet your looking through it to the outside - the real/physical. Quite like I imagine a ghost would look like. Theres another image on my flickr which I actually prefer a little I think - but it didnt really lie within my POV style within this project.

Onwards tomorrow, and my cast comes off! Whooppee!

damned dirty dishes

Ritey, firstly the picture, a little bit of an oxymoron. A scene both famliar and unfamiliar to probably every student. Unfortunately Ive had to resort to an 18mm on a Nikon digital which means Ive lost a lot of the view, a bit of a shame as to the right there was a huge pile of dirty dishes and to the left was another huge pile of drying plates. Needless to say I washed only my plate for my meal. Btw, i dont use domestos to clean my dishes (that would probably be slight overkill) Anyway, a mundane scene one again, theres certainly no punctum in this babey.

In the long term Im not 100% how Im doing with this project, still in two minds. One thing is Im aiming for the mundane alongside the first person pov, yet I feel theres more I can do. Problem is is with finding photographers to find influence from. Google doesnt offer much help, nor does wiki or flickr - the most I get is some video games. And despite this being nottingham I think I may run a little risk carrying a gun in front of me....boy that would be interesting trying to explain that to the police. Anyway If anyone happens to know of any photographers that would be worth checking out? Many thanks.

Banality of life once again

In a continuance with the theme of general banality of everyday life, taking a moment out at Nero to converse over future shelter I think the three expressions here capture the average lone person you meet in the coffee shop. On the left we have Sean, the coffee addict there for the fix to prepare (or relieve) oneself from a busy day, there is then James, there for the crossword/reading. Alone taking a little time out to perhaps escape problems in life, or again just to relax and take a so called breather. Then there is Alfie, contemplatory, perhaps hit by some sudden bad news and in shock heads for the warmth of the coffee house. Or perhaps he is in the coffee house as it is better than returning home... Of course these are all entirely fictional - any relation to real life is purely fictional...

I feel this has worked quite well in showing the mundane banality of everyday life. Barthes may drop this into the Studium category, that which is generally unprovoking. It doesnt leap and out poke you but I think this is what makes the image work moreso. Hopefully Ill try and continue with this...

Unfortunatly - the fool that I am - I didnt book out a lens for tomorrow onwards, this means that there will be less off a fish eye effect as Ill be resorting to 18mm on a 35mm. I shall try and get a wide angle for a film, although that will pose a little bit of a problem for getting images onto this blog. Anyway, I shall think of something - the best lessons are those learnt from our mistakes!

Tom the cryptographer

Not quite as interesting as the last, but still it reflects my day. Deciphering Barthes camera lucida, 5 hours later with my head lying on the desk, bleeding from the ear i decided to give it a little rest for the day.

Ive still be trying to develop my theme a little more, I feel it seems to be lacking something. Perhaps I could go about more with the constructed images alike yesterdays attempt? hmm (excuse my while i brainstorm here) although what to photograph, what to photograph. Perhaps more research...

My lens

This one was quite a challenge, but Im quite happy with the result. Returning to the mundane everyday actions I chose (attempted) to photograph me putting a contact lens. I pleased with how it connects with the viewer as if your getting poken in the eye with this plastic lens. Its nice to defy the laws of physics every now or then - even if it was cheating a little.

Not exactly an off the cuff reportag image, there was a little though and time in construction in this image, see if you can guess how it was done first...

..nope?

Well, I began with sitting the camera on the bottom of the mirror, on timer, that gave me the picture of myself you see in the mirror. Secondly I whacked the camera on a tripod and posed my hands infront, this is everything outside the mirror - including my hands. Then came the tough bit, photoshopping the buggers together. Basically I used the layer masks on the layer of the reflection, for speed and ease I used the magnetic polygon lasoo tool to select what I wanted in the mask and deleted the rest. That gave a few jaggy edges and the lens was a bit of a nightmare what with the reflections and the such. Half an hour of cloning, masking and unmasking and dodging/burning and we have the above...Im not sure if that last bit made to much sense.

Take a break and watch the world go by

Today has been more of an experimentation with the fish-eye as well as looking more into the angles. Continuing my exploration into mundane scenes Ive tried to expand on the first person mode. My hope is to remove the frames from the images - as it were - and for the viewer feel as they are in my shoes. The camera acting as a window as opposed to a mirror.

Above, the first is of myself drinking coffee. Something students to a lot of, in a busy day of house hunting and trying to decide where the votes lie with friends I take a break and watch the world go by. Second is my view of watching a film in bed. I included the pillow to try to make it look less like a photo of a tv and more like a view of a tv; if that makes any sense!

Tomorrow, im going to try the one an hour image. Hopefully that should create more of a document of my life. I shall attempt to take it exactly on the hour as to remove and choice of my view point. Any criticisms would be really appreciated or idea's for perspectives I could try... :)

Simple complexity

Following todays useful seminar I decided to continue along my first person direction, displaying the world through my eye's. The idea of mundane scenes, repetitive and typical of our everyday, appeals to me. Putting forward these images and views in a solid format makes us realise the complexity of our lives. High level processing within our brain solving in incredibly complex tasks unbeknown to us.

I chose this image from a few as I feel it is the closest to that which the brain receives from the optic nerve. In future I hope to try and experiment with a few more angles. I may need to research a little more for that though.

Also I rented out a fish-eye 10.5mm lens which I have mixed feelings about. As soon as I picked it up it was a nice toy I felt, bizarre happenings as the lens distorted my world. Characatured faces, walls folding in upon themselves and distorted distances, its easy to create visually entertaining images. However Im looking for a little more than that. The distortion hugely evident in curved corners, this is where I find it departs from creating true representations of my world, the field of view may be more representative, although do the distortions distort reality too much? I shall experiment this week and see where my lens takes me.

A day..

The past day has been a little more research, slowly and hopefully progressing closer to something a little more defined. Visually brainstorming Ive just been documenting my day, although I dont feel there is quite enough structure and depth to the images. Hopefully a little more research and tomorrow crit. session may offer some direction.

Towards the above imagery; The first two are very flat, documenting an everyday activity, cooking. The third is the view from my window, which has seen wasters wasting time, police tearing around courners after tear-aways, spirited students stumbling home, kids kidding around, loners alone. People watching.

The third a representation of my state of consciousness as I stumble to the toilet in the middle of the night. Not just an out of focus, unlevel, underexposed image!

Research

Since taking the idea of a photo being your view of reality to the extreme with views from an obvious first person Ive decided to look a little more into documentary photographers and into others blogs for a little inspiration into subject matter. I feel the project slowly materialising, now for that idea...

On the topic of photography I stumbled on an interesting article on the nature and ethics of documentary photographs taken to tell a story, the ethics of composition. Does moving an object in or out of the frame or arranging a group of people constitute a true documentary of real life events? Or if this wasnt done, would the image hold the same power or tell the same story? How much strength does the photographer truly hold when commanding our perceptions? The infamous image of the excecution of a viet cong prisoner perfectly represents this, staged around the lens.

For all those researching like me, looking at blogs, there are a decent amount of quality sites here. Interesting ones Ive found;

• 60 Sources of Inspiration - for all those with brain freezes
• Photopreneur with some useful articles like how to keyword.
• Abandoned Britian is a great urban exploration site with some fantastic images of degraded buildings.
• As for digital manipulation to the extreme, dechobek on deviant art has created some quite surreal images, as is outafocus
  

Ill leave it at that at the moment, back to the workbook..

Hello. Im on top of the world.

In this modern world there is no escape from the chains of technology. On top of Mount Sinai, where long ago a man resited a set of commands another converses. An all too familiar grip of social and professional pressures that reside in all of us. After hiking up a large mountain, this gentleman feels the need to ring someone. One wonders, who is it he is calling? Why is he calling them?

Another interesting thing I noticed travelling around is the importance of mobile phones to lives spanning all cultures. Small towns without say, a newsagent or chemist would have a mobile phone store. People would have not one, but two or even three phones. People who can barely afford food, bedouins living in tents in the desert, children in the most basic of housing.

Questions how much of a aid a mobile really is..

Through my view

Any documentary photograph is taken with the perception of the photographer, with varying degrees. With this image Im taking this to the extreme to represent my world with a first person stance in an obvious manner. From this I shall hopefully explore - with the aid of a camera - a little more into my everyday activities in an attempt to create a visual kind of diary.

When photographing this image the first thing I did was use a wide angle lens to recreate the field of view. The lighting conditions here were quite low meaning any flash used would illuminate the image, but a black band would appear on the bottom. As a result I decided to go for a more natural image, through controlling the ISO. This created a lot of grain, however the lighting is more as one would see it and I feel it adds to the mood a little more.

Building a future?

Bratislava is an interesting city; heavily hit by communism one side of the city is a sea of tower blocks stretching as far as the eye can see along the Danube to the horizon. Despite there efforts to bring the city into the western modern world (alike Prague) however not in the smartest way. Half of the historic old centre was massacred by a 6 lane motorway whilst endless tower blocks rise taller, as if they were to improve the city in someway.

Ive visited twice and unfortunately the eccentricity in its past is really what made the city, however street cafe's and un-neccessarily high prices smother the charm. As a result this is a city halfway inbetweet Budapest and Bucharest.

These boots are made for walking...

It just over a month since I fell myself off a wall onto my little ankle, breaking it. For the first couple of days I ignored it, then after the swelling and purpleness went to hospital where Ive had a number of casts, a little bit of meccano screwed in and now a nice Blue thing and a special boot on the bottom. I no longer have a child like fondness of jumping in large puddles..

10 days left to go...

Curiousity?

Heres something a little different, in relation to the culture of the Middle Eastern and Western cultures. Differences in attitudes are vast between the Islam based and christian based cultures. This highlights the attitudes towards woman. Looking at the subject out of context, the woman seems to be typically dressed in attire which would attract no more attention that anyone else walking down the street.

Yet the attention here is far greater than closer to home, why? Look closer, thats right her shoulders are uncovered, a scene rare in the south of Turkey.

Graffiti

Its been a little bit of a quiet day photography wise, spent most of the day sorting photos onto flickr. This ones just a random bit of Grafitti. Im not one for the whole 'tagging' scene which is neither creative or of any interest. But its these little subtle things around town that catch your sight. I am a fan of Banksy's work, despite not being original, it has brought a new perspective to grafitti. Dull expanses of brick have a sudden intrigue, in my opinion this should be encouraged.

Soviet imagery

Today I bought Propaganda , a collection of images taken during Lenins era at the time Russia was known as the USSR. An interesting collection of images taken by photographers clearly pressured by the regime, yet still showing creativity. The gritty black and white images are a

curious look into the power of the state at the time.

The above is not an old photo of 20/30 years, but one taken half a year ago. Whilst Prague is rapidly westernising there are parts of the city which still show its past quite clearly, namely the train station. Decor unchanged for a number of years, the station feels as if you have stepped back in time a number of decades. With this image I wanted to present the surroundings in a dated fashion and so quality I focussed less on. ISO increased to maximum on a compact produced a high amount of grain, whilst a flash captured dust in the air.

Insentient beings

Wandering around busy area's of town, people lost in their thought wander in a daze (admittedly including myself) around Nottingham, walking from a to b with there personality on vacation for a brief time. You only know when your in one of these trance's when your released as you walkin into someone or infront of a car/bus/tram.

This week Im experimenting a little with different theme's in an attempt to visually brainstorm Idea's towards a lengthier project to the end of the month. With the above I attempt to tell a little about life, one of the little nuances I notice.

In the rain

The continuous rain today reminded me of this picture or a poor soul wander alone in the rain. I wish I had their umbrella today! Sean and myself spent a long while running around getting soaked to the bone. Nothing beats the determined staminour of the British weather. I swear Ive been dryer sitting in a bath...

This photograph is actually taken in the same place as the last image form my travels. It rained for about two weeks in eastern europe, and somehow in stead of a waterproof jacked I brough with me waterproof trousers.

Health

I found this a little ironic, having health and nutritional value on a packet of Tesco value mince-meat. I sure that if you were health conscious you'd stay well away from this hazardous 'meat.' Just to let you know I did eat some and I am still alive...

Last term my meals mainly involved two steps; Remove from packaging and Place in microwave. My new years resolution is not to have another microwave meal, although cheap mince probably isnt the best place to start, at least its a start!

Travels - oneaday

Ive decided to grace you with a few of my holiday snappies, just the one a day to complement my daily diary. Last summer I went on a trip from Prague to Cairo over land with a brief stop over at Morrocco and Spain. The above is from a small town in rural Czech. Repub, the mist adds depth giving some layers to the image. I feel it relates to the changes of culture over the years. Interestingly enough its also where they filmed Hostel...

Another picture

Dont say I dont treat you...

I love the hand written signes, a little more care than most chain-stores. Care you dont see too ofter, I swear this shop wont of changed much in the past 50 odd years. Taken in the Lace Market.

Misrepresented representations

Welcome to my blog and the first post. This is from a project from Nottingham Trent university of misrepresenting peoples views of Nottingham. When people think of in relation to Nottingham, they think Robin Hood and gun crime. So I thought Id try and look at the city from a different kind of look, a little like the smaller touristy cities with bright neon signs, independent sellers and unhit by the modern captialist wave.