new camera

Been a while since Ive posted last, since then I have a new camera. A beautiful Hasselblad 500cm with an 80mm 2.8 zeiss planar lens. These are some of the results from the first couple of rolls through it.

advertisements

Just been havin a look at advertisements and their construction in relation to the product. Came across this light-hearted bit of photoshop trickery.

Addictions

This term my project is directing towards addictions with a certain focus upon the more socially acceptable addictions. Typically, addiction has related to physical (chemical) addictions to substances such as heroin or cocaine, changing cultures have posed alternative, psychological addictions. These psychological addictions tend to be more socially acceptable, to certain extents.
Addictions differ from obsessions when the subjects experiances symptoms when withdrawn from the activity in questions. This maybe anxiety or aggressive behaviours when seperated.

Objects originally designed to assist with life may become sources of addiction through overusage and desensitisation to their original effect, whilst the mind continues to seek the original psychological experiance of the first use. For example the video game, occasional gameplay may produce feelings of excitement at times in the gamer, however if played excessivelythe brain seeks an experiance to a marginally higher degree than the previous.

Im hoping to try and look at the types of modern addictions whilst also looking at what makes it an addiction..

Berber

Its been a little time since this blog has seen an update, Ive wanted to try and keep this as fresh as possible. I dont expect many people to read it, but its nice to just look back on - as a kind of diary if y0u like.

Today scanned in some negs from my travels from last summer and came across this which I had completely forgotten about. Its from my travels last year, overland from Prague to Malaga with a cheat of a flight rom Cairo to Casablanca. Anyway, the sitter stayed in the same hostel and he wanted me to photograph him getting a 'cut throat cut', he was american and so this was rather novel (if not intimidating) After casing a few joints, enough trust was found to go into this place.
I was pleased with how this one came out, it rather reminds me of Alex Webbs serious which was also on Istanbul.

Gogol Bordello!

After seeing Afies rather delicious photos of park hill flats and makin me jealous, thought id exact my revenge with some pictures of Gogol Bordello.

These are the best of a small bunch from their performance the other night at the Carling Academy, Newcastle. Party is a very good way to explain the ectatic atmosphere, a fantastic concert with Mr Hutz exuding energy. I managed to stop dancing momentarily to snap these couple of pictures.

Im afraid ive been working in film for the past few few weeks which may explain the lack of postings on here. Hopefully should get something on here in the next week or so...

Place

Well its been a little bit of a while since Ive posted here. Not quite sure if anyone still looks at these, but anyway - it'll serve as an 'aid d memoir.' Since my last postings Ive completed another project and NTU - Place.

For this I looked at the ironic juxtaposition of the presupposed and realised reality in relation to place name. Examples being such as 'Temple' above, semiotics lying within the discarded liquor bottle and the references to escapism within the telephone box.

I used a mix of large and medium format for this project, which in itself was quite an experiance. First time on the 5x4" view camera with the increased difficulty of slide film It was a relief to get a few nice exposures. The stress at times did soon pay off with the beauty in the colour and detail with the transparencies, although I may take a little breather and go back to medium format for the time-being.

Onto new horizons, Im home for Easter whilst brainstorming for a new project. At the moment Im thinking of something along the lines of Gregory Credson or Cindy Sherman and the constructed film stills. However much thought is needed. Watch this space...

Exploration and the likes

Well, I said Id try and keep this blog going with stuff and current projects although this post has been a little overdue. Ive been working mainly in film in the last couple of weeks (35mm, 120 AND 5x4 which is just plain beautiful) so scanning is a little more time consuming.

The last couple of weeks, along with alfie and sean Ive explored some old abandoned buildings around Nottingham, all really fascinating. The above being an abandoned pub, walls all around dappled with light streaming from the city lights outside, both eerie and intriguing. Sean did a fantastic long exposure on large format whilst alfie did something reminscent of an old horror flick with masterful flash work.

This porject at uni Im working on place which is still developing and evolving...but more on that to come...

running dry

I thought this was a fitting image for the final in the series. A tunner vision view as I drink the last of the water from my drink. Symbolising my ideas for the project running dry, look closely at the bottom of the glass and we see Pink Floyd poster echo-ing the famous Munch scream. Kinda symbolises the despair you feel when you can think of a decent idea I think. oooh its all about the symbolism today!

Just to say also, I do plan/hope to carry on with this blog as I hope others may do. I think its been very iteresting to see what other people are doing generally/for other projects.

fashion

Im afriad today I dont have a clever photoshop or an interesting view for you. I think Ive run out of steam with this project, there were a couple of ideas I thought to try, but to be honest they wernt very interesting or clever. I try to avoid posting a photo for the sake of posting a photo, Id rather post a photo which I find interesting in one way or another. (that probs didnt make too much sense) Anyway I think, for me at least, this has been one of the best projects in terms of pushing you and keeping you going. Putting a fresh photo on everyday whilst trying to fit it to a theme has been a good challenge and Its definately got me photographing more.

Also ive chosen the ones for my final selection, got 3 printed off today. Of course I shall get the rest printed tomorrow. There does seem to be somewhat of a green tinge to one of them - although it seems to correct itself under tungsten glow of my room. If others are looking to print I think I saw a poster in the toilet in bonnington (as you do) advertising 6 A2 sheets for a tenner - of course I notice this AFTER ive got them printed elsewhere...but such is life.

Anyway, the above. This was from last night, I was photographing a dress for a flatmate which she had made for her project. It was taken in my living room with a bowens portaflash (that porta bit should be illegal for misrepresentation or something - Im sure they make lighter cars) Saying that it did the job, perhaps a little to well. Im not the most experianced in the studio, but white on white im sure isnt the easiest regardless - I had quite a few problems with bleaching on the dress. Basically there wasnt enough space for the model to move away from the wall (and light projecting onto the back wall) Still, its always good to set yourself a challenge...

cameras-eye view

Camera's eye view out my window. A little bit of a bugger to expose. The Slr's lenses were too big to show just the viewfinder - as you can imagine. So this was taken on my ikkle ixus (canon compact) as the small lens was small enough to fit in the viewfinder. The only problem was, to get the detail on the readout at the bottom I had to whack up the ISO giving a load of noise. Im yet to decide whether adds or detracts from the image. I quite like the desaturated and slightly distorted view though.

My rooms on the top floor of my flats and you get some alrite views over the city, this is just a little bit singled out. Its sometimes nice to daze out and contemplate....

the awakening

Anyone who has crappy eye sight can most likely recognise this from the early stages of awakening, those who dont..well...hopefull this will give an insight. Without lenses of some kind I cant even read my alarm clock from my pillow - someone should invent one with foot-high numerals, they really should.

Carrying on with Hugh suggestion to carry along with the trend of the more composed images being those more successful I used photoshop once again with this. It was actually all from one photo, but I had problems with the black from the rims of the glasses smudging. So I had to play around with cutting and masking on a new layer and the smudge tool. I think I got pretty close to what I wanted - though Its going to need quite a lot of work for the big a3 prints :-s

My brains runnign dry on idea's once again, being confined to my room with this ankle (which god has directed all his angst at blatently) Itll be pictures from round the flat. Hopefully God will give me a ray of inspiration (I think he owes me one!) - not that Im religious or anything..

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?