Forest Landscapes Photography Course on Ashdown Forest
I spent a really nice morning in the company of David, Louise, Carolyn and Steve today on the Forest Landscapes Photography Course that I run on Ashdown Forest in East Sussex. We were blessed with fine weather and the sun even appeared in between the hazy moments.
My goal for this course is for everyone to go away knowing a bit more about their camera and landscape photography in general, not to mention some great photos and a pleasant morning photographing with like-minded people. I think it was mission accomplished.
My next events:
Photowalk at Charleston House – Saturday 24th March 2012
River & Ocean Landscapes at Cuckmere Haven – Saturday 14th April 2012
The next Forest Landscapes course will be announced soon and will appear on my Special Events/Future Events page soon.
Vernaclar Photography Exhibition
I have some photographs in a group touring exhibition run by The Photographic Angle that starts next month. The exhibition will go to London, Crawley & Bristol.
14-18 Apr
Atria House, 219 Bath Road, Slough
21-25 Apr
Henrietta House, Henrietta Place, London
28apr – 2May
Astral Towers, Betts Way, Crawley
5-9 May
2 Longwalk Rd, Stockley Park, Uxbridge
12-16 May
Glaxo Smithkline, Greenford Rd, London
This one is the largest one with over 160 large format photographs on display. I will probably have 10 images in this.
19-23 May
Tower Wharf, Cheese Lane, Bristol
MISSION STATEMENT:
THE PHOTOGRAPHIC ANGLE SUPPORTS PROFESSIONAL, STUDENT AND AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHY BY PROVIDING A PLATFORM TO SHOWCASE, DISCUSS AND CULTIVATE THE ART AND SCIENCE OF PHOTOGRAPHY.
Photography was for a long time stuck in the portrait studio where the upper classes went to have their picture taken. Within months of Daguerre’s 1839 announcement of his photographic breakthrough in Paris, many amateurs began experimenting with the daguerreotype process capturing their members of their families in what would be the first family photographs.
By the 1890’s there had been a tremendous rise in amateur photography with the arrival of smaller formats and more simple cameras to use. The family album was born, where visual fragments of daily life were collected and preserved.
This year The Photographic Angle (TPA) will begin a touring exhibition of the UK with work from twelve artists who have explored the genre of Vernacular Photography in their work. Included in this exhibition are photographs by Chris Cockerill, Yehia Asem El Alaily, Jessica Allen, Somendra Singh Mahiyaria, Andrew Newson, Alan Underwood-Parry, Jon Stanley Austin, Francesca Limb, Catherine Amyes, Robert Davies, Pearl Findlay and Steven Schofield. Together, their work demonstrates the breadth, diversity and fascination of this medium.
Talk at The Studio Club
I am giving a talk at The Studio Club in Eastbourne on Monday 16th April 2012. The Studio Club is a fantastic idea from Lion Works Studio main man, Olly Hearsey. Like-minded photographers get together once a month to talk photography. There will be talks and workshops that vary from month to month. This month I am hosting and will be giving a talk about my work and then doing a demonstration in Photoshop Lightroom 4!
More about The Studio Club
On the second Monday of every month at Lion Works Studios, Eastbourne, we host The Studio Club – designed for local photographers (amateurs, hobbyists, students, professionals) to come together. You can expect…
Bowens demo evenings – Professional portfolio critique – Local photographer showcases – Lighting advice – Mini workshops – Model posing techniques and much more…
More than anything we want to make this a fun, relaxed and affordable event for you all. Each session is just £5 and no booking is required for the studio club. You simply need to bring yourself and your camera.
THE STUDIO CLUB – Every 2nd Monday of the month
Time 6pm – 8pm
Location – Lion Works Studios. Map here
http://www.lionworksstudios.co.uk/contact.php
Cost – £5
Jem Southam Talk at Towner Gallery
I was lucky enough to go along to the Towner yesterday (Saturday 10th March 2012) to see a talk by British landscape photographer, Jem Southam. I’ve been a fan of his work for a while now so when I had the email come through from the Towner I booked up straight away and I’m glad I did as it was the best 4 quid I have spent in a long time!
It was a bad start, for me anyway, as I have a cold and as soon as Jem started to talk I had a coughing fit and had to leave the room! I managed to return quickly with a glass of water and luckily that kept me quiet for most of the talk – phew!
Jem spoke about how he started in photography and walked us through many of his well loved photographic projects, such as Red River, The Shape of Time: Ponds, River Mouths & Rocks Falls and Upton Pyne. At the end gave us a sneak preview in to some brand new un-published work he is dong on the River Exe. Beautiful is not the word, absolutely stunning and well worth the money just to see the half a dozen or so images.
There were a few things that struck me about his practice and one of them was just how slowly he works. I knew he used a large format 10×8 camera and there is no fast working with a camera like that. But I was interested to know just how few photographs he does take, it seems that the Upton Pyne series he would visit maybe 10 times in a year and as far as I can gather, just take a photo or two per visit. He said that he usually has about 6-10 projects/locations on the go at any one time but could leave one of those even for a period of a few years and then return to continue work.
I asked him how important it was to have a good name for a project, he looked at me for a couple of seconds and answered, ‘very important’. Project names had come up during the talk and it was a question I wanted to ask anyway after a friend had mentioned that Alec Soth recently accused Southam of, ‘poor and lazy naming of projects’. It was something I couldn’t verify online so decided not to bring that up. If it is true it’s perhaps a little rich coming from the photographer who did a project on Niagara, called, err… Niagara. Anyway, I wasn’t so bothered about that but more how important he thought it was and how he does it. He spoke briefly about finding a small raft of carrots on the water once and hence the title of his 1992 book ‘The Raft of Carrots’. He said that he usually has to start work on a project before the name will come and that it’s often quite difficult to do it after the project has finished.
Also interesting was just how he finds his projects or as he says, how they find him. Quite often he just stumbles upon places and forms a connection with them and a project evolves from that. He mentioned about photographing close to home too and how he has been working on a project for about 15 years just photographing his garden through his kitchen window. Other projects too have been right on his doorstep and that re-ignited an idea of mine to photograph the housing estate on which I live, just walking a few minutes from my front door. The above images were taken yesterday and perhaps will start a little project.
Another excellent event at Towner and I look forward to many more.