Thursday 31 March 2011

Monday 28 March 2011

foxxyz

takes photos and seems to know loads of rad people.




Clients From Hell

self explanatory - link

CLIENT: “Why is the photo grainy? It looks terrible on your flyer.”

ME: ”You sent me a zoomed in photo of the hamburger using the camera on your BlackBerry. They’re 3 mpx at the most.”

CLIENT: ”Not sure what mpx is, but if it’s like mph, then the photo wasn’t moving. The burger was on a plate. On a table. Not moving.

Moonmilk

came in the post today.

take nothing but pictures
leave nothing but footprints
kill nothing but time
Also, having been on the Gabriel Rolt website I have found out that there is an opening reception for the Somewhere Place exhibition, conveniently this is the day we arrive in Amsterdam. Stoked!

Sunday 27 March 2011

Friday 25 March 2011

Props to the Postman

Taking Back Sunday tickets and Impossible Project Pioneer card, stoked!

Thursday 24 March 2011

Wednesday 23 March 2011

Armelle Caron

created anagrams based on the arrangements within cities. She took the shapes of the streets, houses, buildings etc and rearranged them in a series of posters. You can see them here.

Penny

PENNY AUSTRALIA from Penny Australia on Vimeo.

Moonmilk

Just got a 1st edition copy on ebay for £20, swag!

Tuesday 22 March 2011

Amsterdam

Amsterbooked!

Sunday 20 March 2011

What is Visual Communication? (2)

Research - see previous post

Wikipedia definition of a portrait -
"A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this reason, in photography a portrait is generally not a snapshot, but a composed image of a person in a still position. A portrait often shows a person looking directly at the painter or photographer, in order to most successfully engage the subject with the viewer." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait)

Wikipedia definition of portrait photography -
"Portrait photography or portraiture is the capture by means of photography of the likeness of a person or a small group of people (a group portrait), in which the face and expression is predominant. The objective is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the subject. Like other types of portraiture, the focus of the photograph is the person's face, although the entire body and the background may be included. A portrait is generally not a snapshot, but a composed image of a person in a still position. A portrait often shows a person looking directly at the camera.
Unlike many other photography styles, the subjects of portrait photography are often non-professional models. Family portraits commemorating special occasions, such as graduations or weddings, may be professionally produced or may be vernacular and are most often intended for private viewing rather than for public exhibition.
However, many portraits are created for public display ranging from fine art portraiture, to commercial portraiture such as might be used to illustrate a company's annual report, to promotional portraiture such a might be found on a book jacket showing the author of the book." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_photography)

Recognised conventions include, but are not restricted to
- photographs being predominantly of the face
- focusing on the eyes
- taken in a studio
- not a snapshot
- without a moving subject

A portrait could in theory be stripped down to the criteria of being a photograph of a person, however this itself can be questioned. (is a picture of only a persons hands a portrait?)

The photos shown below are taken from Ryan McGinley's website, specifically the album titled "photographs". All of these pictures involve people but it is debatable as to wether or not they are portraits. Furthermore a lot of them could be deemed snapshots, does this alter the fact that they are a portrait or not?








Terry Richardson is known for being a fashion photographer with somewhat questionable interests, the images below are taken from various google image search results. Again they are all photographs of people but they could also be deemed as snapshots.






Context - The initially established conventions of portrait photography are being challenged in every way, is it truly possible to define what a portrait is or should be?
- "The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize showcases the work of the most talented emerging young photographers, photography students and gifted amateurs alongside that of established professionals"

Brief - Explore portrait photography in depth as a practice, resulting in submission of a portrait to the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize

Supreme

Saturday 19 March 2011

MTV Woodie Awards - Tyler & Hodgy

Reading/Leeds

This is quite obviously fake but there is a lot things that would be rad.

Third Man Record Store

Thursday 17 March 2011

Vice

Photos from Bart Simpson AKA Dimitri Karakostas has a new set of photos on the vice photo blog, See You Never.



Harmony Korine- Umshini Wam
This sixteen-minute short brings you to the outskirts of civilization where Ninja and Yo Landi play trigger-happy, gun-toting, wheelchair-bound gangsters. It is a tale of love and the struggle to survive in jumpsuits. Go here to watch it.


Noisey is the new internet music channel courtesy of vice, more details to come. You can check it out here

Wednesday 16 March 2011

Somewhere Place

It is totally possible that I could go to this.

Erik Eillington has a Deathwish

Erik Ellington recently used two vans as the run up to skate a ledge, he got the transworld cover, read more about it here.




Sunday 13 March 2011

What is Visual Communication?

The are of practice I have chosen to base this part of my work on is portrait photography.

The Wikipedia entry on photographic portraits states that "The objective is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the subject. Like other types of portraiture, the focus of the photograph is the person's face, although the entire body and the background may be included. A portrait is generally not a snapshot, but a composed image of a person in a still position. A portrait often shows a person looking directly at the camera."

However it can be said that all of these paradigms are subject to change and portraits are essentially a visual representation of a person, all of the aforementioned criteria may be void depending on the characteristics of the given person and the persona of them that is being portrayed.

This bring me to a William James quote - "Whenever two people meet, there are really six people present. There is each man as he sees himself, each man as the other person sees him, and each man as he really is."

I think this train of thought can be applied to photography, resulting in the person having their picture taken having three separate images - how they actually look, how they think they look and the way the photographer makes them look.

Key practitioners in this area that I enjoy the work of include Ryan Mcginley, Lina Scheynius, Terry Richardson, etc.

Love/Hate
(Ryan Mcginley) This is an example of portrait photography that I like. First of all there is the overall composition and colour of the picture, the soft colour tones are fairly bleak and somehow match the facial expression of the model. They are also not centred, as seen often in portraits, and in an unassuming position implying that the photo was taken of them in this state as opposed to them actively preparing for this picture. The background is interesting but not offensive and serves exactly as a background as opposed to drawing attention away from the focus of the picture. Furthermore the light casting shadows on the model is quite soft and seems natural as opposed to harsh and artificial.

(Murakami Photography) This is an example of portrait photography that I hate. Initially the subject matter itself is very constructed and the notion of wearing a wedding dress in a forest is clearly fabricated. The model's arms and body seem to be in uncompromising positions again making their stance seem forced and the whole thing unnatural. The exaggerated soft focus of the surrounding areas serves to redirect all attention to the model but instead just leaves them the centre of an an awkward blurry cloud. Finally the colours are very harsh, but not natural, and compiled with the photographer's "logo" in the corner make the whole image seem very artificial and uninteresting.

Personality/Worldview
I'm not really sure how these photographs relate to my personality or world view however I am quite interested in photography and feel the examples given show this, although I cannot compare myself to either photographer I think it is abundantly clear whose work I prefer.

Critical Analysis
McGinley's work shows the documentation of a person as they were as opposed to the work of Murakami Photography that shows only a pretense and is essentially pointless. McGinley's work frequents galleries, is published in books and magazines and is seen as art, whereas Murakami's was likely only seen by the model who's wedding it was, her family and friends and anyone looking at Mrakami's portfolio. The point I am making is not about the target audience but that both works are a form of documentation, although the reason behind them is different. However it seems redundant to have wedding photos in which you don't appear to be enjoying your own wedding.

Saturday 12 March 2011

Kyle Skully

takes good pictures.


33 Boxes of TZ

"Up for auction are 33 boxes of Polaroid Time Zero Film. There are two unopened cases of 10 boxes each, plus 13 separate boxes. Each box will produce 10 photographs, so someone who owns an SX-70 camera will have the ability to make 330 photographs with their camera after purchasing this film. One of the cases expired in June, 2004. The other expired in November, 2006. The 13 separate boxes all have dates of December, 2006. This film has been refrigerated for about 4 of the last 7 years."
EDIT - this sold for $1,975.00 (approximately £1,229.46)

Friday 11 March 2011

Taking Back Sunday

Manchester Academy 1, 13th May, Booked, Psyched!

Thursday 10 March 2011

Yonkers (piano)

Grove + MapleXO’s iPhone Case




This crazy collaboration has been limited to 50 pieces, if I had the money to buy an Phone 4 I'd buy one of these cases to put it in too.
You can read more about them here and see how they're made here.

Back in the Game

After using either Polaroid Cameras or no cameras for quite a while I recently bought a Yashica T4, I've had a roll back and you can check some of the photos over at scantics. Today I took advantage of the 3 for 2 offer at boots and bought 15 rolls of 35mm film, below is my last polaroid for a while.

Wednesday 9 March 2011

Vice

is on the lookout for new photographers. If you take awesome photos, then it could be you or someone you know.

Also check out this set Cascadia.
"When we saw these photos, the only questions in our minds were: how can we make friends with Lauren Max and when are we booking our tickets to the Pacific Northwest?"

The Kills - Blood Pressures

"In addition to being rockstars, The Kills have a passion for art in general and specifically Polaroid. Kicking off the Blood Pressures tour at SXSW, Allison and Jamie will be documenting their tour and uploading it here. So check back for new galleries on a regular basis. In the mean time they’ve shared some amazing photos from the past."

Monday 7 March 2011

Ishod Wair vs Shane O'neill

This was way closer than I'd have ever guessed.

Friday 4 March 2011

Some New Photographs by Jerry Hsu

this is actually from a while back, check the Vice Website for more. Instant favourite below, click to see it bigger or click here to see it even bigger still.

Instant Interest

My Com Tech website is up and running, check it out here.

Swagg

Thursday 3 March 2011