sunilphoto blog

How art works?

2012-02-12T18:40:00.002Z

This asks 'what really matters?' and at least presents some solutions.

Zarina Bhimji

2012-01-20T21:56:00.011Z

Zarina Bhimji is an artist whose work is close to my heart. My heart, my family's heart and the hearts of possibly 80,000 other asians who were expelled from Uganda in the latter part of 1972. Idi Amin, the infamous military dictator decreed in the August of that year that all asians should leave the country and hand back all their assets to the Ugandan people after a military coup earlier that year. Amin was the peoples ruler and wanted to correct what he saw as the inequalities of colonial legacy that did the Ugandan people out of what was rightlfully theirs. Of course it is claimed that he asserted his ideas at the expense of thousands of lives, through a rule of terror and tyranny.

My family's presence in this country is as a result of this history. I was 3 years old when we came here. September 27th 1972. All I have are some memories from past recollections, old photographs and family discussion. I can only imagine our life in Uganda through these stories and domestic reminders of how life was before we came to the UK.

Some of Bhimji's photographs and video work offer an insight into this past. She might not like that though. I went to hear her account of her work today. Although it is a starting point for a sensory and very personal experience of asian life, migration and colonialism, she positions it outside of testimony and documentary. She doesn't want to present the facts of what happened. After all, what are facts? - just an account of a truth. She also maintains that she wants the work to be open-ended and doesnt want to offer an interpretation. I get this. But its difficult for me and maybe other ex-Ugandans to not be immersed emotionally and factually into her imagery based on their own experience. I look at her work and I feel a sense of what I cant remember.

Zarina Bhimji's exhibition is on at the Whitechapel Gallery until 9th March 2012.

Taryn Simon - A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters

2012-01-19T01:20:00.003Z

Taryn Simon is an artist whose practice typifies a kind of journalistic engagement with documentary photography. Simon’s work has consistently relied on a concept realised through heavy research and systematic ordering and presentation. Her latest work: ‘A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters’ consists of a four year long project of research, documenting and compiling eighteen stories of individuals whose circumstances have affected the fate of their genealogy or bloodlines.

JR - The InsideOut Project

2012-01-15T13:15:00.002Z

An inspiring project combining 'street art' with photography and more importantly, its direct engagement with the people it depicts and its ability to work outside of the art establishment, and corporate/commercial interests and backing.
More information can be found here and on JR's website here.

Who killed Walter Benjamin?

2012-01-02T16:00:00.005Z

This is an interesting documentary about the mystery surrounding the death of Walter Benjamin. He was one of the greatest 20th Century multi-disciplinary theorists and his life came to a tragic end in 1940. He had travelled to the small town of Portbou, Spain attempting to escape the Nazis and leave Europe for the US. It shows how the lack of official documentation leaves open questions of what makes legitimate testimony and asks where is the truth?

update 27/01/2012 - Original video removed from Vimeo, so here is the first 10 minutes.

Kefalonia 2

2011-12-11T19:50:00.001Z

'swimming pool at dawn', Kalokeri Apartments, nr. Fiskardo, Kefalonia

Aaron Schuman on photography and education

2011-12-04T11:54:00.004Z

I came across this by Aaron Schuman on the Foam 'Whats Next' feature. Its a refreshing take on a photographic education.

'I think photographic education has reached a crossroads. One direction leads down the vocational route - whether that's training people to be jobbing photographers or art careerists - and there's a lot a pressure for it to go this way, promoting photography as a commodifiable skill. The other direction, which I think could be much more promising, is that instead of the focus being on a career in photography, the focus could be on the subject of photography itself. This medium is rapidly becoming one that parallels the written word in many ways - it's embedding itself within culture, and within digital culture in particular, as an important form of communication, with its own vocabularies and variations, its own visual languages, dialects, grammars, accents, applications, and so on. But when people choose to study subjects that centre on the written word - Literature, Classics, Philosophy, and so on - their intention is not always to be the next great novelist, philosopher or epic poet; their interested in trying to understand how a particular medium has been used to communicate ideas. If this approach could be applied to the photographic medium, both in terms of its historical and critical studies and in relation to students' own practice, it could be incredibly liberating. Instead of it being a discipline, photography could become a fully-fledged subject. I think that expectations would change dramatically if it was approached in this way, but of course it's scary for institutions to promote a visual medium as something other than 'Art'. For me, it possesses incredible promise as a subject - just because it's a visual discipline doesn't mean that it has to sit exclusively within a fine-art educational construct or context.' - Aaron Schuman

Jeff Wall in conversation

2011-11-28T12:09:00.002Z

This conversation coincided with the launch of a new book on Wall's 'Picture for Women' by David Campany, published by Afterall. The talk was held at the new Central St. Martins College of Art and Design campus in Kings Cross, a magnificent conversion of what looks like an old textile mill. Wall's equally magnificent work is well known for its groundbreaking effect on art photography and its relationship to the museum. It takes on 19th Century painting's pictorialism in the form of a tableau within the single large format photograph. Walls work represents a turning point for museums adopting photography into the canon of high-art. Pictorialism and photography are often discussed together in the context of early attempts at making photographs look like impressionist paintings, but this pictorialism is concerned with the depiction of a scene, creating an extended narrative or narratives which, in Wall's case are subject to some considerable interpretation.

'Picture for Women', Jeff Wall, 1979.

David Campany's book focuses on the single work that is 'Picture for Women', as the book series is called the 'one work' series. However, in the talk Campany displayed slides and image detail from a range of Wall's works. The carefully selected questions coaxed out from Wall a great deal of information on his thoughts, ideas and processes. Wall definitely comes across as a photographer, I say this because in a lot of conceptual heavy work, there is separation between the act of taking a photograph and the thinking and building processes behind it, such that photographer becomes photographic artist. Wall maintains that his process is simply extended over a long period and that he still makes all the decisions and performs all the work that any photographer might do. He has to select the content, compose, frame, expose, process and print, albeit stretched over a longer period. To reinforce this he stated how Cartier-Bresson's 'decisive moment' is still valid in his process.

'Mimic', Jeff Wall, 1982

Another thing of note was Wall's attitude to art. He said how it was not important for him to consider an art that satisfied only himself (his ego) or one that was created solely for the viewer. He is only interested in his critical position to art itself, it was only this that allowed him create what he does - his feelings on "what art should be..". In Wall's work we see his distinct interest in various aspects of contemporary life, moments he discovers and then chooses to transform into images. At the same time, he is creating a fiction with realist medium and yet he claims that as the event has actually happened it is not fiction, implying that there is always something real about a photograph regardless of it being staged. It seems to me that photography is the perfect medium in which Wall can deploy his ideas as it inherently has the paradoxes and ambiguities that he believes should be questioned in art (or photographic art) itself. Its also interesting that how in the 40 years or so his work has been produced it has not changed much in terms of style, process and arguably content, although each of his works are fairly autonomous and have a life of their own. Incredible stuff.

'A woman with a covered tray', Jeff Wall, 2003

'Picture for Woman' by David Campany is published by Afterall Books, 2011. Jeff Wall is currently on show at the White Cube Gallery in Masons Yard, London from November 23rd 2011 to 7th January 2012.

Paris Photo 2011

2011-11-20T21:31:00.044Z

Paris Photo this year was held in the very grand, Grand Palais in the heart of the Parisian tourist centre. As essentially a photographic art fair primarily concerned with sales, it has the effect of removing photography from the more usual gallery and book setting and highlights the photograph as a very serious, collectable art object. Despite this, the event sits alongside many other smaller shows and fairs which make for an interesting excursion outside of academic work or personal practice. Here are some photos from my iphone:

There were always lots of people around In Sook Kim's 'Saturday Night' 2007.

From 'Suburbia', Bill Owens

Tereza Vlckova

'Positiv-Negativ', Robert Kusmirowski, 2011

Images of Jupiter taken by Voyager, NASA

Apollo take-off, NASA

Asako Narahashi, from 'Half Awake and Half Asleep in the Water', 2003

'Untitled', Jean-Claude Pondevie

'Breath', Tomohide Ikeya, 2008

Liz Hingley, 'Under Gods'

Atsushi Fujiwara

Vincent Fournier, from 'Space Project'

Xavier Veilhan

William Klein, 'Roma'

from'Nobody belongs to anybody', Rogerio Reis

Kristaq Sotiri

Andrea Graziosi

Walid Raad, from 'Lets be honest the weather helped', 1998-2006

Allan Sekula artist talk

2011-11-20T13:00:00.000Z

Damn, I recently missed an interview with him at Paris Photo. Here is one from 2009 by The Renaissance Society. His work is introduced well, he discusses camera and frame formats, his relationship to his work, the image text relationship and his project at that time: Polonia and Other Fables.

Allan Sekula Artist Talk from The Renaissance Society on Vimeo.

John Berger quote

2011-11-17T19:31:00.001Z

"I have said that a photograph bears witness to a human choice being exercised. The choice is not between photographing x and y, but between photographing at x moment or y moment. . . . What varies is the intensity with which we are made aware of the poles of absence and presence. Between these two poles photography finds its proper meaning. ... A photograph, while recording what has been seen, always and by its nature refers to what is not seen. It isolates, preserves and presents a moment taken from a continuum. ... Hence the necessity of our understanding a weapon we can use and which can be used against us." - John Berger

Kefalonia

2011-11-02T23:22:00.001Z

Morning roadside, nr. Fiskardo, Kefalonia, Greece, September 2011.

Untitled, no.2

Absence of Presence pv video

2011-10-07T18:27:00.002+01:00

Video of our recent show produced by Screencult

The Steve Jobs quote

2011-10-06T12:42:00.003+01:00

Through some difficult times back in 2006 I came across this quote by Steve Jobs. It helped give me a push in the right direction and I havent looked back since. RIP Steve Jobs and thanks for this advice.

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice.

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle."
Steve Jobs, Commencement speech at Stanford University, 2005.

Sunday 9th October, 2011
Seems to be quite some ethical backlash on SJ's business and approach to marketing. I think its equally naive to hold such a person in a godlike status (because he invented and mass produced popular digital technology) as it is to denigrate him as a cold, manipulative business tycoon who will stop at nothing to succeed. See here. Isnt this pretty much how global corporate capitalism works?

Office Space

2011-09-18T18:08:00.004+01:00

'The Director's Office'

This is potentially a new commission for a legal office in Poland. I visited Poznan in June this year and whilst I was there I took some images of the space whose walls I will work with. The new office was just finished at the time and is already a busy place. I just need to work out a proposal for the wall space; images, sizes, framing, mounting etc. Which images will go here? The approach is less to reflect any business ethos through the images and more to provide an abstraction or formalistic distraction. Any progress will be posted here first of course!

'The Conference Room'

'The Computer Room'

Alpine days

2011-09-04T21:10:00.008+01:00

'Downhill skier' from the series 'Alpine days'

Two birds, one stone. Pictured here are two friends amongst many that I've spent time with in the Alps on various trips throughout the years. These mountains will form the backdrop for fictional narratives that I intend to create through the series 'Alpine days'. These stories are far from the reality my friends and I experienced however, the mountains for us and many others represent escape, the sublime, fantasy, stories and fables - much like they did for the folk who lived below the Alps before they were conquered, believing that dragons existed high up. A contemporary subtext exists on top of these narratives, that of humans conquering this landscape for the purposes of leisure and tourism, and its affect on the environment.

'Chalet girl' from the series 'Alpine days'

Don McCullin

2011-08-25T17:44:00.002+01:00

Aesthetics and photographing famine

2011-08-25T13:43:00.001+01:00

"Aesthetics have no place in photographing famine" webinar with David Campbell and Jon Levy from OPEN-i (Open Photojournalism Edu on Vimeo.

Absence of Presence review

2011-08-15T17:55:00.008+01:00

Last month I was one of a group of photographers who put on an exhibition called Absence of Presence – Photographic Studies of Identities in Flux. The show was held at the Rag Factory in Brick Lane, London and it started with a private view on the 21st July followed by a weekend of display lasting until Sunday 24th July 2011. This was the first time I had taken part in organising such an event and the first time also being a featured photographer in a group show. It was an amazing experience and here is a description of how it all worked out.

Exhibition overview. photo:Tania Olive

It all started back in January, as a module requirement of my BA course (at the University of Westminster), a group was formed, reluctantly and I was full of apprehension of what debates, arguments and nightmares that might follow. Being a photographer is often a solitary, personal and highly subjective experience and to throw seven of us together, all of us rookies, all of us with our own ideas and preferences, it would be an arduous task pulling together a show. The group consisted of seven photographers: Sherry Cuttler, Caroline Doran, Peter Hoare, Laure Martineau, Sarah Janes, Tania Olive and me. After deciding what we would show it quickly became apparent that all our projects were different in terms of content, style and meaning. This would leave us two approaches to the group show: either we use this difference to promote seven different works of seven emerging photographers or we identify a common theme which would bind our work together as a coherent whole. Whilst we deliberated over the theme, it occurred to us that ‘identity’ was a common factor in all our works. In fact, I’m pretty sure you can take any body of photographic work and align it with some concept of identity. Being particularly interested in this development I started to draw together interpretations of our work which could be considered together as a theme. It was based on the idea of a common misconception around the photograph: the belief that it is capable of capturing a person’s identity. This contentious and interesting photographic topic is full of holes and paradoxes. The idea that a single photograph represents the character of a person seems ludicrous, yet we tend to believe that it does. So much investment is taken into the image of ourselves and others: from passport ID photographs or snapshots uploaded and tagged onto Facebook or even surveillance camera frame grabs on CCTV. Bearing this mind we would suggest that although photography can be used for identification, it can at best attempt to represent the change in our identity. A changing identity based on our possessions, experience and environment is nearer to the truth of who we are and what shapes us.

After various group discussions and a couple of debates it was agreed this would be an interesting angle. There were issues around creating an exhibition title and this carried on for a bit longer than it should of. Also, it was not until April that we finally managed to assign individual roles and responsibilities. I was given the responsibility of text editor and due to my IT skills, I would also take a lead in the web/media role. In addition to this I would have to prepare my work for exhibition, help curate the show and generally support the team in various other activities, all of which were incredibly time consuming, sometimes highly frustrating but always necessary. I won’t bore you with the detail but everyone had their own responsibilities in addition to holding down the day job.

From the series 'The Waiting Game, photo: Sunil Shah.

Publicity through the press release and invites was done electronically. It’s probably worth mentioning how ‘good’ and ‘bad’ this can be. In our case we had set up an email address, web url, web blog, Twitter account and a Facebook page. This electronic presence is great and ensures a professional and efficient way in which to publicise your event. However, I must mention how you risk being ignored as spam or seen as pedalling your self-promotion a little too much, and so perhaps there is a fine line in getting it right. We did well through this although, it may have worked against us, as I think at times we might have been ignored, especially without the endorsement of certain industry ‘insiders’ who with a simple ‘Retweet’ or response might have helped our cause considerably. In retrospect, I think you need to ensure you cover all bases and allow time to remind people without forcing it down their throats.

Establishing layout, photo: Tania Olive

Back to the exhibition planning, I chose to show ‘The Waiting Game’, a project I photographed in spring 2010 featuring a soldier returning from Afghanistan. Rob, a friend of mine, completed his second tour and returned home for six weeks leave. He gave me permission to photograph him over that period; a project I consider my first serious documentary work. With this being its first public airing, I needed to think carefully about how to present it. Previously, I had incorporated the picture and text frame together whereby the Facebook captions where appended directly beneath the print using the Facebook font and colours. Although this married the image/text relationship to the social media very well, I felt there was always something contrived or too forced about it. I decided to work with a presentation dynamic which might help reinforce the drama and intimacy of the pictures and this was to create a selection of images placed in a cluster at different sizes. The framing and layout would help convey a homely feel and the sizing would encourage the viewer to move in relation to the image size creating a disruption to an otherwise linear movement across the room. The captions would be re-worked, this time shorter and leaving more to the imagination. One thing I have learned with this project is that it’s often better to leave some images open ended allowing more room for interpretation.

Final layout, photo: Tania Olive

The curation of the work along the long gallery space of the Rag Factory was performed by Sherry, Laure and Peter, with input from the rest of the team. Due to the varied nature of our work, it was quite easy to place work against each others however there were other challenges. Individual layouts and mounting/framing decisions were the responsibility of the artist. Costs generally kept the work to A2 size which was a concern initially as we envisaged large amounts of white space not being filled in the gallery space, not to mention the general feeling of inadequacy, as most photographic exhibitions these days display huge large format prints. With the posters, vinyl lettering and drinks purchased we were ready to rock and the final two days of setting up the display really proved how much we ‘gelled’ as a team. Each of us helped each other and I have to pay special mention to Tania here for helping get my work on the wall, before which I didn’t have a clue what I was doing, and also a shout goes to Peter, who’s skills and experience in literally everything helped us and especially me in areas as diverse as DIY and English grammer.

At the Private View, photo: Tania Olive

The private view was possibly one of the best nights I’ve had in a long time. The exhibition had surpassed all our expectations and looked very professional. Whether we really succeeded is not for me to say but we all had some good feedback for our work and I guess that was one of the most important things: to get the work seen and to receive some response to it. It was also a huge learning experience in terms of curating, mounting, framing, publicity, sponsorship and many other aspects of putting on a photographic exhibition. So many friends, family and students supported us. We even saw one or two university tutors. It was all truly heart-warming and encouraging. Big thanks to all our team, the AOP Collective, we did an amazing job on our first show. Thanks also to Screencult: Ben, Catherine and Komal for the interviews and video work (coming soon), Silas and the Rag Factory, Heather Barnett and Silke Lange and everyone who came. Biggest thanks to my closest: Alinka, Basia, Tim, JW, Will, Michal and Kuba, love you all.

A riots perspective

2011-08-12T14:16:00.003+01:00

A riot is a war on civilised society. Like with any war, morality and thought is replaced by a primal outpour and individuals capitalising on the situation. It is self-destruction and pointless and the knowledge of that only comes later. What is true is that this was inevitable and we have to accept our responsibility in ensuring we live in a society that listens to those that are unheard and who need to resort to these acts in order to be heard.

New projects

2011-07-31T11:31:00.005+01:00

untitled no.3639 from the series 'Residents'

New work will be uploaded onto the website soon, along with exhibition reviews including our recent show: Absence of Presence. Forthcoming projects and stories: 'Alpine Days', 'Residents' (above) and a 'Capsular' rework.

Picturing globalisation

2011-07-27T13:35:00.008+01:00

This image is not so new and many will have seen this before. In collating visual imagary which represents global communication flow I came across it via the Facebook website. It shows links between Facebook friends throughout the world (details here) and so indicates global online activity of social networking. Interesting, as something similar may be seen for global web information flow.

Image copyright Facebook.

William Eggleston

2011-07-13T19:02:00.004+01:00

Eggleston talks about a few of his pictures...

Absence of Presence

2011-06-16T17:47:00.009+01:00

This is a group exhibition I am involved in. The show will be in Brick Lane, London in July. Currently, we are mad busy organising the show and it looks set to be a real good one. My responsibilities include maintaining our blog (here) and writing all our text. Here is the introduction to the show, outlining its theme and basic idea:

‘Absence of Presence’ is a group photographic exhibition of seven artists whose diverse works encounter the transient nature of identity.

Photography of the human subject is characterized by a universal and popular belief in the image and its ability to represent the individual. However, ideas that question the truthfulness of the image are also gaining ground. In this light, can ‘identity’ be faithfully portrayed through photography?

Identities are often considered fixed or static and the photographic image helps to affirm this myth by ‘fixing’ the subject in a state of suspended time. The photographic work brought together for Absence of Presence challenges this by offering portraits and studies of lives in the process of being renegotiated. In this work, a focus is placed on that which changes in our lives: experience, possessions and environment, all factors which shape who we are and how we are perceived.

History has shown that we humans think of ourselves as a single unchanging self. Despite what experiences life throws at us we maintain that we are still the same person inside. When we attempt to capture our worlds using the camera we hope to reveal that essence of life we feel in us. Our life, her life, his life. With so much that changes and shapes us, how can we hope that a single image will do our character any justice? Photography perpetuates this myth and therefore is an appropriate medium to challenge this idea.

The photographs do not claim to capture fixed states of being; rather, they are studies of the processes of re-forming identity through absence or the space created by change. These images depict changes brought about by experience, possessions and environment.

The photographic portrait is initially contextualized through the work of Sherry Cuttler: her found photographic archive of 1920s criminal ‘mug shots’ are re-presented, highlighting the investment society makes with the ID photograph or ‘mug shot’. Sarah Janes and Sunil Shah both utilise personal experience as the catalyst to a changed ‘self’, which then negotiates life as a new person. While Janes offers portraits of individuals who have changed their names, Shah focuses on an identity changed by the experience of army life and war in Afghanistan. The work of Peter Hoare and Laure Berlan Martineau provides indirect portraits of individuals through their possessions: allotment plots and handbag contents respectively. Both projects explore the self in relation to typological difference underscored by the continual mutability of their subject matter. Caroline Doran and Tania Olive both reflect on internal and external places. Doran’s work is a personal study of her mother’s life in adapting to a new home environment, whereas Olive directs our thoughts towards possibly the ultimate transition: from life to death. Olive’s images take us through the both, indistinct and memorable spaces where part of this journey is taken.

Co-Built at Oxford Speedway

2011-05-24T09:16:00.006+01:00

Anthony Brown and Geoff Cain run 'Co-Built', a rider owned company building bikes and components, then racing them. This is the UK flattrack scene. Here is the start of their race season in Oxford and the start of a photo-essay about their world.

Paul Graham at Whitechapel

2011-05-06T16:08:00.029+01:00

There is a Paul Graham retrospective currently on show at the Whitechapel Gallery in London. I was lucky enough to get a ticket for his talk with Iwona Blazwick. The work on show spans some 25 years, full details of the show are here. Paul Graham surely counts as a photographer’s photographer, not sure what that exactly means, but having not been formally educated in the subject, he definitely proves it doesn’t matter. His work doesn’t seem to be aligned with any of the usual rhetoric associated with the art institution or academy’s ‘high art’ forms. The work is engaging on the level of appearances and easily holds its place within the aforementioned apparatus. I guess another way of putting this is that his work can be interpreted in many ways, and not just critically. When questioned about the operation of his work with reference to certain presumptions or ideas, he remains open to interpretation without forcing any specific destination. On his relationship to documentary, he doesn’t see himself engaging in it. For him it is a legacy of a past time, its time to move on. I kind know what he means but would argue that documentary value doesn’t exist in a romantic, photo-realistic, reportage sense, within the apparatus of contemporary “art photography” anymore. I think it is more about how you tell a story now, regardless of fitting into established visual paradigms and I think this is closer to what he does. He is a photographer pushing his/our limits of perception with photography. His earlier work does seem to focus on political subjects (Beyond Caring, The Troubled Land, New Europe and Ceasefire) yet using approaches which adapt established visual codes. The later work takes on a deeper engagement with ideas of perception and presentation, within again, socio-political subject matter (American Night, Empty Heaven, A Shimmer of Possibility). There is a distinct concern with the medium and a concern with how the content is read, an obvious part of all photography maybe, but with Graham I think it is particularly poignant. In addition to the photographs on display there are also many of his published books on show. His use of the photo-book is incredibly nuanced and compelling; I wouldn’t even start to do a review any justice without a proper look. I have a feeling Paul Graham is way ahead of his time and I hope he gets the recognition that he deserves.

From 'American Night'

Allan Sekula on Polonia and Other Fables

2011-04-07T17:27:00.004+01:00

Allan Sekula is a Photographer, Writer and Critic who speaks here at an exhibition of his work in Hungary. Fast forward to 2:23s where he makes some interesting comments about the democratic relationship between the photography and the viewer.

William Sansom

2011-04-02T14:08:00.006+01:00

Met William at the King William in Bath a couple of weeks ago. This was the next morning...I guess he likes to sit down a lot. Harsh light=awkward shadows, re-shoot.

The Engaged Photographer

2011-03-27T22:51:00.001+01:00

Exhibitions

2011-02-17T20:36:00.016Z

John Stezaker

Well, what can I say about this…. Stezaker uses found photographs and postcards to create simple but highly effective photo-montages, removing the material from its original context to create new narratives and alluring visual disjunctures. The effect is pretty striking in many cases and shows how genius art can be in its most simple form. The artist’s tool is the scalpel and the process is to splice and compose. Some of the photographs used are publicity shots of actors or film stills and the work alludes towards comment on cinema, Hollywood and the role of the spectator/viewer/voyeur. Totally go see it.

John Stezaker

John Stezaker’s exhibition is running at the Whitechapel Gallery in East London until 18th March 2011.

Susan Hiller

This is currently on at the Tate Britain until 15th May. It is work by a conceptual artist that covers nearly 40 years and is presented as a major retrospective. Hiller’s work covers a broad spectrum of themes to do with memories and dreams and their relationships to the visions and supernatural experiences and this makes for a really interesting show. The installations are diverse and engaging, although I think some of them would have perhaps had more impact without the white space of the gallery and its usual effect of isolating works as art objects. Considering the subject matter of Hiller’s work you would expect a more imaginative layout scheme to help put the viewers themselves into a ‘supernatural’ state. In fact those pieces that involved darkness or projected film/video worked particularly well. Here is one example ‘Psi Girls’ (1999).

Susan Hiller, psi girls, 1999

Taylor Wessing National Portrait Prize 2010.

Go see this to reaffirm everything you already know about what ‘good’ photography should be. It is no surprise that this show was the most popular photography exhibition of last year in London (and anywhere else?). The photographs are technically perfect, immaculately presented and pretty much cover all the clichés of traditional portrait photography. There was ‘the’ one picture that everyone talks about and I guess it’s the only subversive thing about this exhibition. This will bring discussion about the showing of female genitalia outside of pornography into the public domain towards questions of whether it is right to show this or not. Is it me or does it feel like this show is orchestrated for maximum sales and public exposure? but then again, why not?

space

2011-01-27T20:45:00.005Z

The Rippled Red Ribbons of SNR 0509. Image taken from the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day website. Has got me thinking about life, the universe and awesome, strange space shots with a starfield background.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-03T18:48:00.007Z

7 days in Poland...

Natural History

2010-11-21T19:02:00.007Z

Nature brought into the museum space provides a very specific kind of aesthetic, created by historical traditions in representation such as taxidermy, painting and simulated environments. Photographing this creates new compositions, flattening the models into paintings and use of the space around the animal heads taking value from the Victorian interior detail, light and shadows.

Some cinematic potential...'probe'

2010-11-04T21:53:00.001Z

21-02-08 - 22-03-08 · Exhibition ·

probe - noun, an unmanned exploratory spacecraft designed to transmit information about its environment.

Cinema is a virtual capsule with a projection screen as a window, which gives access to an audiovisual trip through time and space. As soon as the film starts the projection surface becomes invisible. It becomes the magic window of the cinema capsule that engages the whole body through the eyes and ears, and abducts it to another time and space. The film machine transforms reality by generating mental activity in the viewer: cinema as a dream machine for condensed experiences and emotions. probe is an interactive installation in which the relationship between the viewer and the screen is central. The position of the viewer determines the creation of generative sound and image that physically take the viewer on an audiovisual trip.

Boris Debackere (BE) is an artist and teaches at Transmedia and audiovisual department of the Hogeschool Sint-Lukas. As a media artist his main interests are the possible integration of different expression forms, with an emphasis on electronic sound and image. Most recent work and research is concentrated on translating and transforming the cinema concept into other forms like Live Cinema and audiovisual installations. His work includes vortices a reactive video installation, exposition Gorge(l) at the KMSKA. He collaborated with Brecht Debackere on the live cinema performance rotor (performed at several international media festivals, http://www.rotorscoop.net). Programming and sound design for Marnix de Nijs' installations Run Motherfucker Run (2004) and Beijing Accelerator (2006). Composition and sound design on Herman Asselberghs' films a.m./p.m. (2004), Proof of Life (2005), Capsular (2006) and Futur Antérieur (2007).

Stills, Fabio Affuso

2010-10-18T16:58:00.007+01:00

‘Stills’ was an exhibition by friend and Photographer Fabio Affuso held at the Rag Factory in London’s East End last week. I was intending to get this post up sooner in the hope that some of its readers might go and see the show, but unfortunately my internet connection is down and the show ended yesterday (Sunday 17th Oct).

The show was billed as ‘a documentary project exploring the possibilities and limitations of the still image within photography and tattoo art’. I was interested in how these images would relate to the idea behind documentary as a practice or genre in photography.

The work was displayed on opposing sides of a cube attached to the wall. Each cube had two images; one facial portrait and one tattoo/body detail. The side facing the centre of the room was painted blank save for a small hook and some headphones attached by chord. The images, all studio shot, were immaculately lit and featured 12 different male and female subjects, all of whose gaze was turned away from the photographer/viewer in a candid way, kind of like in mid-discussion. The premise of the shoot was that the subjects would explain their stories whilst being photographed. The medium format images were beautifully composed and showed a high degree of detail; the surface of skin, spots, blemishes, hair and the all important tattoo which by no means eclipsed the individuals or their bodies.

The photographs and the context of their placement highlighted familiar issues around representation, identity and documentary. How much can a photograph or a tattoo tell us about the individual or their experience? From within this show, can we draw meaning from its separate parts?; a facial gesture here, physical detail there, a type of tattoo design, a title?....maybe. The presence of a box certainly invites enquiry as to what the box contains….are stories or secrets revealed within? The concept further frustrates by deliberately providing no soundtrack through the headphones. One theory is that the cube represents what we don’t know and the photographs are evidence of what exists on the surface, very similar to the relationship between the body and the tattoo. The analogy between photography and tattoo art is further reinforced through its common indexical nature.

Photography certainly can’t tell us everything about a subject or a story, nor can a tattoo for that matter. I think this is effectively highlighted in this exhibition in a really smart and well thought-out way. www.fabioaffuso.com

Rakhee's wedding

2010-09-20T16:54:00.002+01:00

Whats interesting in these recent wedding photographs are family characters, relationships and dynamics that can be seen. More so if you know the people in the images of course! More to be added soon...

Tourists

2010-09-15T19:10:00.004+01:00

I've had some real tourist experiences lately. Could'nt help taking some pictures. This is at Warwick castle.

bmx racing

2010-08-29T16:39:00.008+01:00

This was the radbmx weekend at Milton Keynes. Was great to catch up with some good old friends...My friend Alex Leech features in the 5th and 6th images, he finished 4th in the final!

I love using film. Fuji pro160S.

flattrack

2010-08-22T21:59:00.008+01:00

Here is a scene I know little about...I know even less about how to photograph it. But still, we turned up at a speedway track in Hertfordshire with 1/2 hour spare to take some photos. Anthony Brown and Geoff Cain of 'Co-Built' ruled the sideways style. Definitely high octane, wits about you stuff...I wanna get closer to this...

See some more at Ant's blog here and a credit here. Thanks Anthony.

The politics of war photography

2010-07-31T15:20:00.004+01:00

There are some really interesting debates currently going on about war photography and representation and what should and should not be made public. See here and here for examples of these debates. The moral and ethical responsibilities within the profession of journalism are always in tension with the organisations and 'systems' that filter the use of information, visual or verbal. These filtering decisions are often claimed to be made in the interests of national security, public decency and taste. However, filtering or 'mediation' does get in the way of truth, which brings us back to the role of journalism. How aware are we of the amount of mediation that takes place? Is it up to us to cast our nets wider in the search for the truth? How much responsibility do we take ourselves in forming an opinion?

Westminster photo festival

2010-07-20T22:51:00.003+01:00

Here is an installation shot of the piece I put up in the documentary photography gallery, it was based on 'the waiting game' project. In retrospect, I could have spaced the images out a bit more... The festival happened a couple months back now and was great fun. Thanks to June Cadogan.

In car

2010-07-08T11:06:00.004+01:00

In car, with Keval...

From Mitra Tabrizian's project Beyond The Limits:

'A era of ‘ageism’. The young are fetishised, the not so young are doomed. The youth vision, as ‘new’ is promoted. So the young are set to lead, while the rest are kept down, or subjected to early retirement - all in the name of progress! But as Christopher Horrocks states, “progress today is just the routine production of consumer society that requires a constant and unchanging version of the ‘new’ to ensure the system’s survival....this ever ‘new’ is instead what allows the world to stay the same.” '

Street musician

2010-06-26T23:08:00.004+01:00

This busker was one of three in a band who played in a pedestrian tunnel in London. I liked the exchange; some shrapnel for a photo.

Screens

2010-06-13T17:45:00.004+01:00

"Images are meant to render the world accessible and imaginable to man. But even as they do so, they interpose themselves between man and the world. They are meant to be maps, and they become screens. Instead of presenting the world to man, they re-present it, but put themselves in place of the world, to the extent that man lives as a function of the images he has produced. He no longer deciphers them but projects them back onto the world 'out there' without having deciphered them. The world becomes image-like." Vilem Flusser, Towards a Philosophy of Photography, Gottingen: European Photography, 1984.

Exposed @ Tate Modern

2010-06-09T12:59:00.009+01:00

Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera at the Tate Modern Gallery, London brings together an impressive travelling collection from MOMA SF. Looks into the camera's relation to its subjects through voyeurism and surveillance, not only through photographs but also video, albumen stereographs, DVD projections, prints, daguerreotypes, a CCTV installation, newspapers etc. Themes of the looking, being looked at, the unseen photographer, desire, sex, violence and social & political visual information gathering/presentation are all touched on rather than explored in depth. Its a good exhibition though and will appeal to most. For a decent review, read this.

Garry Winogrand quote

2010-06-06T22:43:00.006+01:00

"I look at the pictures I have done up to now, and they make me feel that who we are and what is to become of us just doesn't matter. Our aspirations and successes have been cheap and petty. I read the newspapers, the columnists, some books. I look at the magazines (our press). They all deal in illusions and fantasies. I can only only conclude that we have lost ourselves, and that the bomb may finish the job permanently, and it just doesnt matter, we have not loved life." Garry Winogrand, 1963.

south bank

2010-06-02T21:28:00.005+01:00

South Bank, London

photography and ice rinks

2010-04-20T08:56:00.019+01:00

Photographing people at ice skating rinks is madness with manual focus and a pentax 67, I was lucky to get this one single useable shot. This is Rob with his daughter, Jessica at Oxford Ice Skating rink. It is part of a new series about a soldiers return home from Afghanistan.

what is documentary?

2010-02-10T22:16:00.007Z

Is it representation of a person or a place? Does it relay experience? Is it a point of view or an idea?

Westphoto Photography Prize 2009

2010-01-03T17:29:00.013Z

The 3rd Annual Westphoto Photography Prize was based on an open competition setup by the Westphoto photo agency calling for interpretations on the theme of 'Sustainability' (see previous post). This was the private view and opening/prize-giving night at the P3 gallery in London. It was a good night, hooking up with a few. Some good images were on display, mine looked much better printed up big than it looks on screen. Many of the images took on the theme through direct environmental issues, mine included. Some tackled the subject in typical ways; high rise buildings, man-made impact on natural surroundings, there were very few images with people in them as it happens. However, it was good to see some conceptual stuff which was thinking well 'outside the box' on this difficult subject matter. 'Sustainability' is a word that's hard to define outside of environmental and political buzz-word definitions, it must have been difficult for the judges and maybe that's why most of the images were typically 'beautiful' to look at or played with the abstracting qualities of photography in order to engage on this subject. The point is, if something potentially serious is overtly aestheticised in order to bring attention to itself, how does it leave the viewer feeling apart from appealing to their need to look at something 'nice' before walking away?

Sustainability

2009-12-06T12:00:00.008Z

I was looking into the theme of Sustainability for the Westphoto Photography Prize competition I entered last month. Luckily, I've been shortlisted, which I'm pretty pleased about. Here are some of the images I shot for it, I wont tell you which one got shortlisted, maybe you'll come and see the exhibition at the P3 Gallery in London to find out! The exhibition is on from 16-20th December with the private view and prize-giving on the 15th December 2009.

In the first image, my nieces Chloe and Leila help look after the chickens that produce their eggs for breakfast; maybe a metaphor for how we need to look after those resources which help sustain us? Its the goose and the golden egg analogy. The second image is of a typical retail park recycling centre; often these places do not have enough facilities for recycling and people are left discarding waste wherever they can. It shows some effort in recycling before giving up and for the authorities, it highlights a lack of resources in place for recycling effectively. The third image is of the inside of the bottle bank, I used this partially full bottle bank to show that despite facilities for recycling existing there are still many who dont recycle.

see attached flyer for the exhibition details...

2046

2009-11-07T11:21:00.008Z

Here is a set of six film still images, the narrative is loosely based on the film '2046'. May, is the model, big big help from Alina, thanks also to Matthew and Kalpana. Jeez, constructed photography sure is hard work...(click on each image for a better res rendition)

All images were shot on digital with a single off-camera flashgun and sometimes a reflector. Locations were my sisters cottage and the Randolph Hotel in Oxford. Big thanks to Shaun Thomas at the Randolph for permission to shoot and use of the presidential suite.

landscape in portrait

2009-10-06T22:54:00.005+01:00

Not something that I've done before; taking landscape shots in portrait mode. This is a view towards the south east of Berlin.

gibraltar (GB) - new story

2009-08-29T23:42:00.004+01:00

This is one image from a series shot in Gibraltar. An afternoon spent on the rock has been added onto the website in 'stories'. See here. I wanted to create a faded snapshot or postcard aesthetic to these digital shots and I did this using some mild photoshop. In fact I like using photoshop to degenerate images as opposed to digitally enhancing them.

La Jetee (1963) - Chris Marker

2009-08-22T16:27:00.013+01:00

This great story was the base for the film '12 Monkeys' by Terry Gilliam. It uses photographs with text and narration. This is an english translation from the original french version.

the end of photography..

2009-08-10T23:08:00.023+01:00

''Photography Is Dead' was the name of a seminar I went to recently in Birmingham. It was hosted by Rhubarb Rhubarb who brought together some big names in photography to panel a debate on whether following the digital/internet revolution, photography as an medium, art-form, practice had died or was dying. It is no secret that digital technology has made film based photography almost redundant in commercial and popular use terms. The internet and computer use has of course transformed how we view images; in fact it was pointed out to me recently that older people often miss out on seeing the latest family photos, as they don’t spend any time on computers...Images directly uploaded onto computers could now mean the death of the popular use of the photograph, as a valued or cherished object.

The future looks bleak for film photography. The recent demise of Polaroid and Kodachrome 64 is a trend likely to continue as film based materials become less commercially viable as product demand decreases. The digital camera is cheap and widely available now and mobile phones come with good quality cameras as standard. The pace of technology change is so fast moving that every year higher quality and features ensure that photography is increasingly foolproof, ‘just point and shoot - the camera does the rest’. Technical skills in operating a camera are no longer essential.

The digital camera has, as with all technological enhancements in the photography’s history, made it easier and more accessible. But the implications now are changing the way the image is perceived. In the digital age, seeing is no longer believing. As the image is manipulated it is losing is strength in veracity, as evidential, factual truth.

One change expressed by Stephen Mayes, director of VII photo agency; previously, photography was always concerned with 'fixing' the image, an optical to chemical process. The digital sensor had now liberated photography and more specifically, the data; now, once the photograph is taken the raw data is free to be presented how the photographer or editor would like. But photography is not just about how the image is created but also how it is edited, presented and it what context. The image is invaded by language as soon as it shown.

So as technology makes photography easier, less skilled in a practical sense perhaps, maybe this will be marked by an increasing requirement of a greater amount of thought on what is photographed and how it is presented?

More to come...

family shots

2009-07-20T19:24:00.014+01:00

Various members of my family at various places and events this summer. All shot on 35mm film. Fuji NPS 160s and Ilford FP4 here. It makes a huge difference when the people you photograph temporarily lose their awareness of the camera and of being photographed. Portrait becomes snap or capture. The very word 'portrait' conjours up a pomposity and an artificial, upright, statue-like pose; people go into portrait mode. I guess successful portrait photographers go to great lengths to relax their sitters and get the shot, one which appears to capture the inner essence of the person. Barthes comprehensively elaborates on this in Camera Lucida. However, whether a shot is posed or is captured, in the end it is our own relationship with the subject, whether as photographer or as viewer that is established.

Foto8 competition entry

2009-06-14T18:04:00.004+01:00

'The multi-storey and underground car park is presented here as a portal into another psychological dimension. For users of these spaces they play a fleeting part in the day. However, in the brief moments during departure, we are pulled towards this portal, towards an alternative reality, before ‘clunk’ the door is closed and we are on our way. It is only when we allow ourselves to look beyond the car that we start to notice something drawing upon our consciousness…'

Cologne abstractions in colour

2009-06-03T23:03:00.037+01:00

Cologne this spring was awash of light and colour in the sun. Exposed onto slide film here, I couldnt help but be in almost trance like mode in capture of everything as it caught my gaze. I was oddly inspired to do this after visiting an Adam Jeppesen exhibition at the Kudlek van der Grinten Galerie. Jeppesen's work is simply fantastic, I love it, although without connection to the photos I would subsequently take.

The images were shot to form the basis of a colour module assignment. Five images were to be presented as a series based on abstraction. The idea being to demonstrate a view of what abstraction is. Clearly, everyone has their own view; for some it is where the image content is unrecognisable or non-representational, purely appreciated in terms of shape, colour, texture, light, lines and so forth, as in the popular notion of abstract art. I wanted to take a step back physically, presenting scenes that are almost apparent in terms of what they are, but at the same time provide some formal interest; in this case, the effect of light on surfaces.

I think the series is a success; I like the clear differences between the images and I'm not too concerned about how these differences draw each of them apart. The individual photographs are more important than the series as a whole. I sometimes wonder how defined and specific it is necessary to be in terms of all cohesive factors when presenting a series. If we consider the series too heavily while we shoot, surely we are missing opportunities to flow with what the brain registers and the eyes see, instinctively?....an important part of the feel for any subject. If we try too hard to lead the viewer into meaning, do we end up leaving valuable content or perspective behind? or worse still, result in a dilution of intent? I guess the answer may come from what meaning is intended and how important it is to ensure its destination; in the consciousness of the viewer.

In this case the series is established post-photographically, its aim is to provide a container for the idea, not to help reinforce a concept or promote further discussion on the phenomenon of light reflection. I think each image reaches a formal photographic balance to be appreciated as a singular entity, which may be enough.

The Vision of Peregrine Worsthorne

2009-04-24T20:47:00.012+01:00

This photograph was taken in Cologne, Germany. I like how it reflects the current economic crisis. None of this crossed my mind while taking the picture, however retrospectively, the context takes effect. The mannequin heads represent/reflect those people in the world who live to consume (not consume to live), what future awaits them in the current light of things?

I was listening to a band called McCarthy, an English band from the mid eighties and this song by them works well as a backdrop to this theme.

The Vision Of The Peregrine Worsthorne

In Fleet Street I lay down to sleep

In the seediest journalist bar

And in my sleep a vision I dreamed

From afar

In celestial mist made of light

An angel that blinds mortal eyes

This vision I knew knew no wrong

Only right

He took my hand and showed me things I'd never dreamed

The veil blinding me was lifted

And truth shone, a beacon beaming

The vision said softly to me

"The people are becoming too free

And if you want to sever the tea

Oh baby

Peregrine is looking grim

The economy is falling to pieces

It seems quite hopeless

Stand steadfastly by the friendly in exchange with free

Broadcast calls for order and law

Yet all shall be well, all shall be well"

The Holy Ghost bid me be bold

For wisdom that's weight out of old

Could will if it was spread among men

Once again

The vision departed me then

And I awoke cold and distant

I knew my mission

From: McCarthy, I am Wallet, 1987.

See: http://sances.info/mccarthy/about.htm

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd4YYVk_S4A

notes: Sir Peregrine Worsthorne is apparently a right-wing political commentator in England, and formerly the editor of the Sunday Telegraph.

sunilphoto.com

2009-03-25T21:07:00.007Z

Having just checked the main site I have to apologise for the lack of updates and new material. Its also a total mess. Watch this space, I'll get it straightened out, its time for a spring clean.

Sunilphoto fragments is some kind of half experiment with the aim of testing some ideas behind abstractions and photo fragments across projects. There is no intention to provide a narrative or message. Pure and simply a thread of disconnected images.

...and here's the cropped cham pic. Big up G.

chamonix, fr

2009-03-18T22:30:00.013Z

This place never fails to blow me away... click on images to enlarge. Pentax 67 75mm lens on Fuji Velvia 100. The first image is the Mer de Glace glacier, the tiny specks barely visible on the lower right-hand corner of the frame are skiers on the Vallee Blanche, a 20km run, returning to Chamonix. The second image is looking towards Chamonix Sud at dusk, the glacier creeping down the mountain is the Glacier des Bossons.

parking spaces 2

2009-03-01T22:07:00.005Z

These photographs started as an idea about recreating the feeling of returning to your car in an underground car park or multi-storey. The fluorescent light, shadows and emptiness were on my mind before I arrived. I needed security clearance at this place and got it easily from the puzzled looking guards who let me in to get on with it. The results blew me away, the project continues...

High rise

2009-01-25T10:57:00.006Z

High rise housing estates, this one is in Poznan, Poland. Large communities living in high rise estates, leftover from the post war, cold war era. Have you noticed how such places are no longer built? History suggests that this was affordable housing in limited spaces, easy to manage, easy to control through communist and socialist political ideologies. What social dynamics exist? With many people living in close, ordered proximity what kinds of boundaries are created? These are some of the questions that I felt compelled to ask. Perhaps a subject worth looking into?

image and text

2008-12-29T09:56:00.015Z

'office space', 2008

Before now, I've never added titles or captions to any of my photographs, instead preferring to write a short written piece which will set the context on a series of pictures rather than any one single image. Its been like this because working in a documentary style, I try to make the images form a open ended narrative, with the text providing just a starting point. Its just a system that works for me and furthermore, I've never liked the idea of captioning pictures with cliched or worn out notions about the content of an individual image.

I think once you start displaying your ideas to a wider audience, you do need to find techniques of getting your point across, as your ideas may not be obvious to everyone. Titling provides one such way of channelling the viewers thoughts down the path you want them to go. The text and hence language can be applied at different levels; a caption, a project title, a description, a text, even the space in which the images are viewed provide a language. Are they necessary or essential? Not always perhaps, I guess it depends upon your intentions for the image. What does it do to the image? does it take anything away from it?

The project 'Man made the land' is the first where I have really considered text and the language used. The project title 'Man made the land' refers directly to the fact that these are photographs of human intervention with the landscape. It has denotes human construction, I liked it also because of the way it sounds. The photographs themselves are titled with very basic titles indicating a description and a location. The written text collaborates with the images, it provides the idea, the context and the feeling which fuels the work; the ubiquity of man made landscape and its relative invisibility.

See 'Man made the land'

landscape 2

2008-10-31T08:04:00.011Z

Since the last landscape post I learned something new, so here goes... Landscape as a photographic genre is usually associated with the picturesque or beauty. Most often images of rolling hills, sunsets and sublime natural scenery spring to mind (fnb). The purpose of these images is maybe to create a feeling of awe, fantasy or transcendentation or some other. However, we all know the landscape, is not always so easy on the eye, it can be pretty neutral or even ugly, it can be city, rural or suburban. But whether it is picturesque or topographic, in any landscape image there will be content within the image that says something about us; our social identity, our political environment, our ideologies, our interaction with the environment. For me this puts a completely new slant on landscape photography; it tells us about the land, the people and their culture.

fun fair

2008-10-26T11:07:00.007Z

This is a selection of shots from the trip to Holland recently. Staying with good friends, Kasia and Tomek in Nistelrode, we hit the fun fair in a small town one night. I've never been one for fairs, to me, theres too much going on and too many kids; it frightening. When I was a kid it was the same , I felt I had to like fairs cos everyone else did. I think the pictures I shot in Holland reflect some of this feeling. I can see what is is about fairs though....some kind of sensory saturation. I did win a cuddly toy though !

jerez, cadiz and ronda

2008-09-29T22:58:00.007+01:00

In Spain we took in three very different places; Jerez, Cadiz and Ronda. A strange thing also happened in that at first I wasn't reaching for my camera very much. Not sure why that was and I thought perhaps its got something to do with the fact that I've been to this region of Spain before and possibly recorded all the images that caught my eye first time round. What I was left with was a feeling of dread with the anticipation that maybe I'm not gonna be inspired on this trip and will come home with nothing new. Luckily for me this feeling didn't last long. The streets, people and markets of Cadiz caught my eye. Once I'd reached for my camera, I was transported into a another blissful dimension. See the photo journal site for a small selection of photographs from Spain.

parking spaces

2008-09-22T23:45:00.007+01:00

Got many strange looks photographing this car park this year. Westgate multi-storey car park in Oxford is due to be demolished in 2009 sometime. We used to skate here when it rained and before they furnished it with a load of anti-skate measures. The car park is run by the city council and it is no longer really cleaned or looked after, its a well used city amenity though, which when compared to the affluent, historical and well-visited side of Oxford, is in stark contrast. Multi-storey car parks are intriguing spaces; they are cold and empty at night, for a few, providing shelter from the rain and a dry place to skate or ride flatland on a bmx. During the day, while drivers hurriedly look for spaces in the narrow parking slots, the sound of tyres and closing car doors echoes.

landscape 1

2008-08-31T20:19:00.004+01:00

Not sure what the rules are to landscape photography and not sure I want to read some book about it. I'd prefer to try look at pictures and work out what works for me and what doesnt, I think this image of Southborne beach on the south coast of England provides some clues; it has some interesting looking lighting and clouds and some subtle colours and landscape features, an English beach with no sign of people, the day drawing to an end. What I am nearly sure of is that the things we find aesthetically pleasing maybe due to some random or fleeting moment or event we recall from our memories, the picture we make is the picture we are moved to take. Had I experienced this moment before ?

a moment of truth

2008-08-03T22:10:00.008+01:00

a decisive moment?... the single point in time when elements of a scene come together. This image is of my cousin Priya getting ready in a hotel room for her wedding. I hung out with my camera in the room with Priya and her sister, Sushma who was helping her. Priya was very emotional and after months of organising this event all by herself, she was at a point where she felt overwhelmed. As I was taking this picture she was explaining to us how she felt like she would burst into tears at any moment.

To me this is the image of my cousins wedding. It shows in one picture, a truth. The truth of how much this event means to Priya and how much of herself she has invested in it. I was so happy for her and I believe she was happy as well in the knowledge that her closest and dearest are with her all the way into her future.

paris 2

2008-07-21T23:05:00.003+01:00

Paris transparencies and black and white film...its always gonna take longer. These are my two favourite shots, looking up to the street through a vent in the metro and looking at tourists at the Louvre...a few other images are on the main site: www.sunilphoto.com

hnc photography

2008-07-01T15:47:00.004+01:00

Nice one. Two years of study at Oxford College complete. Not entirely sure how I managed to complete 2 years of projects and assignments in the space of two months but somehow it all got done and handed in. The course has been a great thing to have done. Over the course of these two years, I've found some direction with photography, met some good people and learned some skills. I'll take this further on the upcoming University of Westminster course starting Sept 2008. For now some R n' R is in effect.

annie leibovitz and paris..

2008-06-24T15:55:00.015+01:00

......the two merged sweetly this weekend in Paris at the splendid Maison Europeenne de la Photographie, which also hosted an exhibition on dressage by William Klien and two installations by Eric Aupol and Sophie Elbaz. I'm gonna be honest here, I'm not really into rock star/movie star/celebrity studio portraits, to me its a reflection of how we elevate these celebrities to god-like status and how the human ego laps it all up. Having said that, I saw some of this in a different light at the annie liebovitz show, shes pretty much a household name with some very famous images through the decades. This work actually seems to be a reflection of how the photographer chooses to portray the image, you can def tell that she puts a great deal of thought in what she does commercially, and she does it pretty f'kin well. What totally blew me away however was her personal work. Her family and private life work is filled with so much love and care, it really tells you a lot about her and how she feels about her loved ones, who she is and what she does...The work is shown together and it puts all the rock star and movie star stuff into perspective, firmly into the realms of fantasy where it belongs and in that form it was definitely more palpable.

www.mep-fr.org

final year exhibition

2008-06-12T00:55:00.003+01:00

I'm now nearing the end of a 2 year HNC course and this friday is the final year exhibition for us. Its been well hectic getting things done for this in addition to having to get all the assignments I've been putting off for months done in the space of one...damn

Anyways the private view is friday 13th and then the exhibition stays up for a week. Todays Fading Lifestyles will represent.

Its at Oxford College, Oxpens Road at the Art and Design Block Kennet Building if you are in Oxo and fancy checking it. University starts in Sept....just what am I getting myself into???

iceland rocks

2008-06-01T22:51:00.010+01:00

Just got back from iceland. Jesus, what an amazing place. As I write this I'm struggling to find the words that can describe just how truly awesome this place is. Its like going back to a prehistoric world, probably because much of the land is (geologically speaking) new. There are constant and unrelenting jaw dropping vistas over every horizon. In fact a good opportunity was taken to do landscape photography in black and white with Ilford delta 100, in addition to the digital stuff and I discovered that with landscape photography, you need a great deal of time, patience, perseverance and the ability to pick the right time of day, but thats another story...Another great thing about Iceland is that despite the tourism and sights to see, the country has not sold them out like you'd expect. What you see is mainly natural and pretty much kept that way. Icelanders like it that way and in fact they do seem to have their own style, creativity and autonomy to the rest of the world which was super refreshing to see.

The summer is coming and due to its position near the Arctic Circle, it got dark for only a couple of hours every night and so there was a twilight for much of the night. So it was a good chance to to do some midnight photography in the low available light. Photos up on the main site well soon.

dope ammo roots and future album launch

2008-05-16T16:19:00.004+01:00

Coco's done it again, another huge release and another classic night and a coach load.......album release date 27th May, features DVD made by William Sansom, formerly of cardbored productions, now of close range films fame...

as they say in Banbury - fair play mate!

hay-on-why ?

2008-05-16T16:01:00.006+01:00

outdoors 'its a knockout' weekend with bob zoid ruled including muddy bikes and canoe racing, wales? england? lush this, charlotte church that, who the heck cares... it was beautiful countryside in this green and pleasant land.

experiment in colour

2008-04-20T16:10:00.004+01:00

fuji 160s print film has some good colour saturation and I wanted to see what colour I could find on a cloudy oxford sunday, heres some of it...a red postbox, green bus, blackwells book store, gents toilet and hotel flags.

reema and vega

2008-04-15T00:27:00.006+01:00

my cousin reema got married to vega last sat. what a great wedding, all the best things; family, friends, food and dancing came together and made the day special for us all. I dont ever see myself as much of a wedding photographer but here are some snaps from the day !

ss20 corby session

2008-04-13T22:07:00.006+01:00

SS20, Oxford skateboard store is 20 years old this year. By way of celebrating this birthday, Mon and crew have decided to put on some events and put together a little dvd feature dvd. I'm involved with getting the latter together with William Sansom of Cardbored Productions. We took this skate session in Corbys indoor park as an opportunity to film some interviews with the help of pro cameraman Jay Tubb and Zorlac legend Barry Abrook ! ....nuff said already.

Looks like we're all set to do some more too later this year.

I wasnt there doing much photography, but i did snap (with a dust covered lens) Sean Goff and Jay Tubb riding that huge vert ramp; it was a pretty awesome sight seeing these guys tearin' it up especially as some 23 years ago I met them at Mons ramp doing the same...

ZORLAC ! ZORLAC ! ZORLAC !

goggles 2

2008-04-10T23:58:00.005+01:00

goggles again featuring my coursemate Henry Merwhether this time....

H's 1970's bitchin 'bob haro' haircut enhanced this shot no end. Looks rad.

easter in poland

2008-03-27T11:04:00.016Z

Easter is an important date in the catholic calendar and I was in Poznan, a city in west Poland. This was my first visit to this country and I was lucky to be staying with some of the finest people I have ever met; my girlfriend Alina and her family.
I found that my preconceptions of this land were both validated and shattered. Validated in the sense that this part of the world is just emerging to what is considered in the west as healthy economic growth and shattered in the sense that the cold war and what was at times a dark history by no means pervades over the people and their culture, what I witnessed was incredible warmth and faith in the power of community and religion. The pictures I took both show my preconceptions and discoveries and I reckon the urban landscapes would have taken a different feel if I was there in the summer and it wasn't what was described as the coldest Easter in years !

dope ammo in portugal

2008-03-16T21:35:00.012Z

Dope Ammo is my brother, Coco. here he is doing what he does pretty well in Porto, Portugal. The life of a DJ might sound pretty exciting, but being a first hand witness on this one night trip to Portugal I can tell you that its pretty tiring and involves plenty of hanging round pretty much doing nothing....then just when your tired enough to hit the sack a taxi picks you up to get you to a club where you have to play music to a few hundred young party heads. Its a strange feeling going from a lonely hotel room in a unfamiliar deserted urban 3 star to the complete adoration of a big happy crowd. The Portuguese don't even get to the club til 3am, so we were there to see the sunrise before sleeping it off to the airport. Occupational hazard county.

fading lifestyles again

2008-03-10T22:50:00.021Z

Dont do what I did....have four really important shoots in 2 days, panicking to get stuff together for a portfolio and final year project work, just aint worth it...believe me. To top it all, this smart ass also decides to shoot with no less than 3 different cameras, 3 different formats.....talk about making life hard, it was a stressful 48 hours and I thought this was supposed to be fun.... anyway, some good stuff came about, some bad and I'm gonna put it all down to experience, heck photography these days for me seems to be all about making mistakes, well, at least its an education !....ah well here's some of the work, its not too bad, i'm exaggerating as usual...

chloe's 7th birthday

2008-02-19T23:12:00.003Z

chloe and leila peigne, my aka my nieces....birthday fun and games

goggles

2008-02-19T22:51:00.008Z

advertising assignment at college...i picked goggles as they were the newest thing I've bought recently that still look new. The assignment is to create ad quality images for an advertising concept of a product of our choice, cool huh? Anyways, this is the first of six images and obviously its they've been photoshop'd a treat.

images this winter

2008-02-11T21:08:00.002Z

Winter photography is difficult I reckon, you gotta deal with the cold, wet, low sun and harsh shadows, low light, cold, wet, sometimes conditions can make you just want to leave the camera at home. I didnt do that too often this winter, mainly out on sunny days some of the best stuff came about totally random and just by chance, when I went on little missions to just walk and discover parts of my home town. A new project I'm planning involves documenting Oxford and mainly aspects of it that we miss or dont notice, part of a ever-changing urban landscape in a town where some things just dont change. These images are a real mix of winter scenes, architecture and parks. Its funny I always thought photography in Oxford was uninspiring and boring but sometimes when you look closer and on your own doorstep, you find a whole new world opening up.

champagny en vanoise, france

2008-01-24T16:02:00.000Z

A long weekending snowboarding in the French Alps was here, approx 2 hours in a hire van, king of the road style stopping off for a roadside boulangerie of croissants and pizza avec lardons. Stunning mountains valleys led to this relatively quiet end of the La Plagne area with no lift queues and some soft snow off piste and plenty of space. Plenty of space is one thing the accommodation lacked and 7 adults (Dom, Tom, Ian, Lyns, Geoff, Jon C and me) in a box room was closer than the closest proximity I've ever had to encounter with friends. Still, it was a nice weekend and we filmed runs and took thousands of photographs and ate well. Also I got to try out Ian Roxborough's 15mm fisheye and 70-200 lens which was cool, experimentation was the name of the game...Geoff Cain's birthday was celebrated and courcheval was checked out on the last day. The sun was powerful, the ride home was bumpy.

sunilphoto.com - the blog

2008-01-24T10:36:00.000Z

barbers shop, oxford from 'todays fading lifestyles'

Hi, so this is the blog to accompany the site http://www.sunilphoto.com/. The main purpose of this is to be informal, expand on the diary/commentary idea, include photos that are not part of any project and generally a (waste of?) space so I don't spoil the main site ! I'll include regular updates on how things are developing with photography, project ideas, college, travel and perhaps life in general. So watch the space...