photography – and so she thinks

Girls To The Front

admin — Thu, 28 Feb 2019 18:21:57 +0000

Girls To The Front is a celebration of women in music. Curated by artist Ana Hine, and taking place at Madigan’s Bookshop and Café on Castle Street in Dundee, the exhibition features photographs, screenprints, and paintings of women in music, all based on Ana’s own gig photography. Ana graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in 2013 with a first class degree in photography and film, and this exhibition running from March 4-16, is her first solo exhibition in her hometown. It’s one of a series of events running as part of Dundee Women’s Festival.

Ana knows that she can’t single-handedly combat the sexism and discrimination in the music industry, but does believe that she can do her bit to bring the work of some amazing musicians and singer-songwriters to a new audience.

I asked her a bit more about the project.

How long have you been photographing musicians and gigs?

I’m an indie music journalist and early-career artist and I’ve been attending gigs and festivals as a multimedia reporter for several years. Highlights include seeing Kate Nash, Florence + The Machine, and Amanda Palmer. But I also enjoy giving a bit of press coverage to smaller acts, which is one of the reasons I make a zine.

What’s the fascination with female musicians?

For the last several years I’ve made a conscious effort to buy music by women, whether that’s mainstream artists or buying EPs at local gigs. I know I can’t single-handedly combat the sexism and discrimination in the music industry, but I can do my bit.

Also I just really appreciate the female perspective – like the female gaze in art – I’m interested in what women think and feel. I don’t want to lump us all together, but I think there’s still a level of difference in the experience of being a woman that comes through in the music that’s made – especially when it deals with explicitly feminist or lesbian themes.

Why did you decide to create Girls To The Front – an exhibition of women in music? Was it a deliberate decision or did it evolve organically?

I decided to have the exhibition when I started screenprinting from photos I’d been taking at gigs and realised that some of them were alright! Also I wanted to be able to publicise some of the more indie bands featured like Houdini Said No, The Farting Suffragettes, and Fistymuffs.

What unique situations are there for women in music?

I think we’re responsible for making a scene, from picking up a bass guitar to being interested in an event on social media, it all helps. We just need to spread the word about acts we like (and be vigilant for the creeps trying to keep women down.)

Wildlife Photographer of the Year

admin — Thu, 15 Dec 2016 20:08:08 +0000

Part of the annual cultural calendar for many, the renowned Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition from the Natural History Museum is a glorious lens into a world that we often don’t see. The complexities of our natural world and all who inhabit it become starkly apparent through beautiful shots of extraordinary spectacles and amazingly intricate activities, and the competition is a celebration of the talent and passion of the artists who participate – all 50,000 of them in 2016.

This year they set photographers the task of telling tell visual stories about society’s interactions with the natural world. Winner Tim Laman, from America, was chosen for his image Entwined Lives, which frames a critically endangered Bornean orangutan above the Indonesian rainforest. Nosy Neighbour by Sam Hobson in the UK captures the curious nature of the urban fox, whilst in India leopards can be just as familiar, as the glowing streets of Mumbai slums show in Nayan Khanolkar’s shot The Alley Cat.

Much more a familiar a sight, but rarely seen in such a way, Gideon Knight, 16, from the UK, won the Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year title for his image of a moonlit crow on a sycamore tree in London’s Valentine’s Park, an image with eerie beauty with its sprawling dark branches and silhouette against the full moon. The Moon and the crow is an image that is rightly referred to as a poem by its taker.

I’m always struck by the tenacity and patience that photographers have. Many go to extraordinary lengths to capture their image, including push ups to keep warm in the Antartic, hang gliding with their equipment, or months hiding out. But there’s also those moments of perfect serendipity. Roberto Bueno was looking to capture some rare birds, but when they failed to show, turned his attention to a small hair grass species and was struck by its ethereal beauty, resulting in this beautiful Grass at sunrise.

Once again the exhibition amazes, delights, and educates, bringing its audience closer to the world in which they live. Beautifully.

At Bristol M Shed until 5 March 2017.

Katherine Green – Tales From The Laundrette

admin — Wed, 27 May 2015 09:51:00 +0000

Tales From The Laundrette is a new project from Katherine Green, documenting personal life in these humdrum local spaces with astute and specific images capturing the everyday moments. A social documentary photographer based in London, Katherine’s work focuses on the idea of community, and the bonds which forge those communities. Her work has been published in The Times, The Guardian and The Independent, and she has exhibited at National Portrait Gallery, British Library and The Lowry. Tales From The Laundrette will be shown at two launderettes in Walthamstow, London during the E17 Art Trail, running from 30 May – 14 June 2015.
Drawn by the images and intrigued by the idea, I caught up with Katherine to find out more.
The laundrette has died out in many ways, with only a small few using it on a regular basis – do you think something has been lost by the laundry going in house, as it were?
The laundry is such a social place with a huge diversity of people, it’s a mixture of people – some who don’t have room for a washing machine or dryer in their home, or they’re living in temporary accommodation or they’re more affluent but their washing machine has broken. It’s a neutral space where people come together, some regularly, they chat, laugh, read, help each other or catch up on emails etc. For some of the older customers I met, it might be one of their only social interactions during the week. To find such a diversity of people in one social space is rare and special. This interaction and exchange will be lost if laundry’s were to disappear completely.

What does personal and social observations in apparently ordinary and insignificant situations tell us about the macro social and political situations in the world?
Blimey!!.. that’s a big question, I hope this answers it to some extent. What particularly interests me when I’m working is people and places that fall below or outside marketing targets, and people and places who don’t appear in the mainstream media because they’re not necessarily attractive to marketeers or advertisers. I think the people that visit here, and the people that I capture in most of my projects are important and should be reflected in the media, and represented. So much of what we do, where we go, how we dress, what we buy etc is dictated by marketing – whether we realise it or not. When people aren’t represented, it’s important to ask why. I think in this way, capturing an aspect of life and people otherwise overlooked, is a small political statement.
The piece will be accompanied by a soundtrack by music producer Hugo Slime – where did the idea to blend the two mediums come from, and what does it offer?
The sounds of the launderette are so rhythmic, and the snippets of conversation that you hear between the noise of the machines seemed ripe for making into an audio track. I often work with oral history and have short interviews alongside work, but in this instance I wanted to take that further and make a soundtrack that you listen to and immerse yourself in whilst you’re in the laundry. I couldn’t do that myself so I approached a music producer to commission a soundtrack. it’s been quite a challenge for him because the noises are quite ‘muddied’, there’s lots going on at the same time, and he was used to working with really crisp, clean audio! The soundtrack creates an atmosphere and I think, encourages visitors to listen and soak up the atmosphere as well as look.

Where does your inspiration come from?
My inspiration comes from where I live and how it’s changing. I live in suburban East London. It’s not proper East End although there are/were elements of that. Over the past 10-15 years, there’s been a steady gentrification. Older ‘unfashionable’ institutions are being ‘improved’ and modernised, many long term residents are having to move away because of the rising cost of living here. There’s traditionally been great characters in this area, full of bravado, tall tales and laughs. A real tradition of story telling and tall tales. For me, something of the community – which has always been strong here – is being lost, commercialised and cleaned up. It’s loosing character and I want to preserve and record that character where possible.
How do you know when a photo will be art, social comment, or a random and wasted snap?
I don’t always I suppose! I try to take as many photographs as possible on film, the act of using a medium format camera means you work quite slowly and select a shot with more thought that if you were shooting on digital. I like the way this allows me to engage with people more. The context you display work in often changes the meaning, and so by presenting work in an exhibition, I suppose I am presenting it as art.
Can you tell me a bit about your previous work, and how this collection is an evolution?
My previous work has all been about engaging with the community and recording aspects of community life and history that wouldn’t otherwise be documented, people and places that fall outside media spotlight and interest.
I previously documented the last few months of Walthamstow Dogs Stadium, a well loved institution which had over 500 local employees and closed in 2008; for the Olympics I was involved in two major projects, the first was a personal project where I tracked down and documented elderly members of the 1948 Olympic team – photographing and recording their stories, the second was a three-year commission from National Portrait Gallery, called ‘Road to 2012: A local story’ where I photographed grass roots olympic sports in the olympic boroughs. Both these projects were shown as exhibitions. The most recent project was a year long residency on a housing estate in North Cambridge, working with a group of young girls and older residents, I put on an exhibition in collaboration with both which looked at how a new community forged it’s identity and the particular characters who led the way.
This project is a continuation of those interests in community and community bonds. In practical terms, as I recently had a baby I was looking for a warm dry place I could sit with her safely and take photos, and I had a long time interest in the life of launderettes and the nostalgic look and feel of them. This project is a celebration of the wonderful diversity of people who I met, and who meet each other each week, their generosity and openness in allowing me to photograph and record them is amazing.

An interview with….98 Wounds

admin — Wed, 19 Nov 2014 17:20:00 +0000

Magazines tend to be filled with words, but they say that a picture speaks a thousand of them. 98 Wounds is a magazine which embraces that, focusing upon music photography rather than reviews and articles. The first issue was produced in March 2013, but the real story goes back earlier than this.
A photographer by trade and having plenty of photos being printed in NME and Sounds, it was in 1978 that founder Neil decided that he wanted to create an outlet for all of the photos that just sat gathering dust in his cupboards, resulting in a photocopied fanzine called The Poser. ‘In those days you couldn’t just upload them to Facebook. For various reasons it petered out after 7 or 8 issues, but John Peel described it as ‘worth getting hold of’ and we were selling out the 500 copy print run.’
Although it was short lived, its influence is felt on Neil’s work. In 2012 he decided to produce a book of photos from that year, a sort of yearbook. It was around 450 pages, and turned out to be a little too large for software, publishers and readers. Breaking it into three parts, and then four, 98 Wounds has eventually become a quarterly featuring the best new music in London. ‘In a sense 98 Wounds is what I wish I could have created back in 1979. A reasonable quality book about bands who are happening now in London.’
It’s not that pictures are considered to be superior to words, but quality is important, and much of that seems to come from the photographer as well as the band’s performance and the gig atmosphere. ‘I’m not really interested in shooting bands at big venues with silly 3 song rules and lighting which any idiot with a camera set to auto can take ‘good’ photos.. Whilst I was at the planning/concept stage I came across Keira who was another gig photographer with a similar desire to capture the energy of a gig rather than just turning out passable shots with no soul, of bands the photographer doesn’t care about. If the photographer clearly doesn’t care about the band, why would their readership care?’
98 Wounds is a phrase in the song Privilege (set Me Free) from the album Easter by Patti Smith, and the title was chosen artistically illustrate a certain amount of struggle as well as the practicalities of it being ‘short enough to write big.’
Music today often seems to be about fame and notoriety, but when discussing his heroes John Peel, Joe Strummer, Malcolm McLaren, he says that those ‘worthy of admiration will have a greater vision than just making cash, they need to care about something, to at least believe they can change things. Maybe even make some sacrifices for their art. These days there don’t seem to many people who stand out with these qualities. Today I find well known bands politically anaemic and their music bland and pointless. Who is fighting austerity for the poor and cash handouts for the rich ? I find plenty of enthusiasm and originality amongst smaller bands, but will they be swallowed up by the crushingly dull music ‘industry’ ?’ It’s not all bad news – as one of the first to share words and photos about Savages, Fat White Family and Slaves, it’s certainly a publication that supports new music.
If you want to know who the next enthusiastic bands are and the ones worth watching, you know where to go. ‘Let me just say that we don’t put bands in 98 Wounds if we don’t think they are worth seeing, so look in 98 Wounds… and get down to some shows.
Going back to Patti Smith, he recites the lyrics:
I see it all before me:
the days of love and torment;
the nights of rock-and-roll.
That is what the magazine is about…..

Who is London? 1000 Londoners

admin — Tue, 20 May 2014 16:26:00 +0000

1000 Londoners is a project of films and people. Over five years a thousand people who call London home will be filmed telling their story, and the three minute videos posted on the website. A ‘unique digital portrait,’ anyone can be nominated, and as such the interviewees reflect the colourful human landscape of London. Everyone has a story. And with 8.3 million permanent residents, and another couple of million in the day through work and visiting, London is home to many stories. I chat to Reece Lipman, Film Maker on the project, to find out more.
Where did you get the inspiration for the project?
Mark Currie and Rachel Wang, who are the creative directors of 1000 Londoners and the directors of Chocolate Films (the company producing 1000 Londoners) came up with the concept for the project about 2 years ago. Since launching Chocolate Films, a social enterprise film production, in 2003, they have always created projects with a strong sense of community and community cohesion. Whether through documentaries, filmmaking workshops or community media events, bringing people from around this massive city together was always one of the company’s key aims. So the inspiration for this project really came from an extension of that idea; how do we get people in London talking, sharing their stories and understanding how everyone else lives?

A great example to highlight this was actually the genesis of the 1000 Londoners project itself. One morning Mark was filming the Duchess of Wessex in Buckingham Palace. He was sitting in this room where The Queen could have walked in at anytime, there were priceless portraits, antiques… everything you’d expect from the Palace. That afternoon however he ran a filmmaking workshop in a different part of the city with some homeless young people for a completely different project. Those intense differences in one day prompted him and Rachel to brainstorm ways to bring all of these different parts of the city together. They decided there was no better way of doing this than having people telling their own stories, showing everyone as not just a face in a crowd but an individual with a unique story. From that basic idea, 1000 Londoners was born.

So far we have seen the city from a helicopter, the sewers and the bedroom of a male escort. We’ve shot a Blacksmith, a manicurist and a former Mayor. We’ve got the opening set of films on 1000Londoners.com now including one Londoner selling replica guns and another selling the Big Issue so it’s already proving to be as diverse and distinctive as we hoped!

Do you think that this project would work anywhere else?
That has always been something we have considered. We’ve spoken to filmmakers in Manchester about the possibility of a similar project there as well as Glasgow; these big cities with history and diversity that have stories to tell. It’s the kind of project that can be transported anywhere; if it can work in London we are aiming for it work in New York or Paris.

At the moment we are purely focused on getting the word out about 1000Londoners.com. Getting people involved and getting strong films made is our main aim. Chocolate Films loves London and we want to celebrate it through our flagship project.

Back in July 2013 you posted a question on your blog “What makes someone a Londoner”? Do you think you are getting any close to an answer?
I think what we’re finding so far is that a Londoner isn’t actually something that can be defined. This is a city of 8 million people so saying that we are all grumpy, happy, busy, accepting of others etc would only end up being a crass generalistion.

What is clear though is that being a Londoner is more a state of mind than anything else. One of our key criteria is that all of the people featured throughout the project must consider themselves a Londoner, whether they have been here their whole lives or got off the plane yesterday. That means that the thing that makes someone a Londoner is that they feel a connection with the city in some way. This doesn’t always have to be positive of course but that connection, that emotional response is what we have found, so far at least, makes someone a Londoner.

Have you seen any common traits yet?
The only common trait I can think of is that people do feel strongly about the city, whether in a positive or a negative way. It’s a place which elicits such a range of emotional responses and that really is coming across strongly. For example, I filmed a woman who owns a pie and mash shop that has all the original fittings from the mid 1920s. It’s this typically London food shop with customers who have been going in for years. The woman was talking to be about how she really dislikes the fact that London is losing some of its classic buildings and as a consequence its history is disappearing. So she loved the city, felt connected daily to its past but at the same time no longer liked what it was becoming. That’s a very common trait amongst a lot of the Londoners we’ve met so far – they either love it or they hate it, there’s no real middle ground.

Whilst I guess it is necessary to do the project over five years simply due to time constraints, do you think that this means the picture will change? What makes someone a Londoner in 2014 may not be the same as in 2019?
I think the best answer to that is to have a look back over London in the past. What made Londoners Londoners 30 years ago you could say still applies today. Because of the river and because of Britain’s place in world politics and trading, London has always been a place where different communities from around the world have met and connected. Whilst places like Docklands might no longer be the manufacturing and shipping centers they once were, they are now the heart of London’s financial district- so business is still taking place where business took place all those years ago. Where the East End used to be the home of Jewish migrants in the early 19th century it is now the home of a lot of Middle Eastern and Eastern European migrants. So the community has changed but the city landscape and the way people interact with each other has stayed the same.

So in 5 years will being a Londoner mean something different? In all likelihood, no, probably not. This city has always seen change and the communities have always been very fluid but what it means to live in this city and to interact with other communities has stayed the same.

Do you consider yourself to be a Londoner?
Personally I do consider myself to be a Londoner. I grew up in the suburbs of East London and, except for a few years away, I’ve always lived here. My family were immigrants to London in about 1920 and we’ve never left. That being said though, even I’m still discovering this city. I’ve always lived north of the river so anywhere south feels completely foreign to me!

What’s interesting with this project though is that a lot of the people on the Chocolate Films team aren’t from London and have only moved here in the last few years or months. They are just discovering the city like so many of the Londoners we have spoken to as part of the project on 1000londoners.com. It’s exciting to see just what more there is to discover who the other people in this city are! We’re just at the start so I’m sure even more will be unearthed as we continue.

Punk+ by Sheila Rock – capturing the sound and look of a movement

admin — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 15:10:02 +0000

Sheila Rock is what you might call a talented and prolific photographer. The US born London based artist has work in the National Portrait Gallery, and since her career took off after a commission from FACE in 1980, has snapped for everyone from Vogue to The Sunday Times. Her latest book PUNK+ is a collection of 119 of her favourite photographs that capture the mood of the early punk period, 1976-1978. Live performances, rehearsals, fashion, boutiques, behind the scenes and on the street, this a recollection of the excitement of the early punk movement and its impact on society, music, culture and style. I thought I would ask more…
The book does not focus on either music or fashion, but sees the two as inseparable. What for you is the relationship between music and fashion?
In the UK, I have always felt that music and fashion are interlinked. They are mutually expressive of one another and often relate to TRIBES that associate themselves with a particular music movement. For young people, it is a way of belonging but also expressing their individuality and making choices.
Is it individuality, or part of being a fan, to absorb the look and feel of the sounds you hear?
Absolutely. It’s an affirmation of the music or movement . You identify with this by wearing a badge or a colour or dressing up. With Punk it was the most extreme and brilliantly expressive.
How long have you been taking photos?
I always thought I started taking pictures in 1980 when I began working for the Face. Before then I would never dream of saying I was a photographer. I was young and inexperienced and didn’t know what I was doing. Except I had an interest and energy and was never someone who sat on the couch. But I guess with these photos, you can say I started taking photos in 1976. The time of Punk.
Either you have a natural skill, or have clearly learned something. Likely a combination of the two. What for you creates a good image or portrait?
Many things make up a good picture. Composition. Strong graphic shape. An honest expression. A caught moment. Trying to get beneath the surface is where you need to focus the lens.
1976-9 seems a very niche time period. Can you explain what was so cataclysmic about it?
Grey England and economic hardship predominated. Something interesting came from this flat time…. Punk. It was an attitude; a way of being individual. I think it was a very creative time.
You talk to a number of great artists and commentators of the period – Chrissie Hynde, Tony James, Don Letts, Glen Matlock, Chris Salewicz, Jon Savage etc – who was particularly enlightening and had some good stories to tell?
Everyone had some interesting stories to tell. From the “Conversation”, you understand that it was an exciting time and influenced all of us. It was everyone’s beginning and a humbling time. We all made a lot of noise…..
That was then. What is on your ‘record player’ at the moment?
David Sylvian. Verve. Placido Domingo. I love to mix things up.
Punk+ is out now, published by First Third Books.

Vojko Jeric – A Home in Pictures

admin — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 01:48:46 +0000

Vojko Jeric is cold and frustrated. He came to London a year ago, lured by the hope of success, the same dream of streets paved with gold that gets us all. Dedication to art is what gets him through, even when he is verging on proving Samuel Johnson right on being bored of London and life.
A photographer and a graphic designer, he prefers photography due to its dynamism. Surely photography is static I ask, one moment captured on film. All the question verbs start to flood out of Vojko’s mouth. ‘You are always working with people, so although the result is of one c moment, so much goes into it. You have to think how, why, where and who…have a vision.’
This vision for Vojko tends to be fluid, as part of the thrill of photography for him is working with people, and using his intuition to capture the emotion integral to his work. Inspired by the ‘critical’ photography of Erwin Olaf, the drifting melancholia of Lar Von Triers and Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s 1967 novel ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’, Vojko believes it is important to not be so focused upon one’s craft that it becomes disconnected from the world in which and people with which it operates. ‘Everything is connected’ he says. ‘We complicate things too much, divide ideas and thoughts and philosophies. If you study photography, and read only about photography, you’re stuck.’
Trained as a graphic designer (‘It’s a bit boring’) but with a passion for photography, he undertook a fashion photography course to learn skills, dismissing the focus of the lens, but found that the creative element of fashion inspired, and led on to a personal fascination with vitality of dress up and demonstration. This is evident in one of his projects, ‘I Love U Daddy’, pure naughtiness combined with sensual beauty, the detailed tattoos on the beautiful woman against the decorated wall.
His personal projects reveal a strong belief in the importance of narrative. The ethereal and hazy photos of the portfolio ‘Black Betty’ is an anti hero story about fallen angels. Soft hair combines with glinting dark eyes, a sharp focus with a blurred background, the balance between heaven and hell always oscillating, demonstrating the frustration at not belonging. The beauty captured in this pictures is of a particularly fragile nature. The ability to spot beauty and capture it is something learned on his travels. Originally from Slovenia, Vojko spent a couple of years in Italy, learning about style. ‘The car is not very good, but it looks very good. They make everything look great.’
Good work is that which ‘emotionally satisfies’ Vojko, and he feels that when he as a photographer communicates something of importance to the viewer. I’m always curious as to what makes a person a photographer, rather than a just a person who takes photographs – a professional if you like. ‘It’s important to make the commitment…you can’t give up, even when you don’t have a formula for success.’