Leaving Blogspot

Not enjoying this platform, heading back to tumblr. Please go HERE, to see my work.
Thanks

Kinoulton

Been off the blogging circle for awhile, been doing some offline research. Anyway, Im back home in the countryside. Its lovely, and the weather just makes everything better. So i'm not one for using digital that much, but using my digital camera to take some photos of my village back home (as i cant afford film) but this is a starter point for a new project Im thinking of doing, a sort of documentation of the an english village in the 21st century, and a recapturing of my childhood memories of growing up here.

 

'In your soft talk'

'In your soft talk'

Dating back in Western Culture to the books ‘The Illiad’ and the ‘Anied’ which told stories of epic journeys across vast oceans. We, as humans, have always attached a mythical and symbolic importance to it. The sea is seen as a body of ceaseless movement and formlessness, of introspection and depth. Juan Eduardo Cirlot writes “it is a symbol, therefore, of dynamic forces and of transitional states between the stable and the formless.” Leo Frobenius sees it as a representation of our “collective unconscious” where “the sun of the spirit rises”.

It is of no wonder then, even in this day and age, that people are still drawn to the coast to sit and watch and wonder, to enter into a state of contemplation and stillness at its perennial surface. It is these people I have chosen to represent the often overlooked, romantic, introspective people that draw my attention, but pose only questions to me.

These photographs are my interpretations of such persons. Due to the problematic nature of the power struggle that is inherent in the photograph between the subject – photographer – viewer I have chosen to stage these episodes, in an attempt to allow the viewer to use the image as an object, to emancipate the spectator “to deny the corporeal energy that is meant to convey the here and now and transfer it into a mere image, by linking it with something she has read in a book or dreamed about, that she has lived or imagined” (Ranciere) The image then becomes a tool for contemplation, for personal interpretation, for meditation.

The title is a nod to Jack Kerouac’s poem ‘Sea – Sound of the Pacific Ocean at Big Sur’ and also to the quiet voices of the characters to be interpreted by the viewer.

Images of the zine that goes alongside coming up soon

quick screen grab/workspace

Here's a screen grab of some images that I got back last week. Still part of the same project, here's the twist... These are people that I know, yet for me they represent people I meet alone on brighton beach. Intially being denied by people on the beach to talk to them and photograph them aswell, and due to the time frame I had to work in, I decided to stage, no not stage thats not the right word... I decided to interpret, and create these characters from observation I had carried out on the beach.

I dont think that this detracts from the intial documentary aspect of my project. There is the false belief that photographic documentary must follow the discourse of truth, in order to convey its message to the viewer. Yet I feel the real strength in these images, is that even though they are anchored in the real, they are still disconected from the original subject. And allow the viewer not to feel intrusive, or implicit in the photographic exploitative nature, towards the subject.

These then, are objects of scrutiny, observation, meditation, discourse on the subject matter.

David Severn - Thanks Maggie

I have decided to try and start doing some features of photographers I like, and up and coming photographers I think you should keep an eye on. 

So here is my first feature, David Severn - a guy I used to be on A level photography with, if very briefly. Anyway so he has just finished a project entitled 'Thanks Maggie' which is now showing at the Mansfield Museum in Nottinghamshire, so if you're up that way, you should check it out. Here's a brief introduction to his work:

"This series of photographs explores the reinvented uses of ex colliery sites in and around the former coal mining stronghold of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. The project also seeks to examine the current milieu of the area, particularly in relation to its post-industrial recovery. I myself grew up in the town and like so many from Mansfield, come from a mining family - my Father working at the pits all his life and my Grandfather a Deputy at nearby Sutton Colliery during his time." - David Severn

You can find his work up here

http://cargocollective.com/davidsevern

and his blog

http://davidsevern.tumblr.com/ 

 

Look at me, Don't Stare (1)

Part of my 'Look at me, Don't stare' project. 

I have been very interested by people that I see sitting alone on the beach, for whatever reason. I wanna know why they are there, who they are and what they are doing there. I think I feel an afinity with these people, because it is a thing I have found myself doing alot. For me, the beach is a quiet completative place, even when the weather is awful, i feel comforted by the constant roaring of the waves, or when it is still, just awed by its vastness. All these cliched things I guess. So, I want to understand why other people go here, is it the same reason as me? or something completely different?

Stories stories stories, I love stories. 

What I love about how these portraits have turned out, are the awkwardness that they present. That comes with being photographed by someone that you don't quite know.

Tom - Brighton beach

Realised I haven't posted in awhile, so here's a quick photo that I took the other day. It's of a fisherman called Tom that I met on Brighton beach, we chatted for awhile, he had alot to talk about; cameras/cars/fish/taking the mick out of stupid people, you know the usual...