The exhibition showed work from the Amber Collective based in North East England. They document the changing landscapes and communities in the area and this exhibition showed changes in the area over a dirty year period. Some of the photographs documented the streets and areas where I spent my childhood and teen years. Viewing the photographs had memories of my childhood flooding back, the smells of the nearby brewery and the sound of my great grandparents chatting to the neighbours over the garden fence filled my head. Some superb pictures showing the grittiness of life in the North East including works from Tish Murtha and Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen.
For some time I had been looking forward to visiting Newcastle's Laing Art Gallery to view the Forever Amber exhibition and I wasn't disappointed.
The exhibition showed work from the Amber Collective based in North East England. They document the changing landscapes and communities in the area and this exhibition showed changes in the area over a dirty year period. Some of the photographs documented the streets and areas where I spent my childhood and teen years. Viewing the photographs had memories of my childhood flooding back, the smells of the nearby brewery and the sound of my great grandparents chatting to the neighbours over the garden fence filled my head. Some superb pictures showing the grittiness of life in the North East including works from Tish Murtha and Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen.
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May was a very busy month and saw the third annual DogWise event in Durham. Organised by Durham Constabulary's Dog Support Unit and dedicated to all things dog. This is the first time I've attended this event and was under instruction to capture the essence of the day for the PawsUp website. It was held at Houghall College in conjunction with their annual spring fair. It is foremost a charity event promoting responsible dog ownership and highlighting the various dog related charities such as Stray Aid, TWSMRT (Tees and Weardale Search and Rescue Team), Dogs Trust and RSPCA. There was various displays by PawsUp, K9Pursuits, Search and Rescue, Scrappy the fire dog etc and a chance for the public to test their dog's talent on the agility course with a lot of money being raised it was a very successful day. My most recent 'documentary' project was to capture a friend's wedding day. Now weddings really aren't my favourite thing!........Well, that's not strictly true - I should say, that formal wedding shots aren't my favourite thing, I'm really not a good director of people and I find organising group shots is a bit of a nightmare. The candid shots are what I like best, I like to capture the day as it unfolds.
When I hand over wedding photos I always pick out the photos that I think best tells the story of the day, put them together in a slideshow and add music which is special to the couple e.g. the brides entrance music or in this instance the first dance song. This fits in well with part two of the Context and Narrative course I'm studying at the minute which is all about putting images together with text or audio and I think it adds a personal touch which creates great impact. The couple were very pleased with the result. May also seen me attend an RPS workshop with Alison Baskerville. This was organised by a gentleman named Gordon Bates who is a fellow member of the northern region DVJ group. Alison (or Ali as she likes to be called) is an exceptional documentary photographer, specialising in conflict and the impact it has on people around the world. Her work is widely published in the national press and she is a regular speaker at seminars and debates. The day started with a few teething problems but quickly got underway. Ali's work is amazing as she is regularly sent to far off corners of the world at a moments notice. On her way to Newcastle on the morning of the workshop she had received a call to say she could possibly be travelling to Gaza that evening - what an exciting life! During her talk she told us about the people who inspired her, Jacob Riss, Bill Brant, Vivian Maier and Larry Burrows - all brilliant social documentary photographers. She told us of what she considered to be the five most important shots which make up the visual narrative :- 1. Portrait 2. People at Work 3. Establishing shot 4. A Moment 5. A Detail shot. All of these she considered important to the building of a photographic essay and explained that communication with the subject was of paramount importance as the more information you have the better you are able to tell their story. In the afternoon we were sent out to find our story. Very daunting for me, I hadn't a clue where to start. The weather was very wet so most of the group headed to the indoor Grainger Market which was also the subject of a previous assignment of mine during the People and Place module. I did think of revisiting some of the stall holders which I had befriended during this last project but though maybe that would be an unfair advantage so I wandered around until I came across something that caught my eye. So this is what I came up with..... This lovely lady is called Christine Richardson, it turns out she and her husband own a photographic studio only 2 minutes from my house in Chester Le Street. I've taken my granddaughter there in the past to have portraits taken so had met her husband before but had never met her. She used to work in the studio but 'retired' 5 years ago and started making hats. She can make bespoke headpieces to to match special occasion outfits which take her about 2-3 days to make. The casual hats like the one she is wearing she can make 2-3 in one day. Her website is here. She is a very talented and very lovely lady.
Did I manage to tell her story well? The Portraits from the North East project reached it's peak and the exhibition launched at Alnwick Garden on 6th May.
The project has come about by the enormous effort of Durham Photographic Society member John Cogan who was the driving force behind it. Other members have also given up a lot of their time to photograph the subjects, arrange meetings and organise the administrative side of things. I myself sadly only managed one portrait session as work/home commitments did not allow me to devote as much time to the project as I would have liked. In the end I didn't even make it to the grand opening but did manage to pay a visit to Newcastle Cathedral which was it's next venue and just happens to be one of my favourite places in Newcastle. The Portraits website can be viewed here. Yet another Pawsup assignment seen me invited along to Durham County Cricket Club's media day.
A series of formal team photos were to be taken to mark the new strip launch. A lot of local press attended as well as the club's official photographer Jed Wee who also is a fellow member of Durham Photographic Society. The dog unit invited me along to take some photos for possible use in next year's calendar, and as usual I didn't have to be asked twice (even the date clashing with the completion of my new house wasn't going to stop me!). Being a novice at these events I didn't really know what to expect. The day was a little hectic with only a window of about 10 minutes to got the shot set up and taken. Luckily I didn't have to worry about the setting up part as Jed is a master of his craft and made it relatively easy for me to get the shot I needed. As always with large group shots, and even with a great organiser like Jed, it's difficult to get a viewpoint where everyone can be seen clearly or everyone looking at the camera at the same time so I shot about a dozen or so photos and picked the best one out later. Even this one needed a little work but it was an excellent opportunity to learn and practice new photoshop skills. I've posted the original and the final versions below. As a result of the crime scene investigation images I made a few months ago the dog section training officers have put together a booklet as guidance for new recruits. I am thrilled that my photos have been used. It is great for me to see that the photos I take on these training days are not only great practice for me but also useful for them too and I'm not just hanging around getting on their nerves :)
Here's a few images of pages from the booklet, sensitive information has had to be omitted. One day during lambing season I received a call from one of the PC's in the dog unit asking if I would take a photo of 'a dog watching sheep'. At first I thought it was a bit of a strange request but if that's what the client wants then who am I to argue - naturally I jumped at the chance. The purpose of the photo was to make a poster promoting responsible dog ownership during lambing season. The venue was to be a field in a small village in County Durham, when we arrived it was very cold and the sun was in the wrong place so the side of the field I preferred to shoot from meant the sheep were too far away to be relevant in the frame. "That's ok" he said, "I'll just climb over the fence and get closer". "Will you not get into trouble for doing that?" I asked, he replied "Of course not I'm a policeman" !!.....So over he went then he turned and said "I'll hold your camera while you climb over"........Haha - not a chance was I going to risk getting chased by an irate farmer!! I opted to put the long lens on and shoot through the fence, this also meant the background would be compressed by the longer focal length, bringing the sheep closer into the frame and it also meant that the dog didn't have to get too close to the sheep that it made them jittery which of course was what the campaign was aiming to prevent.. The result was this:- @DurhamPoliceK9 posted it on their Twitter feed and it got an amazing 509 retweets - the most they've had for one tweet so far !!
Of course it goes without saying that if it had been necessary for me to climb that fence then I wouldn't have hesitated for second ;) In March I attended The Photography Show 2015 at the NEC Birmingham where I attended a lecture by Tim Flach who is an amazing animal photographer. His body of work entitled More Than Human explores the concept of anthropomorphism and the relationship between humans and animals. His images are fascinating and can be viewed on his website here.
Also whilst there I bought a Lensbaby gadget for my iPhone which I had great fun playing with and made some very quirky surreal images. After my elation at the LRPS advisory day in York I decided to beef up my dog collection and go with a panel of those for my Associateship submission. I attended an ARPS advisory day at Backworth Hall in Newcastle and the advisors were once again very complimentary but said that my panel wasn't suited to the categories in which they were qualified. I was advised to submit my panel to an online advisor for the Applied category which I did.
After a very long three week wait I finally received the verdict which turned out to be very disappointing. It was said that some of the images were very 'average' and 'taken from a bystanders point of view with little feeling of the photographer getting in there'. I'm not entirely sure how close they expect me to get without getting my leg chewed off or if they realise just how dangerous these dogs can be !! Anyway........all distinction applications are on hold for the time being as I have more pressing matters to attend to at the present time. |
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