Kronstadt, a set on Flickr.
Kronstadt, sometimes spelled kronshtad, is an island in the gulf of finland off the russian coast near to st petersburg.
Since the time of peter the great it has been a military island, with a massive naval base. There is amazing architecture and a complex system of forts, locks and canals.
When i was there in 2004-4 it was in severe decay… Here is the first of several series I shot there. These are just the digital photos.
Filed under Uncategorized
Working with analogue photographs
Analogue is different to digital. You don’t get to see the photos till they are printed. You have to physically touch them and move them around with your hands to think them over.
I was thinking about landscape and found that I have taken a lot of photos of the standard “Canadian landscape” of mountains + sky. Very pretty but very standard. Overly familiar. But what happens when you arrange them differently? Here they become a picture of a blue river, or a zigzag celestial stairway, or a …. Or just an arrangement of green and blue.
Here on the top line we see two views of a town, reinterpreted as a Constructivist arrangement of lines and blocks. Interestingly this thing that came out so Constructivist are 4 photos taken in Russia. Left, Kronstadt; right, the Volga.
Below that, Canadian forest-scapes. These are less successful as compositions but they do erupt into an explosion of green life, which is interesting in its own way.
I did these in the studio, using old prints (ie. not ones I made specially for this exercise) and am pretty pleased with the results. It’s given me more incentive to keep working with analogue and to reconfigure the photos in this way. I quite happy with the top one and the Constructivist one on the left.
Some people really reject Conceptual photography, but I think that, in a world that’s simply drowning in images, we can afford to find new ways to see them rather than just keeping making them.
Your feedback owould be welcomed.
Filed under Art-Related, photography
“… today, on May Day, it is up to the people of the East End, as represented by their elected councillors in Hackney, to make a stand against those who think they know what is best for us. We do not want to see any more old buildings destroyed. We want to preserve the culture of the East End. We want to remember where we came from and respect those who came before us.”
http://spitalfieldslife.com/2013/05/01/d-day-for-the-marquis-of-lansdowne/
image courtesy of Spitalfields Life
http://spitalfieldslife.com/2013/05/01/d-day-for-the-marquis-of-lansdowne/
New Orleans Black and White, a set on Flickr.
And here is the black and white set from the New Orleans trip.
I shot these B & W I didn’t just edit them as B&W.
Filed under photography, the city, Uncategorized
During the whole project The King's Land the process of creating murals over an entire derelict housing estate was being documented by film and photography.
The film, TAKING OVER THE KING'S LAND is in the final stages of post production and will be released by New Reel Films in late spring 2013
Here's the trailer:
Filed under art, Art-Related, Film Making, Uncategorized
I wasn’t in the city for long but I managed to take a few photos, see the post below.
What I didn’t photograph was more important: the destruction and damage of Katrina. Seven years alter some NEW ORLEANS is still in bits.
I got the impression people are still traumatized, pissed off – I felt that, for them, the memory is an open wound unhealed and still sore.
I saw Spike Lee’s film When the Levees broke but i confess i assumed they fixed it all up by now but it’s not true. Plenty of it is fixed up but I saw public housing estates still broken and empty, and the 9th wards there was still much devastation., I met people who realised they will forever live outside of the city and have to come into the city to work or have fun, gradually ties are being loosened and broken… by a hurricane.
I was only there for a short visit so I did not feel right going around photographing people’s misery. Still, as nice as this golden St Joan is, it’s the memory of the 9th ward that haunts me.
On another note it was the first time in a long time I have visited the USA and I have to say I really loved it, and in my travels I enjoyed meeting Americans from all over the USA. Here living in Europe when people ask me if I am American and I say ‘no, Canadian’ they usually say “Oh sorry you must hate that.” I have never hated being taken for an American, it’s no insult.
Canada has just as many jerks per capita as the US and England.
Filed under the city, Uncategorized
I visited New Orleans in March 2013 and while I was there I had a chance to take some photos. Not nearly enough time and I did not manage to even scratch the surface of this fascinating city. I sure hope to go back.
Filed under photography, Uncategorized
Testing out my new camera. It’s a video camera, for documentary shooting. This is a still from it. The motion pictures are great too.
To all,
A couple of weeks ago I noticed a blog that mentioned my noentryfeefestivals site. In referencing my blog, I couldn't help but hear a hint of... ? well, I am not sure. I was left with the odd message that filmmakers should support festivals that charge them to submit their work, unless, of course, they are broke.
Here is the quote from Bob's blog at…
Filed under Uncategorized
I have been without internet for a month, except on my phone which is too basic to bother with blogging or anything other than the basics. It showed me that life in today’s Britain is highly dependent upon everyone having Internet as most services and info is delivered that way, and most human communication too. Probably not a good thing, but until I finally get to move to that Greek Island I dream of, it’s what I have to deal with.
Anyway despite being busy with moving I did have time to think and ruminate and I have come up with a few niggling questions that have popped into my head over the past month. I’ll post them here, and I will add to them so this post is actually a live feed, for now.
here goes:
Why are THE CLASH’s lyrics still utterly timely and not dated at all?
Why is Patti Smith still the greatest feminist, and feminine, icon alive?
Why is Patti not in fact an icon at all, but a living breathing artist of the highest type?
Why are there 11 spoons of refined sugar in a can of Coke whereas nobody would EVER put 11 spoons of sugar in any drink they made themselves (e.g. lemonade, tea, coffee)?
Why was a homeless man left to freeze to death outside a boarded up house that he was earlier prevented from sheltering in, duing one of the worst winters in recent history?
Why did Ang Lee get an Oscar for Life of Pi (awful) and not for Lust, Caution (awesome)?
Why do we preach the virtues of the free market, yet instead practice an economics dominated utterly by oligarchs, xenophobes and kleptocrats?
How come the kids who rioted and stole shoes in summer 2011 got jail time, and the bankers who stole their (our) future got bonuses?
Why is every useful store closing and being replaced by a restaurant? How much eating out do we really need to do?
Why did they tell us that our abuse of the environment will result in something called “global warming?” Everybody in the northern part of the globe (the rich exploiting part) privately though “YEAH!” dreaming of the sunny Mediterraneanization of the Outer Hebrides. Now however, as we shudder in the cold, we realise scientists ought to have said “Messing the environment will result in REALY BAD WEATHER ALL THE TIME.”
How come what started out as a light-hearted list has got so political? Am I angry?
Filed under rants + outrages, Uncategorized
