Further work in procress

More work alongside the industrial and nature theme I am playing with at the moment. More again soon, but further shoots looking difficult with the weather for now.

The Grid project lives!

Still with the landscapes and still with the industry, shoot what makes you happy was last years lesson that I have forgotten for most of this term. With this work I can justify my existence and take arms against a sea of troubles, this work is personal and part of the long game.

As some may notice I have done the dirty and used digital then converted to black and white. I swear that was not the intention on inception, it came in the edit I promise.

Any road, thought, comment and opinions welcome. More work to be done, I have an abandoned reservoir and some brick works to do yet.

Have a half decent New Year, may the new decade bring you want you deserve.

26 Roundabouts

As influenced by the great Ed Ruscha and his fantastic piece, ‘26 Gasoline Stations’.

Is it contempory?

Is it conceptual?

Do I care?

Have a happy Christmas and see you in January.

Plan B

Brief intro into project plan b, I have just gained a slight fascination into cricket grounds that have been completely shut down and boarded up for the winter. So alive and buzzing during the Summer and yet so closed off and desolate during the Winter.

Early days yet, I’ll see where it takes me and what the outcomes are.

Further work in progress from the Grid

Some further sketches from the grid project (it is yet to get a real name), these two highlight what I am looking to capture and also what I am not looking for. It is a constant battle as what looks good in situ might not come across on film and visa versa.

The first image is a failure, on site the idea of the water treatment plant being swallowed by the woods, and more importantly the sky and lake from which it gains its reason to be, was a sound one. However in production the plant is too obvious in the frame as it is part of the skyline which makes it very separate from the woods, lake and sky. 

 

 

 

This image is much better, in terms of the project. The houses are visible but not obvious at first and nor are they frame hogging. Here the environment is the key player, despite the major road and mass of housing, nature resumes control of the area promptly, cutting away the modern industrial world.

 

The Grid Project

Live is all about stretching briefs to breaking point and this project is no different, so settle down and I’ll explain the evolution of this one. Or how I got one brief and thought around it enough to do what I wanted anyway.

The basic premise is that we are given a grid reference and off we pop to make a project within it. I got Cwmbran. It is a new town, lots of concrete, so I thought about a project on new towns. However that sort of died with research and time and a new idea was born.

Due to the strangeness that exists in most photographers I have an apprechiation of the form in industry, see the Bechers, but also really enjoy the outdoors and the beauty of this countries national parks. South Wales appears to regually cover my enjoyment of both and I looked to cover this in some way.

The theory goes like this, at the southern end we have Port Talbot (pronounced as one word), Swansea, Cardiff and Newport and to the north we have the Brecon Beacons National Park, in between we have a gentel mix of the two and this is where I wish to place myself for this project.

I want to look at the places in between, those places here that you stand in and think ‘why, oh why did they have to build this industrial mess in such a nice valley’. However rather than photograph them from within I intend to get out onto the sceanry that they apparently defoul, and from here make a picture that shows that nature, in the end, is all powerfull. When all things are put into place the hills, woods, sea and sky swollow up the industry and cast it in the role of bit part player in the local vistas.

A positive project on the effects of industry in the landscape. Not often that happens.

These are some sketch images of the project so far as I see it.

 

 

Dark days require a little light for the soul

All men dream; but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act out their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible

The Strategy Project

Back on the job and the this time around we are getting two projects at the same time that need to both complement, but be completely different from, each other, yep thats doc phot in a nutshell. The two projects are The Grid, work based in or influenced by a randomly selected grid reference which I shall write about elsewhere, and ‘Strategy’s’.

The concept for ‘Strategy’s’ is basically to concentrate on our working technique, how we approach, plan and execute a project. It is also a chance to work intensively on new areas of practice, or really hone our skills in an area that will be of great future benefit. I have chosen the later route. This year we also have dedicated digital workshops and help sessions, and with digital being the prefered professional option in most fields, and especially in my own future field of choice, medical photography, I feel now is the time to really get to grips with digital and at the same time flash/lighting.

So to the project itself.

I intended to produce a series of portraits based around the people who give up their free time to help keep community sport going, people who receive little reward except for the knowledge of a job well done and never see a penny (although the odd free drink might head their way). Anyone who has ever played, watched or even just taken the kids down to a sport club will know who I am talking about. The retired man who spends every day making sure that the local cricket club has a top notch wicket, the mothers that miss the game because they are cooking the post match food, the captain that picks up the lads to make sure they get a game, the chairman that runs up a phone bill the size of Powys to arrange games, refs, tours, dinners and so many others in different roles.

Without these people sport in the community would die and yet they often hide in the background not wanting a fuss, I want to bring them forward and celebrate what they do to keep clubs up and down the country going.

Pictures soon, but if on reading this you feel you know someone out there that would be a suitable subject don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Long time, nowt doing

No posts in a while and feel a bit lazy for bit, thanks John for the boot up the backside.

Just the couple of images to post for now while I look longingly at the pile of film, most of which I am struggling to remember having shot.

Remember that inside every photographic artist is a heart of standard crowd pleasing obviousness.

Holiday in the lakes brought out my stock image side, next time a jetty leading out into a misty lake.

From a job I have taken on doing images for Jens work

Identity

This is the final version of the spot project based around the concept of identity. I chose to look towards the small things that each of us has on our person at any one time, these simple things say little when in isolation but can revel so much when viewed together. The poem by Simon Armitage summed up the thought process and ideas that led me towards the final production of this piece.

About His Person by Simon Armitage

Five pounds fifty in change, exactly,

a library card on its date of expiry.

A postcard stamped,

unwritten, but franked,

a pocket size diary slashed with a pencil

from March twenty-fourth to the first of April.

A brace of keys for a mortise lock,

an analogue watch, self winding, stopped.

A final demand

in his own hand,

a rolled up note of explanation

planted there like a spray carnation

but beheaded, in his fist.

A shopping list.

A giveaway photograph stashed in his wallet,

a keepsake banked in the heart of a locket.

no gold or silver,

but crowning one finger

a ring of white unweathered skin.

That was everything.