Alright, so the Euro’s on its last legs, and there’s all kinds of atrocities taking place in Syria, and some football bloke quit, and another football bloke got off…
But hopefully this will take your mind of all of that less important stuff for a few moments.
Many thanks to Mike Peters for sending this in.
I felt it would be unfair of me not to share this little discovery with you.
One of my many addictions (and you may have read about some of the others right here) is photography books. I use them for teaching, for research, and for general inspiration. I’d planned for this post to be about a book which I acquired as part of a donated cache of photography book gold-dust a few months ago – and then I went to Poundland – in Dudley.
I’ve found a few good (and not so good) photography books in Dudley’s Poundland store in the past so I always look through the book section. Today I found “Amazing Men: Courage Insight Endurance” by Joyce Tenneson – a monograph stuffed with monochrome portraits of men aged from sixty to a hundred years old. The cover shows a shirtless Ben Kingsley and the books pages include portraits of the famous (Harold Pinter, Patrick Stewart, Bill Cosby, James Earl Jones) to the unknown, but nonetheless image-worthy.
Tenneson’s approach is an apparent mixture of Irving Penn’s “tent” images and Annie Leibowitz’s best known work. In fact, it seems Tenneson and Leibowitz have both photographed some of the same men. One review I read of Tenneson’s work described her images as “luminous portraits” – while others might describe them as simply over-exposed. I’m being a little flippant but there is a definite glow to these images, bordering on “soft focus”.
This book is, I discovered, a follow-up to “Wise Women“, which appears to have been rather successful. Copies of “Wise Women” are currently listed on Amazon at £15+ whereas “Amazing Men” is listed at between one penny and £9.99. Mine set me back 95p (as is everything at Poundland at the moment).
I confess I’ve never heard of Joyce Tenneson but she is described as being “one of the ten most influential women photographers in the history of photography” by American Photo. Perhaps I should have heard of her.
Some of these images look a bit strange around the eyes, as if the whites have been painted in, and there’s a strange compulsion to photograph these elderly gents naked from the waste up, but that’s my only real concern. Otherwise, this is a really nice book of portraits with an interesting mixture of subjects coupled with insightful quotes from the subjects themselves.
So I’d recommend you head to Dudley (like you need an excuse) and snap up one if these nice little books. Failing that, there’s always Amazon – http://www.amazon.co.uk/Amazing-Men-Courage-Insight-Endurance/dp/0821228552/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1329065857&sr=1-1
Q. How do you get twenty-odd photographers in a lift?
No, it isn’t a particularly bad joke, it’s the situation we found ourselves in last night when fotofilia’s CLUB had what may be the first of many “location” meetings, where we leave our usual venue, the Fotofilia studio, and instead of bringing in someone to give a talk, we go to them.
Last night we met at The Custard Factory in Digbeth and went up a few flights of stairs to the studio of top Birmingham photographer, Richard Battye. Richard’s been along to speak to both clubs before but we thought it might be nice for him to be able to show his images along with a demonstration of the actual equipment used. But then, Richard’s so prolific that even he came to speak every week, he would have new images to show and stories to tell.
One of Richard's personal favourites.
It’s always interesting to see how other photographers work and the equipment they favour. Richard very effectively demonstrated his own particular choice of light-shapers (and no, I’m not going to tell you what it is, you’ll have to ask him yourself) alongside the incredible images they’ve produced.
I certainly learned from it and if the feedback I’ve recieved today is anything to go by, so did the members. It’s always refreshing to see a true craftsman at work and especially one who doesn’t believe in complicating his work unnecessarily.
Richard will be teaching a lighting course for fotofilia very soon. I’ll tell you more nearer the day. But in the meantime, we’d like to thank Richard and his assistant for their time and hospitality.
http://www.richardbattye.com/Home.html
http://www.riverstudio.co.uk/gallery3.html
From Richard's "Still Dancing" project.
Images used with kind permission of Richard Battye.
“It started with a cake”, as the prematurely shiny-headed fella from Hot Chocolate very nearly sang in 1982. And a coffee. Like so many inspired ideas, this one had its roots in a caffeine-fuelled conversation at Brewsmiths with leading iphoneographista Nettie Edwards a few months ago. Nettie had been telling me about the excellent exhibition by the London Instagram Group and the seed of thought, amply fertilised by “chocolate porter cake”, was sown.
When Nettie came to speak to one of the fotofilia clubs last month, we discussed the idea in more depth and thanks to Nettie’s contacts, we managed to become the first official Instagram group for Birmingham and the Black Country. The process involved, among other things, getting our own special authorised logo from the Instagram peeps and checking if there was already a group registered for this area. Luckily, there wasn’t and so Birmingham Instagram Group was born.
The official logo for B.I.G.
The idea is that there will be “instameets” (exactly what they sound like), exhibitions, competitions etc. Nettie and I are the administrators at the moment but others may be brought on board at some point.
Fotofilia is the obvious centre for the group, being somewhere to meet (if needed), exhibit, and so on. But this is not about fotofilia as such – as I explained to someone recently, this is the “hobby” part of my photography and its given me back that extra bit of creative mojo that can start to flag from time to time when creativity is also your livelihood.
If you’re an “Instagramer”, please follow us – @igersbirmingham on Instagram.
The BIG is also on Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Instagramers-Birmingham/361848397177768
Twitter: Yes, we are fully tweeted up too - @igersbirmingham
…or perhaps “Store Wars: The Hybrid Menace“.
This post has been brewing for quite a while. It seems as though each term, more and more people show up for courses listed as being suitable for DSLR/SLR users with so-called “hybrid” or “bridge” cameras. If I mention the fact that they’ve signed up for a DSLR/SLR course, they often (and I’m losing count of how many time I’ve heard this) say “but the man in Jessops said its just like a DSLR“.
It isn’t.
It might look a bit like a DSLR. It might have inter-changeable lenses. It might cost even more than a DSLR… but it is NOT a DSLR. It’s called a “hybrid” or “bridge” because it is neither fish nor fowl. It isn’t a compact, admittedly – but neither is it a DSLR.
I sometimes have to stipulate “…For DSLR/SLR’s” in the course description because there may be a need to connect to external flash, for example, which many hybrids simply can’t do. But even beyond that, hybrids are at a disadvantage in many other areas. Your DSLR or SLR is the ultimate creative machine – there is pretty much nothing you can’t photograph with it. But a hybrid has certain, very definite, limitations including a very limited range of apertures in some cases. This mightn’t be a problem for a one day workshop but more of a problem for a longer course, where we would explore more of your camera’s possibilities.
Over recent years, the boundaries between different types have cameras have become increasingly blurred: hybrids have removable lenses (something that only SLR’s used to have), video cameras are shooting high quality stills, DSLR’s are shooting HD video – it’s a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world, as Ray Davies once said.
Think your hybrid is just like a DSLR? Here’s the litmus test…
Take off your lens cap and switch off your camera. Now look through the viewfinder. See anything? If yes, you have a DSLR or SLR. If not, you have something else.
With a DSLR/SLR you are seeing the world as it is, in real time, via a mirror and prism through to your viewfinder. Any other camera basically “films” the world and then “televises” it in your viewfinder or on your camera’s rear screen – a spilt-second after it’s actually happened. What this means of course, is that when you’re shooting action or movement, you think you’ve got the shot of that Formula 1 car, but when you look at the photograph you’ve taken, you realise you only have the back end of the car. Manufacturers are aware of this problem and have developed systems so that “you start taking the picture even before you press the shutter”. But even if the reality/viewfinder lag is sorted you are still not seeing the subject optically, just an electronic representation of your subject.
This Lumix has a Leica lens! But it isn't a DSLR.
I don’t have a problem with hybrid/bridge cameras, I really don’t. I think they occupy a valid space in the market place. I am just increasingly frustrated that they are being sold to the unsuspecting public as being “just like a DSLR”. In the last week I was discussing this with a hybrid-owner who has a lovely camera – some £700+ worth, but he wasn’t able to use it for some of the things he would like to. And he was understandably pretty cheesed off.
So if the man in Jessops says “but it’s just like a DSLR”, why not buy a blimming DSLR?
A gentle reminder, if any is needed, that it’s time to register for this year’s Focus On Imaging exhibition at Birmingham’s NEC. Love it or hate it (and many people I know fall into the latter category) it’s a major date in the photographic calendar for most of us.
I always think of it as a barometer of what’s happening in the industry, and the wider economy. There are gasps and suspicious whispers when a long-standing major exhibitor doesn’t appear. I notice that according to the list of exhibitors today, Sony won’t be appearing – although the list doesn’t always show the full picture. Perhaps they’re fed up with Sony owners asking why their hotshoe flash adaptor is priced at over £100 (£102 on Warehouse Express at time of writing) when Nikon and Canon‘s equivalent are less than a quarter of that. Perhaps we’ll never know.
Anyway, our chums at Viewfinder (of Leicester) will be there, as will Dunns Imaging. Strangely, Kodak are still listed as an exhibitor, but there is no mention of Silvershotz or Billingham. We live in hope.
So I’d advise you get online and register as soon as possible. Pre-registering will almost certainly reduce your queuing time when you arrive plus you’ll save two quid (if you’re non-industry). Those of us in the trade will get in for free. Remember, you can use your pass to attend every day if you’re especially keen/wealthy/bored.
Oh, and I’ve learned from bitter, nerve-jangling experience that the first day – the Sunday – is invariably RAMMED, with a large proportion of peeps trailing their bewildered-looking offspring along (usually chanting “Can we have MacDonalds now, Daddy?” repeatedly). Not pleasant.
But the benefit of getting there early is, my good mate Gareth Jukes tells me, that you can skip right along to the Disabled Photographers Society stand and have first dibs at the astonishingly cheap bits of second-hand kit they’re selling off. That is if you can get there before Gareth.
See you there.
http://www.focus-on-imaging.co.uk/home.htm
Many thanks to my former student who brought this to my attention this week….
Mysterious Swedish artist Sanna Dullaway has recieved a fair amount of press attention this week for her digital colourizations of pre-existing, and sometimes iconic, photographic images. I think this work raises some important questions about authorship, meaning, and even the definition of art.
According to the Daily Mail online (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2088611/Swedish-artist-Sanna-Dullaway-injected-colour-host-historic-photographs.html), “it is thought she is hoping to sell her work on the internet – and there is sure to be some firm interest”. Really? If so, what exactly is that interest based on? The amusement of seeing a (possibly) familiar image in a way it has never been seen before? Or awe athe proficiency with which the colouring has been achieved?
And if she does indeed intend to sell her work online, where does this leave the original photographer? Would Dorothea Lange approve of the transformation of her original image from gritty, period-appropriate monochrome to colour?
Dorothea Lange's image as tweaked by Sanna Dullaway
I know nothing of the process used to achieve these amazing results – and amazing they certainly are – but one assumes that in the absence of any colour information in the original image, some sort of arbitrary decision was made (either artistically or mechanically) about the appropriate colours to use. How much might this have affected the original “meaning” of the image, if at all?
Better in colour?
Imagine you convert your colour image to black and white because it gives it more impact, or reduces colour distractions within the image – and then years later someone “appropriates” your image and colourizes it, either accurately or inaccurately. How would you feel?
See more at http://9gag.com/mygrapefruit
Copyright David Rann
Since then, I’ve gone on to do lots more boxing photography but haven’t really progressed with the project: something I fully intended – and still intend – to do. In the meantime, Dave and Kate, the proprietors of the wonderful Brewsmiths Coffee Shop in Livery St, Birmingham offered me the chance to display some of the images from the series there for the next month or so. This is particularly appropriate as this is where I usually seem to bump into people I know from my boxing photography (including Paul Gough himself, and Neil from the nearby Fighting Fit gym).
If you’ve heard the name Brewsmiths before in this blog, it’s because Dave and Kate kindly allowed me to photograph model Katie-May there a few months ago and it’s also since been the venue for a CLUB/f2 shoot.
So if you’d like to see a few of my images in the… er… flesh(?), pop along to Brewsmiths and have a look over a cappuccino, and while you’re at it, try one of the superb cakes (especially the “porter…” one with the gold maltesers or the “King Kong Kake”). A shameless plug I know but what can I say? I like it there and they’re photography-friendly.
http://www.facebook.com/brewsmiths
Oh, and remember, if documentary photography is something you’re interested in, we’re starting a 6 week Documentary photography masterclass with Andrew Jackson at fotofilia this week and as it’s been fully booked for some time, it won’t be the last.
We’re kicking off 2012 in the gallery with our first exhibition “My Story Through A Lens” which has its launch events (yes, there are two) on Tuesday 10th January 2-4pm and 7-9pm. Birmingham’s own Poet Laureate, Jan Watts will be opening the events so I hope you’ll be able to come along.
Here’s a description of the exhibition by organisers Louise and Nadeem:
Over a Christmas drinkie with my mate Mark, he casually announced, “I’ve got a few bags at home. I think they’re camera bags. Do you want ‘em?”. I can never have enough camera bags for the ever-growing mountain of kit piling up in the studio so I agreed to pick them up later, half expecting them to be well-worn car boot finds. “They’re black. I think they’re new”, he added finally.
So when I went to pick them up, he brought down a big cardboard box and pulled out…
…a black Billingham bag, and of a style I’ve never seen before. Not a camera bag as such (no padded sides or partitions) but unmistakeably Billingham in style, black canvas with black leather straps. And there are six of them! I know that “Billy” bags start at around £100 so this was rather a nice surprise.
They’re actually more like messenger bags, with shoulder straps (still separate and folded inside most of them). I’ve trawled the internet and found nothing like them anywhere.
So where did they come from? Mark was clearing an empty unit in Brierley Hill near Dudley (where Billingham used to be based) when he found the box of bags. I can only guess that these were part of a test run or aborted product line. They’d been sitting in Mark’s shed for a while before he thought to mention them to me. Consequently, some of the metal fixings are a bit dulled, but I’ve successfully removed this with a dry cloth.
As I’ve said, there’s no padded internal seperators, but there is a zipped document pocket at the back of the back and a leather handle at the top (in case you’re not using the strap, perhaps).
I’d be interested to know if you have a bag like this, or have ever seen them before. I certainly haven’t and I bought my first Billingham bag direct from the factory (an ex-display model) close on twenty years ago.
I’m going to keep two of these rare bags, plus another for a future competition prize. So I have three more than I’m going to sell. Any offers?
PS. Sorry about the dreadful hastily-snapped photos. In my defence, I was a bit excited.
UPDATE: I have spoke to Billingham and it seems that these are actually “Hadley Pro” bags (currently retailing at £135+) but without the padded partition insert which can be bought separately for £37+VAT from Billingham.
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