Chris' re-start!

Following a tutorial session with Seba Kurtis, i decided to completely change my project. My trucks simply were not connected with myself enough - i did not have enough passion for them. Perfectly good commercial work but i don't have that connection and devotion needed for fine art work. Seba advised that i should plunge back into the urban explorer community and that is exactly what i did: taking the work i had done in my last project and pushing it that bit further and developing it.

I have spent the last two weeks out on the road travelling Britain and meeting more and more members of the 28dayslater.com community. I began these two weeks having a few vague connections with some of the more serious members, and ended the second week with a group explore to Denbigh mental asylum with a few of the legends and current members. Within these two weeks i have met fourteen new explorers, travelled 4,000 miles and spent roughly £700 on petrol. But it has been totally worth it, this project has investigated my own interests and helped me to dive headfirst into the community that i adore.

Here's some of the results i have come up with from doing it:

Rick Update

The trouble with photographing fire fighters is that from time to time someone will inevitably have a fire, maybe several. I don't have a problem with this, hey life sucks sometimes but why? OH BLOODY WHY did two people decide to have fires on the two days I go and do my final bloody shoot???!!!!
Shoot 1: Turn up at fire station, tape background to wall, set lights up, get camera out of bag to start test shots an what do I hear?.... I'll tell you what I hear, what can only be described as an air raid like siren followed by a mechanical female recorded voice booming over the air raid siren with the words "MOBILISE ALL UNITS, MOBILISE ALL UNITS!" And then I watch as my portrait subjects all hop into two fire engines and a support vehicle and whizz off with sirens blaring and blue lights flashing. I feel guilty as I stand there cursing my luck because I know that they are now on their way to save life from departing this mortal plain in the form of a six car collision with persons trapped or an RTC-6 as they referred to it as they ran past me. It's at this point that I remember why I'm here and why I chose these brave lads and lasses for my final project. They turn up an hour later and stand patiently for me....I felt my own existence pale into insignificance, it becomes clearer to me with every visit that these people really matter.
Shoot 2: I turn up at the fire station praying it all goes well, this is my last visit to Tadcaster Fire station before our exhibition. The guys are all on good form, the banter is upbeat and plentiful for 8am on a bank holiday Monday. All is going well, I'm halfway through this final shoot, there is a light at the end of the photography tunnel. And then I hear it....the air raid siren, the robot woman's voice...."MOBILISE ALL UNITS MOBILISE ALL UNITS..." and off they go, off to save another life. "Good luck boys and girls" I say to myself as I turn the 5D off.

Emma's Update

Just a wee update on how things are going.

Iv'e been doing some more moving portraits but still need to record and photograph a few more teenagers.
I had also managed to get myself  invited to a house party. This aloud me to be able to get more personal images and get right up close to my subjects. See some images below.

More images to come, incuding a Royal Wedding house party - which was very interesting alot of drinking, dancing and kissing!



B&^%y British weather!

It can be odd, being a photographer - you're never quite satisfied. Take now: most of the population are basking in glorious, unseasonably fine weather. Me, I'm cursing it every morning that the sun shines. I'm not being Mr. Grumpy about this, it's just that I need to get my project shoot finished and, for that, I want overcast days.

The problem I have with the current weather is harsh shadows. A nice layer of not-to-thick cloud eliminates those and suits my subjects much better. Also, I've started in that light, and I want the whole set to be consistent.

Fortunately, there's still time for our weather to be its usual self and change dramatically - except that it'll probably go from sunny to chucking it down without passing through any intermediate stages.

So, whilst you're out there soaking up the rays, think of me looking up and crying: "cloud over, dammit!"

Tags: photography, weather, clouds, sun, frustration

Emma's Update

I haven't blogged yet about my project, so I'll start with a brief intro.

My project focuses on teenagers in pursuit of 'something to do'. I have been following and photographing different groups for the past few months in a variety of locations. I have had my fair share of excitement from getting muddy in 'Maggie's Cave' to being chased by a security guard. "You only live once", was the encouragement one of the teens said while trying to persuade others to go into an abandoned hospital. 

I'm using an Olympus 35mm SLR with flash. My choice of film is transparency. I'm using this as it increases the contrast and the colours are more vibrant.

Below is one of my shots -

As well as documenting them and what they get up to on the streets, in parks or in each others houses I am also using video to produce 'moving portraits'.

I'm in the early process of getting them all to stand still in front of a black background alone for 2 minutes. This allows the viewer to study each teen and then make up their own opinion about them. Being in front of the black background alone isolates them and displays some vulnerability through feeling awkward or embarrassed. Also, when asked to answer a random question the teen gives the viewer a better understanding of their character. A picture captures the essence of the moment. A video captures the complete moment.

Below is a video still -

I'm still not 100% sure of the title but I do quite like 'Friday Night Flash'.

Thats it for now, will keep posting regulary for here on, Emma McKay.

Minute by Minute

Well I thought it was about time for me to put some stuff up about my project. Its called Minute by Minute and will be a series of portraits, mostly self portraits I think...

The idea is capture the ever changing form which is the individual or self. I plan on doing this through long exposures then using darkroom techniques or digital equivalents (not quite decided yet, more experimentation me thinks) mash them together to make a really cool composite type thingy! When you add all the times up it should be about a minutes worth of exposures hence the name, maybe even each one will be a different day or something...

Anyway, the resultant image will be an expression of who I (or the model) was for that minute, on that day etc etc etc

Casey Carlin

On rediscovering the joys of walking around

By Graham Douglas

originally posted on http://greydogphoto.blogspot.com

I've been doing a bit of walking around the backside of Manchester recently for my final project at college. Following the Bridgewater Way gives you a new perspective on areas that you thought you knew well. Distances change, for example - a long-ish journey by road is actually quite short along the towpath; five minutes by tram becomes half an hour on foot.

What you also see from these alternative paths are some stunning examples of the graffitist's art. The illiterate scrawlings that pepper the well-travelled areas bear no relation to some of the stuff you can find in these out-of the-way places. Who would have thought that this sits underneath the A56 in Stretford:



Lovely, vibrant colours and sense of joie-de-vivre. It has no point other than to exist, and maybe bring a smile to someone's face and the secret knowledge that you've seen it, but all those thousands passing a few feet above have no idea.

If this project's done nothing else for me, it's persuaded me to explore the back ways and byways much more than I have before. You never know what little gems might be out there.

Tags: photos, graffiti, walking

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