Tuesday 30 September 2008

Central Library.

Image Mark Page

"Street photography" on the whole leaves me pretty cold. All that decisive moment stuff, comedy juxtaposing all seasoned with a splash of surrealism and a big dollop of irony. But confronted with this scene while I was waiting for the tram how could I resist?


New Work by Alec Soth

Image copyright Alec Soth

"Thirty-three Theatres & a Funeral Home" is, if not brand new, newly uploaded to Alec Soth's website. http://www.alecsoth.com/cinema/pages/cinema.html Commissioned by Magnum, It's a typology which is not Soth's usual method. Great stuff though, bringing his usual large format, measured, response to this most American of subjects, the "movie house".


Sunday 28 September 2008

Kiosk Gallery & Comma Films.

Archaeology by Lisa Risbec & poetry by Gaia Holmes.

Spent a great afternoon yesterday down at Urbis http://www.urbis.org.uk/ watching "showreel" which was slide shows from various North West photographers organised by The Kiosk Gallery & also short films from Comma Films. http://www.kioskgallery.co.uk/ Many of the photographers have been featured here on this blog before. In fact in the case of Julian McKenny, David Dunnico and Seba Kurtis very recently.

I'd not got a clue though about Comma Films or Comma press until yesterday. Comma Press is a not-for-profit publishers who concentrate on innovative poetry and short stories who have already made a bit of a name for themselves, described as "Trailblazing" by The Arts Coucil. http://www.commapress.co.uk/?section=about Now if you put that kind of writing together with some great young film makers well you get something special. http://www.commapress.co.uk/

Friday 26 September 2008

Funny as Fuck Friday.........

The first ever photography blog that I read on a regular basis was the very excellent but now defunct Alec Soth blog. http://www.alecsoth.com/ Each Friday Alec would upload a poem by different author's this section was called "The Friday Poem" and although there were many good ones a lot were to be honest, just crap.

JM Colberg has, over on his blog http://www.jmcolberg.com/weblog/ started doing what he calls "The Friday mix" featuring music video's.

So as this kind of Friday "treat" on photography blogs seems to be the done thing Manchester Photography brings you "Funny as Fuck Fridays". First up The brilliant Dave Spikey from Phoenix Nights and "Black Bin Bags"......................................

Thursday 25 September 2008

Critical Mass 2008

It's time again for Photolucida's "Critical Mass" http://www.photolucida.org/current.php This IS a big deal and a good way to get your work out there. Amy Stein http://www.amysteinphoto.com/ & Hiroshi Watanabe http://www.hiroshiwatanabe.com/ have been previous years winners, and it's certainly done them no harm. On the down side it's $75 registration fee, and a further $200 should you get through to the final 175. Anyway you've got till The 6th October to make your minds up.

Wednesday 24 September 2008

Ed Panar





Images from Ed Panar's Golden Palms series.

Glad I found Ed Panar's work www.edpanar.com thought it was intriguing and wanted to know more about it's but not much by way of text on his site. Luckily found this interview with Ed over on "This is That"http://johannareed.blogspot.com/2008/02/interview-w-ed-panar.html



Tuesday 23 September 2008

Dryden Goodwin

Image copyright Dryden Goodwin

Often working with unsuspecting subjects in and around London, Goodwin's work Explores the dialogue between photography and drawing. www.drydengoodwin.com He has a solo show opening this Friday 26th at The Photographer's Gallery, London entitled "Cast". Until 16th November http://www.photonet.org.uk/index.php?pxid=943


New Work By Old Friends.

Image copyright Julian McKenny
Three photographers previously featured here have new work on their sites for us to peruse, peruse eh, my misses hates it when I swear on the blog and I have been the last couple of posts, so I'm trying to be eloquent eh, eh so I'm starting by using words like peruse and eloquent.



Enough, pray tell of this new work, Mark. First photographer Julian McKenny and his new series "Despicable Lies" (No nothing to do with the Labour Party Conference) at http://www.processional.co.uk/ and David J Colbran from Liverpool way has been photographing mural artists here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidjcolbran/sets/72157607228359042/ and last up Rob Ball. Now I'm not sure if this is new work or has been online for a while "The Great Eastern" but if not so what? I love his work anyway. http://www.robball.net/ OK that's my swear free post done. I thank you.

Monday 22 September 2008

David Dunnico The Man Who Never Sleeps.......

First up a big fat thanks to everyone who took the time to get in touch regarding my feeble attempt at a mail shot for 25 Weapons. And a big fuck you to all those who didn't..... only kidding...... or am I? No I am.
Anyway back to David and his insomnia, He's had Three shows this month. Sold Out was first at Kiosk Gallery http://www.kioskgallery.co.uk/Artists/index_Dunnico.html and is now at Friends Meeting House until 24th September. http://www.manchesterandwarringtonquakers.org.uk/page11.html He's also had A Tree Made of Real Wood which was part of New Islington Festival http://daviddunnico.wordpress.com/2008/09/16/tree-made-of-real-wood/ And now he's got a bloody blog! http://daviddunnico.wordpress.com/

A Free Gift.

After the last post here's a picture. You can have that. It's yours. Print it off as many times as you like. I would make it bigger but Blogger limits me.
This of course is just another piece of cynical marketing, this time on my part. That picture is from a new series of pictures of have just put on my website called "25 Potential Weapons Descending in Order of Desperation" along with a short statement about the work and I want as many people as possible to go and see it. Here: http://www.manchesterphotography.com/gallery_174768.html


Sunday 21 September 2008

Robert Hughs on The Mona Lisa Curse, and of course me on it too.

For The Love of God
Fascinating look into the art market tonight on channel 4 with the art critic Robert Hughs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hughes_(critic) you can read the jist of his arguments if you missed it here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/09/18/nosplit/bvtvhughes18.xml I loved the bit when he asked a dealer who's name I have already forgot "Did you know Warhol?" An artist on whom he heaped puticular scorn, "no" replyed the dealer. "I did" says Hughes "I found him to be a stupid man"
Are Warhol, Koons, Prince, Hirst second rate artists who through PR, gallery owners and the like hyped and promoted purely for cash gain? Of course. Could this facilitate the death of art? No I don't think so. It may and probably is already making people even more suspicious of the art world but I think that most right minded folk have already written that off as the pile of shit that it is.
No, art will still get made. Ownership of art objects may become not valued as serious, important art, nothing more than craft or curiosities, as more important art is made say using digital technologies or as street art (obviously not Wanksey) and of course lens based media. This is where photography can come in. Photography doesn't have any monetary value as an object. Oh yes some galleries and photographers will partake in all that 1/100 shit but why? For no other reason than to inflate the price. Why is there only 100? There's no reason why there couldn't be 10 000 once the shutters clicked. That's the beauty of photography it's democratic like that.
Perhaps The Mona Lisa curse is just the death of art as object. perhaps that's just that. Perhaps painting's dead and sculpture and dead animals in glass cases, but ideas can't die photography is ideal for catching them and reproducing them over and over again, No good to Mr dealer, Diamond crusted skulls may be priceless one offs but short on intellectual rigour, photies are cheap as fuck and I love them for it....

Friday 19 September 2008

Old Shoe Boxes of Memories (so to speak)


Images courtesy of oldsalford.co.uk
I received an e-flyer the other day from The Photographers Gallery, London letting me know about a course they are running called "Investigating The Archive, photographic collections of London" for London readers and anyone interested the dates are 4th October-1st November details Here:http://www.photonet.org.uk/index.php?pvid=993 and Here:http://www.bbk.ac.uk/study/ce2007/FFWO099U.html which got me thinking about what we've got here in Manchester/Salford. So here's a bit of a rundown,
  1. Manchester City Council's Local Image collection. One of the better known, and largest.http://www.manchester.gov.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?categoryID=200062central/&documentID=326
  2. North West Film Archive, primarily a moving image collection. However it does contain a collection of still images relating to Cinema's here in the North West. External shots, internal and also the workforce. http://www.nwfa.mmu.ac.uk/
  3. Chetham's Library. Not only the worlds oldest public library but also home to The Phelps Collection. Dating from the late 19th & early 20th century and featuring of 3000 glass plate negatives & lanten slides from both locally and further afield. http://www.chethams.org.uk/photographs.htm#photographs
  4. Salford Local History Library. One of my favorite places to go and do research. Friendly and passionate staff there, they have over 50 000 mainly local images! http://www.salford.gov.uk/living/yourcom/salfordlife/aboutsalford/salfordlocalhistory/lhlibrary
  5. Old Salford. This brings me to one of the many beauties of the digital age. It enables local enthusiasts the ability to archive and display images like never before. Hats off to www.oldsalford.co.uk
  6. Aiden O'Rourke. I couldn't do a list of photographic collections around Manchester without mentioning Aiden O'Rourke. Photographing (&blogging) Greater Manchester & other worldwide cities since the early 90's, Aiden has a huge online collection at http://www.aidan.co.uk/index.php
  7. David Rumsey Collection. Absolutely nothing to do with Manchester but I found it online while I was sat in Salford and anyway it's great (although you may have to do a bit of messing about to get in) so I'm including it! http://www.davidrumsey.com/collections/photography.html

So that's my little rundown. By no means complete I'm sure but it should give you something to look at over the weekend. If you know of anymore, let me know. I'm going to go and put that lot on the side bar as a links list. I do all this for you for free you know, ain't I lovely..............

Wednesday 17 September 2008

2 More Jill Greenburg's




On Greenburg v McCain


Images by Jill Greenburg although she may well be wishing they weren't.


If you've been anywhere near photography blogs this last week, you must have come across these images of John McCain by American photographer and now obvious to all, staunch Democrat Jill Greenburg. Here for how it all began:http://www.pdnpulse.com/2008/09/how-jill-greenb.html and some people have been saying she shouldn't have done it it was unprofessional blah blah blah, (almost as unprofessional as not checking out something about the political sympathies of the photographer you are being photographed by in an election I would have thought) Anyway it's all gone a bit tits up with this over on her website:http://www.manipulator.com/ If he wins the election she could end up as resident Guantanamo Bay photographer....
Now lets see some of Cameron, ready for the weekend:http://www.24dash.com/news/Communities/2008-09-17-Manchester-City-Council-welcomes-return-of-Labour-Party-Conference It might help cheer up poor old Gordon Brown.

Giving You Xtra............

Erik Boker

Image copyright Erik Boker

The above image is from Erik Boker's www.erikboker.com series "Product Dissections" It's about, art science, nature, consumerism, institutions, product, fabrication, etc. I kid you not! Erik explains it here: http://erikboker.com/texts.htm good stuff, and also check out "God for Dummies" not telling ya go see...........


Tuesday 16 September 2008

David Shrigley


Animation & image copyright David Shrigley
I knew about David Shrigley's http://www.davidshrigley.com/ smart little drawing's and animations, but not about his photographs http://www.davidshrigley.com/list_photographs.html

FotoFreo

I should have mentioned on the last post, that Graham Miller is also one of the organiser's of the Fotofreo biennial, in Australia http://www.fotofreo.com/ God I wish Manchester had a photo or even a foto festival....................

Graham Miller

Image copyright Graham Miller

I've never been so I'm probably completely wrong and I'm sure it's not, but I've always thought Australia is a little bit scary. A little bit like us, a little bit like America but....different, I don't know just a bit strange. And I think that goes for Australian photographer Graham Miller's work, but in a good way, a very good way.He manages to cram so much tension and atmosphere into his pictures, each one is like a minnie film, a stage set. So when he puts together a series like "Suburban Splendour" well see for yourselves:http://www.grahammiller.com.au/?goto=suburbansplendour&thumbs=ok





Monday 15 September 2008

Ber Murphy.

Image copyright Ber Murphy

I first became aware of Ber's work because of Blurb's (the self-publishing people) book competition. www.blurb.com here to vote order, see Bur's book "Sleeping Giant/11101 Rezoned" http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/208640 here for details of the project: http://www.bermurphyphotography.com/sleepinggiant.html and here for Mr Murphy's website: http://www.bermurphyphotography.com/

Sorry this post seems a bit rushed today, it's because it is. I'm trying to get in a proposal in, in retrospect! (which is an odd way of doing things I know) for a commission I have, well subject to funding! Fuck, this game can be really complicated at times. Will tell you about it soon but got to dash, laters.... I'll leave you in the capable hands of Ber Murphy. Who's also a blogger http://pelicula64.blogspot.com/


Saturday 13 September 2008

William Eggleston Films

"In The Real World "

"By The Ways"

Two trailer's from two films helping to build the legend. First up "In The Real World" by Michael Almereyda, here:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443698/

and number two "By The Ways" by Vincent Gerard & Cedric Laty, here:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0492450/

Not sure though how easy these are to get hold of in the UK. "In The Real World" which, apparently is the weaker of the two can be bought on UK Amazon, but only in an American format which needs a special DVD player. Still, enjoy the (short) clips...........

Coming Soon To Open Eye

Liverpool Biennial International 08: MADE UP Nancy Davenport20 September - 30 November.
Established in 1998, Liverpool Biennial is the UK's largest festival of contemporary visual art. MADE UP explores the power of the artistic imagination and takes place in venues and locations across the city.
Open Eye Gallery presents a newly commissioned video installation by Canadian artist Nancy Davenport, shown alongside earlier parts of her evolving project Workers (leaving the factory). Shot at the Jaguar car plant in Halewood, Merseyside, Davenport's new piece reflects on changing conditions and representations of industrial production, against the background of Ford's recent sale of Jaguar to Indian Conglomerate Tata. Openeye here:http://www.openeye.org.uk/current.asp?news=y

Blogger Arrested.

From the BBC: The Malaysian blogger,Raja Petra Kamarudin a strong critic of that countries government has been arrested. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7612845.stm

Thursday 11 September 2008

JH Engstrom

Images copyright JH Engstrom

What JH Engstrom has to say about "Trying To Dance" which is the first series in the trilogy that also includes, "Haunts" and "Wells".

"I’m always looking for presence.Whenever I try, my doubts get unmasked.Easier then to stick with absence.I’m not trying to prove anything.I don't have that many memories yet."

The Three images above are one image from each of those series. As you can see they are for want of a better word eclectic. This is an artist who isn't in the least bit scared to change style, method aesthetic at will, to show his vision. No single style or photograph is enough, different tacks, sequences and layer after layer of meaning. This is blurring boundaries between visual art and what? poetry? archive? diary? It's hard work, but rewarding. http://www.jhengstrom.com/index.html

Wednesday 10 September 2008

Seba Kurtis, 700 Miles............

Image copyright Seba Kurtis

Sometimes you can get "blogger block" (that's copyright of me by the way) and then you end up fucking about doing silly posts like the last one, and that's what was happening tonight. I was just finishing off my bedtime glass of red, (a little more Rock n Roll than Horlicks but only just) when ping my inbox gets a new message.

Hallelujah, to that when I read it. It was from Seba Kurtis telling me about his new show entitled "700 miles" that's opening here in Manchester from 19 Sept - 07 Nov 2008 at Kiosk Gallery, AMC Foyer, Great Northern Warehouse, Deansgate, Manchester. Opening hours 10am-10pm.

In brief it's about illegal immigration in the USA largely Mexicans, and the worry by White Americans that their culture and lifestyle are under threat, (ring any bells UK) Anyway this is one exhibition I am really looking forward to. Also take a look at Seba's site for other great work as it doesn't stop with "700 Miles", oh no! http://www.sebakurtis.com/ and here for more details http://www.foto8.com/home/content/view/612/161/ and here as well http://1000wordsphotographymagazine.blogspot.com/ and here for details on Kiosk Gallery although as usual their site could do with an update! http://www.kioskgallery.co.uk/ Seba was born in Argentina, and having been an illegal himself in Europe for five years this work is seasoned with plenty of self-experience. Seba is now based here in the North-West and for that we should be truly grateful...............................


Falling Stars

At least you were pushed Noel, Look at that Beyonce.............







Call for Entries

BJP is once more (fourth year running) calling for entries for it's international photography competition. Details and past winners can be found here:http://www.bjp-online.com/public/showPage.html?page=282366

Glen Erler

Image copyright Glen Erler

Last tonight, but not least Glen Erler. www.glenerler.com some great (lots) of projects, with simple non wafflely statements for each one.


Show Me Yours.........


I'm always on the look out for new & exciting photography to look at and of course feature here. All sorts of people from all sorts of places stop by so why not show your work to a wider audience? It's free no catches, so if your interested send a link to markedpage2005@yahoo.co.uk look forward to seeing your stuff!

Tuesday 9 September 2008

Rachel Barrett

Two projects that stand out for me from Rachel Barrett's online portfolio http://www.rachelbarrett.net/ are "Food I Eat" & "NYC Newsstand". If you were to attempt that last series here in Manchester it would be a very small project, as the only two I can think of are Portland Street an Cross Street. If you can think of anymore let me know.
Anyway I give you the excellent Rachel Barrett..............

Josef Koudelka Interview

Image copyright Josef Koudelka
A true great talks to The Observer's Sean o'Hagan. http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/aug/24/photography Found thanks to Martin Amis's Hipshots http://www.hipshots.co.uk/ (Glad your back and blogging Martin)

Changes

Those of you who stop by here on a regular basis will have noticed I've got a new banner. Well I've freshened up my homepage a bit http://www.manchesterphotography.com/ so I thought I would blow the cobwebs away here too.
The picture was taken from a tram window as it passed over The Irwell near Pomona. I used a digital camera and then flipped and tweaked the picture in Lightroom and Photoshop. Not my usual style but fun all the same.

Monday 8 September 2008

and following on nicely


Following on from the link on my last post, Steidl have just released their winter catalogue as a PDF all 257 pages of it! http://www.steidlville.com/pictures/pdf/Steidl_Fall_08.pdf So you are going to encounter some of those gripes. Hell though it's worth it, there's some cracking new books coming out including Hiroh Kikai's "Asakusa Portraits". Here: for steidl homepage:http://www.steidlville.com/

Do I Moan A Lot?

It's just that Adrian Tyler, a great photographer whose work I love by the way www.adriantyler.net sent me an Email with "Hear you like to gripe" as the subject! well yes I suppose I do. You think this blogs bad you should try being my other half....... Anyway Adrian sent me a link here http://www.dearadobe.com/top_rated.php and having read through them, and agreeing with most of them, I can't help feeling that I 'm not that whingey compared to some.

Friday 5 September 2008

Massive Attack @ Castlefield.

Yep, I obviously had not been paying attention because I only found out really about this yesterday. I remember the "Becks Fusion"http://www.becks.co.uk/fusion.aspx thing going on last year in Manchester but didn't pay it much heed as the main event was happening in London with the Chemical Brothers. This year the organisers must have realised that if you really want a party then Manchester is the place. So yesterday my ears pricked up. Massive Attack and Art you say, FREE you say, I'll have a bit of that I say. So off I went down to Castlefield. "Can I have some FREE Massive Attack tickets please?" I asked waiting for the posh southern blond girl in the ticket booth to laugh in my ugly northern face. "Sure no problem" she chirped in an annoyingly pleasant manner.

Now of course non of this helps you lot unless you've already got tickets, as I believe they had to be won. Yesterday's give away was just a token for locals, so sorry if I've got you all excited. You could get on the old railway line behind, (But I never told you that, but it does bring me to a future post, more another day) Anyway if your not going to the huge FREE Massive Attack/Art extravaganza you could go to New Islington's folky festival thingy instead, organised in part by Urban Cash. Urm Becks & Massive Attack or homemade Ancoates cider & Banjo's?http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=102416808 Still, we will be united by the fact that we are all going to get piss wet through............ http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/5day.shtml?id=2613

Wednesday 3 September 2008

Justin James Reed


Images copyright Justin James Reed
There's something very classy about Justin James Reed's work. For a start there seems to be an empathy with his subject. There's a trust thing going on. And although the people in his photographs are often young and appear to be, well lets just say appear not always to be living the American dream, Reed still manages to afford them dignity and avoids patronising them which would be an easy trap to fall into. The portraits sequence so beautifully with the non peopled images, and together add up to give an insightful poetic look at North Eastern USA.



Tuesday 2 September 2008

Henry Iddon

Image copyright Henry Iddon

Once you get over the strange and "clunky" website design http://www.spots-of-time.co.uk/map.php You start to discover impressive landscape photographs of The Lake District by Blackpool based photographer Henry Iddon. Landscape photography especially of somewhere so over photographed as the lakes is not something that would usually register on my radar, but depending on whose review of the series "Spots of Time" you read, there is something more interesting going on than just another set of romantic pictorial images of one of England's most popular tourist spots.

These are no longer pristine natural wildernesses as they were in Wordsworth's day.They are now peppered with the glow of towns and villages. They appear like cultures forming on a petra dish, they prevent the viewer from ever finding an escape here from the onslaught of modern, overcrowded British life, and it's this, that for me, makes this work interesting. Iddon talks about the work at the next Redeye networking meet in Manchester on the 9th September 2008, start time is 6.30pm, drinks and networking from 6.00pm. The venue is: Manchester Digital Development Agency Lower Ground Floor 117-119 Portland Street ManchesterM1 6ED


Tiina Itkonen

From the series "Ultima Thule" by Tiina Itkonen

Itkonen'shttp://www.kashyahildebrand.org/zurich/itkonen/itkonen003_010.html personnel odyssey to find her place in the North. "Ultima Thule" is inspired by the story "The Mother of the Sea". It can be seen at The Michael Hoppen Gallery, London until October 7th. http://www.michaelhoppengallery.com/exhibition,current,3,0,0,0,56,0,0,0,tiina_itkonen_ultima_thule.html?link=exhibition%2Ccurrent%2C3%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C56%2C0%2C0%2C0%2Ctiina%5Fitkonen%5Fultima%5Fthule%2Ehtml&searchString=%5Flevel0%2Erow%5F0&index=12&iD=0&targetButton=%5Flevel0%2Ebutton%5F0&targetCover=%5Flevel0%2Ecover%5F0&targetBackground=%5Flevel0%2Ed%5F0&targetLabel=%5Flevel0%2Eb%5F0&onRollOver=%5Btype+Function%5D&onDragOut=%5Btype+Function%5D&onRollOut=%5Btype+Function%5D&onRelease=%5Btype+Function%5D


Monday 1 September 2008

1000 Words

Issue #2 of the cracking online photomag 1000 Words Photography is now here at http://www.1000wordsmag.com/ This really is worth a visit as there's loads of really great photography featured along with some informed writing. This whole venture appears to be going from strength to strength.

Proms In The Park


You get Russell Watson on home turf, the BBC philharmonic and a firework display to boot!Here for more details http://www.visitsalford.info/proms