Masquerade
Anarchistic knitting? A series of decorative handmade bands adorn the cold bollards and barriers of downtown Stockholm. It all looks like a bit more than a merry jape, and I’m certain there are pretentious statements to be made aplenty about the juxtaposition of the soft and domestic, with the hard and impersonal, contrasts and comparisons between the handcrafted and the machine tooled. You could also talk about the soft and feminine tightly enfolding the hard and masculine. Maybe it’s love, it’s definitely erotic. Whatever, I’m just enjoying it all, tremendously.
Masquerade is on the move. How long will it be before we start seeing some of this guerilla woolwork in the old urban UK? And how far is it from Stockholm to Newcastle? Maybe the crew needs an invitation!
Popularity: 3% [?]
Experimenting with The Black Stripe
So to gather together an acceptable collection of photographs from the newly acquired Xpan isn’t proving all that easy. Experimentation is exciting though, and there are a few exemplars, since 35mm isn’t rated now, so far has digital squeezed film lovers away from the mundane. But I’ve wanted to travel this wide road since seeing Oliviero Toscani at it in a documentary about his notorious collaboration with Louis Bennetton.
Alternately deeply annoying and endearingly, brutally honest, Toscani influenced a whole generation of photographers and shocked and horrified the tabloids in the UK. It’s a great story, I’ll post the essay when I find it. But back to the camera. I am beginning to love it; I’m feeling that the coming months will show how much.
Loaded with ultra cheapo expired Konica 100 or 400, in rather finite supply, I’m leaving the exposure to Victor and unlike Toscani, desaturating everything in post. Not sure I like what I’m getting just yet. What’s more, I’m not expecting to like it any better anytime soon.
Popularity: 8% [?]
Murdoch’s minibook
One of the oft-quoted pleasures of Web2 is being able to make connections with people all over the world. Setting recent cynicisms about the quality and integrity of these connections aside, there are always gems to be discovered out there. Mr Murdoch’s work is one of those, and I do call him Mr Murdoch since he is a proper classroom teacher of the dreaded photoshop and a big admirer of Lewis Baltz. Stuart aka St2 to his mates, is also a proponent of the low-fi in photography and in particular, cameraphones.
To connect with much of my thinking about the proactive sharing impulses of the photography-obsessed, and as a prod-poke-spur to that new page I’ve been planning to showcase some of the best of these free-swop-sharing-giveaway schemes, I hereby spread news of St2’s free Low Fi ebook. You can download and maybe even print his book, on the promise that you’ll send him a postcard. I sent him a copy of my Local Colour minibook. I’ll be needing to order some more of those today, none left.
Popularity: 2% [?]