In case you didn’t know, Arts Council England announced its list of  arts organisations that will no longer be funded. In the north-east, the big players, Baltic, Mima, The NGCA all did really well, and got more money than before.

Everyone has been left reeling though, with the news that Side Gallery, the region’s most loved photographic collection, archive and showcase, the one that exhibits work by and about mis- or under represented groups, the only documentary photography gallery in the country, is to lose the paltry £60,000pa, the whole amount of it’s grant, all it took to keep this incredible programme of work coming and coming.

SIDE GALLERY TO RECEIVE NO FUNDING IN THE ARTS COUNCIL’S NATIONAL PORTFOLIO: A PROFOUNDLY STUPID, CULTURALLY ILLITERATE AND ILLOGICAL DECISION

In a spirited and typically upbeat move, there’s a note on the door of the gallery, and there’s a statement to read and a petition to sign. Please help!

This is what you can do:

Read the Collective’s response in this newsletter and on the Amber Website.

Write to them using their Contact page giving them your support.

Sign the Petition.

Comment on the BJP article and any others you find, especially those in the mainstream press.

Join in Duckrabbit’s campaign to get the Photographers’ Gallery to give Side the loose change from behind their settee.

Come to A LUTA CONTINUA tomorrow, the opening of their latest most magnificent piece, curated and presented by the lively and dynamic Dean Chapman.

Follow them on Twitter and Facebook to keep up with any next steps and for any updates.

Look! Weegee!

See you tomorrow.

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“It’s got nice little program modes on the bottom.” Make sure you click through to read the comments.

And it’s yet another timely reminder to finish the rest of that Kodachrome. Similar Posts:

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More on all of these to come.

And there’s an impending equipment clear-out as the practice is consolidated. Watch out for some sales of camera bags and equipment. The darkroom surpluses have been redistributed to a couple of local enthusiasts, but no doubt there will be more on this too, soon.

What has continued gently, throughout this period, is a humble little series of iPhone photographs that after a hesitant start, really began to take off when there began to be no time for anything else.

You get the idea, hmm?

The series was published exclusively to my Facebook pages, where access is restricted to people who mutually follow, and ran from 11th June to 10th October 2010: 121 pictures altogether. People seem to have either loved or loathed them, which is exactly the response we’re always seeking, especially since the people who loved them include several fine art photographers of some stature. But you’d have to be following me to know who they are.

There have been suggestions for publishing possibly a little book, and the temptation to send them off to get a set of little prints seems almost too great. They could, of course, look rubbish as prints. iPhone photographs may need to stay purely in the digital realm, and the sense of impermanence is wholly in keeping with the rhythm of the piece. But we shall see.

The master of the daily photograph is of course the mighty Russell Higgs, whose series of self portraits in a huge range of head embellishments has been featured here before. There are 999 of them. It’s hard to imagine the level of stamina it takes to make one of those every single day for 3 years, and they are rather compelling. Here’s Russell’s slideshow on Shutterchance.

And a piece of his work you may not have seen before:

Things to see this week include Jill Cole’s magnificent Training Land at the Decisive Moment Gallery in Darlington, and the DMG members’ show including my Jabberywocky low contrast darkroom prints moves to the Lamplight Centre in Stanley. The Sunderland MA Photography show opens on 17th, oddly enough with a drifting voile as its promotional poster. These happy little co-incidences are possibly a result of the rich cross- fertilisation of influences we experience in this broad and very eclectic community.

Long may they continue.

This ever-changing collection of photographers’ cards on the back of my blackout cupboard door includes gifts from Thea Panter, Craig Stephenson and Simon Norfolk, postcards from shows by Marjolaine Ryley, Jill Cole, and in the middle there’s the artists’s statement from my final show at college, and one of my own favourite polaroids from a series that never really gathered much momentum.

Polaroids, mmm… and Kodachrome, mmm. So much to write about, so little time.Similar Posts:

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Somewhat hypnotic film from Asa Mader.

Natchwey’s clever cousin Martin has joined the team at Duckrabbit. “Martin Nachtwey does a masterful job of capturing the dystopian cacophony of conflicting rivers of delusion of our modern day irrational existence.” Describes that film quite well, wouldn’t you say?

The authentic James: “I have been a witness, and these pictures are my testimony. The events I have recorded should not be forgotten and must not be repeated.” here.

Martin Parr (whose brow is nothing like as furrowed, and who needs no linking from me) is going to be at Port Eliot Festival this weekend. He sent a contribution to the Falmouth Students’ fundraising cookery book. They asked famous photographers for recipes, and he sent them “beans on toast..“. Not a recipe for beans on toast, that would be too generous of him, too giving of his precious time. Just those three words. I’ll tell him what I think if I see him wandering about, but will not be going to watch him hold court.

It is perfectly possible in this industry of ours to get famous and even notorious, without pomposity or arrogance. We know that. Brian Griffin liked my photo on Facebook this morning, not for the first time. We can only love an artist like that, at the top of his profession and free, still, with his opinions and praise.

Griffin’s Road to 2012 Olympic preparations photographs at the National Portrait Gallery are here. Go and see them: I certainly will.

So while work progresses in the studio on the sculpture, for me, a few days in a tent, in Cornwall! I’ll be taking a sweet little rangefinder and some rolls of 3200 and 6400 Ilford Delta for the evenings, and possibly a monopod.

More from the darkroom, including a short one-take film so you can see exactly how organised and tidy it is, sometime around the end of next week. Meanwhile, this is my first, hopefully of many more, moving photos, as I believe they are becoming known. Turn off the sound, I haven’t worked out how to do that in camera yet. Feel free to follow The Photography Pages on Youtube.

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Chris Floyd is photographing his Twitter follower/ees and we’re trying to organise it so I can go along when I’m in London next week. I really hope he can fit me in. See the progress as he uploads the pictures to his blog, and follow him on Twitter.Similar Posts:

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There’s a beautiful house where this big hole used to be, built now, not unbuilt. Why there was a gap there before in what was once and is now again a prime location is a bit of a mystery.

As much as these things matter (so, not at all), the film is the last of the Agfa Vista, lovely contrasty winter’s day, and the camera’s a nifty little GR1S with a 28mm lens, perfect wide angle, and pocketable for climbing the ladders. Thoroughly recommended for any aspirant architectural progress.

These were taken more than a year ago, and of course the builders are still here. There are gorgeous hardwood floors, three good bedrooms, a couple of luxury bathrooms, all matt limestone tiling and gleaming chrome. You didn’t think it was actually finished, did you? Some way to go yet, but if you want to buy a gorgeous house in one of the London’s most exciting locations, get in touch.

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If you’ve just come in from a morning run, or cycle, and idly wondering what to do for lunch; or if you’re rousing after a heavy Saturday night and deciding to switch off the football and do something more interesting instead, get theesel down to Saltburn-by-the-Sea. Starts at 3pm, so there’s time to gather a couple of friends: it’s only a half hour’s drive from Darlington, Middlesbrough, about 45 mins from Seaham, an hour from Sunderland. If you’re in Newcastle you could get a train, or straight down the A19 and you’ll be there by 2.

Very interesting stuff in the Gallery. Helen and Helen, the two curators there are doing really excellent work bringing pretty much cutting edge work to show, and this afternoon you can meet and talk to Peter Spiers. His all-day workshop last week was one of the best participative events probably all-time ever, coming as it did at exactly the right time in my practice to create some of this stuff, and use the techniques in yesterday’s Duckrabbit workshop to distribute elements of it all.

Some of the hooks, keys, eyes, windows, through-a-glass delusions, any other metaphor you like that I explored included these:

There’s talk of a network, of linking up Saltburn with what we’ve been doing here in Seaham, the Deep Sea Diving Project, a coastal collaboration, maybe more, the tie-ins are obvious. If you want to be involved, if any of this piques your tastebuds, drop me a comment or a tweet and I’ll keep you posted.

One of Peter’s most engaging projects is where he runs like hell away from the camera, after setting the timer. Who doesn’t feel like doing that, most days?

So yes, take a look, and/or you could always write to the magnificent Helens. I’m told there are tea and cherry scones afterwards. Get going, now!

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That’s Duck, on the left (somewhat less hair yesterday), Rabbit looking enigmatic in the middle there and Awesome Adam togged up for his day job, on the mean streets of Lambeth North, to the well appointed Direct Studios for one of hopefully a mini-series of how-to-do-multimedia seminars. It was good. Really useful. And very enjoyable.

Better probably to jump straight through to their Vimeo pages and have a browse, but here are my notes, more as an aide memoire than anything else, and apologies about the jumble, they are just notes, a smattering of key points according to me, it’s not an official write up, you’ll have to go to one for yourself.

Fundamental to the concept, and something I’d never before considered:

Audio is the key narrative driver in storytelling.

and of course we know this but….

The Power is in the image being still.

• A photo-film is a soliloquy: photos + sound create a sense of place. (eg Hamlet orates direct to audience)

• Do it without knowing if you’ll get paid. Find a story, then tell it. Do that every week.

• People who make great stuff are the ones who just keep on trying.

• Kit choices include new DSLRs which can also make video, but the quality’s still not great, and you can hear the shutter clicks while recording sound. Can’t really do both at once on one machine, not yet.

• Kit doesn’t need to be expensive but an essential is really good headphones. And to wear them.

• Interview style: it’s important to make sure you put your subject at ease. Stand or sit beside, not opposite, don’t put mic on table, hold near but not too near (lots of this, pretty obvious but not until you’re actually told/shown).

• Recording audio is like making a contract with someone, they give their time, you do your best to make it really good quality.

• It’s more important that the interviewee is happy than that the output is personally interesting to you: it’s their story.

• Sound effects help to create the sense of place.

• Music? People hate it in as many numbers as love it. If it’s in your face, it’s not working.

• Sound ‘actuality’ or background noise allows room for a natural pauses or still moments between more active shots. Create about 2 mins of ambient noise/sounds to allow for transitions.

• Avoid sirens, planes, any continuous noises that will stop at odd moments in your soundtrack, but don’t be too anal, take control of situation, but stay relaxed.

• Inside cars, bathrooms etc are dead space for sound and may not work with landscape pictures. Use home made mic sock to baffle out wind noise.

• Who you are and how you approach someone is what works. Hook on their own words: if they mention ‘hope’ ask them to ‘tell me about hope’. Not important to write down questions in advance, but do lots of research so that people know you care about them and their subject/life/passion.

• Nobody else knows what shots/audio you’ve missed. Let. It. Go.

• Detail shots fill gaps. You can rarely have enough detail shots.

• Do not get hooked up on photographers’ pictures ie extreme dof . Kit doesn’t matter one jot.

… and just to underline that last point, Anna Stevens of Panos Pictures showed us photographer Robin Hammond’s Tuvalu photo-film, all shot in square medium format, his frames in threes creating the panoramas. Lovely.

A few more snippets?

• voiceovers can sound preachy

• avoid bad practice in any submission to Anna = no tripod, mic on a table, no headphones. She will know.

• learning to do sound well is the same as learning to do photos well: the viewer doesn’t care how you did it, and it’s the viewer that’s important.

• it’s a new field – everyone is still learning.

• sort out your own workflow according to the kit you have (Mac/PC) and the audience’s needs. Eg MP3s are okay for web only, WAV or MOV files for gallery projections. 44.1 is same fidelity as a CD. Flash may or may not be redundant depending on your audience.

• be clear about what you can and cannot do for an organisation. What’s the message, story, persuasion they are seeking? Tailor to their needs.

• create and use a standard contract specifiying licencing & rights.

• video will have a consistent aspect ratio relevant to standard film formats (might therefore have black stripes down sides or top/bottom). In slideshows (flash) the images will have the aspect ratios of your photos.

Oh yes…

Teach Yourself  To Listen!

• clarity

• be prepared to kill your babies

• use simple transitions: crossfading is hard to stream (buffering issues with big files)

Love, just love this firefighting promo/edu photofilm. David ended with it, leaving us with a warm feeling of potentiality and a wee creative frisson. Really.  Don’t you wish you’d gone along? Only £45 too. Go to the next one. Keep in touch with Duckrabbit via twitter or their blog.

Word of the day: authentic with 7 incidences, plus 1 inauthentic + 1 authenticity = 9
Runner up: awesome with 4 but all by Adam, who is awesome, and in one sentence, so not sure they count.

Helpful question of the day: “what’s Vimeo?”

Quote of the day:

“change our way of relating, and we change the whole trajectory of the illness”  (Cathy Greenblat said this… interviewed by the Duck on the soundtrack of an unfinished photofilm about people with Althzeimer’s.)

We love Duckrabbit. And so will you.

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For about a week, I’ve been trying to write about Bloody Sunday and its ripples and ramifications across the years, the intrinsic and ongoing effects on my own life and in so many ways on all of ours. But I find I can’t. It’s great news, this enquiry, but far, far too late.

The photographs on this page are from the Museum of Free Derry.

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I met John Perivolaris at Redeye’s first Photography Symposium in Manchester in 2009, in the way that one tends to meet people at conferences, briefly and in passing. We were using Twitter for the first time at a major UK photography event, both he and me and Julian from Little Star and Ed Horwich were the first to use the #nps1 hashtag. Twitter is a superb way to engage with someone at a distance. You don’t have to actually communicate, but if someone seems to be doing something interesting, or that connects, you inevitably do, and this is how I first found out about North to North.

Using the Shoot it Application for iPhones, and with real life postcards, people are encouraged to communicate with John on his travels through France to the Magreb. He’s documenting the whole thing, his own thoughts, photographs, itinerary, here at The Cardographer.

I’m sending John a small series of photographs from the deep dark Saddleworth Moor taken during the Redye Symposium while I was staying at a sleepy little hotel under the hillside, away from the cacophany of the city, and with free wifi to boot. This may or may not be one of the pictures: I don’t want to pre-empt the triangulation. The one at the top is an alternative version of the postcard that’s already arrived.

A few other small connections:

Dr  Ed Welch , a collaborator in John’s project, is a key instigator in the Durham Centre for Advanced Photography’s seminar series and conferences, many of which I’ve been lucky enough to attend. Ed was in Newcastle, photographing the Tyne Bridges, on the day and in the same minutes that the engineer George Fenwick allowed me to make a series of photographs from the control tower. The Swing Bridge, a favourite personal project (in many ways but also because it has won me some money), is a feat of marketing genius by Armstrong the arms manufacturer: it turns through 360 degrees, just like his gun turrets.

On that same day, June 5th 2010, a woman I first met more than 40 years ago was celebrating the 35th anniversary of her graduation as a medical doctor by charting a boat trip down the Tyne. George was opening the bridge for my friend and her 50 jubilant doctor colleagues.

That picture is the first time we’ve seen each other since then. Here are her photographs of that day on the River. Dr Ed will be in one of those, somewhere. I’ll be publishing the best of mine, soon.

Not long after I first met Dr Baillie, I took a bus and boat trip to Greece, passing the coast of Algeria along the way. There were many whispered tales of marauding bandits toting ancient shotguns, fearsome fellows in dark bandanas twirling moustaches and living in the swirling desert. Sounded terribly romantic, ever sceptical as I am of the stories peddled by those who wish to spread fear. Fear of foreigners, fear of strange lands, of the south, fear of some imagined loss, of control, of a compass, or something. To me, then as now, the Magreb sounds a wondrous and exciting place.

I sent another two postcards today, one to Dr Ed Welch’s office in Durham, another to Dr Perivolaris via his colleague Manchester. If any of this moves you as much as it moves me, you can do the same.

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