The Photography Pages » marketing

Quotidian Ends

TPP — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 07:32:17 +0000

It’s been a long and rather interesting summer. No posts since August are the result of an hugely extra-busy personal life, changes in the big new collaboration, diversions at the local art group and a big increase in work on the weddings, all of which has been accompanied by the usual frustrations with digital darkroom hardware.

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:

Number Seven Progress and Update

TPP — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 09:44:44 +0000

If you’re a personal friend, a photography colleague, a graduate of FDA 2008 in Newcastle, on one of my lapsed albeit fictional Xmas card lists, a Twitter or Facebook friend, you will already know how much enthusiasm and energy has gone into this. It’s been a summer of planning and painting. An autumn of darkroom building and gardening.

Tomorrow evening, the 12 wonderful photographers who’ve gathered to create this project, will hold a small celebration and open the very first private view of our pictures. You may well have already received your invitation from one of us in person. If by any remote chance our mighty PR machine has avoided you so far, do not be dismayed, and download one of these.

And if you can’t make it tomorrow, come over another time. This is just the beginning.Similar Posts:

Wordclouds and Squirrelling

TPP — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 04:21:25 +0000

Experimenting with a cloud creator for a new project or two. Revealing: there’s more website building, and real bricks-and-mortar building than actual photography going on of late, and time seems to be quite a factor. Another one made for the nascent Artemis Foundation:

The idea is to use these as inspiration, to link concepts and ideas from brainstorm sessions or collections of suggestions to see where they take us. A way of showing what’s important to a group of people, perhaps. An aid to decision making.

They’d also make interesting visual artist statements.

Where do the squirrels come in? They collect things, useful store cupboard and nesting materials, and stash them somewhere they’ll definitely be unearthed and made useful at a later date. We’re thinking of all that darkroom equipment that’s been stored up these past few years. It’s being dusted down, brushed off, found a shiny new home.Similar Posts:

Nymphoto

TPP — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 09:18:09 +0000

A new wimmin photographers’ showcase site. It’s so difficult to come up with new names for babies, bands, networks, collaborations. Argh. I quite like this one. Click through to see their site, some smashing work.

Please submit your suggestions for:
a) acceptable non cheesy adjectives to describe photographs you like. ‘Nice’ and ‘wow’ are both banned.
b) ideas for names of collectives of photographers.

All suggestions will be published. Good ones will be used. August is a possibility for the resumption of normal service, but all comments will be read. Similar Posts:

Handy Zone Ruler and Another Rebuild

TPP — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:47:58 +0000

The idea is that if you can’t distinguish the black on the far left from its near neighbours, and ditto the white on the right, your monitor needs recalibrating or your print needs more or less contrast. On many newer LCD monitors, the two darkest blacks are difficult to distinguish. If that’s the same with your darkroom print, experiment with the filters. A higher number (4 or 5) will bring out the detail in the whites, a lower or zero grade will help with the blacks.

Click to embiggen a version that can be downloaded to print.

A rebuild of this site this morning and The Photography Pages was caught by a couple of dawn readers who reported rubble and debris. All should be okay now; please report anything that doesn’t work or looks weird. We have more hard coding here than normal, so there will be glitches. The new Contact Me form seems to be working okay now though! Do please go ahead and test.

New look for the site for my own photos only, the version people seem to be calling ‘portfolio’ or the ‘professional’ site. Not entirely happy with it yet, but the bones are definitely there.Similar Posts:

WordCamp UK Update

TPP — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 02:52:20 +0000

The new venue, better by far, is The Studio in Cannon Street, about 5 mins walk from New Street Station, in beautiful Birmingham. More on the blog and the Wiki.

The Photography Pages has been entered for The Humphrey Awards, in the Content section and for a Single Post.

Vote!Similar Posts:

Co-working Call!

TPP — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 02:17:08 +0000

There are a whole host of reasons and for this post, and it’s less about giving information, than asking who’s out there and who’s up for what. It’s a call-out!

Photography, the business of, is a lonesome affair, solo by its very nature, although not necessarily lonely. The same conditions that much freelance work exhibits are true for most of us, and the advent of Web2 and portable access to contacts and so on, makes the tools available to create much more of a um, community around the work, and through the working day.

Blogging makes it possible to create and promote a real conversation about one’s photographic preoccupations, research ideas, daily activities. But there are extra possibilities. Crowd sourcing, to find people whom you know who might be nearby, or timeshifting opportunities to collaborate. In this seemingly endless dynamic of open possibilities, what is functional? What will work, in real time, for me and my inspirers, my (in)valuable business contacts, the people on whom the work will thrive and ultimately depend?

So this is how to contact me, to crowd-source me, if you like. I will respond and am most likely to engage if the following:

• you have a blog which you keep updated, where I can see more-or-less how you think and feel about your work.
You may or may not also have a professional website. Just having your photos or art on one of the popular sites wouldn’t work on its own in this context, but it might be a start, or an adjunct. Only having one of those and nothing else as your web presence would be a turn-off.

• you are local
Crowd-sourcing depends on the conceptual possibility of immediate or soon. If you’re in Newcastle, Darlington, Durham, Middlesbrough, or any of the surrounding county areas, that’s good. If you also blog and/or would like to, that’s even better. If you’re in the business as a professional communicator, agent, commissioning editor, image sourcer, writer, or anything similar, it would be great to hear from you.

• you are looking for or can supply ongoing mentoring
People who can listen and give willingly are more empathetic, and are on the whole more useful to each other. There will be a need in coming months for listeners. People who can talk about their own work will be needing other people who are interested in them. Both sides.

• practical collaborating
Studio equipment and sets, gallery space, critique and portfolio sessions, library and location resource building. If you have skills, if you know how to make sets, or mend things, or need space or ideas or feedback, rare skills like lith printing, or stuff that almost anyone can do like gallery making, painting, developing film.

• enthusiasm.
Vital. Two years in education has torn the enthusiasm from my work and a hollow husk of inertia remains, built from battling the twin crimes of resource denial and daily xenophobia. It’ll return, no doubt. In the meantime, situation vacant, photographer/s and allies wanted.

Any one of the above is good. More than say two, and there could definitely be possibilities. More than two? Please get in touch. Urgently

Initially the best ways are Twitter and/or Photophlow for a brief conversation, or where you can send links to your own site/s. Longer conversations about co-work can then begin properly in real life.

Similar Posts:

Interview with Eileen Gittins founder of Blurb

TPP — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 11:11:59 +0000

New on the BJP website:

“I founded the company in 2005 because I was trying to do my own photo books. It used to be difficult and expensive. Some photo hosting sites allowed you to produce some books, but the quality wasn’t there. I’m a medium format fine art photographer. I shoot using a Hasselblad, and I can spend five hours working on a single print, so I needed that same level of quality for photo books.”

Read the rest…

Fence and the Pasmore series have initially been produced using MyPublisher as large portfolio-style books, but they’ll be made on Blurb for sale, because frankly, the print quality-for-price is a lot better. And Blurb makes a bookshelf available too.

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Pork Corps

TPP — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 18:52:18 +0000

Apropos of this, via a Tweet from Matt Jones. Thank you!Similar Posts:

The new Northern Exposure website

TPP — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 17:10:35 +0000

That’s where all the energy’s been going the past couple of days. Please can you go over there now and comment on anything you like or have an opinion about. There is some really superb work freshly online, all of which hasn’t been seen outside of the limited arena of the college crit session.

Take a close(r) look at Wayne McIntyre and Gemma Gray, is one suggestion. No doubt you’ll have others.Similar Posts: