A2B PHOTOGRAPHY

Breaks in Motion is a series of photographs I made last year in Victoria Park London. They were selected as a finalist in The Sunday Times London Photo Month competition. Find out more on my mini site.

GRINNING SKULL

Just a quick test post to help set up my iphoneography project, spotted this poster on a walk along Regent's Canal and tweaked the photo a little with a few apps. CrossProcess & Pic Grunger.
Sent from my iPhone (of course)

SPICY capri

I've just finished a job photographing a branded mkI ford capri for a well known aftershave thats having a bit of a resurgence. Can't say which one yet, but you or your dad may well of used it back in the 80's. The car looked great and is going to be part of a promotional rally team touring the uk this summer.

SHARKS TOOK THE REST cd art work

The brilliant 'Sharks Took The Rest' (check out their myspace page) have used one of my photos for their latest cd cover, and have commissioned me for their future publicity shots. I'll post more on this at a later date. I also designed their logo and other cd art work.

INSTILLATION dual screen video 2004

City 2 Country (dual screen video instillation 2004) from A2B PHOTOGRAPHY on Vimeo.

A bit of nostalgia here, its my degree show project from 2004. Thats about 4 years pre 'HD', we were still shooting film on my photography course and video was just a twinkle in many a photographers eye. Tech and my personal knowledge have moved on a lot since then.

I should note that the original instillation had an ambient soundtrack recorded on location. This unfortunately has been lost and so I've used the excellent 'Heaven' by Unkle as a stand in.

NOSTALGIA training up in newcastle 2002

I've been looking though a lot of old photos and files as part of my new year hard drive clean up. When I hooked up an old drive I found some of my old uni work, this shots from 2002, Newcastle Train Station. Found some old video stuff too that I've posted above and on Vimeo. Its always good to have a look back over some of your old work every now and again, you never know, it might just spark off a new project or maybe just bring back some fond memories.

POLAROID IS DEAD! long live polaroid!

The last batch of Polaroid film to be made expires this month, but all is not lost. Like good cheese there's a lot to be said for letting it age a little. In return you'll recieve some unexpected visually tasty treats, and when stocks finally do run out it doesn't look like we'll have to wait too long for the hole to be filled. ‘The Impossible Project’ aims to be producing their own contemporary take on the film by 2010. Check out http://www.the-impossible-project.com/ for more details.

And finally, to see some of the great and the good of photography's use of the medium you can check out the Atlas Gallery's latest show 'Polaroid: EXP.09.10.09' featuring work by Walker Evans, Andre Kertesz and Andy Warhol. Its a small but interesting collection of work.

SORRY I COULDN'T MAKE IT but my photos did

The Art House Coop has thoughtfully posted some photos of their 'A Million Little Pictures' exhibition in the States, including the two seen above on Flickr. I was chuffed to find my contributions in the right hand shot as unfortunately I'm not going to be able to make it to the Art House Gallery to check out the show in person.

A MILLION LITTLE FEET a selection of my 'a million little pictures' project submission

As mentioned in a previous post I signed up for the Art House Gallery's 'A Million Little Pictures' project. After receiving my camera from the states I went about documenting 2 months of my life in 24 photos. I enjoyed trying to come up with something that I hope will be a bit different to the one thousand other photographers submissions. The project was also a chance to go back in time and have a play with film, a cheap plastic camera with no manual controls or customisable settings, and the technically not so great but nostalgically charming results of the 1hr photo lab. (You've gotta love those washed out colours and strangely marked and inconsistent 6x4's)

Using 35mm film for the first time in 5 years was great fun. Not seeing your photos right away and waiting to see the results as physical objects rather than pixels on the monitor was a refreshing change from the digital world. The whole experience has inspired me to dust of the FM2 and maybe even look into venturing back into the darkroom… i can smell the developer already.

CLIFF TOP SHAGS new images posted on the website

Recently I took a boat trip in Northumberland to photograph some of Britain's coastal bird life. I had a great time watching and photographing Puffins, Shags, Razorbills, and Turns. My top tips for anyone looking to take photos of nesting wild birds are.

1. Watch where your stepping, fragile nests, eggs, and chicks can be hard to spot, and are often in unexpected places. So be careful and respectful of your surroundings.

2. Wear a thick hat, birds can be extremely protective parents, and wont think twice about pecking the top of your head if you stray too close to their nests.

3. Take a wide lens as well as the obligatory telephoto. You'll be surprised how close you can get.

4. Take sunscreen, drinking water, and a waterproof. Obvious but easy to forget.

5. Pack all of your gear in a good bag, the boat trip out could be choppy so a water proof one would be a good idea, but you could always wrap your coat around your gear in a pinch.

6. A cliche it may be but the old adage of 'leave nothing but foot prints, take nothing but photos' stands true. Be careful not to accidentally drop any rubbish. it's easily done when going through bags and pockets for camera stuff, and there's are a lot of hungry birds around who will try and eat almost anything, harmful or not.

A MILLION LITTLE PICTURES my camera arrives

I signed up for the Art House Gallery’s A Million Little Pictures project a couple of months back. The rules are simple take 24 photos with the provided camera, documenting something in your life. Then get them developed and send them to the Gallery in Atlanta, GA, USA to be hung as part of an exhibition of 24,000 photos on September the 25th. I know that’s not the million suggested by the title, but I guess 24,000 little pictures didn’t sound so catchy.

The exhibition will then travel to the city with the most participants. This second exhibition will take place from January-March 2010. I’ll post any interesting updates, and a selection of scans from the photos I submit once I’ve completed the project.

EXHIBITION REVIEW Zineb Sedira’s ‘Currents of Time’ at Rivington Place, London

I’ve just been to view Currents of Time: a new work by Zineb Sedira consisting of 3 instillations, distinct in style but thematically linked. The first of the 3 instillations I saw was ‘Maritime Nonsense and Other Aquatic Tales, 2009’. 3 large photographs on display in Rivington Place's shop front (see photo) used to draw people in. They do their job well, the rusting structures penetrating the dark oceans waters asking more questions than giving answers.

Once inside the gallery I was drawn to the disjointed noise’s coming from the darkened room immediately to my left. ‘Floating Coffins, 2009’ is a 14 screen video instillation with 10 round speakers suspended at various heights from the ceiling. The flat screen TV’s are mounted on 3 sides of the room surrounding the viewer, cables hanging freely, looping from TV to TV. Each screen showing different views of a rusting metal graveyard in the sea and sands of Mauritania, a country on Northwest African’s coastline. A place the world shipping industry uses as a scrap yard.

The rusting hulls are broken and fragmented physically by the frames of the TV’s, and the clever editing of the video footage. We see the ships, and the primitive methods being used to break them down as well as local wildlife and workers, forcing you to question the environmental and human impact this surreal ship cemetery has in this part of Africa.

To stay static whilst viewing the work is to do the ambient sound track a disservice. Zineb Sedira worked with sound artist Mikhail Karikis on producing this sound track and By walking underneath the many orb like speakers hanging above you, your oral senses are thrown off balance, the sounds of wind on sand, crashing waves and hammer on metal envelop you, at times clamouring for attention from all directions. All of this aids, and compliments the visually immersive elements of the work.

The third instillation is upstairs in the gallery’s project space 2. By contrast ‘Scattered Carcasses, 2008’ is set up in a lit room. Made up of 10 photographs mounted on large light boxes ‘scattered’ around the room. Power cables and extension plugs strew the ground, and hang from the wall mounted light boxes. I was the only person viewing the work at this time and the gentle sound of wind and lite tinny metal against metal caused unintentionally by a lose part in the air conditioning unit provided an atmospheric soundtrack. I couldn’t help but think it would have been a nice touch (although maybe not for the gallery supervisor) if the air con had been turned off and the heating turned up enough to dry your throat while viewing the backlit images of rusting ships being slowly buried by the African sands and sea.

I found this exhibition to be involving and challenging with the work enhanced by the well thought out and inspirational space within which it was displayed. Topping it off nicely is a complimentary exhibition guide providing you with some fairly in-depth background on the artist and her previous works. I highly recommend catching ‘Currents of Time’ in Londons East End before it ends on July 25th.

The exhibition will be running from 21st May - 25th July 09 at:

Rivington Place,

London,

EC2A 3BA

T: +44 (0)20 7729 9616

ITS ALIIIIIIIVE!!! the website goes live

Today’s the day a2b photography’s website gets up and running. I designed the site myself but had a lot of help getting it online. So big love to ‘Web Master’ Sian for all her help and patience, and thanks go to Mr Shaw too, for sharing some of his precious geek knowledge. Thanks guys, the beers are on me.