Most recent work

I can feel this style of work becoming more important to me as I work with it.

More Poppit Work

I have been working on some 35mm Poppit work for the past few weeks and yesterday I visited Poppit with just the 35mm and no Hasselblad - for the first time. It was a strange experience. After going to Poppit for nearly two and a half years with a big camera bag, tripod, flashguns and all sorts of other bits and pieces the feeling of striding out onto the beach with just a single 35mm camera kind of made me feel, well, a bit naked.

The shooting was odd too - I had taken a whole roll within 5 minutes and I felt quite drained. A totally different experience from the intense observing and documenting that happens with the medium format.

I am developing the film today - we'll see what happens.

I have also been planning the trip to Copenhagen for an exhibition opening. I'll be missing Hong Kong and New York - but I'll be there for the London opening for sure.

New plans in the pipeline....

I think that what makes a photographer become an artist is his or her constant search for a way to make their photography express certain ideas for others to view too. These 'ideas' are often difficult to express in words and so the artist discovers ways to show them - using paints, music, photography etc etc. Kind of like allowing people to see inside your head.

Once I managed to get this thought into my mind I found that the process of creating images became easier and my ideas were more confident and forthcoming.

Saying that, most of them still end up going nowhere - but every now and then one sticks. At the moment I am deep into darkroom experiments - maybe one day soon the inkjet will be pushed to one side for good.

Busy time coming up..

Another trip to Poppit yesterday - with mixed results. Once again I feel that I left it too late and I missed the best of the light - only part of a roll used up.

Things are hotting up on the exhibition front for the second half of 2009. Hopefully it won't take me away from my new work that I am pushing ahead with.

Faults are good

Sometimes I find that faulty negatives are worth their weight in gold. Somehow the 'fault' gives the shot something special and unexpected - a kind of roughness that balances with the image itself.

More work from Poppit

I find that a single trip to Poppit can keep me busy for weeks. Not only does the film need to be developed - but each image needs to be examined and worked on to see what it can give. The images below are an example of this - initially put to one side I spent some time split toning them and seeing what they can give.

More tests at Poppit

My last few trips to Poppit allowed me to try out some new ideas that moved me into areas that were sometimes a bit haphazard and uncomfortable - but after a few more tries I am finally getting the shots that I want...

Catching up

Things have been whizzing on while I was in bed with the flu so I am in a mad rush to catch up - mainly admin duties but also a couple of gallery jobs need doing soon.

Meanwhile keeper shot number 2 from 31st July is now ready for the website...

Down with the flu.....

I had a great trip to Poppit on 31st July - the light was perfect and two rolls of film were taken. I developed them the next day and from 24 shots I have 3 keepers.

However, since then I have been knocked out with the flu which has been annoying since I have a lot to do right at the moment. It seems though that the time was not wasted as you can let your mind wander a lot when you are laying there in a drowsy stupor - and a number of ideas came to me which I intend to follow through once I have caught up with everything else. Odd how a dreamlike state allows you to think of things in a totally different way and somehow see things a lot clearer.

Anyway, I am working on the three keeper shots now - and my colour film and developer has arrived - something else to push ahead with.