I’ve finally started moving all my archived photos from CDs and DVDs onto an external hard disk. There are nearly 7 years worth of backups so it’s a somewhat daunting task (especially as I make at least two copies of everything). Fortunately a daughter who normally spends her time knitting and watching daytime TV is at hand. We’re about a third of the way through and assuming I will eventually abandon iView, I’ve started throwing the pictures into the Lightroom beta, hoping they don’t price it in a way that makes me have to consider Aperture.
Delegate
September 15, 2006 By Leave a Comment
Digital Photography Courses London
August 17, 2006 By 1 Comment
This is mainly a plug for a course I’m running at Photofusion in October but as ever, you can ignore the text and just look at the picture (click to enlarge). The course is called ‘Starting Digital Photography’, it runs for three days (3, 4, 5th October) and is aimed at people who want to get the most from their digital SLR and an introduction to Photoshop. More details on the Photofusion page. The course is limited to eight people but if you’d prefer something more tailored, or shorter, I also do one-to-one tuition.
The Films of Jacques Rivette
August 10, 2006 By Leave a Comment
Usually long but always intriguing. We managed to see four that were new to me during the recent NFT season and have also been catching up by renting the few available DVDs. Tonight was Histoire de Marie et Julien which may well be his “greatest achievement” but although the cat was very good, of the more recent films, I preferred Va Savoir.
A Proper Job
July 30, 2006 By 2 Comments
Having just completed a rare 5-day week of teaching I’m once again wondering how people manage to do that 9 to 5 thing on a regular basis. World of Work. It’s odd.
The Guardian web site has a slideshow of 11 pictures from the Onto the Streets show so you can try to spot my picture.
Onto the Streets Again
July 6, 2006 By 2 Comments
As promised in a previous post, I’ve made a gallery of the five photos that are in the forthcoming Photofusion show. You can see them here, with dates and links to the other photographers.
Onto the Streets
June 15, 2006 By Leave a Comment
I’ve got some pictures in the group show, Onto the Streets, which opens next month at Photofusion in Brixton (21 July to 16 September and then touring to Greece and Croatia I think). I’ll put together a web gallery of my pictures and add a link here when I’m a bit less busy. Update: gallery.
Version One
May 21, 2006 By 4 Comments
I haven’t posted a “gear in pieces” picture for awhile so here’s the next best thing; the first version of an extremely wide angle medium format (6x12cm) camera I’m building. It’s mostly bits bought on ebay with a couple of pieces of plywood in the middle, all held together with lots of tape. It’s missing some niceties and hopefully the final version will have less tape. I’ve put a couple of test rolls through – results to follow assuming there’s something on the film.
The Lure of Surrealism
April 17, 2006 By 1 Comment
I recently started reading “City Gorged with Dreams: Surrealism and Documentary Photography in Interwar Paris” which ought to be interesting because it’s a study of “surrealist realism”: the exploration of a real-life surreality encountered on the streets of the city. On reaching chapter three – Nadja: a ‘voluntary banality’? – I thought I’d better break off to read the book of the chapter title. I didn’t really take to Breton’s style of writing and although I enjoyed his descriptions of the meetings with Nadja the story had more impact after finishing it, first by reading the introduction (glad that I didn’t read it first) and secondly by filling in details via a quick google and reading this essay, Trailing Nadja by poet, Susan Elmslie.
Coincidences ensued. In a box of booja-booja chocolates, the message (Boojagram No. 17) read, “Practice a reliable attitude towards fish”. I didn’t think much of it, except that it was a little odder than the usual sentiment. However, I then went out and drove over a big fish, maybe a piece of salmon, in the middle of our road and on the return journey noticed a black glove in the middle of another road. Unrelated to this, I walked past a woman who said into her phone, “I get lost if I walk around”.
Nadja by Andre Breton
City Gorged with Dreams by Ian Walker