Exhibition Time
Spent a lot of time this week thinking and planning for my exhibition in January 2013. Went to the exhibition venue and began sketching out some possibilities. There are 3 distinct areas that I can use so I have been thinking about using 3 themes. I can probably display 18 images. The themes that come to mind are
Seascapes, Coast and possibly Belgium for a bit of a european flavour.
So I have been printing out images and arranging them on the floor to get an idea of which ones to use. I have about 30 potential images but I want to be hyper critical and get the best ones out there. At the same time I want to use the event as an opportunity to define my style.
I have been thinking about how to develop my style quite a bit recently. I am clearer on where I want to go, quite sparse dark images, using long exposure and just hints of detail on the horizon. I will use this style extensively on my Morecombe Bay work and hopefully develop something up that I can exhibit as a sole piece of work.
Finally, tomorrow I am off to Sheffield for the opening of the Sheffield Photography Competition and month long exhibition. It will be interesting to see how my pieces look and compare with the oppostion.
Going Public
Been wrapping three photographs ready for their delivery to Hutton’s tomorrow. Quite excited about displaying them for a month. There is a competition where the viewing public vote on the best pictures/artists. It’s a bit like a real version of getting Facebook ‘likes’. No high hopes but it should be interesting.
Been working on the final images from my trip to Northumberland in September. There are two themes one is coastal and the other is Holy Island. Next step is to make final decisions on printing them up and getting them on the website. I have about 12 images which are lying around the studio just waiting for the final look, adjustment and fine tweaking. There are 4 that I am really happy about and work as part of my new direction and will make limited edition prints.
New Book
Just taken delivery of the latest book from Beyond Words (see earlier post). It’s from a new (to me) photographer called Jeffrey Conley. The monograph is titled ‘Winter’ and contains some wonderful evocative black and white prints of trees, mountains, hills all taken in winter. Some of them are almost abstract, high contrast images of tree trunks, snow fall. Others are larger images of landscapes shrouded in mist and fog to give a lower contrast image that you need to take time to observe.
http://jeffreyconley.com/home.html
http://jeffreyconley.com/book/
Back into the groove
After last weeks slump I have been more ‘up for it’ this week. Not all my browsing last week was work aversion. I did browse through a couple of arts listing sites and identified some opportunities. So this week I have:
Sent off a proposal to a gallery that was asking for artists
Entered a photographic exhibition/competition in Sheffield
Working on a body of work for another competition in Scotland
The hardest part in all this has been having to write about my work/theme as part of 2 of the submissions. I am ok talking about my work with a real person in a 1 to 1 setting. But putting it down on paper, especially about a selected part of my work I found very hard. I viewed other artists statements but I just felt intimidated by the confidence they had in their words. That does not mean that I have no confidence in my work it’s just that I lack confidence in expressing my thoughts on paper. I just struggle with what words to use. I had a limit of 300 words but after 30 minutes I had about 50 and couldn’t think of anything else to write. So I printed it off and pinned it on the studio wall and waited for some inspiration to strike. After a couple of hours I had changed a few words and decided that my best 50 words would have to do.
I think part of the problem is that I was trying to talk about what were seperate individual pictures taken over a period of time with only a mental note of an underlying theme. So to help me with this I decided over the weekend that I would spend the next four months taking photographs based on a pre declared theme.
So my theme is seascapes and coastal views around Morecombe Bay. They will be black & white, use long exposure and visit some shoden spots at different times of the tide.
I bought a map of the northern shore and spent Monday identifying about 15 spots as possible shooting locations.
Finally I am off to Brougham Hall tomorrow. There are 2 photographers based there and they have a collaboration space and exhibition space for hire.
http://www.broughamhall.co.uk/our-community/no-10-…
So that will complete my more productive week.
Slack Week
After the Art Trail I had a very productive week and currently have approx 10 photos that I am actively working on. They are lying around my studio or pinned up on the wall.Some of them are nearly finished. When they reach that stage I like to pin them on the wall and give them a few days to see if any final ideas develop. So I have 6 photographs pinned to the wall awaiting final confirmation or inspiration. The other 4 are lying on the floor, they have written development notes doodled across them and are waiting to be picked up and tweaked. I have used this way of working for the last couple of years. However with the move from spare bedroom to studio means that I no longer have to tidy away when we have visitors. The downside is that they can lay on the floor or pinned on the wall for quite a long time.
Especially when I have a week like this week.
This week has been a week of procrastination, internet browsing and general lack of inspiration and creativity. I keep looking at the pictures in development and there is no urge or insight to take them to the next stage or get them finished. It is probably a reaction to all the creative and development energy that I had around getting ready for the Art Trail. I have always worked better with a deadline looming. The next deadline is my exhibition in January. I have about half of what I need ready and with two and a half months to go, there is a bit of time before the adrenaline kicks in.
So back to the internet………..
A Haven for Photo Geeks
Nothing to do with my change of career but I found this website while I was waiting for people to arrive at the weekend during the Art Trail
http://www.beyondwords.co.uk/
When I was in Brussels I had a neighbourly photo bookshop that was great for browsing and inspiration now I have an online equivalent in the UK. I have not been there in person yet but have already made my first order and built up a list for future reading. For those of you interested in what is currently on my viewing horizon you can go here
http://www.beyondwords.co.uk/wishlist/bd42d52f-9fd4-4e5f-96ad-bbb0d0a5b489
