November 2011
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Lots of teaching this month… I’ve got a new position lecturing 2nd year Media and Cultural Studies students at LCC. Great fun but it’s been a fair amount of work writing the course and preparing the lectures etc. We’ve been working on the principles of narrative structure together and it’s been a much-needed refresher I can utilise for my own practice. Especially given I’ve got the Fez film to start editing.
At the end of the month I’m starting a new job as a full time lecturer in Farnham. It’s going to be a bit of lifestyle change leaving the house at 07:15 am for the next six months! But I’m really excited to be teaching on a course with such a great history and course team, made up from the likes of Karen Knorr, Anna Fox and Stephen Bull.
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October 2011
Back to London and a mountain of work to concur... having been away for a total of six weeks.
Firstly the book I’ve been co-authoring with Anna Fox on titled ‘Behind the Image: Research methods’ is about to go to print after a year of work! It’s only a handful of late night corrections left and the book is shaping up really well. Thank god for Twitter and being able to find a selection of interesting photographers, such as Harry Watts, Melanie Stidolph and collaboration Danni Evans and Brendan Baker to include in last minute page spreads, as the final layout is set.
It’s been especially interesting going through the editing stage with the proofreaders. As Anna and myself have had to battle against many photographers works being cut on the grounds of indecency issues. The most shocking was the removal of Jeff Walls, ‘The Giant’. I love that image and was so sorry to see it removed.
The final document has now been signed off and gone to print and I want to thank everyone who has helped contribute to the publication. And especially thank you to Afshin for his ghost writing and Anna Fox for her patience over my wordy sentence structures!
Roll on February 2012 when the book is out!
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September 2011
Great time in California! It was fantastic to meet up with a couple of original Natasha Caruana supporters there. In 2005 after my BA degree show fed up with the rejection letters in the UK… I worked till my fingers were blue at a Lidl checkout to save money, with enough pennies in the bank, I booked a flight and took my portfolio off to the Hollywood Hills to try and get an exhibition (so cocky!). My journey took me a bit further south and I ended up meeting gallery director Chris Hoff who at the time ran ‘The Office’. A wonderful, wonderful man who gave me my first break.
It has been a good five years since I’ve seen him and his wife Michelle, but it was like nothing had changed and again Chris and I were quickly plotting future shows and setting up an artist residency funded by his Hoff Foundation.
A quick 24-hour turnaround back in London to wash, pack and back to the airport. This time I was heading to Fez for a week workshop with Eric Kessels and the 1000 Words team.
I must admit I was pretty disorganised booking my hotel in the departure lounge, and secretly worrying if I’d remembered to pack my camera! But W-O-W everything turned out in the end and it was a week to remember.
Myself and the handful of other artists stayed in a beautiful raid in the old Medina of Fez... for the first few days I was pretty jetlagged and culture shocked – not to mention the stress of being thrown into a five day creative brief in which we were meant to get out of our comfort zones! But by the end of day two I managed to create a little studio for myself on the top floor of the raid and get my head around the collection of old photographs I’d been given to work from.
And then I was off in the 35 degrees heat… hitting the streets armed only with my faithful iphone and collection of disposable cameras.
More details to follow soon!
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August 2011
Set -up is taken over by the London riots! Being, effectively in a white box all day I hadn't heard the news of the extent of the riots. Got completely trapped.
The show was a success and I finished in the final minute- my text piece was a complete nightmare! As I've been collecting my wedding dresses online- I’d been asking the women why they are selling them? For the show I created a text installation, which was all the responses put into a tagcloud.
It was great to work with Hotshoe and Tri-pod and my piece received some nice reviews, such as British Journal of photography and Culture 24. Photofusion also approached me for a solo show early next year. This is great news as exhibiting in publicly funded galleries is a high priority for me.
A couple of other interesting meetings, HERE press want to publish the work in a small-bespoke book and Jasmine Reggina from Foto-festivals has asked to show my Married Man series at the Paraty Em Foco Photo festival in Brazil in September.
Off to Los Angeles for the rest of August - part work, part pleasure.
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July 2011
We celebrated the birthday in style we the help of Contact Editions, Tri-pod group and all the studioSTRIKE artists. Thank you to all 200+ that popped along to share the celebration with us.
A further big thank you to Miranda Gavin who ran an artist Q & A between David Alexbank and myself. It was good to talk about my new work and have some valued feedback from the audience.
All the photos from the day can be found at http://tinyurl.com/7qd3yqo
My mind has been so preoccupied with open studio the Hotshoe show is now literally just around the corner! – I need to get my head around how I can display my Fairytale for Sale images. I'm going to construct something interesting… lots of time in the studio needed.
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June 2011
A year ago I was selected to join Tri-pod to work on a new series with the support of a group. It’s been difficult to make work in the group and I’ve found myself picking up and putting down projects the past year. BUT we’re having an exhibition at Hotshoe Gallery in August – so I must resolve a series!
Lots of planning and organisation to celebrate studioSTRIKE’s 1st birthday – can’t believe its been a whole year – myself and founder, Afshin Dehkordi have got an amazing day planned Saturday 2nd July – come and see us.
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May 2011
Emmanuelle came to run a Jungle Fever workshop at studioSTRIKE. At the last moment as numbers were down I ended up participating. Great fun! Emmanuelle is now off to run the workshop in Beirut, Singapore and France.
Went back to RCA for a research day - A Conversation about Porn– a bold title - two very, very interesting speakers – Cosey Fanni Tutti and Ellen Cantor. Fascinating to see performance work blurring boundaries between pornography and art- made for a great discussion.
Selected to show at the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art alongside Susan Hiller and Clare Strand but its for a new series – Searching for a Figurehead – opening in October. Must resolve this series or can it be a single image?
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April 2011
Finally got to see a Contact Edition Slide Show Slam – an interesting organisation, print sales, talks – good for recent graduates to meet other photographers and start a professional network. Anna Stevens and Emily Graham who run it are also lovely.
Lunch with Fiona Rogers - exhibition coordinator and educator at Magnum Photos. She has just set up Firecracker supporting European female photographers – check out the website and contact Fiona.
I decided to go and experience the royal wedding first hand but with the aim of gathering research and inspiration for my new series on wedding dresses - greeted by politics as I pitched up outside Westminster Abbey – who got there first, who’s more of a royalist, who’s got the biggest banners……. my idea of doing a performance in my foil wedding dress went unnoticed as compared to everyone else I look like a librarian. My 24 hours gathering research didn’t go according to plan and at 6am we had to pack up the tents – the crowds surged forwards for the best spot and with the prospect of 4 hours standing with nothing to see I went home to watch it on the telly.
Went to Beirut – visited Alakswan – a small artist resource with fantastic residencies – inspirational city – reminded me of Belfast with its invisible boundaries.
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March 2011
Went to the Format Festival in Derby and saw some great photographic exhibitions all over town; I also had a couple of portfolio reviews – very daunting experience whoever you are especially as it’s the first time previewing the wedding dress work. Interesting reviews with Photofusion, 1000 Words magazine and got to talk with my all time hero Eric Kessell - what an inspiration. Lots to follow up.
Final hand-in for PGCE – YES! Up all night and cab at 5 am for quick trip to Belfast to visit University of Ulster’s MA photography course and chat to PhD students. Belfast was wet and grey; Ulster was fantastic – what great facilities. Everyone was so friendly, lots of great conversations in the morning and then spent the afternoon sitting in on an MA group crit.
Started Hidden – course at The Tate - based around Susan Hiller’s current exhibition– Led by Richard Martin and Lucy Scholes. A very varied course looking at film, installation, film, psychoanalytical theory- all good stuff for the next 6 Saturday mornings!
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February 2011
Very busy trying to finish the Research Methods book which I’m co-authoring with Anna Fox- keeping to a really informal style makes the writing very enjoyable – its been great to work with and interview other photographers who have been hugely generous with their time and advice about how they research their projects.
BookRoom Study Day ‘Notes in the Margin’ – some fantastic practitioners – Paul Seawright and Kaylynn Deveney and Donovan Wylie all talking about their work – great to see a packed lecture theatre of students (and staff) soaking up their words.
studioSTRIKE’s first open studio for friends and family of the artists – lots of painting – all hands on deck – hoping to display my wedding dresses work – the images are a bit low res – need to think about how to use them – perhaps someone visiting the studio will give me that eureka moment!
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January 2011
A busy month with final assignments for the research project for the PGCE – the project is on Student Research Books – why are these such an underused resource – they are often done so last minute and still smelling of Pritt stick on assessment morning.
Attempting to transform all those unwanted Christmas presents I had an idea for a new project– inspired by seeing wedding dresses for sale on line – I was amazed by how newly weds were interacting with photography – especially with their iconic images – they were cutting them up!
Interesting day at the Teaching and Learning Conference – the theme was Incredible Journeys – Emmanuelle spoke about the journey between her art and her teaching practice and the common theme of performance – images of students rolling on the floor of the photography studio – great to see students interacting with the studio is a completely different way.
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