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Saturday, 17 September 2011
Photoworks showcase
My project notes on blankness has been featured on the Photoworks showcase. Really excited to have been selected by one of the best photography magazines around.
Wednesday, 24 August 2011
Private View: 6th Terrace Annual
window
lawrence daley
The 6th Terrace Annual
Private View: 27 August 3 - 7pm
Frederick terrace, London E8 4EW
On 27 August the 6th Annual Terrace will open. I will be showing a single photograph entitled window. In keeping with the other work on show the image will be left exposed to the elements. Over the coming months wind, rain and sun will all take their toll on the work causing it to gradually decay.
Map:
This is a continuation of a project I started about 18 months ago called a public view
Hope to see to you there!
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Friday, 5 August 2011
towards a more interesting tomorrow
This is going to be the last post about things that have already happened. From now onwards all future posts will be dealing with things of the present and those to come.
But before this drastic forward propulsion takes place I just want to finish up what I started and give some insight into the culmination of my undergraduate studies. Hints have been dropped as to what my final piece of work was and how it was shown but as to now these have allusions have been more discreet than they would be in an ideal world.
One that was not so subtle was the fact that I made a book for my final project. Unfortunately we have no images of this as it was stolen. This is a shame as it was the final thing that I submitted and was in essence the focus of my final project notes on blankness. However the kind people at the University of Westminster have allowed me to make another one so it will live again. Once completed it will be subject to a more in depth post.
I was keen that the project not be confined to the book alone. Rather i wanted to expand into other areas and see how the images would function under different circumstances. In this regard i was particularly keen that there be some sort of web presence for the work. So I made a website and this can be viewed here: notesonblankness.com
My web design skills are pretty basic but making the website was an extremely satisfying experience. This is not to say it was not tinged with frustration. In fact tinged would be an understatement. If you had seen my mental state after a weekend in front of the laptop, with no human contact, trying to work out the javascript to make the line drawings disappear you would have agreed. But nevertheless web design offers a fantastically accessible platform upon which to be creative. With a very small amount of money, and a little time spent learning some code, anyone can make their own bespoke website. Not only that the creative possibilities are broad and easily accessible to many people.
As well as being functional I also felt that the website was in keeping with the conceptual aims of the project. In each image we are shown a place where information would appear but this is left blank. This caused to me to think about how we gain information and the processes by which it comes to us. The internet is probably the biggest source of information ever produced and one used by millions. So to put these images amoungst that chaotic situation seemed entirely appropriate. I hope they act as quiet reflective space within the turbulent world of cyber space.
This interest in expanding the core investigation of my work was continued in my degree show. I wanted to display the work in a way that emphasised the presence of the photograph and also the fact that it was a physical construction in a gallery. To achieve the first aim the three images that I showed were on placed on lightboxes. In a purely visual way the lightboxes work well as they illuminate the white space at the centre of the frame and act as even more of a focal point. But also they suggest that something is behind the photograph. They help emphasise the surface of the image and as such the presence of the photograph.
The physical presence of the photograph, and the idea of a space existing beyond or around the image, is further articulated by placing the lightboxes on the stands. I wanted the viewer to move around the work, look at it from various angles and generally not assume a static position in front of each lightbox. This may sound a little trivial but I really wanted to display my work in a way that was slightly more invigorating than the way photography is often displayed at such shows.
Typically the images will be wall mounted and the viewer will move from one to the next almost as if they were on a conveyor belt. Now there is nothing wrong with this and in many cases this is a perfectly suitable way to show. But I felt this would not be best suited to the inquisitive nature of my project. So hopefully by encouraging the viewer to move around the images we have a physical manifestation of the exploratory tone contained in the work.
The last point to mention is that the colour scheme (grey stands with white boxes) was an intentional attempt to encourage greater dialogue with the surrounding space. It was intended to be a sort of reduction of the gallery into a single work. So we have grey floor and white walls represented in the work. It is a bit literal possibly and maybe most people will not pick up on it but hopefully it will extend the work and make it feel incorporated into the space.
Finally much love and respect to everyone who has helped me over the last 4 years. All those who were involved in projects, came to shows or just showed love at any time. Thank you all and hopefully bigger and better things will going on soon xx
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Wednesday, 27 July 2011
RE-wind
Well it has been a while since the last post (which seems to be a theme to how these things start in recent months) and this is a fact that has been nagging away at the back of my mind for some time. The first half of the year saw regular posts and i think i was giving a pretty good ball by ball account of what was going on in the land of academia. But post dissertation this all dropped off. What was expected to be a relatively quiet few months turn into an all out workathon and this meant that something had to give. Unfortunately the blog was the first thing that did.
Admittedly i did rear my head up above the parapet, albeit briefly, to inform the world of the terrible book theft that took place at my degree show (a fact now confirmed by the non-appearance of said book). But that aside things have been quiet. However i am planning to put things right over the next few months and give a few insights into how everything came together and how i got to the point where i had a book at a degree show and 3 lightboxes.
To begin if i think i'll elaborate on some of things that i hinted at in the previous post. To start with was the excitement of having one of my images shown in photoworks. It may have only have been one image in the back to advertise the degree show but nonetheless it is always exciting to see your work in print. Also every such occurrence comes with the hope that someone may see your work and offer your some amazing opportunity that will lead to future success and ambition fulfillment. Unfortunately this did not happen in the case we are discussing but the hope alone can often be enough to encourage you and give the morale a boost.
The image used in the advert was one that was taken quite a while ago and has even been discussed on these pages. It is the image that helped clarify my whole concept and in many ways was the foundation upon which the rest of the project would be based. But if you had seen the final book then this image would not have found in any of the pages.
This brings us on to one of the difficult parts of producing any body of work: editing. This is roughly how the process should go:
- think of idea
- shoot loads of images
- evaluate images
- discard ones that are not successful
- repeat until you have a wonderfully coherent body of work
Simple enough and in many instances this works just fine. You shoot an image that, while related to the project, just does not quite work. This can be good as when you see the direction you do not want the work to go in your original convictions are all the stronger. For example this image was one i shot that i was pleased with and felt made for an intriguing encounter. But formally and conceptually it was too out of keeping with the rest of work that it had to get cut.
So it was not too difficult to take this image out. Who knows it may appear at later a date in another piece of work. But the image in the advert was a much tougher case. Formally and conceptually the photograph was much more in keeping with the overall tone of the project. Once you add in the sentimental connection i felt for it then getting rid of it became that much harder.
But in the end it had to go and here's why: the image is simply too exotic. The idea of having a projection screen on a beach is something quite unusual. This is not a situation people would encounter in day to day life so it comes across as odd and out of the ordinary. In contrast all the other images in the project appear relatively mundane. Most of them give the impression that they are simple documentary shots of scenes that i have found and recorded. In somes cases this is true but in others a high level of construction and post-production has taken place. But regardless the overall feel of the work is one of quiet observation.
This is important to the work as it makes the act of taking the photograph less important than the act of looking at it. I wanted to focus the viewer on exploring the image and the relationship that we have with it. How do we address the photograph? what does it tell us? how do we derive information from it? It is always possible to ask these questions of any image but when you are presented with some outlandish scene they get suppressed underneath an overriding curiosity of how the situation came to be. So even though the image conforms to many of the key features of the project ultimately it struck the wrong note.
Having said all this it works superbly as an individual image. The harsh juxtaposition of the beach and screen makes for an image that grabs the attention. In the context of a magazine advert this is ideal as it will draw the reader in and promote the show it is part of. But for my book it was just not right.
All this reveal how important context is to the photograph. Images, indeed anything, never exist in isolation but rather are in a continual dialogue with their surroundings. It is up to us to not only consider the image but where it will be displayed and to which audience. By doing this and taking into account all the various factors the overall success of any piece will be greatly enhanced. Hopefully this will mean that we get to explore the broader context in which the work appears. But this exploration should be done with the art and take the form of a diverse conversation that will hopefully continue indefinitely.
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Saturday, 18 June 2011
you be scheming and i be screaming
Friends,
it has been a long time. Far too long in fact. For the last 2 months I have carried the guilt of not posting. So much excitement has happened as well that i need to tell you about. There have been books published, lightboxes built and degrees completed.
The intensity has been such that I have had to neglect my posting and focus on the task at hand. As something of a holding post I had planned to tell you some amazing things. The first was that one of the images from my project can be found in the new photoworks it is in the back as part of the ad for the Westminster degree show. The excitement continued when i found out that the same ad could be found in the freerange festival catalogue. I have also made a website for my project. Then fever pitch was to be reached as I announced to you that my degree show is currently taking place at the Truman brewer in brick lane.
But all these things are foot notes (albeit ones that will be elaborated on in due course) because what i want to tell you about is a most heinous act on the part of some immoral, cowardly and deceitful soul.
This person visited the opening of my degree show on Thursday night along with hundreds of others. While everyone else was enjoying the work and a glass of well deserved wine this disgraceful example of humanity was prowling by the book stand. While there they picked up the book I had made, placed it about their person and left. To put it simply by book has been stolen.
Lets put this in perspective. Theft of such an object is a totally inexcusable act. First of all there is no monetary value to the book. Unless it is a long term investment predicated on my future success this book has little re sale value. You will not see it on an auction site for huge sums of money. The malice of the crime is accentuated by the fact this is not the book of a professional artist. This work, along with all on display, is not the product of a funding grant. rather it is the result of hard work, sacrifice and in many cases extended overdrafts and credit cards. More so than other types of work this is the product of heart, soul and love. To take it represents a callous, selfish act that displays no appreciation for the person who made the work.
I was suitably devastated by the theft and have been left to dwell on it for a few days. Fortunately i have other work in display so if you can get over to London you can still see the results of my hard work. But if you do go spare a moment for what your missing.
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Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Bonhams was founded in 1793
Books continue to occupy a large part of my thoughts and with my mind occupied in such a way a trip to Hay-on-Wye seemed more than appropriate. As fortune would have it a good friend had organised such a trip and a fun day was spent perusing the numerous books shops on offer.
Amongst all these shops I found this catalogue for antique picture frames.
It is a relatively small publication consisting of about 20 pages and is approximately A4 in size. When you flick through the pages you are presented with a series of more or less ornate picture frames. Alongside these we are given some brief factual information and the expected sale price.
Obviously this was originally intended as a functional document intended to give buyers an idea of what they might want to bid on. But what interested me more was the repetition of the empty frame. As I went through this catalogue of empty frames I could not help but feel a sense of absence. The recurring white space seemed to hold the potential to contain something but this is never realised during the publication. Rather I was left to wonder what had been in the frame and what would be there in the future.
I'm aware that I am very much viewing this catalogue through the filter of my own work. As such this feeling of a space waiting to be activated will be more keenly felt by me than by the casual viewer. But nevertheless this is a valid way to respond to these images. Indeed if a similar image were placed in a context that dealt specifically with blank spaces then this sense of potential activation could be accentuated and made the focus of the work rather than a by product. So i will be working on an image that uses the idea of blank picture and see how this can be incorporated into my project. Results to follow soon.
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student
Tuesday, 29 March 2011
+2.5cm
Keeping on the theme publications I have been experimenting a little bit with books of my own. The results of which can be found below. The book +2.5cm follows in the footsteps of many of the publications i have been looking at recently in that it is fairly minimal in design and simple in content. As such I am not going to make any attempts to explain it but rather just present it before you for consideration.
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