After hours and hours of just trying to f*cking print off the images on shitty paper to lay on my floor in the cold, and look at the layout of the images and how they work together and how will I start the book... and how do the images flow... Chronologically, aesthetically etc. With the consideration 99% of the images are landscape and I have 2 or 3 square format images I also captured with full knowledge of wanting to have a square image on my cover and back of the book... After days and hours and many different edits I finally came to a conclusion of how  I want my work to be presented in the book. 

With inspiration taken from Silvia Plachy and martin parr. I have been looking at the layout of the images and they way the images are displayed on the page, the size, the placement and the relevance to the last image you look at and setting up your eye for the next image. I Really like the way 'Signs and Relics' is laid out with the use of different size images with the frame kept on the edge to show the film edge, creating a unique frame and aesthetic really isolating the images from the page. This would be good to consider with the placement of the images but would only really work with images that show detail from a distance or objects that are obviously it. The first page, written by hand in a black marker pen shows more of an engagement with the process of production of this book. Bearing in mind the subject, Signs and Relics then this makes perfect sense to write in pen as our language is a big part of this spectrum of informations we communicate with as physical entities. This is a good book to reference when looking at my layout. 

Motion Enterprise have released their first music video "guess again" and they premiered at the swan, Cheltenham... you can listen to the audio here....
Absolutely amazing night with the group again, big thanks to sketch the producer and every one who was there on Sunday the 3rd, very happy with the documentary work produced. 

Bruce Davidson


Bruce Davidson joined Magnum Photos at the age of 25 in 1958, things were going well for this photographer. Brooklyn Gang is a body of work Davidson created throughout 1959. Davidson would read the local newspaper to read upon fights that would happen near by and travel to them and photograph the gangs in those areas…
"I met a group of teenagers called the Jokers," he wrote in the afterword to his seminal book of insider reportage, Brooklyn Gang. "I was 25 and they were about 16. I could easily have been taken for one of them.” Davidson seemed extremely confident with what he had in front of him, children who were 9 years younger that were gang members in postwar Brooklyn. The way he said he worked was by building close relationships with the locals and gang members, talk about anything and mess around with them too, he wrote "I soon realised that I, too, was feeling their pain. In staying close to them, I uncovered my own feelings of failure, frustration and rage.” Becoming so close and immersed in the lives of the people round him, and the environment it was inevitable for Davidson to feel the same emotions as these members. He was living their lives with them too and living his at the same time, capturing moments of freedom and captivity and the rawness of the streets as a kid.
This image of 4 young boys and a hand creeping into the frame on the bottom left, shows to me a comfortable and proud group of boys, yet rebellious. The boy stood up in the foreground with a cigarette in his mouth, with shades on, diverting your eye backwards at the advertisement for a coke advert is the consumeristic value of this image. What I find interesting is what has been excluded from his frame… The boys in the background are looking at something and seem very concentrated, I would suggest there is a TV or a big window just to the left of the frame. I would think that it is a TV as the light hitting the boys is that much like a TV, and they seem fixated on something in the moment whilst eating their food. It almost feels like a family, they have created their own little crib and have a group of very close friends. Also Davidsons approach to this work is very impacting, because he is familiar with these boys then they pretty much ignore the process of image making so the shots have a candid feels dn have captured some very important moments in their and his life. ​

Lisa Leone-




Lisa Leone is a photographer who grew up in Bronx, she started her photography career by shooting people such as Lauren Hill, Eazy-E, Nas, Debi Mazar and snoop dogg. she was a contributing photographer to British Vogue and VIBE magazines for a couple of years, getting her name out there. She then shaped her SLR for a video camera, where she started as a cinematographer shooting videos for Heavy D, TLC and The Brand New Heavies. She would later become very well knowing in the industry and create features and movies for well known directors.


“Just For Kicks” is a full length documentary Lisa shot and co-directed. It premiered at Tribeca film festival, and was shown on SpikeTV, Canal+, among other stations around the world.
She directed and shot a series of short films for Tommy Hilfiger and Glamour Magazine that premiered in NYC. Inspired by Nicholas Kristof’s book “Half the Sky”, Lisa found herself in Ethiopia where she shot and co-directed the film “Woinshet” with Marisa Tomei.


Im interested in her Photography work she produced especially her black and white images on Nas ‘Ilmatic session’ which depicts, Premier, Q-Tip, Nas, Large Professor recording in the studio, captured inn a candid style, only one of the group is connecting with the camera and the others glaring off into the distance past the camera creates a sense of wonder and causes you to think about these rappers minds and their intellect through words and music… they seem to be interested in something else in the room and stare in thought whilst posing for a formal portrait at the time. I really like the timing of these shots and thing they have been composed very nicely with consideration of lighting and using the shapes in the back ground to frame them. The Aesthetic seems like 35mm black and white negative film, because of the ratio of the image and the apparent grain visible across the image. ​

 This stand alone portrait of “YoYo” (Yolanda Whitaker) taken outside in natural lighting is quite striking to me, the first thing that stands out is the texture of the rough sandstone wall which has imperfections creating lines that lead the eye onto the arm of the dark skin and into the texture of her t-shirt and the design of the subjects bandanna and finally into the eyes. She is looking into the camera with a very small smirk, appearing to be very comfortable with her hands behind her head she has an open posture and a happy, easy to approach face. The softness of the fading background which runs along the wall she is leaning one adds to the cleanness of this images, but at the same time the grain of the film adds to these textures we can almost touch.  She has a proud and strong stare into the camera suggesting she is aware of the power of this moment in front of her, to capture a moment in peace and where she feels comfortable and things are going the right way for this rapper who grew up in Compton. ​

Richard Billingham-




Bellingham is a British Documentary photographer who is best known for his work on his family, photogrpahs of his father Ray who was a alcoholic, "I was living in this tower block; there was just me and him. He was an alcoholic, he would lie in the bed, drink, get to sleep, wake up, get to sleep, didn't know if it was day or night. But it was difficult to get him to stay still for more than say 20 minutes at a time so I thought that if I could take photographs of him that would act as source material for these paintings and then I could make more detailed paintings later on. So that's how I first started taking photographs." (We Are Family’), Genius of photography. Billingham saw this issue with his father and he must have looked at him and though that he was not going to let that happen to him. Billingham sounded like he had a lot of time on his hands and he experience these days and nights with Ray a lot of the time, he seems like he is shaming his father for being such a state, But Billingham sees the potential in this way of living and picking up a camera made him become creative with the world but also really show how his family live.


This work to me is very striking, you can almost smell the damp walls of an ageing house, you can feel the fabric of the sofa from the 70’s and you can feel the unpleasant comfortability they would have experienced. What is different with this type of documentary is that these people are very close to him and are comfortable with images being taken at any point, they grew used to the sight… So because they are pretty much snare of the camera the images that have been captured inside the home are very spontaneous and show every aspect of living in a working class house in the thatcher period.


What is also apparent to me is that Billingham found the ambition to create something out of nothing… in other words he didn't go out looking for things to create off of, he knew it was already at home and will always be there, so he just carried on making images and making work off of what he was very familiar with and what he knew the most about, his family and how they lived and this is just amazing to me because that takes a lot of self courage to stand in the way and oppose your fathers habits, but really Billingham knew there was something wrong and this way of living and he exposed it, becoming very we'll known fro doing so. ​

Documentary photographer, has his lens pointed at the street and underground scene, similar to what i'm interested in atm, he has photographed notting hill carnival for a few years, capturing the set up on the street of just the speakers and wires next to trees and houses and shops... I feel He is making a statement of this culture of rappers and street artists and performers. they are maybe seen as not so  much part of mainstream society, they are not the most intelligent and are certainly not the most easy to speak to, but these people are part of the whole scene (carnival) and these speakers the people, they seem as if they should not be there in the middle of the path but when they get turned on and these people share their message through the speakers it is more than love, they are the centre of many people and maybe their own society, objectivism and thinking for yourself, 
PS. just chatting shit but I can make sense of it. This work is a great insight on a different take on things.

Lovely performance By Meg Hayward and Chris Attwood. 6x7 colour film images, shot 3 rolls in 2 or so hours... here are 6 I feel put the night into context nicely. This is something different, I don't usually shoot medium format colour but this scene just needed it, these two are full of joy and love and are just amazing at their art! this work was created to appreciate this amazing band and couple... One Love

Where I am at ATM... I have been hanging around with the street art and rap culture for a while and basically just want to let it be known that all of these people have found a voice in what they love and their message through their work  "Love is the Answer", do what makes you happy and make others happy and consequently good things will happen to you for improving what you could provide for.... 

These geezers are very intelligent and have that ideology of 'so what', kind of as if life is happening for everyone and people in the arts such as singers, photographers, painters etc are spectating and analysing its direction. what i find very interesting and just wonderful is that, without these boys being at the underpass at the right time on the right day in the right conditions I would not be photographing for them and creating album covers... as I told them all of us in the arts, and in life in general we rely on each other to help us out, I can create some very nice work to promote them and on the contrary I am building a very good portfolio. It works for everyone but respect is earned not given and well how do you give to geezers on the streets who don't really need anything because they are happy just being.... you capture it for them and draw that emotion and connection they have with themselves and their work and focus it down to the details that create that scene, the spay paint cans, a girl doing her first piece of graffiti or that person in a portrait, their eyes, hands and demeanour. that whats important to them, looking back at what will tomorrow be a memory, seeing what shaped you and where you are going. 

Jazz is a type of street performance and Lee photographed this scene for a while, creating some very striking portraiture of a number of greats!  Lee recalls a moment when he first listened to Charlie Parker and Nat King Cole on the piano in Seattle: “I was dumbfounded. I somehow knew exactly where he was coming from. He made me understand that anything was possible.” This type of connection to his environment and the subject he was capturing is exactly the environment someone needs who has a love and a passion for something to thrive and really do their best at doing what they do!  

Lee see's the world in a very unique way, he is aware of reality and the complexity of it can be shown through photography. Friedlander would take to the streets and capture these layers which he would notice from analysing light and how it falls in such a diverse pattern, using shop windows and his shadow and complex layers. Lee would usually photograph from standing position or sitting in his car.... I feel he is making a statement on his life after looking at his self portrait work, about just saying, 'so what', this is how it is and this is me interacting with it, and this is what makes a true powerful photographer, someone who (is in a position to) let go of being serious about life and you can be just as happy or even happier documenting yourself and everyone around you... and implementing those small details to suggest the fact you understand and your happy doing what you want to do, some people will value what you do more than you sometimes. I feel a very similar style in my work, like... technically i understand how to create a very aesthetic image and have experimented in such ways to which constitute to successful work. but i need to work on my theory and the only way is to put the camera down for a bit of time and let my ideas grow... end of the day growth happens during rest.   

I came across this man whilst walking along the canal in Birmingham, He had a very calm and relaxed mannerism. I told him that I have been photographing around Birmingham for the past few months and he was interested in my ideas. 
He said that he lives on the canal on a boat, explaining the difference of freedom. From living in the concrete jungle to a completely open path of water with no distractions or things in the way!
This man was very open and the encounter was important as it gave me an insight into different living conditions within Birmingham as well as the country.  

After hours of swapping images for each other and seeing which ones fit best together with the help of Will, Roberta and George. I came to the conclusion of the last image I put below. I feel the edit I have made tells a story, it starts with a man with a crutch who appears quite young and seems to be waiting for something. The next image shows a man walking around a corner following the yellow line which matches his t-shirt. which next leads to an elder man who lives and travels on a boat all around the UK holding a newspaper in his hand. 

After three or four days I finally got my 300+ images down to 20 with the help of Roberta, Will and George. Because I shot a mixture of 35mm, 120, colour and black and white, I didn't have enough images of just 35mm colour for example to create a single medium edit. So I combined everything I had, black and white 120 for portraits and context shots and 35mm for details and faster pace shooting.
I  used Adobe Bridge to create my edit of 20 images because it is easy to use as I can rate them 1 to 5 stars and order them.   

Whilst inBirmingham I shot black and white negative because it is my preferred medium to shoot when approaching places of the unknown, this helps me view the City without a distraction when viewing the images.
Later I shot In colour when I grasped the idea I wanted to photograph. 
I have visited the city of Birmingham 5 times now and have shot around 280 35mm colour negative images and 40 or so 6x6 120 images mostly black and white. I have noticed the City has an amazing diverse population with different cultures and ethnic groups everywhere. 
Here are all the images and contact sheets I have from Birmingham within a space of 5 visits and 3 months. 

​

Me, Will Price, George Walsh and Tom Daniel put together this powerpoint about Alex Webb. Here is the finished slideshow we presented in class. Take a look and don't copy. 

I found a lot of places which have signs of pollution and it came at quite a shock to me. I was not expecting to find a canal with a skin of oil which was only visible at a certain angle. I also found patches of oil spills in the center of town (image on the right) which wasn't much a surprise but I was just seeing it everywhere. This drove my motivation to focus more on the environmental aspects of Birmingham rather than the social side. 
Here are a few colour neg film images take in Birmingham using an Olympus OM-10. 

Some more context images from Birmingham, shot on 6x6 hasselblad 500cm with an 80mm @ F/8. Im trying to show the thin line between Urban and Rural and in developing landscape such as Birmingham I feel this is the kind of work I'm wanting to produce. Fuji Pro 160 colour negative. 
Whilst standing looking through the camera at this scene I felt like Joel Sternfeld photographing "walking the high line." 
Walking The High Line
What remains of the High Line is a 1.45 mile elevated rail structure that was built in the 1930s to move rail freight parallel to, and about a block east of, the docks along the western spine of Manhattan Island. A mere 30 years later it was deemed obsolete, due to the trucking industry’s domination over rail freight and the removal of the Port of New York to nearby New Jersey. It stood for several decades as a characteristic piece of abandoned industrial infrastructure, such as has increasingly come to litter the American urban landscape. Both as a discarded engineering marvel and a defunct railroad line that could metamorphose into a “rail trail,” it offered a highly visible, symbolic opportunity for historic preservation through adaptive reuse.

https://placesjournal.org/article/above-grade-on-the-high-line/?gclid=Cj0KEQjw2LjGBRDYm9jj5JSxiJcBEiQAwKWACxOnw4WM4IMwGDZXBr0xx80HbpKQJEtqECAZDx6YqQoaAg_r8P8HAQ

had to document my special day of course, no matter what I looked like, what time of day, where I was or what I was doing I felt I had to document this day. - 
Taken on a Hasselblad 500cm, 50mm with the camera resting on a massive stack of books because I don't own a tripod. had to improvise. I also went for a really nice long walk and there were a lot of dead trees, they had fallen in an interesting way creating a cross. 
26/2/2017.

Irving Penn in combination with Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin. 

Irving penn recreation using black and white negative film and natural light only. - Window. The use of a reflector wall on the right of the image and a table for George to rest his arm on. The image on the left by Irving penn is- Truman Capote, New York, 1965. 
This image was fun to set up and to get the right lighting, the background is dark on the left and light on the right, and the subject is light on the left and dark on the right making the image very contrasty and draw your eyes into the middle of the image. The lighting conditions create a sort of cross with light in opposite positions in relation to the background and foreground.