Two For the Road Blog

twofortheroadblog.com

"Two for the road is an editing experiment based on the visual similarities that can be found when photos are presented side by side."

This is great! You can put forward photos if you have a flickr account or you can email them straight to the man in charge. Brilliant idea.

You all might have noticed in my work that I've been working increasinly with both strong and subtle similarities with my photo collections. In pointing out the obvious similarity I feel this also makes the differences so much more evident on further inspection. On first glance (or second, depending on whether you're into my sort of thing...) you might think 'Oh okay.. similar photo, so what'... I think repetition (or volume of different photographs) is the key here and  has also been a strong theme in my work this semester. It's kind of like that phrase/fact (can we call it a 'fact'?) that no two snowflakes are the same, I guess I'm trying to collect all those different snowflakes, or desks, or people or armpits or whatever.

Repetition also forces the viewer to make connections in their own mind. I've found this to be a great tool because I'll be honest sometimes I really struggle with my visual language and making it open enough for others to understand what the heck I'm trying to tell them. Probably another key here was to tone down the kind of autobiographical work I've done all the way through art school, which is hindsight is so unpenetratable by others that it's no wonder I got myself so confused when attempting to explain what it is I do and what my work is about.

So, simplicity is working for me at the moment.. and on that note, check out that website!

Today I found some fish...

Found some fishies in my living room today! My flatmate saved them from her work, they belonged to all the people that worked there but the fishies had started to get depressed so needed a change of scenery.

They now stay in my living on the windowsill and are apparently looking pretty chuffed about it!

So, meet Wanda, Graham and Squishy 4th (apparently the 4th as this girl's fishies kept dying... some people shouldn't have pets I suppose..) Graham is a little camera shy, or maybe he was just too interested in looking out the window but couldn't get a decent photo of him which is a shame because he has really funny big round eyes on the side of his head. Wanda is the big gold fishy and Squishy is the speckly one. I like 'em.

Fixed

I fixed the horrible blue shadow on those photos, away to get them printed tomorrow. YEAH!

Alternative Portraits

Today I had my Alternative Portriat photoshoot. It was fun! Thanks to everyone that helped out.

Here's a few of them so far, I still need to edit the ear portraits. So what am I going to do with these?  I'd quite like to get some big prints of them, bigger is better after all. I want them to be lifesize and hung at eye level so that the audience is invited to interact with the image. I want to see the reaction of how people connect with an image, what do their eyes lock onto when there are no eyes to look at etc..

Chairs



Spending a few hours on Blurb.com this morning trawling through their lovely books I found this one..

Chairs

It's a great little collection of empty chairs, and it's great to see the photographer taking a critical view at the images rather than just saying.. here's some chairs, i like chairs.

It's making me a little dissapointed that I didn't spend the time perfecting my description of my book (which I ended up not including, so that there are ONLY photographs in my book), and the cover which I really should have made better. But, there is still time, I am viewing my book as a test since the last time I ordered a Blurb book I made, half of the images were so dark that it was next to impossible to determine what they actually were. So, we shall see. In the meantime while I'm mulling this over, it's been great to look at some other collections people have. Strange collections like this one. I've touched on the idea before in my earlier works about 'hoarding', I'm a hoarder/collector of various strange things, (my latest obsession seems to be anything owl related...?) So I really like the idea that the process of photographing is another way of collecting, collecting moments/memories/emotions etc.

Anyway, here's what he said about his book, I may buy it...

"I'm not exactly sure what got me started photographing chairs, but over the years they've become a common subject for my camera. So much so in fact that many people know me as "that guy that shoots chairs." The style and composition of my chair photos are similar to that of other inanimate subjects I photograph, yet chair photos often evoke a much stronger and often emotional reaction from viewers.
This stronger reaction could be attributed to chairs being a uniquely human object in design and therefore more easily personified than other subjects. This leads to chairs grouped together being seen as interacting socially. A chair left alone against a wall is often described as being lonely. For me what often catches my attention is that the chair in my viewfinder is probably where it was left by it's last occupant. This creates a mystery as to who was sitting there and what were they doing--reading, thinking, smoking, or just waiting. In that sense the photo can be seen as a portrait without the person or perhaps even a stage minus the actors. In this way of seeing, what is not present in the photo is just as important as what was left for the camera to find."

It's Finished!

So now you can buy it, or just look at it! The price is the original that Blurb set as it seemed pretty steep already I've put the preview on so you can view the whole book.
In the final I decided to edit all of the photographs so that the windows either side of the door would not appear as with them it loooked messy and was pretty terrible...

So yeah view it here...

My House - Blurb.com

So I've ordered my copy, apparently it should come by 18 April. I have a big smiley face!

Also just a reminder, I'll be doing my Alternative Portrait shoot on Monday at 3pm if anyone else would still like to help out! I will only need each person for around a minute or two each hopefully, so I'll be providing some black t-shirts for you all to wear as I want to make the photos as uniform as possible, or if you have a plain black t-shirt, you can bring it along.

No Lifeguard on Duty



Really loving this series of diss-used swimming pools 'No Lifeguard on Duty' by J. Bennett Fitts. I've always been strangely attracted to derelict buildings and abandoned spaces. Maybe it's the trace of people that I find most interesting, obviously theres the dangerous aspect attatched to running around these places trying not to be seen or get caught out, usually ending up in a good old chase.

J Bennett Fitts

Im particularly interested in this series, I can't figure out why, I think it might be to do with the way we are seeing these spaces as they are not meant to be seen, these pools have been drained, they seem somewhat dead I suppose. A nice little graveyard of swimming pools! It also reminds me of how angry I was at Aberdeen Council's decision on the closure of Bon Accord Baths. A beautiful building, with a great history,  probably the best swimming pool in Aberdeen, which without maintenence will probably fall into a state of serious disrepair given five or ten years. Bloody love this website,  I'm about to shamefully show my nerdy side...
http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=33725&highlight=aberdeen

One of the best places I have ever visited was 'Spree Park', an abandoned amusement park in Planterwald, Berlin. Extremely creepy with forgotten decaying rides, it really felt like walking through a film set on a horror film.. always jumping at the slightest whistle of wind or birdsong. The bit that sticks out most in my mind was approaching the massive ferris wheel, because of the wind the damn thing had started to rotate, as if it was in use and I have to admit I did act like a little girl and hide behind my friend.

Theres a documentory about the background story of why the place got shut down, something to do with the owner smuggling drugs in the ride carriages or something, as yet I have been unable to find an english subtitled version of it, but it looks like a great watch if anyone could help me out as my german translation is pretty much non-existant.

I don't really know what this blog post is about, or really the aim of it.. just some cool stuff I guess.

Where Children Sleep

Someone, can't remember who told me about this yesterday, so it seems crazy that I stumble upon it by complete accident today. Great idea, brilliant thought-provoking photography. It's so interesting to see the vast differences between each childs background.

This blog can probably explain it a bit better than I can...

Mammoth Blog


Also in other book news, my friend is making a collaborative book! Kind of like that game consequences.. Add a sentence here!

Book Bonding