Art on the Hill

Tomorrow I am taking part in Art on the Hill, the Windmill Hill and Victoria Park Arts Trail. It's a great weekend showcasing local talent and a good excuse to have a nose around people's houses. So do come along, you'll find me at venue no. 43 - I'm also selling cakes so if you don't like the photography, you may like a cake instead!

'Illuminance' by Rinko Kawauchi

Well, let me first apologise for the long delay in getting out a new post, I have been ridiculously busy working (goodbye student lifestyle, hello real world). I have seen, heard and read so many wonderful new things since June (terrible I know) that I hardly know where to start. So I decided, instead of recapping everything I have been doing since the Jubilee, I would start afresh and talk about a wonderful photographer I discovered on Thursday... Rinko Kawauchi.

I was finally able to get to the new Photographer's Gallery for the late night times after work on Thursday to see the Deutsche Borse Photography Prize. I have to say this year I was a little underwhelmed by the exhibition. Firstly I am not a huge fan of John Stezaker, whose work I seem to have seen everywhere this year and secondly, I just found the work rather uninspiring... apart from, that is, Rinko Kawauchi's who was nominated for her publication Illuminance. Thee result of both commissions and personal projects, Illuminance spans fifteen years of Kawauchi's practice. Using a soft palette of colours, masterful composition and editing skills, her images evoke moments of dreams, memory and temporality. It is also one of those very rare finds, where the book is actually more stunning than the prints displayed in the exhibition themselves. I immediately had to buy it, draining my limited funds (I'm currently undertaking in an unpaid internship and only have one day a weeks worth of Costa Coffee earnings to live off) but I don't care. The book is utterly breathtaking and well worth every penny. Kawauchi's ability to turn the mundane into the extraordinary (sorry for the cliche but it's the truth) is poetic. The book gives beauty to themes of life, death and the everyday, a wide range for one photographer. Enjoy some of my many favourites from the publication below.

P.S. If you get a chance before the 16th September, definitely go see Another London at Tate Britain. Street photography, capturing my favourite place to be, London, between the 1930s-80s. Amazing photographers, amazing photographs and just a brilliant, fairly small, exhibition... post will come soon in detail about it.

P.P.S Own photography post will follow soon too! (I promise)

Paris Photo 2011

As another November comes and goes so does my third annual trip to Paris for Paris Photo and so here is my third annual blog of photographs from my trip to Paris. Armed of course with my Canon film camera the only difference this year is instead of heading to Paris with my usual motley crew of University friends, I went for a romantic trip with Matthew. We stayed in a hotel the other side of Paris to the normal Republique side, opting this time to stay in the Trocadero, near the Eiffel Tower.

I had another fantastic trip visiting the Musee d'Orsay to see the new Surrealist exhibit as well as many wonderful little shops and cafes and of course the Grand Palais for Paris Photo itself. The weather could not have been nicer, and was unseasonably warm meaning we could walk everywhere allowing for many photo ops. So here you go avid bloggers. Another year of another wonderful weekend in one of my favourite cities in the world, Paree!

Mari Sarai - 'Naked'

Walking past a little gallery called 'Doors Showcase' in Shoreditch an exhibition poster caught my eye, it was photographer Mari Sarai's series Naked. I had never heard of her before but was automatically drawn in to an exhibition that celebrates the naked form in a series of beautiful photographs featuring the liberation of powerful woman and all their glory. There are many ways the naked body can be interpreted and as a photographer who is interested in exploring ways of depicting the nude form in my current project, it was really refreshing to see such a bold presentation of the female body, it captures how a woman's eye sees a woman's body, without any of theh sexual undertones that male photographers seem to always induce, but still celebrating the sexual aspects of the female form.

Sarai's images are very intimate and playful. She celebrates the expressiveness of the female body and shows that nudity is not negative, dark or seedy and for this I congratulate her. I am definitely now encouraged to pursue the naked form in my new project and hope I can celebrate and capture them as well as she does.

The exhibition is on until 13th October, so if you get a chance, go see it!

Garry Fabian Miller

For Christmas Santa left me Garry Fabian Miller's book 'The Colour of Time' after seeing some of his work at the V&A and falling in love with it. Miller's work are all done without a camera and he creates mysterious, abstract colourful work which you can completely loose yourself in! Although the book is fantastic his work is definitely one you need to see in the "flesh".

Thank you Santa for the beautiful book that I adore!

Jessica Backhaus - 'I Wanted to See the World'

I saw this work at Paris Photo and fell in love with it. I loved the colours and thought that it really proved how a good title can really make a good idea great. Just by calling it 'I Wanted to See the World' makes the images even more gorgeous. I love the idea of seeing the man made world through the natural reflection of water. They are abstract vibrant pieces of art and I want to try and adapt this idea into my current Themes and Responses project, but for now I give you some of the images from her project.