Shooting Film - Lee Johnson

Over the last month or so I decided to get my old Prakitca MTL3 out of the attic and put some film in it.  Find out more by reading the full story on my blog here

Colin Homes - An Introduction to a Photographer

Over the past few months Bob and I have been experimenting with producing images with a subdued colour pallette.  Our techniques are still hit and miss but I suppose we will get there with it eventually.

In the meantime, while researching images that displayed the sort of feel that we would like to emulate we came across Colin Homes.

Visit his website and take a look.  It is very impressive!

Simon Roberts

This month we have the honour of featuring work by Simon Roberts from his Pierdom and Olympiad series This short film will introduce you to his practise and give a little insight into the care taken at every stage from shooting to final exhibition print.

January Issue Now Out

Photography is the art of our time

There is an article you may be interested in by by Jonathan Jones in the Guardian.

The old masters painted the drama of life and death. Today photography captures the human condition – better than any other artistic medium of our age It has taken me a long time to see this, and you can laugh at me if you like. But here goes. Photography is the serious art of our time. It also happens to be the most accessible and democratic way of making art that has ever been invented. But first, let's define photography. A photograph is an image captured on film, paper or – most commonly now – in digital memory. Photography also includes moving images captured on film or video. Moving or still, we all know a photograph is not a pure record of the visual world: it can be edited and transformed in infinite ways. Moving or still, and however it is taken, whether by pinhole camera or phone, the photographic image is the successor to the great art of the past. It is in pictures by Don McCullin or films by Martin Scorsese that we see the real old master art of our time. Why? Because photography relishes human life. The greatness of art lies in human insight. What matters most is not the oil paints Rembrandt used, but his compassion. Photography is the quickest, most exact tool ever invented to record our lives and deaths – 17th-century painters would have loved it. Rest here

When Belgium Looks Like East Lancashire

Both Bob and I are especially interested in the documentary style of photography.  As a result we subscribe to the e-newsletter Verve Photo - The New Breed of Documentary Photographers.  Every now and again something drops in your inbox that makes you go wow, that's interesting or makes you linger for a while.  The above photograph is one of those that made me linger.

Why?

Thomas Vanden Driessche, who took the photograph as part of a long term project documenting the town of Dampremy in Brussels.  This particular aspect he was documenting here was a family celebrating Halloween.  Nothing unusual so far.  However, as I do with many photographs I see, I began looking in to the background and it suddenly occurred to me that how much like an East Lancs town this aspect of Dampremy is.  In fact this image could have been taken in Blackburn, Burnley or Nelson.

To see the full article and explore some new photographers of the highest calibre, why not visit Verve Photo?

First Details of Look 13

http://www.lookphotofestival.com

LOOK13, Liverpool's international photography festival, has announced the theme, dates and delivery team.

LOOK13, one of the UK's leading photography festivals, will be launched on Liverpool's Light Night, 17 May 2013. Taking place in venues across the city, it will present an exciting mix of events, exhibitions, participative projects and public realm works.

LOOK13 asks 'who do you think you are?'. It looks at what happens when we turn the camera on ourselves and others, to explore or project images about identity, subjectivity and the self. The theme will be developed through a wide range of material, from historical archives to cutting-edge contemporary work by photographers from Liverpool, the UK and beyond.

LOOK13's programme will reflect the multiplicity and dynamism of photography, featuring solo and group presentations, historical and contemporary material, emerging and established artists, gallery-based and public-realm works, participative projects, performances, competitions and screenings.

The festival's launch night of 17 May 2013 joins forces with Liverpool's Light Night, a city-wide late-night extravaganza of events, performances, previews and parties. An event-packed long launch weekend, from 16 to 19 May, will feature the National Photography Symposium (presented by Redeye), portfolio reviews, talks by artists and curators, workshops and pop-up studios. LOOK13 exhibitions will be open to the public throughout the main festival period - from 18 May to 15 June - with many running throughout the summer.

Still time to enter the Fujifilm student awards

To all our student readers a reminder from Fuji that the closing date approaches. Entries must be in by 29 April so you still have time to shoot something.

Still time to enter the Fujifilm student awards

Why do people take photographs?

There is an interesting article today on Joerg Colberg's blog Conscientious.

The act of photography might have turned into the equivalent of whistling a song, something you do, something that might or might not have beauty, a communicative act just as much as an affirmative act: I was there, and me being there means I had to photograph it.

Seen in this light, photography is much more than what many theorists (and art critics) think it is. In particular, to understand photography you cannot always start out from the pictures. The pictures, it turns out, actually don’t always matter much - if at all. Photography might be a creative expression of the human mind, but often it is something else entirely. It might appear to be inconsequential, but it’s a statement made by the photographer, affirming her or his presence: I photograph, therefore I am.

Read the full article here

Conscientious Extended | Meditations on Photographs: A Car on Fire at the Mall by JM Colberg

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

May 2013 bring you peace and many photographic opportunities.

From all of us at Pixel Magazine.