Image of the Week

It's one of photographers greatest fears, to loose one's sight. That's what makes this image so amazing. Its not just the range of expressive colours, the eery display of movement or the clash between reality and art. It's that it has been taken by Pete Eckert, a blind photographer. 

After becoming blind at the age of 28, Eckert embraced photography as a way of expressing himself, shooting ethereal double exposures and vivid light paintings with his Mamiyaflex TLR. "I would take a photo on location outside, and then in the studio I would use the double exposure with low light and I would add in more and more light." Eckert visualises the image he wants to create in his mind and uses his sense of sound, touch and memory to transform the image in his mind into a photograph.

His images are impacting, showing how having a visual impairment doesn't prevent the creativity in a person, it just directs down a different path in picture-making. It makes me wonder, if I lost my sight, would I give up on photography altogether?

"What I get out of taking photos is the event not the picture. I do the large prints to get sighted people thinking. Talking with people in galleries builds a bridge between my mind’s eye and their vision of my work. Occasionally people refuse to believe I am blind. I am a visual person. I just can’t see."

See more of Pete Eckert's work here.

Network Week, Day 1 - Simon Norfolk

Hey there stranger, so... that one-post-a-day thing went well eh? I'll try and make up for it now! 

I approached this week with a sort of hesitant excitement. I was looking forward to being in London (which, without a doubt, is one of the most beautiful, diverse and interesting cities in the world), I was looking forward to being home, spending time with my fellow course mates, and I was kind of looking forward to meeting some photographers too, but this is where the resistance to being excited came in. I've approached these meetings/talks before with great expectations, having been a fan of the photographer and their work for some time, but have often then left feeling disappointed, or let down. I think I sometimes just expect there to be... more. Whether it's more detail, more stories, more charisma, drive or general advice, I'm not sure. I just sometimes leave feeling like the lecture left something vital out, maybe I blinked and missed what everyone else is gushing about...

But I was happily proved wrong this week. This week has been, frankly, great. I feel like I have learned so much from some amazing and inspiring people, been given advice that will actually make a difference to the decisions I make in the future, and all while having a laugh and genuinely enjoying myself. Most of all, I feel so lucky and so privileged to have been given the opportunities I've had this week. Hopefully I'll be able to give you a glimpse into the things I have done this week in this and a couple of other posts, and maybe you won't hold that one-post-a-day thing against me? 

We met Simon Norfolk on a beautiful sunny afternoon in a stunning converted loft in north London. Now, if you don't know Simon's work, let me give you a little intro:

Simon Norfolk was born in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1963 and educated in England, and is a unique conflict photographer. Photographs of the war in Afghanistan in 2001, published as Afghanistan: Chronotopia, won the European Publishers' Award for Photography and an award from the Foreign Press Club of America and was nominated for the Citibank Prize. 

All images from Afghanistan, 2001

In his new project, Burke + Norfolk: Photographs from the War in Afghanistan, we see a series of photographs from Simon's return to the war-ravaged country. From our meeting, I learnt so much history in such a small amount of time, mainly about the mystery that is Simon's partner for this project, 19th century photographer (and the first to photograph Afghanistan), John Burke. There were only ever 2 drawings of him, neither showing his face, he never left a diary or records and all his negative plates were lost long ago. "All we have today are some prints scattered around and these amazing albums, brought home from the colonies in steamer trunks by soldiers and bureaucrats. The more research I did, the more questions opened up. I felt I needed to go to Afghanistan to walk in his shoes as it were; to ask 'what would Burke photograph today?' I'm presenting the work as an artistic partnership, in the fullest sense of the term, except that Burke is dead."

John Burke's Portrait

Burke's pictures are so rich in detail, as he finds everything interesting, so photographs everything. We can learn so much about the context his pictures were taken in, rather than the environment the English wanted to promote in Afghanistan. Photography was used as a tool for the British Empire at that time, to show racial hierarchy, and we can see this is another photographer of the time, Benjamin Simpson (one of his images), who was employed to show what the British wanted to portray. Burke celebrated his subjects, whereas Simpson forced them into frame. Burke thought they had worth, and shows this in his images by putting them on a level with the Englishman. Burke makes a point to mix races in his images. 

Influenced by this, Simon went back to Afghanistan in 2010 in Burke's shoes. Using the terrain on Google Earth, he worked out exactly where Burke would have been standing when he took certain images, and photographed what was there now, to show homage to his silent partner he'd had for a year and a half. "After that it became ‘variations on a theme by John Burke’, to think ‘what would he photograph if he were there now?’ because he had such an inquisitive eye." This is shown clearly in Simon's portraits, where he has tried to show Burke's "rhythm" between the subjects. 

Simon Norfolk's Portrait, 2010

When talking about Afghanistan in 2001, Norfolk describes the people that live there, live in a "bubble created by warfare" but at that time, they thought the war was over and there was a new found hope for their country. You can see this through Simon's use of golden light in his images, reminiscent of the ruin of the Roman Empire, the hope-filled dawn of a new era. In 2010, he chose to photograph after sunset, and before sunrise, to show his disappointment that the war was still happening. 

Photographs from the War in Afghanistan, 2010

On the train home, I thought tried to digest all the facts I'd just been told (it was a lot of information to take in, and write down, in 2 hours). I think what inspired me most is Simon's commitment to his work. The amount of research he does before he even takes 1 photograph is astounding, and definitely something I want to do more of in the future. It's so easily to take a series of images, but without a story or passion to back it up with, it can often come out flat and lifeless. To be a successful photographer, you need to emit your emotional response to the topic, through your image to the viewer, or how can we expect them to be impacted by it? 

A misty sunny London, my view from the train

To see more of Burke + Norfolk: Photographs of the War in Afghanistan, click here
To see some other projects by Simon Norfolk, click here

Tomorrow, I'll be chatting about the time I spent with Cristina de Middel and adam&eveDDB ad agency, stay tuned!

Life Lately...

Life is too busy right now.

Long gone are the days where I slept till lunchtime, stayed in my PJ's all day, watched Come Dine With Me and only clocked on about Uni work at about 10pm.
I'm getting too used to my alarm tone, and I don't like it. Obviously, I'm finding it hard to find time to blog (and, seriously, getting bored with apologising everytime I begin a post). It will get better, promise!

In the meantime, here's a little look into my life as it happened last week (outside of Uni lectures, which I promise did happen, even though they don't feature below!). It was insanely busy, but insanely good.

1. BB Muffin Red Velvet 'Valentines' Muffin, to myself, obviously. 2. Inner-chef coming out.
3. Anyone seen New Girl? Then you'll know True American. 4. Housemates birthday = cake for breakfast
5. (The BIG One) True American, for real 6. Best card my brother got on his birthday 7. This little guy turned 18...
8. Wearing my recent eBay win 9. Hey Batman. 10 & 11. Giraffe for dinner, contains no horsemeat, or giraffe.
12. Me and the gorgeous Hayley 13. Rainy drive back to Wales after a crazy weekend

Roll on next week, where I hope to get a post out everyday from Monday - Thursday (mental), filled with pictures of who I saw, thoughts on what they said, and everything in between, during my course's Network Week! Hold onto your hats, it's gonna be good.

Looking forward...

Sorry that I've been a bit rubbish with chatting with you guys recently, I've gotten to that point in my time at University that (I hope) everyone experiences. When you are a little lacking in motivation, and although you want to get excited about the future, whether that's the next 3 weeks or next 3 years, there's just not that much to look forward too. The feeling you are just a little lost in the middle of things, the in-between. In-between projects, the middle point of my education, and feeling like I'm floating through life a bit.

Train ride in-between both my homes...

So, after that intro, you must be wondering about why I've entitled this blog 'Looking Forward'. It's a bit more of a selfish post than my others, something for me to look too when I need something to be excited about. Of course, I'll chat about most of these events on this blog anyway, so maybe it gives you something to look forward to as well...

Final Project of my 2nd year at University...

A chance to meet and work with interesting and diverse individuals. A chance to make some great work, to try out that new gadget and that new technique. A chance to make a little bit of a difference, and a chance to find a new passion. 

More info on this to come (when hopefully I've done a bit more work towards it, early days!)

Network Week

This is a week where I, and some of my fellow students, get the chance to spend time with photographers (the big guns) and hear about their recent work, photography practices, and generally geek out! It takes place in London and Brighton in a couple of weeks, and you can bet I'm going to tell you guys allllll about it as I go along!

Now, there's around 20 or so photographers, and we couldn't go and see everyone in 4 days, so yesterday we picked who each of us would like to see. Here's a sneak peek of some of my choices....

Simon Roberts

Cristina de Middel

Adam Hinton

And there's plenty more where that came from! Stay tuned for more in a few weeks time...

21st!

Now Hannah, I know everyone keeps asking you, and you don't have a clue what you want, or what you want to do. But it's still going to be great, okay? Don't worry.

SUMMER

Don't get me wrong, I love uni, and am very happy and privileged to be given an excuse to be doing what I love 24/7. But with summer comes a little freedom. An open space to photograph what and when I want too, without rules, deadlines or people checking my work all the time. This year especially, I've felt slightly restrained and tired with photography, and, at times, feel like it's almost a chore. I've seen colleagues and friends lose their love for this medium through the journey University takes you on. The constant need to impress, to do what others say even when you disagree, to put lots of hours into something you love, to have it destroyed in a single sentence.

Taken in Dorset, last summer

When I feel those moments coming, I literally do everything to run in the other direction, to find the passion again. This blog has helped me with that immensely, and even though it's still only a baby compared to others, it gives me a chance to express myself freely. Another passion-finder for me is the minor breaks from this regimented routine. I need time to be creative on my own terms, and it's usually when I'm relaxed and not thinking about photography at all, that I get inspired. Summer is a great time to get away, go on holiday, to see friends (old and new), to get work experience, to spend time with my family and, most of all, remember why I love photography.


See Hannah? It's not all bad.