Image of the Week

This week's image comes from Simon Roberts, as part of his 'We, English' Project. 

“Simon Roberts travelled throughout England in a motorhome between 2007 and 2008, for this portfolio of large-format tableaux photographs of the English at leisure. Photographing ordinary people engaged in a variety of pastimes, Roberts finds beauty in the mundane; the result is an elegiac exploration of identity, attachment to home and land, and the relationship between people and place. This is the most significant contribution to the photography of England in recent years.” 
Chris Boot, October 2009

Simon's work is featured as part of the Landmarks: The Fields of Photography Exhibition at Somerset House, London which is open to the public (for free may I add!) until the 28th April. I went for a little look around today, and I can tell you it is well worth a visit. The exhibition features work from 81 photographers all around the diverse subject of the landscape photograph. 

Curator, William A. Ewing writes "Photographers have been at work imaging the earth's surface ever since photography was invented; as a genre, 'landscape' has remained of foremost interest, rivalling portraiture as the most heavily practiced of photography's domains." As you walk through the many different rooms (all themed around a different view, or 'signpost', of the landscape, including 'scar' and 'witness'), you see how varied the response from the photographer can be towards his enviroment. This exhibition really is a celebration of our world, with all it's shining points as well as all it's flaws, and the people who capture it in photography. 

This post would be absurdly long if I mentioned every amazing photograph in the exhibition, but I can tell you a few I particularly liked. Simon Robert's pieces remind you how to find beauty in the mundane and the spectacular, showing images from both his 'We, English' and 'XXX Olympiad'. Mark Klett & Bryon Wolfe's panoramic view of the Grand Canyon is gorgeous, taken over 2 days, the changes in the light make you see the over photographed landscape in a new way. Pieter Hugo's image from his project 'Permanent Error' is impacting in its honesty, showing how poverty can affect the landscape, and their inhabitants. Look out for these images if you go (and I hope that you do!), I can't recommend it highly enough. The Courtauld Gallery Cafe do a lush slice of cake too for afters! 

Localities Publication Launch!

So it's been a couple of days since the launch of our publication, so about time I wrote a review for you all whilst avoiding the freak snowstorm happening outside my window right now! Welsh weather is never predictable. I can safely say it started as one of the most stressful days of the whole 4 months of the project for me (due to major, last minute printing problems - cue many embarrassing breakdowns and a lot of chocolate), but it was all worth it when the night was over.

All the pictures below courtesy of my lovely friend Olivia Whittaker, who's work, 'The Collective', was also part of the Localities project (and very good, if I do say so myself!)!

Our launch was held in the upstairs room of a local club in Grangetown, called the Lyndon Social Club, which held a lot of character, having been a meeting place for residents for nearly 100 years! We decided to exhibit some of our final images, to give the visitors a sneak peek of what was in our publications. 

A little look into Olivia's 'The Collective' - it was so good to see the people who were in the image's reactions to the final product! Olivia was getting a lot of attention, and may have even sold a couple of photographs...

This was Hollie's 'See No, Hear No, Speak No' project, where she got involved with some of the youth in the area, and gave them a platform to speak about what they like/dislike about Grangetown. Resulted in some very graphic, interesting and beautiful work.

To the left of this image you can see some of Michael's 'Unfamiliar' pictures - very mysterious in style, and very popular!

'Universal Studios' portraits by Laura Book, taken in the same very room where we held the launch!

My own section of the room, previewing my 'Union' photographs. I was so touched to have so many members of FAN come and see my work. I felt honoured to have worked with them, and to see them enjoy themselves, whilst mingling with other people there, was such a joy to watch.

Jamie and Tuomas having a drink. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any pictures of their project, 'South District View', displayed, but everyone I spoke too only had positive things to say about it.

By the end of the night, we were exhausted, but fired up. The turn out was so much more than we expected (absolutely packed at points, and we almost completely sold out of publications!), and it was so good to see so many of the community come along to see our work, which was the aim all along. The highlight for me was definitely when some of the local police turned up right at the end, after their local PACT meeting, to see the picture of them Olivia had taken, in full uniform too!

Thank you everyone who came, we hope you had as good a time as we did. Without you, our project would've gone nowhere, and for your support, we are especially grateful.