Yes, I’m ashamed to see how long it is since I last posted, but things have been busy these last few months. What with finishing university, moving back to London, and general unsettledness, it’s been quite tiring.
Anyway, I was experiencing photographer’s block for a while … didn’t feel like being out on the streets and I wasn’t travelling anywhere, so I didn’t take many pictures, except a few rather touristy pictures of my own newly re-found city. It’s changed a lot since I last lived here 20 years ago. But then, things changed when I was lucky enough to participate in a Fine Art workshop in Paris in September with Roger Ballen, who is definitely one of my favourite photographers. It was 4 full on days, with two challenging assignments and the time just flew by far too fast. I learnt a lot about composition and framing, and to beware of white, even if it doesn’t show yet. Roger is a wonderful teacher – very good at critiquing images – and being able to hear him talk about his work was inspiring.
The first assignment was to go to some recycling shops and find some cheap items and make a still life using an incredible space as a backdrop. Squat Le Bloc is a building abandoned by a French Government department and now occupied by artists and all kinds of people. Every surface is painted with art and graffiti and you could spend a lot of time there and not see it all. It has a buzz … of creativity and life going on. I liked that.
Doing the still life was hard. I had no flash for my camera, and no tripod with me either, so I had to make the best of the low light and try not to breathe when pressing the button. The still life went through many different set ups and ended up using the minimum of items. Luckily I had thought to bring string scissors and some sticky tape. Here are a few pictures.
Each day we finished around 6, went home to edit for the next day’s critique/eat/sleep and then be back at Le Bar Floréal by 9am the next day. I think I have never done so many Metro journeys in such a short time! The second assignment was also hard. For me anyway, as I am used to doing candid photography and not asking permission. We had to ask strangers in Le Bloc if we could make portraits of them, and somehow try to reflect ourselves in the other. The concept slightly went out of the window as it was enough just to try to get people to pose! I found a lady with a dog, (no pet cats in the building) and I made quite a few shots of her. Then I went to the studio of the president of the building, VIncent, who is a man of many talents. He makes incredible work painting with light, as well as being a tattoo artist and illustrator. I made his portrait in front of a painting he has been working on for 4 years (still not finished yet). That day went far too fast and I hope to get back there to take more pictures sometime.
I came back feeling inspired to do some constructed work in my studio, but the day I returned I had a phone call out of the blue asking to show my compost bucket pictures at a London gallery which just opened in September. So I’ve been working on the prints for that as well as a couple of new projects. I feel very lucky that my work was seen at the right time by the right person, because getting shown in a gallery is not easy. Next post will be about how the Private View on 22nd October went.