Equal

Of light art Dark

So the fantastic make-up artist Roseanna Velin and myself have been working on a series of portraits. Currently two are in completion and we've decided it's time that we let you see what we've been working on. It was last night they had their debut at the BAM christmas fair in Birmingham's Margaret Street Art School. So we hope you like what we've produced and look forwards to more in the new year.

The complete image

The Uncontrollability of Love

(To see the completed image visit www.flashyourjak.com )
So November has arrived and Shout Festival has begun. Tonight in fact is the official launch at the MAC centre in Birmingham. As part of SHOUT festival I was commissioned to make a piece of photographic art that would go on display around Birmingham in the form of posters.
After some thought thinking about what I wanted to do I decided to make my own construction based on a painting by my favorite artist Sir Edward Burne Jones.
The picture I chose was 'Cupid's Hunting Field' shown below.

This painting lightly comments on the fact that love is blind, using the mythological figure of Cupid to describe this. I took this as a starting point and began to apply it to myself creating a darker more ethereal version of the image. I decided I needed a set building so got the help of two BCU theatre and performance design students Sarah Verblis and Sarah Mcintyre. These girls helped bring everything together and worked through the night to help accomplish my vision.
All the maidens in the picture were replaced with men who were modeled by Justin Focus, Mike Simon, James Shroll, Daniel Ingram, Vincent Chase, and Kyle Finn. They all took to modeling different aspects of love, such as love lost and future love except for James Shroll who took the role of Cupid.
Each make-up look was completed by Gavin Pickle who was assisted by Connie Ball. He worked closely with the brief to create these amazing looks.
The images shall be on display in various locations around Birmingham. To see the completed image visit www.flashyourjak.com

Black lines

Today's shoot was a different direction on the last one I did, focusing on a more modern feel. Kind of inspired by people in pop music and such. It was fun, so I can't complain.

Studio experimentation

I've decided to start studying again, and today I was trying out some simple things in the studio. So here are my explorations of soft studio light, the male for and black and white photography.

Art of Darkness

Illamasqua have released a new collection this winter called Art of Darkness. They bring to you the colours of creatures from the night and from your nightmares. With beetle shell like liquid metals, and alchemic precision ink this is an inspiring collection, made to tempt out your darker alter ego.
The illamasqua website has an array of amazing new pictures some featured below.
Be sure to check out the video too, all on http://www.illamasqua.com/
Gavin Pickle was doing a make-up demonstration at Selfridges Birmingham last week, so I went do to film his dark arts. Check it out.

Incoming

Today I went shopping for some props as my shoot is quickly approaching. It's time for me to pull my finger out and hope that it all comes together! There is a lot let to do so it's going to be a tough week. Its time to get this belt and hat customised!

If you go down to the woods...

A few weeks ago I headed down to the woods with photographer Josh Sallon to do an underwear shoot. He'd been able to get his hands on a selection of underwear from the website www.Banglads.com and when he told me I knew I wanted to get involved. I'd never done an underwear shoot before so it was definately something I was interested in. We scouted together models Ricky Gallagher, Sam Iwaniak and Adam Collins. They were great guys who pulled through modeling in underwear through rain, brisk winds and an onslaught of ground covering prickly bits!
Here's a few of the ones that Josh shot too -

Taking the bull by the HORNS

So I need to do a little catch up once again. I can't even remember where I left off. Oh yea, i'd done all that stuff. Well now things have calmed a little, or perhaps not calmed but taken a different direction. I'm working on my new comission, but more on that later! I just wanted to let you know I've been somewhat hoarding props off ebay, such as the ones below!
It's finally starting to get off the ground now which is good! In other news, Alis Pelleschi and Ursula Rocy Aitchison have just started out own Youtube channel called Channel Razmataz, so you should definately check that out as we endeavour to upload new videos every week!

When everything happens at once, time bends to compensate

So this has just been one of those weekends where everything manages to happen at once!

Thursday:
So one way or another I found myself volunteering for Rhubarb Rhubarb's photography festival '10 - Collision, Where image worlds meet-. I didn't know much about it, and hadn't found the time to properly research because I'd been generally busy. Anyway, Thursday I find myself at Birmingham international airport ferrying reviewers from their planes to the train station. Seb forgot to give me a sign to hold so I had to make my own. I'm at the airport, I'm holding a hand written sign, it says 'RHUBARB', I'm getting funny looks. There's about an hour and a half in between each reviewer and the last one is delayed by an hour, I'm thinking WTF! It was okay though, everyone I picked up was really nice and friendly and I managed to get back to Birmingham, only 10 minutes late for my meeting.
I was 10 minutes late for my meeting but it was okay. Recently David Viney has accepted my request to make some photographic work for the up coming SHOUT Festival in Birmingham, so we met for drinks to discuss. I'm not going to say too much on that, but let's just say it is my most exciting project to date, so watch out for it in November.

Friday:
I'm back volunteering, this time, in the AM at Aston business school. From the outside I thought it was a regular uni building but inside its a conference centre with a courtyard, fountains, a restaurant, breakfast area, bar, seating area, hotel the whole shebang! It was pretty cool and well designed. I was stationed in a room were reviewers from all round the world sat at tables whilst photographers came to have their work looked at. Every 20 minutes working under Nick's guidance I helped move people in and out of the room. It was surprisingly fun, and I was able to show my work to a lot of people, and the more I showed it, the more people wanted to see it.
DINNER WAS AMAZING!!! It was a buffet, with roast pork, beef stroganoff, mixed vegetables, a veggie table, salads and a dessert table with things like chocolate cheesecake. Believe me when I say I ate till I thought my stomach was splitting.
(Okay I'll speed it up now).
I was told about an exhibition Rhubarb was holding in the former ArtLounge in the Mailbox so I popped along. There was work by Adam Magyar, Vee Spears and Ricardo E. Zulueta and the Jackson Twins. To tell you the truth I loved it all, it's well set out and the work is of an excellent standard. Vee Spears' work is by the door and I love it, the colour, the desaturation, the props and the eerie look in some of the children's eye is captivating.The other work that really caught my attention was the theatrical creations by the Jackson Twins. They had managed to explore identity and doppelgangers by reflecting on their own being twins and their ability to change their identity whilst still reaching the same goals. Their work speaks for its self, and is full of clearly thought out visual stimuli. Their ability to become other people is astounding and often fooling. This isn't on for much longer and if you're in the area is definately worth seeing! The scale and types of presentation and display are something within themselves.
That evening I met with James Lawrence Slattery and we had an amazing time hanging out after so long at yet more Rhubarb Rhubarb related events. We went down to their headquarters in Digbeth for an exhibition of various local talents, with all the reviewers and photographer getting together. It was a great chance to meet on a social level.
Work that really stuck out to me was the surreal images by Zhao Renhul,
And the stunning images of children by Kelly Hill called 'In the cities'.From there we all went to a local pub, with a massive back beer garden, with benches -some occupied by mannequins playing checkers- and an amazing BBQ we're talking, burgers, sausages, Italian meatballs, everything that's delicious basically.

Saturday:
Saturday was the same as Friday in respects that I helped in the room showing people to the correct tables and moving them on when it was time. There was a great standard of work going round but I just couldn't wait to see what was for dinner. It was this day I managed to show my work to a lot of really great people, and they all pushed it onto one another. As soon as I showed it to Carry from Nottingham Trent University she made sure everyone knew about it and was going to see it. So, I got to have my work viewed by a lot of great people.
Saturday was also host to the Promenade where all the photographers laided out their work and people came round to see it. It was at the new Mac at Canon Hill Park and was a wicked night. It was fascinating to see such a high grade of varied photographic productions.
I had my work with me in a bag, and Mark McPherson -the founder of Big City Press, and independent publisher of the photographic book Hijacked- took charge. He had it out, on the table and was calling people over from left right and centre. He's a great guy with a wickedly friendly personality and I'm glad to have met him. At one point Carry comes over and says 'have you shown your work to the Jackson Twins yet?' I was baffled but low and behold there they were in the corner of the room wearing opposite shirts. I covered them in a torrent of verbal vomit trying to extract every piece of photographic based similarity between us in a very short space of time. They're wicked guys, really friendly and have such confidence in their work (By that I mean, they speak about it effortlessly, there's no erms, argh or it's kind of like's). So it made my evening to talk to them.

Sunday:
Sunday I wasn't working at the Business School because I had things to attend to but I managed to stop by. That afternoon however Kyle took me to yet another exhibition!!! This time in the Pallasades. Surprisingly it was really good. A great body of work by high speed and strobe photographer Harold Edgerton.The work is captivating and definitely worth a look, it's on until the 5th of September so there plenty of time to pop down and check it out. After this I returned home and got changed ready for the next Rhubarb Rhubarb event which was the unveiling of Adam Magyar's work at the building site of the new Central Library. They have displayed his picture on the large white boards showing his massively creative photographic work. It's all in the detail so I can't say too much but his work is on show both at the Library site and in the Mailbox exhibition.From here everyone moved on to the Mailbox to see the exhibition, which gave me a further chance to talk to the Jackson Twins in front of their work. There were a great many speeches and giving of gifts between the organisers (I caught the bouquet of flowers before they fell of the desk, my personal achievement of the day). After this we were taken to the Ikon Gallery for more chatting and tapas.

What can I say, I have had an amazing weekend! The best weekend since finishing university, and the most photographically involved weekend possibly ever. I would like to take this opportunity for some thanks of my own. I would like to thank Rhonda Wilson, Lorna-Mary Webb and Sebah Chaudhry for putting on a fantastic and well structured event. They looked after everyone with the greatest care, and made sure that my stomach saw the widest range of food since leaving home!!! I would also like to thank 'Uncle Zitty' for putting me in touch to Seb and making sure that I was able to volunteer at this event.

Then there's Diana and Simone for being great volunteers, and Nick for being thoroughly organised and co-ordinated. Carry from Nottingham Trent for being so passionate about my work, as well as Mark McPherson for being so positive and helpful.

So you would think that's it. What more could I possibly have to say!? Well, I went to uni and collected my results on Monday, and guess what? I have a First Class Honors Degree, receiving 80% in my Final Major Project. Yes, at the moment, life is good.

Trip to the Museum

Today I went on a little excursion to the museum. I was first thoroughly surprised to see Jacob Epstein’s creation there, the Rock Drill. I’ve seen various bits of his work before in London and such but not this piece. Although it wasn’t the original it was fantastic to see. The shape and crisp colour was captivating. I couldn’t help think… this is what I want to look like.

The reason I actually went to the museum wasn’t to see the piece by Epstein but was in fact to do some research and to look at the Steve McCurry exhibition. Although I knew of his work I wasn’t overly familiar with it. I found it surprising though how inspiring his images really were. Some of them really got me on their content, which is unusual having seen so much documentary work. The use of vivid colour and subject matter really made his images stand out. It was a retrospective, which might be why the pictures swayed me but they seemed like an honest commentary from McCurry’s perspective. They weren’t hung up on poverty or despair, which is what I think I liked most. If you around, I definitely encourage you to see it. It’s free and definitely worth a visit.

Alex Box

Some of you may know I have come to have a great love for all that is Illamasqua! Illamasqua is what I use for make-up and am constantly astounded by the great range of products. Recently Alex Box, the goddess of Make-up came to give a talk at Selfridges. I think she would appreciate me stating that she isn't just a make-up artist, she is an artist who uses make-up as a medium.
It was Gavin Pickle who asked me to come, and I'm glad I did. I met up with Roseanna Velin and we watched Alex Box put make-up on one of the models used in the Dystopia Campaign.
She worked to high levels of effortless perfection, all the while discussing how make-up is more than coverage. It can be used to transform you, to the extents of spiritual transformations. Illamasqua is like an alchemic creation used as a modern day elixor for all those who want to change themselves.This is what Alex Box created for us, showing how in a single tonal range she create this ethereal/almost classic Hollywood character. In essence that is what Alex Box is all about, bold statements in the creation of characters.
It was great to meet her and hear her point of views and she said she liked my make-up, Alex Box liked my make-up! That had me on a high all day. Her make-up is a great inspiration to me and you can often see the influences in the things I put on myself.