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.

So much stuff is going on!

Soooooo people it's been a while, what can I say? I've been busy. I want to tell you all about it but I'm going to try and keep it pretty brief. So, numero uno, I've finished university - kinda -. Where as everyone has already collected their grades many of my very talented friends getting 1st degree honours, I got an extention thus I won't find out my results till the end of July.
The Visual Communications departments held and awards show and I won the award for Fine Art Photography which was very pleasing. I got a 'trophy' and £500 to spend on a photography website is pretty cool! Here you can see me with my award :) I have it kept in pride and place on my desk, laid down, on a pile of papers...
This is what I wore to the awards show. Nothing like making a scene and an pretentious speach at the awards!
I also got a new job thanks to the wonderous Roseanna Velin! I work at Doubletake studios which is a photography studio where people can come and have their pictures taken. It's really fun and I've learnt loads since working there. It's also cool because there are a few people working there who I've always considered as reputable local photographers such as Tom Steventon and James Beddoes (click on their names to see some of their work).
I've also finally got myself together and had Major Arcana series made into a book. It's not just a book with the pictures in, its has insight into the work and the process, as well as additional images and my original concept sketches so it's kind of a look at the project as a whole. The book is available to buy from Blurb, which you can see HERE. Although if you order it from me you can get cheaper prioty shipping, and I'll get it special delivery to your door :)
A few of the pictures, 5 in fact also went on exhibition at my end of year show and different to last time I had them framed.They looked really cool sized A1 and A4, you can see them in this picture but the reflections are pretty bad. All in all though it was a pretty good show and I'm really glad a couple of my friends Ruth and Claire got to come down from London and see it!
This is what I wore to the Grad show opening, can't say it was the best choice of outfit considering it's a Ski suit and it was 12,000 degrees on the day of the show. The cog like neck piece is something Kyle Perks made for his foundation year projects.
I also walked on the catwalk for him at his end of year show which was pretty cool.
I went for like really bizzare rough covage facepaint by applying it all quickly with a small paint brush. It was a wicked show, and it was nice to see some of Kyle's work in action.
Finally I wanted to round up the year with my uni friends so I arranged for 34 of us to go to Cafe Soya for a goodbye meal which was really fun!
It's been a really ace year, and there's a great vibe in the air this summer. 'Here I come world' and all that jazz. I won't leaving blogging so long next time, I'll avoid you having to enjure another essay. So, what have all you guys been up to? have you rounded of the academic year remembering the good times gone by in great hope they'll continue?

Make-up artist Julia Hyland

Whilst working on my Major Arcana project I got to work with some excellent make-up artists. One in particular was special effects and artistic make-up artist Julia Hyland. She helped worked on images such as 'The Lovers' and 'Death'. She has an excellent degree of skill and a very professional approach, bringing high quality results you can rely on. She's just launched a new website so it would be awesome if you could check it out! http://www.joolzfx.com