I like it when you get film back and you get this gammy bit at the beginning. It looks like everyones about to be incinerated by an invisible cloak of fire.
A doing day.
As I got back from Sweden on my birthday, I decided to take the week off uni and doing any type of real work. Like sorting out photos or checking e-mails etc. Sadly everything I've been avoiding will become a reality when I wake up tomorrow morning. Tomorrow shall be a doing day. In this doing is getting this blog up to date nice and sharpish.
I just got about 7 rolls of film back from Stockholm and my birthday, so I'm going to just throw a few out there before I blog them in groups and write about them all in more detail. I'm not being lazy...well I am. But then again, its not tomorrow morning yet.
I have films still from the LCC 2nd and 1st year 'Work in Progress' show, the famous Musgrove party that got stormed by 300 students then double that in Police, the several snow days we had, an odd one from new years eve, a trip to Brighton, my birthday and Stockholm. Oh and last friday's Fuck The Whiteboard. So yeah, I'll get typing.
Baz.L
Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of '99...
Wear Sunscreen
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience…I will dispense this advice now.
Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nevermind; you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked….You're not as fat as you imagine.
Don't worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.
Do one thing everyday that scares you
Sing
Don't be reckless with other people's hearts, don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.
Floss
Don't waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind…the race is long, and in the end, it's only with yourself.
Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how.
Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.
Stretch
Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life…the most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds know still don't.
Get plenty of calcium.
Be kind to your knees, you'll miss them when they're gone.
Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't, maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't, maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary…what ever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either – your choices are half chance, so are everybody else's. Enjoy your body, use it every way you can…don't be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it's the greatest instrument you'll ever own..
Dance…even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.
Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.
Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.
Get to know your parents, you never know when they'll be gone for good.
Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.
Understand that friends come and go,but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography in lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.
Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.
Travel.
Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you'll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.
Respect your elders.
Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out.
Don't mess too much with your hair, or by the time it's 40, it will look 85.
Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.
But trust me on the sunscreen...
Wear Sunscreen
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience…I will dispense this advice now.
Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nevermind; you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked….You're not as fat as you imagine.
Don't worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.
Do one thing everyday that scares you
Sing
Don't be reckless with other people's hearts, don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.
Floss
Don't waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind…the race is long, and in the end, it's only with yourself.
Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how.
Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.
Stretch
Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life…the most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds know still don't.
Get plenty of calcium.
Be kind to your knees, you'll miss them when they're gone.
Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't, maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't, maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary…what ever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either – your choices are half chance, so are everybody else's. Enjoy your body, use it every way you can…don't be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it's the greatest instrument you'll ever own..
Dance…even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.
Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.
Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.
Get to know your parents, you never know when they'll be gone for good.
Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.
Understand that friends come and go,but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography in lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.
Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.
Travel.
Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you'll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.
Respect your elders.
Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out.
Don't mess too much with your hair, or by the time it's 40, it will look 85.
Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.
But trust me on the sunscreen...
Fucking packed.
In the last two weeks I've gone back to university, had a birthday and been to Stockholm. I have A LOT to catch up on here as I have about 14 rolls of film ready to be put up for your viewing pleasure and my book collection has grown a ridiculous amount and I want to talk about them. Please don't hate me if I blog about a night or something that was like a month ago, I'm majorly behind and once I've caught up I will try and keep it flowing nicely.
Also, I know a lot of the posts from nights out aren't really amazing photography, as I stated before I want to just document everything I do and put it up on here so I can share with you and myself later on. So I'm not claiming their anything spectacular. I just want to document.
Here's some from some collections to come...
Old Clinic & New Clinic
Quite some time ago it was the last Clinic, as usual I went along and had a blinding night and took a few snaps. They kindly put my photos up on their blog along with my piece that made it into their FEAR exhibition so I didn't think it would be necessary to put them up on my blog as well at the same time. They had the awesome Tall Ships, Alan Welsh, Jamie N Commons, Beaty Heart and In Lieu providing the music and the talented and extremely well known poets Jack Underwood, Emily Berry, Sam Riviere, Heather Phillipson and Joe Dunthorne reading. I've waited until they announced their next night to remind you how good the last was so you'd come down for that one too.
I was using a camera I had never used before, a Canon A1, so I wasn't %100 on what I was doing in terms of feeling comfortable with the camera. Also I'm pretty sure the film was out of date hence the graininess but I don't really mind that. I wish I could put up every photo singularly but you'd be scrolling down for about 3 months and I think some work well together. Anyways, here's some from the last night they had in Decemeber. It was awesome. I'll put the flyer for the next one underneath. See you there!
Come down to this for their best line up of musicians and poets yet, their nights are really are something to experience.
Reality Bites
These next set of images I created recently for a brief from uni. We were given the title Reality Bites to respond to. As I've become more and more aware that I want to document people's lives through my photography I decided to take this direction with this project.
If you live in the countryside they say you don't go one day with out seeing a cow. If you live in London its pretty much the same story but with the homeless. They constantly ask us for change and one by one we turn them down because we think in our heads we know the money isn't going to go on food. Not all beggars and the homeless are these scrounging drug induced people some people make them out to be. There are some people out on the streets who literally did not have a choice. There's no way we can ever really tell this but I basically wanted to show, in small bites the reality of some of these beggars we walk past day in day out. My main source of research was Jim Goldberg who I just can't get enough of at the moment.
I ventured out mainly around East and central London, walking up to beggars, sitting down next to them and trying just to talk to them about the reason they were homeless, what their doing about it and how their dealing with it. I asked if I could take a portrait after talking to them and if they could write a small message on a piece of paper that would be displayed under their photo. I did this basically to give them more control over the message of the photograph, so it made it more of a reality. I shot them all in RAW and with the Canon 400D's basic pop up flash. Obviously I know that flash sucks and I avoid using it all the time, but I didn't want to glamorize the subjects at all with a massive fixed flash. Plus they get a bit edgy if they think your from a paper. So yeah, here's my final four from the series.
This is a Scottish guy called Mark, he was by far the friendliest I spoke too. I think I was talking to him for about 25 minutes. I can't work out what he meant on the last line, I think maybe his life is at night time.
Battersea took this guys dog off him, he has to pay quite a bit of money to get him back.
"Only when freedom is truly outlawed will the outlaws be truly free!"
This guy was convince that I was from a paper, I had to speak to him for a while to earn some trust, and show him my student card.
"Wife split up after 18 years, she still has the kids. You don't know what you've got till its gone."
Trevor was definitely the most shocking story I heard. For reasons he wouldn't tell me his wife kicked him out, he's been on the streets for 2 years while his wife and kids are still in what was once called his home.
Fish Eye
I keep leaving my point and shoots in girls handbags on nights out and it's taking me way to long to get them back. So I've been taking my fish eye out as a last resort. I don't think a fish eye is a great way to document stuff but you always get some pretty interesting and unpredictable images. Here's a few from the past few weeks, I'm obviously not claiming I took the one that I'm in.
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