temporary turbulences

photos on Getty

2011-12-15T10:53:00.000Z

My photos have been selected by Getty Images US and are now ON SALE through their website.

Click H E R E to view a few others.

[put it on]

2011-10-07T13:06:00.002+01:00

[meet me on the other shore]

2011-09-11T01:33:00.002+01:00

[meet me on the other shore], a photo by Livia Lazar on Flickr.

I am delighted to share that my photo, [meet me on the other shore] which won a monthly competition organised by theprintspace this year, was selected to be in the exhibition So Show Me II, curated by Euan Danks, Linda Brownlee, and Michael Bodiam, to name a few. The show runs until September 30, 2011 at theprintspace gallery in London. For more information on theprintspace and So Show Me II, take a look at these links: http://www.theprintspace.co.uk/ http://www.theprintspace.co.uk/blog/soshowme-ii/

[Elena]

2011-09-07T13:51:00.002+01:00

[Elena], a photo by Livia Lazar on Flickr.

[Maria]

2011-07-25T16:39:00.001+01:00

[Maria], a photo by Livia Lazar on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
#55 in Flickr Explore today - 25.07.2011.

[Reading in a quiet corner]

2011-07-18T12:41:00.001+01:00

[Reading in a quiet corner], a photo by Livia Lazar on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
I noticed this man at the end of a narrow path between some big buildings in Sibiu. I went to him and asked for a potrait. He agreed but didn't speak much. I showed him the result and he said 'Thank you'. He wasn't in the mood for talking, so I wanted to respect that, thanked him and left. I met then again a few times on the streets, he had the same expression and seemed in the same mood, so I didn't disturb him again. I guess that sometimes encounters can make use of only a few words, and it's ok to be like that.

[Paraschiva]

2011-07-18T12:40:00.007+01:00

[Paraschiva], a photo by Livia Lazar on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
I first took the photo and then talked to this woman; I was in the area of one of Sibiu's markets. She was quite surprised by my interest of photographing her and blessed me for this: 'Do you know how old I am? I am 86. And because you were so kind to take me a photo, you will live 90 years old, now that you have my portrait. God bless you!'. :) A very nice encounter indeed.

[Tatar roots]

2011-07-18T12:40:00.005+01:00

[Tatar roots], a photo by Livia Lazar on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
I met this man in Tulcea (Danube Delta) who didn't want to disclose his name but was more than willing to tell me a story about the Tatar people and their migrations to the Danube shores. The photo was rather rushed, I would have liked to be better than this but unfortunately he was quite shy and this is one of the two shots I could take.

[Irina]

2011-07-18T12:40:00.003+01:00

[Irina], a photo by Livia Lazar on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
During my walks in Transylvania, I was attracted by people framed by windows. Here is Mrs Irina, who accepted to take her portrait and wished me good luck with the Romanian project.

[Maria]

2011-07-18T12:40:00.001+01:00

[Maria], a photo by Livia Lazar on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Walking down the streets of Sibiu, I noticed this old lay cleaning her windows. I stopped and talked for a while and asked if I can take her photo. She agreed. Her name is Maria, she leaves alone and she strongly believes young people can dramatically change the fate of contemporary Romania.

[LSF, Tate Modern]

2011-07-18T04:15:00.002+01:00

Untitled, a photo by Livia Lazar on Flickr.

[by the side of the road]

2011-07-12T17:47:00.001+01:00

[by the side of the road], a set on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
roadside crosses, statues, monuments

++ the creation of the Sacred Landscape

++ bringing the Sacred into the Profane

++ making the Sacred visual; marking in the landscape / modification

++ public adoration

types:

- accidental death markers;

- Jesus Christ on the cross

- monuments and statues; no clear role

**visual markers

[Romanian Rhapsody] colour

2011-07-12T17:46:00.002+01:00

[Romanian Rhapsody] colour, a set on Flickr.

[Romanian Rhapsody] B&W

2011-07-12T17:42:00.002+01:00

[Romanian Rhapsody] B&W, a set on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
(provisional title)

youtu.be/RZMZziF4Rgs

[ultra terrestrial] + land(e)scape +

2011-06-30T12:06:00.001+01:00

[ultra terrestrial] + land(e)scape +, a set on Flickr.

[Children of the Mountain]: Lorena

2011-05-29T08:25:00.002+01:00

[Children of the Mountain]: Lorena, a photo by Livia Lazar (*travelling) on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
*provisional edit.

Lorena is 4 years old; her mother (in the background), Ileana, celebrated yesterday her 22nd aniversary. Lorena has an 1 year old brother, Marian whom I met later. Their father work in the village for less than 300 euros per month. They live in Lupsa, in the Apuseni mountains. I walked more than 3 hours on the mountains to meet them (climbing, actually). Not far from where they live (20-30minutes minutes on foot) there is Geamana, a village which practically disappeared under the deposition of gray unoxidized sulfidic tailings from the copper mine at Rosia Poieni. More on this soon.

[Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia, Moscovei village]

2011-05-28T21:21:00.001+01:00

[Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia, Moscovei village], a photo by Livia Lazar (*travelling) on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
On June 5, 2011, Republic of Moldova will hold general local elections. According to Electoral Code (art.119), mayors of cities (municipalities), sectors, villages (communes) and councillors in districts, cities (municipalities) and villages (communes) shall be elected by universal, equal, direct, secret and free vote for a four-year term. About 900 mayors of the localities (villages (communes), cities and municipalities) and 12,000 local councillors (councils of villages (communes), cities, cities, municipalities and districts) will be elected in local elections.

[1]

2011-05-19T12:53:00.001+01:00

[1], a photo by Livia Lazar (*travelling) on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
[this is part of a new and challenging ongoing project, focusing on male portraiture / psychology, seen as a symbiosis of power and vulnerability, discovery, unknown and mystery in the Man. I have never done something like this before that's why your opinion counts. thanks.]

_______

*although I have done a few tests, I think this particular photo will be the first in the series because it illustrates best the idea of the project. I will develop more on this soon. at the moment, I am more interested in the photos in themselves and how they can relate to each other to create a coherent visual sequence.

[Amsterdam Airport]

2011-05-14T13:31:00.001+01:00

[Amsterdam Airport], a photo by Livia Lazar (*travelling) on Flickr.

[nostalgia]

2011-05-09T20:36:00.002+01:00

A perfect day for watching John Bulmer's work, now in exhibition at Third Floor Gallery in Cardiff and to read a great interview with Elliot Erwitt taken by his son.

[as a matter of fact]

2011-05-08T00:48:00.005+01:00

[as a matter of fact] is a street documentary.

The initial plan was to entitle it 'The North' but ... not yet!

I think that it represents the first step towards the street photography book I dream of. As opposed to the previous book which was part of a more structured documenting project, I avoided words this time.

I avoided them so much that I haven't even put a title on the cover. It is a risk I took consciously.

I think it illustrates a part of what I want to acquire and I believe that being honest is still the most important thing in my photography.

I can't wait to see the print from Blurb, it will arrive a few HOURS late but here you can watch a preview.

[People's Royal Wedding]

2011-05-08T00:36:00.001+01:00

Reportage from Manchester:

More photos on a nice slideshow H E R E

[1-day project]

2011-05-08T00:23:00.008+01:00

[how many acceptable & interesting photos can you shoot in one day?]

The answer is: 17!

(*slightly too optimistic but this is the vote of the majority of users on flickr, so guess they are - partially - right!)

[book cover]

2011-05-08T00:19:00.002+01:00

Just figured out the image that the next book (as part of the assignment for this module) will look like. I wrote a few lines about it and then deleted them as they killed that little bit of interestingness that this image might have.

______________

I have just watched a great collection, the 40 outstanding examples of sign photography . I presume that 'outstanding' is a bit exaggerated but the collection in itself is great.

[guys]

2011-05-08T00:13:00.003+01:00

(*more about Lartigue H E R E)

A bit of recreational photography - very important for stimulating creativity :)

[I like to take photos of polite and helping guys]

[I like to take photos of guys that might hate me]

[I like to take photos of guys that might date me]

[I like to take photos of hard-working guys]

[I like to take photos of guys that make the world go round and round]

(*I actually think about a bigger, more serious project focused on the male psychology, so these are just case studies! :)

More photos H E R E

[calligraphy]

2011-05-08T00:03:00.002+01:00

[I saw some sentences in which there were no words]

[I just try to create the idea of a language, a calligraphy made by the trees / landscape, some sort of another way of communicating things. They are basically landscape photos and although I do not consider myself as having any talent in this direction, I have to look more into this and I feel that the set will continuously grow.]

[Not sure I'll be able to invent a new language though.]

More photos H E R E

Also very precious advice related to the way in which a PORTFOLIO should be built:

So, over the years I’ve spent a lot of time pondering what I should include in these portfolios and what I should exclude and how I should structure the flow of images so that clients are inspired and convinced that I’m the guy for the job. The hardest thing of all is getting free of how you think it should work and getting to where you have a handle on how it actually works.

More info H E R E

[Ilford Delta 400 SP2]

2011-05-07T23:53:00.008+01:00

Ideal list of Eggleston books H E R E

___________

I think I found the best B&W film for my practice; this time I didn't have an interesting subject matter and all I wanted was to continue my 'temporary turbulences' project, inspired from Tarkovsky and Bela Tarr films.

However, I want to try it with portraits in the future, as well as with some 'noir' compositions, it is a gorgeous film.

[circles]

2011-05-07T23:36:00.006+01:00

vi.sualize.us is a social bookmarking website for visual contents — vi.sualize.us vi.sualise.us allows you to remember your favorite images around the web, and share them with everyone.

Sometimes, you are looking through pictures and one of them catches your eye. You know you want to save it so you can look at it again in the future, but it’s not that easy: downloading to your hard disk is as useless as bookmarking the website in the usual way.

This is where vi.sualize.us changes the rules. Within two clicks, you can save the image reference in your account, and easily look at it whenever you want to, just as your new favorite picture deserves. All without thinking about what computer you stored it in: always online, always available.

I continue to practice with lots of Mamiya love.

These are taken using 80mm Mamiya lens and Kodak Portra 160VC.

part of my Circles personal project.

[noir]

2011-05-07T23:23:00.003+01:00

I read recently two great books on NOIR style film & photography and they inspired me in practice as well:

David Campany, 2008. Photography and Cinema. London: Reaktion Books

A. Silver and J Ursini (eds.) 1996. Film Noir Reader. New York: Limelight Editions

A dark street in the early morning hours, splashed with a sudden downpour. Lamps from haloes in the murk. In a walk-up room, filled with the intermittent flashing of a neon sign from across the street, a man is waiting to murder or to be murdered... every shot in a glistering low-key, so that rain always glittered across windows or windscreens like quicksilver, furs shone with a faint halo, faces were barred deeply with those shadows that usually symbolized some imprisonment of body or soul.

Greenberh and Higham quoted in Silver and Ursini 1996, p. 65

Here is an attempt taken with lots of Mamiya love while in Preston railway station a few days ago:

These are the uncanny spaces of film noir - familiar and everyday urban locations that when painted by light and shadowed dark, haunted by neon and by the paranoid glances of alienated, anxious eyes become strangely unfamiliar and troubling.

(*taken in Liverpool on a foggy morning)

In the noirscape, the inversion becomes the norm. outside, in the challenging hald-light of the street, insecurity and troubles intrude. Noir's world is haunting and haunted.

(*Liverpool again)

Characterised by chiaroscuro lightning, distorting camera angles and excessive symbolism, Noir was born from the imagination of cinematographers and directors, often working with limited budgets, seeking to maximise the effects of that Mike Davies called 'the subversive cinema' (Davis 1990, p. 41)

Photography has enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with film noir, appropriating, as David Campany writes, 'a shorthand style or mood... a set of visual motifs' but at its best, always moving beyond this to engage with psychological complexity: 'guilt, suspicion, jealousy, weakness, revenge' (Campany 2008, p.141)

[the unphotographable]

2011-05-07T20:41:00.004+01:00

This is a picture I did not take of two men facing each other in a bus station. It is around 5pm, the light is amazing. They seem to be brothers or very good friends. One of them sits on the bus station's bench, the other in a wheelchair. Their knees touch. Right behind them there is an ad, one of the well-known ads in the bus stations. It is not clear what it stands for, it is in black and white and it says 'Make a difference'.

[focusing]

2011-05-07T20:40:00.001+01:00

It looks that somehow the constant discussions with some of my friends and colleagues, the advice from my tutors and the 'inner adviser' helped in narrowing down the area of interest to street documentary. I started to avoid the term 'street photography' as I still try to have at least one photo in the pool of HCSP on Flickr but it looks as it is impossible for the moment. Anyway, here are a few shots taken with lots of Mamiya love and which I think are better, still missing some highlights here and there - a thing that can be easily corrected in Photoshop (as Darren suggested) but as I don't use Photoshop, I'll leave them like that for the moment. I hope that soon, maybe in August - I'll have my own colour developing kit and I'll do magic and terror!

[closer]

2011-05-07T20:32:00.002+01:00

Spent some time today, analysing Sze Tsung Leong's work, an American photographer located in New York City, with his origins trace to China. An exceptional aesthetics and a great documentary value is attributed to his images. Also, the relationship between different elements of the urban landscape seems to be the actual subject matter of this photographs. The landscape is not static, it is continuously becoming, a dynamic organism.

For more info, check his amazing website H E R E

I still learn to become invisible. It is quite hard but sometimes it is good to hide in plain light - that is, not hiding at all.

(*and yes, that headline on the newspaper reads THAT'S HOW YOU SHOOT)

[curioser and curioser]

2011-05-07T20:23:00.001+01:00

If you ever wondered how does the new little skip looks like, here is a close-up on his little curious eye.

There is a silent but select group on Facebook dedicated to Skype and where there are constant updates on the project. Please join if you like our story H E R E

_____________

The new (spring) issue of JPG magazine is amazing and has as its central theme, THE URBAN, view an online preview H E R E

[Skype project: Updates]

2011-05-07T19:58:00.001+01:00

Just saw this man taking these things out of the little skip - which replaces Skype for some time - (it is not the same thing, of course) - and I followed him.

[Everlast ad]

2011-05-07T19:45:00.003+01:00

(*this can't be serious! :) )

[can you see what I see?]

2011-05-07T19:31:00.001+01:00

Probably inspired by the Format 11 International Festival in Derby and the amazing books and exhibitions that I saw there (great talks as well, including one from Bruce Gilden) I tried to shoot more street these days. What I want to acquire is definitely the Hardcore Street Photography group's aesthetics - but this is extremely hard. Being aware of this, I have no other choice but not to give up and to continue practicing, coming closer to people, or making a few steps back when necessary, trying to find juxtapositions on the vertical but also on the horizontal, playing with shadows, looking for humour, unusual and extraterrestrial activities.

[Format 11 International Photography Festival]

2011-05-07T19:19:00.000+01:00

Here are the photos that the curators of the festival accepted and they are now on display in Derby. I don't know which were the criteria for choosing these but I am glad they accepted so many. I have never understood curators :)

More about Format 11: H E R E

George Georgiou : Fault Lines/Turkey/East/West.mov

2011-05-07T19:12:00.001+01:00

Here is my favourite photo book.

Saw an impressive exhibition in Derby as well. Whenever I feel uninspired, I just browse through this book, and I now know for sure that this is HOW I would like my photos to look like. Not necessarily in terms of subject matter but the way in which each element participate to the idea of the image. Incredible juxtaposition, amazing simplicity and lovely colours. A nostalgic documentary.

The project's page H E R E

[more Mamiya tests]

2011-05-07T19:06:00.002+01:00

I think that the challenges I face when using Mamiya 7 II will gradually improve my practice (I hope). I have to re-think my compositions and test different films and frames. However, in an ideal world, I would taken photos using only this camera. I particularly tried it in the street environment.

_________________

And an old book I truly love: no rules street photography

[Kibera]

2011-05-07T18:52:00.002+01:00

More photos H E R E

[Mathare]

2011-05-07T18:50:00.001+01:00

[Markets in Kenya]

2011-05-07T18:44:00.000+01:00

One of the most vivid, dynamic and colourful places in Kenya - the markets - fascinated me and I simply wanted to spend more time in these places. People selling fruits, vegetables, coffee, cattle - great time for buying really good things and negotiating as well. :)

More photos H E R E

[In Between]

2011-05-07T18:40:00.002+01:00

[traditions vs modernisation]

[The Pipeline Project]

2011-05-07T18:35:00.000+01:00

UCLAN Pipeline's Project, Kenya

[Masai woman (Antoanette) in a Masai village, Kimana, Kenya, in front of the house (Inkajijik), built by her, with bare hands, using small branches, mud, grass, cow dung, human urine and ash].

[Masai people love wearing red. When asked why they wear red clothes, the answer was the same: 'because we like it'. The custom might be inspired by the red soil of East Africa. Originally the people used the red ochre soil to dye their clothes. Men usually wear red cloacks. The women often wear a combination of red and blue.]

[Masai people walk huge distances to have access to water; they use these yellow barrels to carry water back to their homes; they often have to share the same water resources with their cattles as well as with the wildlife.]

[playing and posing, we had lots of fun together]

[Masai kids bow their head forwards whenever they meet an elder while the elder places his hand on their head, as a form of greeting, protection and blessing at the same time. Here is Jackson, and two kids we encountered during our long trip along the Nol Turesh pipeline in Kenya.]

[found objects]

2011-05-07T18:25:00.002+01:00

Although Skype Project is somehow finished, I still found objects that tell a story:

[other tests]

2011-05-07T18:22:00.001+01:00

taken in a big hurry and somehow not paying enough attention to composition. this proved to be rather wide (65mm), which means lots of dull foreground. would have to keep this in mind for the future shots. also, in the lower right corner there is some softness; I presume it might be my fault, but any suggestions would be of great help. still, I am thrilled by the details and the quality of the prints. Any suggestions are very much appreciated.

Mamiya 7 II
Mamiya 65mm f/4
Kodak Portra 400 VC

[first Mamiya shots]

2011-05-07T18:20:00.002+01:00

I took this with the 80mm lens, again in a big hurry; the print looks better than what you can see here, it is a bit more 'lively', not necessarily more coloured but somehow more intense. I definitely have to work more on the composition and this is what I actually wanted from me: a challenge, something different from what I did, a new perspective. Any suggestions are very much appreciated. Thanks.

Mamiya 7 II
Mamiya 80mm f/4
Kodak Portra 400 VC

[dream came true]

2011-05-07T18:18:00.000+01:00

10 Abandoned Places

2011-05-07T17:06:00.001+01:00

[I'm not a bad girl, you know]

2011-05-07T17:04:00.005+01:00

Meet Andrew Stark

I’ve always seen my role as street photographer a little in the guise of a nutty guy wearing a straw boater, chasing butterflies at a leisurely nineteenth century picnic using a long net fixed to a short pole. The pure collecting element of the process is not to be underestimated. That habitual collection of moments; that chase for images with a poetic and understated vein of pathos, so elusive as to hardly warrant more than nonchalant attention in a sane man’s world is a routine that has by now spanned a quarter of a century, helping to give a certain structure to my life. Underpinning all the other facets of me…it is a process which imparts a discipline most valuable; it is a humbling quest … a reason.

I’m a street photographer and yet I am fairly certain I’ve never really had a creative moment – I can’t sing, I can’t draw, I don’t ever really hold much of a conversation; no I’m simply an agoraphobic style drifter, you know a kind of wanderer with a fear of the horizon…. and along this stunted path to nowhere I pause to nab the occasional souvenir.

Counselor … “You need to get on and do something with you’re life”

Stark … “Nah mate, it’s OK, I’m a street photographer.”

My routine is rigid and mind numbingly traditional. I always shoot candid. Using up-rated black & white film, my images fall into a category marked “horrendously understated” and by definition, are of no consequence to the cutting edge of visual discovery. I’m not out there to reveal anything or to get anywhere – and in that alone I am a raging success.

The one thing for which I’m absolutely certain however is that there’s absolutely no point to any of it – street photography is little more than a high tech doodle, and you know for all the huffing and puffing, the coffee table books, the bohemian exhibition openings, the praise, the criticism, the abject tom foolery … taking pic upon pic of the ebb and flow of our urban nothingness is ultimately as barren in its usefulness as a girdle in a fish tank… and yet in saying that, I must concede, I haven’t as yet found anything I’d really rather be doing with my time.

Me, as I said in the title of this generous post, I am not a bad girl but sometimes I can't stop shooting. Like here:

Cinema Romania Now: promo clip for Belfast

2011-05-07T17:01:00.004+01:00

A few things about the way in which Romanians do films. Very important stuff.

What is the relevance for my practice?

Well, I think I am the same. :)

[temporary turbulences]

2011-05-07T16:57:00.001+01:00

I have discovered that TRI-X 400 film Kodak Professional brings me back to Tarkovsky's film and somehow I was inspired by their grim atmosphere when shooting these rather banal, nevralgic and obsessive-compulsive photos:

[my first shot with Canon 5d Mark II]

2011-05-07T16:51:00.001+01:00

[Romanian cold-blooded stuff]

2011-05-07T16:48:00.003+01:00

My Grandpa might be the subject of one of my future projects.

[car wash]

2011-05-07T16:47:00.002+01:00

[Catalin, 2 minutes portrait]

2011-05-07T16:46:00.001+01:00

It is very hard to take an ad-hoc portrait of people you know. This happened in less than 2 minutes. But I like his expression and probably will try to organise something more complex with him. Don't asked me why I cropped his head. I just wanted to have a focus on his eyes. Not the best idea, I know.

[back to school]

2011-05-07T16:40:00.003+01:00

Wales, a set on Flickr.

A friend asked me to create a set of the photographs taken in Wales as he intends to make a small exhibiton in his school (he is a Primary School teacher in Romania). I'm not very fond of my travel photos but I'm glad a few kids will watch these as part of their Arts class:

H E R E

[I must have this camera]

2011-05-07T16:34:00.001+01:00

Mamiya 7 II

[subject matter]

2011-05-07T16:31:00.002+01:00

[I feel betrayed by the future]

2011-05-07T16:30:00.002+01:00

click H E R E

[together we're invincible]

2011-05-07T16:27:00.002+01:00

very high sensitive energy level, I feel I can send vibrations anywhere, with perfect translucid white spheres of light.

I asked people if they think that street photography is in danger.

Their answers are H E R E

[Everybody Street film]

2011-05-07T16:20:00.002+01:00

During the early decades of the twentieth century, Alfred Stieglitz vividly captured the architecture and urban streetscapes of New York City. The first photographer to take the camera off the tripod, out of the studio, and into the streets, Stieglitz can be thought of as the father of New York City street photography - a genre that produced some of the most exciting and provocative images of the past fifty years.

Noted filmmaker and photographer Cheryl Dunn pays tribute to Stieglitz’s spirit through a unique and groundbreaking film that delivers an intimate portrait of some of the most important New York art photographers to emerge since the 1930’s. Her cinematic compilation includes interviews, photographs, and candid footage of the artists, exploring their lifelong dedication to New York as their photographic subject.

To see the film click H E R E

[why is it important for a photographer to R E A D?]

2011-05-07T16:18:00.000+01:00

What (or how) do photographs mean in the context of an autobiography? Do they come to rescue of autobiographical referentiality through the presentation of the author's body in the world, or do they undermine the integrity of refentiality through multiple or posed presentations? Did the invention of the photography transform the way we picture ourselves?

Linda Haverty Rugg, Picturing Ourselves in PHOTOTEXTUALITIES, edited by Alex Huges and Andrea Noble.

It looks that it is important for the photographer to read because he/she should ask himself/herself questions before and in the moment of framing / pressing the shutter. Without this minimal introspective exercise his/her photograph would be just plain, probably incomplete recordings of something at a given moment in time, without any artistic / cultural / social ideas in the background.

In other words, PHOTOGRAPHS WITHOUT BRAIN.

[cars]

2011-05-07T16:11:00.004+01:00

This is my CARS set, I continuously add photos in there, as I regularly participate in such shows organised in my area. This is heavy processing, I think the only photo I processed in such an evilish way but I think that it is good to kill the demons in the early stages and this is exactly what happened here. The rest of the photos are quite natural and unprocessed. Some guys say it looks interesting and they like it. As always, I am not sure about it but I can say with certainty that I won't do this again.

More photos on the set:

[cars], a set on Flickr.

Or a slideshow H E R E

[postcards] (?!)

2011-05-07T16:06:00.002+01:00

Weird enough, some friends proposed this to be again a very good photo for a postcard. I am not sure about this. She is Sophie, sleeping after a busy day at the Tatton Park.

[reflex]

2011-05-07T16:03:00.001+01:00

I am continuosuly obsessed by symmetry and reflections, almost unconsciously I construct some of the frames on this idea, I think it might be a bit too predictable but if I find some unusual situations / places, then the reflections might be rather cool. I think I'll work on this more.

This one is on 35mm film (fuji superia reala).

[Infrared 100]

2011-05-07T15:54:00.000+01:00

2010 marked the centenary of the first published infrared image. This is the Infrared 100 blog, which celebrates that centenary and discusses all aspects of infrared imaging H E R E.

Amazing online exhibition H E R E.

[Equator]

2011-05-07T15:09:00.002+01:00

[January 19th, 2010]

MA Photography exhibition and a few things I photographed while being there, waiting for visitors (* a difficult job but good for reading)

[text on the photo]

2011-05-07T14:52:00.001+01:00

*experiment

[TRUTH Magazine]

2011-05-07T14:47:00.001+01:00

I really do like to see my photos published in different magazines around the world, and I’m excited that the Australian magazine TRUTH chose one of my photos to be included in their latest issue (along some great photographs).

Details and orders: H E R E .

Curated by Dave Carswell www.flickr.com/davewell
Lay out and Design by Richard Payne www.fotorich.com

[postcards project]

2011-05-07T14:44:00.000+01:00

Lots of people told me that I should launch myself in the postcards business as some/most (!) of my photos would sell very well. I'm not sure about this. But here are a few images made in Pennington Flash, Lancashire - as the weather didn't actually allow other type of adventures.

and a little friend:

[beautiful people]

2011-05-07T14:33:00.000+01:00

Although I don't like photographing people's backs on the street, there are situations in which the way in which they tend to leave the frame has something melancholic which deserves to be captured; in this case, I thought that the lights of the city give a surreal feel to this silent street.

[afternoon and evening]

2011-05-07T14:28:00.000+01:00

I found out that sometimes it can't be a bad thing to follow people in town. It was not hard to follow him, he didn't move too much. Actually, the time moved more around him.

[same day. same man. same area.]

[printspace competition]

2011-05-06T21:31:00.000+01:00

[I just found out that this won the competition organised by theprintspace (London).]

[click H E R E for more details and other great entries]

[let Skype In]

2011-05-06T21:07:00.003+01:00

is now published on Blurb. For a preview of the book click H E R E .

[the cold wall project]

2011-05-06T21:00:00.003+01:00

you can open each photo individually or sit back and relax while viewing a slideshow H E R E

[the cold wall project]

2011-05-06T20:59:00.000+01:00

The mobile phone is nowadays a personalised object. The way it is used, its brand or even its appearance reflect personal preferences and identity. Researchers have investigated the simple motives for mobile phone use, such as convenience, personal efficiency, the need & necessity to communicate, as well as more complex reasons, such as information immediacy, contactability, interaction and control. Most analysis have focused on the influence of mobile phones at the level of society rather than on personal life.

By photographing people on the streets talking on the phone or sending texts or just tuning in to listen to their favorite radio station, my observation wants to reach that point where emerging aspects can be noticed at a personal level, such as dependence, identification, resistance (to different public pressures - advertising, interaction, interference, intrusion), self-character extension.

The personal use of mobile phones has also been analysed in relation to time pressure and transfer of work into the private life (extension of work time into the home life); the issue related to the possible dangers people expose themselves to when sending a SMS or talking on the phone in traffic as pedestrians has been the subject of researches which focus on the lack of attention or concentration as a result of using a mobile phone in the public space.

The idea of a project related to these issues is not new and its subject might also appear rather banal; instead of underlining the use of mobile phones from a sociological or psychological point of view, this observation process is structured around a typology of instances and habits people regularly adopt on the streets in relation to the use of their mobile phones.

Being stimulated mainly by a visual/photographic gathering of data, a certain pattern developed and the findings started to multiply/replicate themselves, thus creating the opportunity to test the validity of the observations. The researches were conducted systematically and repeatedly over varying conditions that yield the same findings (mostly in cities from the north-west of England, Scotland and Wales): people use their mobile phones in crowded areas, leaning against walls, and creating an aura of INVISIBILITY around them; not only that the Other become invisible to them (as they are focused on what is happening on the little screen or at the other end of the line) but they also become invisible themselves for the others. Also, a person talking on the phone suddenly becomes less ‘dangerous’ than the others, the possibility of interaction is instantly cancelled, and that person becomes ABSENT for those around him or her. It is also interesting to study if this might be an intentional habit of escaping/evading the public space by simply connecting to your personal miniature/microcosmic universe, your mobile phone.

I am in search of writings related to the contemporary trends of alienation on the street between individuals, generated not only by the use of technology and mobile communication devices (which become somehow more important than the people around us – back-to-back communication) but also by the tendency of building/projecting large areas in the city, the disappearance of the sidewalks in some areas. At the moment, I am studying Italo Calvino’s Le citta invisibili and Perec’s La Vie mode d’emploi, trying to find the connections between their opinions related to space and imaginary geography. However, I feel this idea is somehow closer to a research on the dynamics of the city (for the my THOSE INVISIBLE ALIENS project) rather than to the use of mobile phones in the public space.

The actual image I have in mind for describing the lead I want to follow (most probably in a different project) is that of people in an Internet cafe, sitting back-to-back, talking with other people through virtual means, BUT NOT WITH EACH OTHER, even if they are in a very close proximity.

The title of this project is THE COLD WALL and hopefully it speaks for itself.

(to be continued)

[aesthetics in progress]

THE COLD WALL project analyses the individual alienation in the city, the issues related to identification, communication and pressure of the street environment and the idea of invisibility in the public space. See details below.

[just a clarification on signs]

2011-05-06T20:53:00.000+01:00

The photograph is a particular construction variant of the pictorial sign function: the photographic sign would differe from other picture signs which are mainly grounded in icons, by being based on another of the three elementary sign types, the Index; and this would bring the issue of photography very much to the core of sign theory.

Early semioticians who bring love: Barthes and Moles; Eco; Lindekens, Vanlier, Dubois, Schaeffer and, of course, Mr Pierce.

[I may have lost my way home]

2011-05-06T20:47:00.002+01:00

[Kodak Professional BW 400 CN]

[discourse analysis notes]

2011-05-06T20:41:00.000+01:00

Photographs and fine art objects - an anthropological approach (?!)

transmission / circulation / display / viewing positions offered / relations to others /

- ethical individualism -
- iconography - not a Focauldian method
- intertextuality
- the role of the caption / text accomplanying a photograph (Discourse Analysis)

('facial expressions are a semiotic data' Barbara Johnstone)

These are notes. And the notes will develop and they will bring more wisdom. And the wisdom will lead us back to the basics. As simple as that. But in order to reach the pure, clean, white magic simplicity we have to go through a lot of...

Anyone who thinks we are close to final answers, or that we know how to find them must surely be mistaken.

(Wallace Chafe, in 'Discourse, Consciousness and Time')

[tell me something I don't know]

2011-05-06T20:35:00.000+01:00

I still want to use this as a title for one of my projects. It feels so close to the ironic attitude towards my own images. This is The Liverpool when I'm uninspired and ... late.

[a very short story]

2011-05-06T20:31:00.000+01:00

It is very interesting what I found in a book which declares itself as being influenced by John Berger's 'Ways of Seeing' (1972). This book is written by Maria Sturken and Lisa Cartwright, published in 2001 and it is entitled 'Practices of Looking'; the quote is short and simple as any wise saying should be:

We never look just at one thing; we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves.

For example:

[I have to admit I love diptychs]

2011-05-06T20:26:00.003+01:00

Mainly when using KODAK PROFESSIONAL BW400CN Film. Truth is flexibile.

[inspiration]

2011-05-06T20:24:00.000+01:00

“People work to reduce the anonimity and alienation of an urban living situation by creating enclaves of private and semiprivate space around themselves. When they venture out from beyond these, they must be sufficiently knowledgeable about the potential range of social type they might encounter to know how to interpret people’s actions.”

[Norman K. Denzin, Yvonna S. Lincoln, talking about Lyn Lofland’s World of Strangers (1973) in Handbook of Qualitative Research (1994)]

2011-05-06T20:23:00.001+01:00

[Students' protest in Manchester, November 24th, 2010]

2011-05-06T20:21:00.001+01:00

Students in Manchester protest against cutbacks and the coalition government's proposed rise in tuition fees. They spent some time in front of the Town Hall, chanting slogans as police blocked entrances.

Students in Manchester protest against cutbacks and the coalition government's proposed rise in tuition fees. They spent some time in front of the Town Hall, chanting slogans as police blocked entrances.

[instruction #8]

2011-05-06T20:10:00.001+01:00

Submission for Instruction #8 for the Street Photography Now Project;

"On your knees please... Take a picture from floor level." Matt Stuart

[glorious synchronicity]

2011-05-06T20:07:00.000+01:00

[wisdom from films]

2011-05-06T19:59:00.000+01:00

1989 film, Sex, Lies and Videotape. The opening lines. Audie Mac Dowerll's character confesses to her therapist:

Garbage. All I've been thinking about this week is garbage. I mean, we've got so much of it. You know, I mean, we have to run out of places to put this stuff, eventually.

Should I call the Landfill in Leigh to find infos about Skype? Plank Lane, WN7 4QA. Phone: 01942 261633

#just skips.co.uk/skip-hire-in-leigh/household-domestic-skip-hire.asp - I copied this link from my notebook; while doing this I've realised that I should not diminish / reduce Skype's world to that. Skype is independent. Pure transfer. Self-regulated transfer. Which is atypical.

(*note; Many people have only a vague sense of their discards go. But with Skype it is different. So much different. People know exactly what they do.)

[waste and want] (post without a photo, white magic, clean]

2011-05-06T19:53:00.000+01:00

coherence is often confused with homogeneity. in order to be coherent, art should shoot in all directions. that's why photographers should READ, LISTEN, PLAY, ACT - do all the things they want to understand and capture on film.

explorations of space - is such a general term, I should probably try to avoid it as I have a strong reaction whenever I hear it. (*note: one cannot put on display a low quality photo and then say lots of complicated things / philosophical / abstract terms and pretend / impose on the viewers that it is art. I think that this is what postmodernists did - until they realise there is no measure, no sense of reality and, after all, no logic in that. art should be able to ENLIGHTEN. and, of course, words are not necessary for this.

an echo is a good way to describe the photogram which is a virtual echo of the real object. it is as if the border between the world and the print is osmotic.

plastic bags + ventilators = sound (this is just an idea)

News: just read two books on waste / garbage / bins. OK. Any notable things?

Yes, there are some:

A society in which consumption has to be artificially simulated in order to keep producing going is a society founded on trash and waste, and such a society is a house built upon sand.

(Dorothy L. Sayers, 'Why Work', 1942).

The mounting trash is a constant reminder of how much we spend. How much we consume. How much we waste.

(*will be back)

[who is this man?]

2011-05-06T12:27:00.002+01:00

[I think I ~~fell in love~~ have become obsessed with this man, he sang during the Manchester Food Festival on 10.10.2010 (!) with a band (?) and because I was in a big big hurry I could listen to only one song. Any info would be very much appreciated. Thanks.]

[can we take interesting photos while we are the Uni?]

2011-05-06T12:26:00.001+01:00

Well, at least we can try.

[instructions]

2011-05-06T12:25:00.000+01:00

Photo appreciated positively by Sophie Howarth (*editor of Street Photography Now book)
7
Submission for Instruction #7 for the Street Photography Now Project;

"When you have to shoot: shoot! Don't talk!" - Il Brutto

Make a picture containing The Good, The Bad and The Ugly - Jens Olof Lasthein

For more info click H E R E

[just a touch]

2011-05-06T12:22:00.000+01:00

[I won't let people touch Skype]

[they will have to reach Skype through other means]

[and if they won't be able to, Skype will reach them]

[pulsating]

[L'extra-ordinare du infra-ordinare]

2011-05-06T12:20:00.000+01:00

How can you ignore Perec?

'What we need to question is brick, concrete, glass, our table manners, our ustensils, our tools, the way we spend our time, our rhythms. To question that which seems to have ceased forever to astonish us. We live, true, we breathe, true; we walk, we open doors, we go down staircaes, we sit at a table in order to eat, we lie down on a bed in order to sleep. How? Where? When? Why?

Describe your street. Describe another street. Compare.'

Think I'll use this last sentence as a subtitle for this blog. Think I'll walk with all these lines in my mind all the time. Took this photo before eating. Questioning my fork, of course!

[tell me where the trauma lies]

2011-05-06T12:15:00.003+01:00

I guess it is more than obvious that I played with this camera during the weekend. Darren tought me a lot of things about medium format and all I have to do is to decide if I am in love or not, and then if I'll commit to this. I am still confused which - according to the wise people - it is a good sign.

[textures]

2011-05-06T12:12:00.001+01:00

I think somebody has to study and develop more the idea of T E X T U R E in photography (the only way in which the text enters the image without words!).

And that somebody is me.

[practice makes clichés shine]

2011-05-06T12:11:00.000+01:00

Why is it important to photograph the clichés? It is important because I think this is the only way in which you can get rid of them. Some sort of therapeutic action. I want to shoot all the clichés my head is capable of until my head will be empty and ready to create something that is free of all the accumulations and influences (of course this is not possible but it just sounded nice!) :)

[not my ghosts]

2011-05-06T12:04:00.002+01:00

I am afraid I am obsessed with Skype and the world evolving around him. I have all the support of my tutors, and the smile of my colleagues can't be a bad sign. But it is quite serious, and I hope I won't develop some sort of an incurable neurosis - of collecting and photographing lost objects / memories / photographs.

[listening to clever guys]

2011-05-06T12:02:00.000+01:00

Interview documentary photographer Rob Hornstra by Mirelle Thijsen/IPhoR and Eefje Blankevoort/Prospektor H E R E
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