Photomovette

Yesterday I was very excited to wake up to find that Photomovette was featured in the Independent on Sunday, in an article about Photobooths. Some of you may or may not know that, in my spare time, I run an old school, black & white photobooth, complete with chemicals. It's one of the only ones in the UK (I only know of 2 others) and it lives in a studio in Deptford. It is in full working order and has been used at events at the studio, but there is one technical hitch which is preventing us from getting it into a public space. All in good time...

A couple of weeks ago Siobhan (the other half of Photomovette) and I were approached by a journalist who was writing a piece for the Indy about the resurgance in these old machines. Cos oddly, there is a resurgance... although a lot of the time they are digital machines which have four exposures, as opposed to the boring ones in Boots which duplicate one image four times to fit to passport regulations. We were asked to be one of the case studies... I was interviewed by the lovely Kate Burt and Jean Goldsmith came to take our picture (which resulted in one of the funniest afternoons ever; I think there were 7 of us squashed inside the booth!) The article can be read here.

As soon as we get our little technical hitch sorted, we are going to be looking for a venue or public space to put it. So let me know if you know of anywhere which may be interested. In the meantime, keep up to date with when it is in use by joining our Facebook group, and following our blog. We also have a website, which can be found here.

LIP Annual Exhibition

This year, I was very honoured to be asked to join the curating team of the LIP Annual Exhibition. Organised by London Independent Photography, this year the show has moved to the much more prestigious Strand Gallery, which was once Proud Central, but still part of the Proud conglomerate.

A tricky space to work with, especially when the show comprises of 60 individual photographers, and lots of single images. But I was lucky enough to be curating with the very experienced Carol Hudson, and the two Carol(e)s (as we became known) became quite a team.

 
©Jason Yeomans

There is some very good work in the show. A few of my highlights are a Hans Bellmer doll-esque contorted nude by Jason Yeomans, elaborate fantastical sets made up by Graeme Webb, and an eerie triptich by William Head. In true LIP style, there is some outstanding street photography. Notably a series exploring darkness and light at Tate Modern (i will check the photographer's name when I go back - a momentary lapse in memory!), a single image documenting the World Cup by Jonathan Goldberg, and another series by someone whose name escapes me (argh!).

©Jon Goldberg

The Private View is tomorrow night, from 6pm, and the show continues until the 31 October. Do pop in if you get a chance and you're in the area. There is also a catalogue to accompany the show, which will be available through Blurb shortly.

A Pregnant Pause

I haven't posted in a while... there's a lot going on and I'll have a lot of news very shortly!

Meanwhile, here are some pictures of my very good friend Tori, glowing in her pregnancy. They were taken on a beautiful summer's evening in August, in Yorkshire.

 

A world of fairytales

Troika Editions is an online print sales gallery. They have a great selection of photographers, whose work they sell at very reasonable prices. And they have recently opened up a small gallery in Clerkenwell; their next exhibition begins this week, featuring three winners of the Troika Editions/FORMAT Exposure award: Kurt Tong, Katrin Koenning and Schinster.

Each month, they invite a "distinguished expert" to choose one of their artists and a write about them. Diane Smyth from the BJP, Jon Levy from Foto8, Debra Klomp Ching from the Klompching gallery in New York have all contributed. So I felt incredibly honoured to be asked to write something for their October slot, which you can read here.

I chose to write about Jan Dunning, who constructs her images by building sets, which she then photographs using a pinhole camera. I was immediately seduced by the soft aesthetic of her images, and the sense of narrative they portray. Looking at them evokes fairytales, nightmares, and unnatural forces... it's all really good stuff. Check out her website and hear her talk about the process of making the images on the Troika website.