seems to be a popular game...

I've been a bit preoccupied this week, so a bit of a quick blog space filler to mark the third and final part of my relationship project, Steven and Berba the dog.

Black and white or colour? 

(yes, blogger I did mean to write "col-OUR"!)

the domino club

I found it! I finally tracked down some domino players at The Caribbean Community Centre on Seven Sisters Road, Mr. Thomas really did exist. I don't now why but the place felt a bit like a Scottish guesthouse. I let myself in and was greeted by an enormous smiling picture of the last pope and two goldfish swimming around quite happily in a washing -up bowl as if guarding the entrance. I knew I was in the right place though from the clacking, banging roar that emanated from "the conference room", either that or there was a full scale brawl going on. Fortunately someone else appeared just behind me and told me to wait outside while he asked Mr.Thomas if it was ok for me to enter. I was fully prepared a this point to be told no, as it had already been two weeks of tracking this place down and I had been told that he wasn't that keen on me being there. But, I got the nod an in I went. Mr. Thomas was the tiniest gentleman you could imagine, quite old and very softly spoken, he said that probably no one would want their picture taken but he would ask anyway. Some people said outright I couldn't shoot them, some even got up and said they were going to go home, which made me feel bad as this was their club and their sunday afternoon I was spoiling for them, so I assured them I wouldn't be long. Which was a shame, as I need long to get my head around shutter speeds and apertures still, as my pitiful efforts show. I knew that at a push I could have half an hour, and I wanted to try as many angles as I could... and I messed up. I was cross with myself for rushing when had I been more methodical and measured, yes, I would have had less shots... but at least the ratio of useable ones would have been higher. In a way I suppose the shakiness does convey some of the energy and tension in the room, but that should have been a deliberate choice rather than an after thought! This was a good example of a situation that would benefit from return visits, as by the end as much a they wanted me to go, those that didn't mind me being there had started to relax a bit... I even got a game in. Sadly for this assignment they only meet once a week, but it did leave me with a germ of an idea for community centres and traditional games... maybe.

and...

The Trent Parke game which kept me and a friend amused for a week or so last year. Of course we cheated, but it would be good to revisit it and actually try and learn things...

The Hare and the tortoise

Not a lot happening today so I thought I'd do some homework. Looking back over the Magnum website's portfolios for Alex Webb and David Alan Harvey I found I was playing a game of pairs noticing their differences by seeing the way each had shot a similar subject. The pictures at the top are by Alex Webb and those at the bottom David Alan Harvey. In class, I liked the immediacy of  Webb's images and his sense of humour and the design part of me liked his use of  themed colour and strong shapes, but after looking at a longer series of them they began to seem less believable as real situations and some took on the feel of advertising images (of course that may be because he influenced that approach rather than the other way around). When we were shown the David Alan Harvey pictures immediately after these it felt like I was looking at someone's holiday photographs. It was hard for me at first to rationalize why this was so. It was only after looking at them in isolation that the idea of a sense of place that Paul mentioned some say is lacking in the Webb images, I understood why I might have thought this. There seems to be a sensitivity in Harvey's pictures, that is lacking in Webb's. For me it's as if Webb is clever and he shows it in a "ta da" way and Harvey is slower, thinking about what he sees, making the purpose of the image belong more to his subject.

brian? brian? sounds irish to me...

Finally I have started this project properly (actually it was a few days ago now, but blogger doesn't seem to like uploading pictures in the evenings) After much asking around I was put in touch with Peggy and Tony Philips. They are both approaching 90 and have been married 40 years. I had absolutely no idea what to expect, and to be fair, neither did they I think. Especially as Tony, who is very hard of hearing, thought my name was Brian... even when I'd been there a few hours. From my last tutorial I knew I had to step back a bit and take in more of the space, and so I couldn't use my 50mm lens so I had to fix my only other lens to 35mm. I do not like this other lens too much for indoors as it isn't so kind in shadow and I have to work harder not to get camera shake. The house had loads of great details, some of which weren't strictly illustrative of a "relationship" but were still great. Of course these were all in shadow and so have really annoying shake on them despite my best efforts. I had only left myself 80 shots on my memory card to make sure I stuck within the limit, but then I annoyed myself after I left that I hadn't just gone around with my other lens taking shots for me and not for the project.

It was funny being there as although they were often in the same room, they were completely separate, which added an interesting dimension to the relationship idea. My favorite thing, although it didn't really work photographically was that when they had their morning coffee so that they knew whose mug was who's, Tony had a bit of green ribbon tied to the handle. It was great, because aside from that I had found it extremely hard to find anything in the rest of the house that showed they lived together... and in a weird way I suppose this did and didn't all in one.

ennui

I have to say I am not doing too well with the latest project. Far too many false starts, not to mention wrong addresses. 

There was a time where every local pub had a domino match going on in the corner...  I feel like an explorer trying to track down a lost species., and even the Ford Anglia Club have blanked me. The picture at the top of this blog was part of a possible relationship thread, it was a protest in Whitehall at the weekend, but who knew it was also Waitangi Day? (coincidently another incident of Britain portioning off bits of land it didn't really have any right to) I had no idea what this was, and had to ask a policeman. Any way suffice it to say scores of drunken New Zealanders, some dressed in rather dubious taste as Maori's, joining in the above protest shouting to free "Pakistan" (sic) only added to my despair at having anything to hand in next week, let alone improved framing.

I know that I should have worked with the opportunity the confusion gave and have stuck it out to see what I ended up with... but I didn't want to.

the weekend.

For some reason Blogger hasn't been working so smoothly for me this weekend, so I'll keep this one short. I wanted to tell of a fascinating conversation I had with someone who makes and fits prosthetic limbs, but that will have to wait for another time (and when I have read a little more around it, incase I was being gullible!)

The Deutsche Borse Photography Prize 2008 (can't find the umlaut) shortlist has ben announced. I sort of feel the same about it as I do the Turner Prize, I will be familiar with one, not understand one, be annoyed by one... and never know how those have been picked over so many others. This year I like Jacob Holdt, but probably only because I had seen the book Jacob Holdt, United States 1970-1975. 

His website however is something to behold, at first I wasn't sure it was the same person, but even if it hadn't been, it certainly is a curiosity. The CV has a Walter Mitty/Forrest Gump quality to it, but I assume it's all true. I've not seen all the others in context yet, so I can't say for sure who's work I really like, but based on just this my expectations are high!