The Bartender Never Gets Killed

I posted about John before, but I’ve just had an email from John telling me about an upcoming book launch and exhibit…

The book can be bought from the address above or direct from John

I’m a long-time fan of Keith’s work, and I’ve just heard he has his first commercial gallery exhibit in NY at the Nelson Hancock Gallery.

Seeing people like Keith get exhibits always cheers me up. If you are in NY May 10 to June 9 pop by.

Went to pick the rollei up yesterday, but I wasn’t happy with the alignement between the viewing and taking lens - seemed to be out by a coupla millimeters, so… next week…

But I thought I could take the opportunity to put to rest some of the ‘pingpong’ slurs I’ve had since I posted the ‘5 things post’… (you know who you are!)

The best pro league in the world is in Germany - despite what some people say, the reason I like the sport isn’t JUST because the US gets its ass whooped. This young lady (playing on the right) has one of the most scary backhand LP techniques in the world, very reminiscent of Carl Prean at his best…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ7K43l4284]

There ’s not a spanish version of this available due to copyright claims, but roll over maradona…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9DNzx0tADQ]

(Edit)

Or a Spanish version until it disappears…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv1uGnl6WZA]

… comes back tomorrow! Just in time. Clear blue skies, 22-25degrees. The sun is hitting the streets for long periods and not being blanked by buildings. And I have the day free to work. Having said all that I really don’t want to work on a project - just to take pics, to spend time in the kind of awarenss mode you get into when walking around with a camera.

I’ve been dreaming about pictures recently too, so it will be interesting to see what I come back with.

Anway, ¡Gracias Jacinto, eres un genio!

Just had an email from Patrick pointing me to his latest project. A book and tour are planned for next year.

For those of you who are streetshooters, HP is sponsoring a competition with first prize being an exhibit at Arles this year.

Gary Alexander has tagged me with the 5 things ‘thing’…

1. I buggered up my A levels because instead of revising I’d  disappear out of my bedroom window and go and play in a band. There were girls, alcohol, marijuana, I was young…

2. I was expelled from school when I was 12. I bought dinner tickets from those entitled to free meals and then sold them for a profit. It is a real pity that I didn’t retain that level of entrepreneurship…

3. My favourite sport is tabletennis. I train anything up to 5 times a weekend then compete on Sundays. I currently play for S. Andreu, but this may change next season…

4. I got followed by a basking shark once whilst windsurfing. Scared the hell out of me…

5. I’ve just cancelled my work commitments for Thursday so I can go to the Friedlander opening…

I tag… nobody. This thing ENDS NOW!

In a number of blogs and lists at the moment there are discussions about finding a gallery - notably here .

One of the pieces of advice that struck home recently was to avoid start-up galleries. Having suffered a fairly negative experience with a startup I passionately agree with this! Another good piece of advice is to only approach galleries whose work you feel enthusiastic about. Anyway, as I’m STILL waiting for the rollei to come back, I thought I’d start a mini series about galleries whose concepts I like.

I’ve had my eye on this gallery for a long time and I’d just love to get in. Needless to say it isn’t in Spain - but as I’m a stranger in a strange land here it doesn’t really matter! - but check out this place.

For me it would be ideal. An interest in urban landscape as represented by the work of Peter Bialobrzeski

together with the more ‘art’ side of the photo world as seen here in a series by Oliver Boberg

There is also a series of dips I quite like by Bernard Faucon

Anyway, one way to get your stuff under the nose of one of the directors of the gallery is to enter this competition .

I can’t believe how badly-informed I am sometimes but… Just found out that in three days there will be the largest retro of Lee Firiedlander’s work ever seen in Europe, based on the last MoMA show. Can’t wait. And for those in the US - something rare and wonderful… the show is free…

Whilst researching for a new project (working title ‘An Ideal Transition’? - probably more about this later) I came across a project by Irish photographer David Farrell called Innocent Landscapes. He, and the project, is proving difficult to track down on the web, so I can’t provide very big pics. So, making the best of a bad lot (and some of these images load very slowly)…

From the publishers website

In May 1999, The Northern Ireland (Location of Victims’ Remains) Bill was passed in the House of Commons; it provided an amnesty to help the identification and location of people who had disappeared during the ‘Troubles’. Six locations were identified and became known as the ‘Sites of The Disappeared’. These were the burial places of eight people murdered by the IRA in the 1970s and early 1980s. In thirty years of conflict and atrocities, this small group of people stood apart. They were all Catholic and, as it turned out, had not only been taken from their families but also from their homeland to be buried in the South. In June 2000 the search was finally suspended. Three remains had been located, three closures permitted; for the remaining five families there was a site rather than a spot, a closing rather than a closure.

Farrell’s project was to photograph these ’spots’…

The burial sites were from a 10 year period, some are marked, others are left with nothing to indicate what happened

BTW, if anyone can find more examples of this I’d be grateful for a pointer!

In my Oasis project, like many photographers, I’m concerned with the empty spaces, often treated as ‘common ground’, that exist either side of urban development. These places are at best transitory and documenting them is working with an endangered species. British photographer John Davies has been working with OurGround to document these places as they are changing in Liverpool and Mersyeside.

If you follow this link you’ll find a number of John’s pics from the project.

From the Our ground site.
Our Ground is about public open spaces: parks, playing fields and other grounds in Liverpool, Merseyside and beyond. This site is also about the transition of public space with images, news and links to other sites concerned with the changes that are taking place. Photographs are regularly added to this site.

Many of the spaces shown on the site are not just wasteland that has been appropriated for common use, but land currently registered and used for community use. Playing fileds, both community and those owned by public (public as in ‘public’ not private) state schools have often been sold in order to finance other projects.

Whilst looking at John’s work, its worth checking out his other projects including ‘The British Landscape’ (can’t link to it for some reason). From a review by Open Democracy

John Davies’ beautiful panoramic photographs of the British landscape capture an industrial world now lost and a modernity running away from its past.

Having talked about Patrick Shanahan in a previous post I’ve been re-looking at English photographers that capture something uniquely ‘English’. John Darwell’s work touches me very deeply - I feel as if I am coming from a similar tradition in a way.

I worked and studied for many years in the North of England - in the early 80s I was teaching in Yorkshire during ‘the’ miners strike - and much of John’s work reflects this area.

There is a lot of work on his website and you can see his devlopment and concerns.

The above image is taken from In Isolation

From his statement…

In many ways the images presented here can best be regarded as my first exploratory attempts at finding a new vocabulary within which to work and as such can best viewed as an ongoing and continually developing ‘work in progress’.

In many ways the ability to move freely whilst observing the shifts occurring in the differing layers of focus was, and is, a wonderfully liberating and exciting development within my image making.

Echoes of my new stylistic approach can subsequently be seen within the majority of projects that have followed this period of experimentation.

Images from this series were initially shown along the escalator walls at London’s Euston Station.

He’s done a number of docu projects, none of which move me as deeply as the ones concerning things closer to home. Such as The Garden of Earthly Delights from which this image is taken.

I came across John’s work whilst researching for my Scene of the Crime project, his Black Dog work touched on a similar area

from the artist statement

This work is the culmination of three years of research and marks another major shift in my development. Here I attempt to take the viewer on an allegorical ‘journey’ through the process of depression as viewed from a first-hand perspective. Combined with the images are two text pieces * that carry the work forward to a conclusion that can be positive or negative depending on the perceptions of the viewer.

I start ‘loosing’ John after the garden of Earthly Delights - the series up until then I really enjoy. But definitely spend some time on his site.