Kevin Bjorke reacquainted me with Harvey Benge yesterday (web here and blog here)

I came across Harvey a few years ago, and even bought a couple of his books ‘A Guide to Modern Living’ and ‘Vital Signs’.

As well as really liking the pics I was also very intrigued at how he chose to organise the pics in his projects. In ‘Vital Signs’, he organises the images into chapters based on medical vital signs. Level of Consciousness, Body Temperature, Circulation, Blood Pressure, Heart Rate, Respiratory Rate, Eye Reaction.

His choice of this structure was based around a desire to show what it is like for him to ‘be alive’ in a belief that how you construct the landscape around you is as much a ‘vital sign’ of ‘being’ as medical terms.

Now, whilst I might agree or not with the philosophy here, the attempt at organising a project is an interesting one.

What I’d missed from not checking his website often enough, is that he has moved from this approach to creating composites – something anyone who knows me is aware I’m keenly interested in.

I’m more than a little frustrated that I can’t find any text on any of these new projects, so I guess I need to buy some more books! Without the text I’m left with something that I’m very keenly aware is a keypoint of composites – ‘can I work out the relationships of the images without a supporting text?’ Unfortunately, no, I can’t – and this not a failure of Harvey’s just a facet of this strategy. But I can get lost in these images and construct all sorts of meanings – I can encounter these works and come away with something new. Something that for me is a key factor in an artistic experience. Can I play with these, am I a partner in this encounter with the artwork or is my role limited to agreeing with whatever point the artist is trying to make?

I’m very intrigued by these and will be getting a couple of more books – he has even had the back of his head photographed by Nartin Parr, what more can I say!

Tim Atherton is back from holidays and is offering a new print as part of his small editions. Get ‘em while you can.

UPDATE.

Tim also has the series from which this image is taken online

…has a new edition available for his ‘Looking Glass Editions‘. The guy has an expensive 8×10 habit to fuel, so support him!

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.

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

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!

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.