It is not the end, but a beginning

At the outset of this commission, I described my initial hopes and ambitions for the project, now after the final week I believe I have delivered a program which met the children's needs and resources. Having worked with the children from the start to the finish, I am confident that this shall not be the end of their photographic output, but that they will continue to engage in the potential of the medium.
Below, I have included statements written by the participating children themselves, which show their own feelings about the project, and I see it fitting that they should have the definitive comment, at the close of the Lancashire Hill Junior Photography Club.

Borders and Boundaries

Even whilst on holiday I managed to shoot a few politicized images, is this a fault that I cannot leave my camera at home or a good thing? I am unsure. I found the access to the forest rather restrictive operated by a Stasi like barrier system which if you didn't get your money in and drive quickly enough would rip your front bumper off for you!

The continuation of the darkroom

Last week I received a call from a friend living in London who kindly offered me his Fuji scanner as sadly his business was entering receivership. This unfortunately is a circumstance which I see with greater regularity each year, but in this case carried more depth as it was a photographer with over 20 years international experience in the business working in the capital. If this could happen to such a respected photographer I thought what hope is there for the rest of us living in provincial towns?

I accepted his kind offer and the scanner is now settled (though not yet up and running) in its new home in my darkroom in Marple Bridge.

This year I fully intend to shoot as often as timescales allow in film, this will be a nostalgic journey for me predominately shooting with the Leica, a couple of beat and battered (but trustworthy Nikon F3's and the Mamiya RZ. The black and white will be processed by myself in my own processing facilities and printed by hand in my darkroom. The colour film and transparency shall make use of the new scanner producing a hybrid of film to digital which is becoming more frequently used particularly in fine art photography. This is a process I think today's students and perhaps Universities should investigate more as currently the trend appears to be to spend a sizable amount of money on a digital amateur standard kit which usually they soon out grow and find insufficient quality from. Students unless they have £3000 to spend would be better served spending £300 on a film set up, processing their own film (which costs pennies) and scanning their images to produce a digital file. This would help to teach students the importance of mastering technical skills to produce a sound negative at capture and would produce better results than many of the lower end digital cameras used today which is why I find it particularly sad that most learning institutions continue to tear out darkroom facilities.

Over the coming months I shall continue to purchase film stock put it in the fridge and spend more time in my chambre noir.

Arles Photography Festival 2010

I have recently been asked to participate in a blog named Parachute through my degree course which aims to discuss the subject of photographic working practice with the content largely generated from the Arles photography festival.
This I hope will be an engaging forum where ideas and experience can be freely discussed.

Section 44 is dead

It was with great joy I read this week that the European Court of Human Rights has rejected the Home Office's appeal which renders Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 illegal. This also means of course that anyone that has been stopped under these powers from 12 January now have a case.

The misuse of Section 44 by the Police Forces of the UK has been a subject I have felt passionately about, my own fisrt experience of the Police's disregard for photographers rights dates back to the early 1990's when covering a riot on the Ordsall Estate in Salford for regional press I was thrown into the back of a riot van despite my creditation as a bonafide newsgatherer.

Photographers are often considered a pretty lonely lot, so seeing the way Jess Hurd, Marc Vallee, the I'm a Photographer Not A Terrorist group, the BJP and NUJ have all worked together to campaign for photographers rights is something we all should be thankful for.

La Chambre Noir

Back in 1988 the first pay packet I recieved was from my position as a black and white hand printer in a busy darkroom at Stevenson and Johnson Photography on Whitworth Street Manchester. Over the years I have had a familar relationship with the darkroom. I have had some of the funniest laughs in there, slept in there done things I should'nt then finally seen it pass into history as like an old friend I have mourned its demise.
Imagine my excitement when now, like a phoenix it has once again risen in the basement of my house. I can carry on our frienship and special bond secretely, quitely walking down the stone steps where we can once again be together.
This isnt entirely an illicit affair however, during the first year of my degree course if there was one area I perhaps found difficult it was working in a more considered manner than I had been familiar with working as a photojournalist shooting digital. The idea of having 16 weeks to produce a project seemed very alien to me after shooting on average 8 jobs per day. It is with this decision to investigate once again shooting film and process and print myself that I hope will "slow down" my working practice and also importantly allow me to retain full control throughout the whole photographic process to achieve the desired visualization I had at the beginning.

Fire Eater

Last night (25.6.10) in Brabyns Park Marple Bridge. I particularly enjoy a job when you arrange to meet the client at your own home, walk 10 minutes down the road to the location and can even tell your children to look out of their bedroom window and they may see Dad at work!