Thursday 21 January 2010

Daniel Meadows


I  went to a great talk by Daniel Meadows last night which had been kindly organised by London Independent Photography. To my very great shame, I didn't know who he was before I went to the talk. I've only very recently joined London Independent Photography so I was keen to take advantage of their events programme and Daniel's talk sounded really interesting (it's not much of an excuse but it's the best one I've got). It was about five minutes into the talk when he mentioned how he and his college mate Martin Parr had a joint exhibition back in the 70s that the embarrassment first set in as it dawned on me that I really ought to know who he was!

At the age of 20, whilst still a student at Manchester Poly, Daniel hired a shop in Moss Side for eight weeks and took free portraits of the locals. I don't know about anyone else, but as a student at the age of 20 I was struggling to get out of bed in time to hire a video, let alone having the balls and the drive to set up my own studio. Of course that might go some way to explain why he's now a world renowned photographer whereas I'm just an artworker, sitting here blogging about him!

After a summer stint working at Butlins with Martin Parr, Daniel hit upon the great idea of buying an old double decker bus 'The Free Photographic Omnibus' and kitting it out as home, gallery and darkroom all in one. He then drove around the country in 1973 creating a series of portraits of 'ordinary people', based on the premise that there isn't really any such thing as an 'ordinary person' and that everyone has their own fascinating stories. Each night he would print up the portraits he'd shot and give them to the sitters the following day. This resulted in an amazing set of National Portraits that are probably well known to all other fans of photography (apart from fools like myself!). After great success with this project, Daniel then revisited many of the same people in 2001, updating their portraits and catching up with their stories. You can buy the resulting book, The Bus and watch Daniel's short film about it on his site.

In his film, Daniel talks about the problem Documentarists like himself face of being 'Predator or Collaborator' when it comes to their subjects. Increasingly uncomfortable with being in the predator role, Daniel started looking at new methods of collaboration. He hit upon a digital storytelling approach where people would bring in their own photos which are then made into simple films with the subject telling their story in their own words, or 'Multimedia Sonnets' as he elegantly describes them.

Essentially he found a format which enabled the documentarist to remove themselves from the process as much as possible, enabling the subject to tell their own story. To take this process a step further, Daniel then started teaching groups how to run their own digital storytelling workshops. As Creative Director of a seven year BBC Wales project called Capture Wales, he saw this approach rolled out across Wales, resulting in an amazing archive of people's astonishing personal stories.

From listening to his talk it was fascinating to see (with the benefit of hindsight at least) a logical progression from The Bus all the way through to his current digital storytelling. His interests in democratisation of media and giving voice to ordinary people run throughout his body of work from the 70s to his present-day role as Dr Daniel Meadows, Lecturer in Photography and Participatory Media.

I stupidly didn't take any notes, so I've probably muddled things up a bit and I apologise in advance if this is riddled with inaccuracies. Daniel tells his story much better on his own site, along with many examples of digital storytelling. I can't recommend a visit strongly enough and if you ever get the opportunity to hear him talk make sure you don't miss out.

Tuesday 19 January 2010

Haiti Charity Print Auction on Flickr


Towards the end of last week, a Flickr user named Andy Newson had the great idea of running a print auction on Flickr to raise much-needed funds for Haiti. You can bid on Flickr users' photos and if you're the highest bidder at the close of the auction then you have to donate the amount bid to charity. The photographer will then pay to print and post the photo to you.

I've probably made it sound more complicated than it really is, have a look at the Flickr group and it'll soon make sense. In essence, you get some cheap art and the people of Haiti get some aid.

I'm auctioning these two shots as 20x16" prints on Fuji Crystal Archive paper,  and the auction closes at midnight on Wednesday 20 January. So get bidding folks and do your bit for charidee...


Padlocks


Barbican

Monday 18 January 2010

New Year, New Site



I've taken advantage of a quiet January to get around to updating my portfolio site at last. For years I had Flash-based sites which looked alright, albeit in a slightly 'Flashtastic' all-singing, all-dancing way. They worked well to demonstrate that I knew a bit of Flash, but they were a bit of a sod to update.

I've gone back to basics and stripped down the site so it looks a lot cleaner and hopefully lets the work speak for itself a bit more. I've built it entirely in HTML this time so it's much faster and easier for me to update, as well as helping me refresh my rusty web skills. It'll also now work on peoples' iPhones should they suddenly have an overwhelming urge to view my site whilst they're out and about (it might happen!?).

Please take a look for yourselves at www.graphitegrey.co.uk

Saturday 16 January 2010

January Playlist



If you thought the list of books was a pretty pointless post then best look away now!

Not that I'm lazy or anything, but lists seem to be the way to go when it comes to blogging. They're quick, easy and you don't have to waste time thinking about all the words that go inbetween the interesting bits.

I was working out a playlist last night to send to a mate, and I am so absurdly smug about how good it is that I thought I'd share it. I won't put the actual tunes up as I can't be doing with nasty letters from corporate lawyers, so I'm afraid you'll just have to sing the tracks in your head or take my word for it and go out and buy them all.

Fight the Power Public Enemy (Fear of a Black Planet)
Pussyole (Oldskool) Dizzee Rascal (Maths + English)
Hold the Line Major Lazer featuring Mr Lex & Santigold (Guns Don't Kill People... Lazers Do)
Rice and Peas Toddla T featuring Mr Versatile (Skanky Skanky)
Jesse James Rides Again The Pyramids (The Historic Roots of Ska Disc One)
Dita Dimoné Pop Levi (You Don't Know: Ninja Cuts Disc One)
Northern Girls Belleruche (Turntable Soul Music)
Non Non Non Melaaz (DJ Kicks: Daddy G)
Let Your Yeah be Yeah The Pioneers (Trojan Originals Box Set Disc Two)
Whatever Lola Wants Sarah Vaughan (Verve Unmixed 2)
The Witch The Broken Keys (Tru Thoughts 10th Birthday Disc Two)
Knotty Pine Dirty Projectors featuring David Byrne (Dark Was the Night)
Dance, Dance, Dance Lykke Li (Youth Novels)
Infinity The XX (XX)
Saturday Come Slow Massive Attack featuring Damon Albarn (Heligoland)
Burn My Shadow Unkle featuring Ian Astbury (War Stories)

Tuesday 12 January 2010

Shock News: Post Not About Photography!

In what is probably the most middle class blog post imaginable, here is a list of every book I read in 2009. I'd been thinking about keeping track of my reading for a while now, as my memory is pretty dire, especially when it comes to books, so it's been quite interesting (for me at least!) to see what I got through. So, without further ado, here they are in date order from January-December 2009 along with random, ill-informed comments as and when I feel the urge:

Master Georgie Beryl Bainbridge
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running Haruki Murakami
1977 David Peace
1980 David Peace
1983 David Peace
A Little History of the World E H Gombrich (Felt I needed a little non-fiction as a light holiday after reading so much David Peace back-to-back)
The Other Hand Chris Cleave
Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe
A True History of the Kelly Gang Peter Carey
Cloud Atlas David Mitchell
The Fire Gospel Michel Faber
The Small Back Room Nigel Balchin
We Need to Talk About Kevin Lionel Shriver (Blew me away, fantastic book)
David Copperfield Charles Dickens (Shamefully never read any Dickens before, and really enjoyed it)
Restless William Boyd (Not as good as Brazzaville Beach or Any Human Heart but a good holiday read)
Black Swan Green David Mitchell
The Damned United David Peace
Indignation Philip Roth (Great cover, dull story)
A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess (Should have read it years before but somehow passed me by)
Possession A S Byatt
Hackney That Rose Red Empire Iain Sinclair (Superb, been a fan for years but this was his best yet)
The Little Stranger Sarah Waters
Imperial Life in the Emerald City Rajiv Chandrasekaran (Interesting and worthy but depressing)
The Ongoing Moment Geoff Dyer (Massively inspirational and beautifully written)
The Long Fall Walter Mosley
Three Men in a Boat Jerome K Jerome
The House on the Strand Daphne Du Maurier
The Grifters Jim Thompson
Factotum Charles Bukowski
Poor Things Alasdair Gray

I make that a total of 30 books over the course of the year, not too shabby considering I walk to work so I don't read during a commute. I did also spend about a month reading Moby Dick and got about two thirds of the way through before packing it in. As I get older I keep thinking that I ought to read more classics, but some I really struggle with. On the other hand, I did finally manage to read my first Dickens so that's something I guess.

Towards the end of the year I joined my local library for the first time in years. It's had an interesting effect on my choices. Rather than popping into Waterstones and picking up a new release from the tables, I've been browsing through the shelves more. It's probably meant that I've read slightly older books than I would normally, and taken more risks as I haven't been paying for my choices.

I was going to pick some books of the year, best fiction, non-fiction, best new author, that sort of thing, but looking back through the list I think I'd find it really hard to narrow down my choices. It also seems a pretty pointless exercise – and that's coming from someone who's just spent 30 minutes on a Tuesday evening typing up a list of their books...