A Scarborough affair...

Blustry drive through Scarborough brought back so many childhood memories, the arcades, the fish shops, the sweets and rock. Love to just photograph all the neon shopfronts and unique seaside shop signs,

Masculinity

My friend Jennifer Smith (who is studying photography and is in her final year) required some flyers for her recent photography exhibition which explores the theme of 'Masculinity'. With just a few days turnaround I sent Jen some variations and she selected the most appropriate one. Jen decided to go with the design above. Out of the selection of designs I liked this one - especially with the text. I wanted to show how the perception of Masculinity can be so diverse so I tried to use a bold, masculine font and merge it into a lighter, italic font. I hoped the designs reinforced the theme of the exhibition in a neutral way. Visitors to the exhibition were encourage to fill out questionnaires and submit their thoughts and so that is why I chose the neutral colours.

PANIC @ NOISELAB

The Countdown

Panic slowly encroaches upon us, getting more and more intense until we fully acknowledge the fear. The familiar sense of counting down the days, hours or minutes until an anticipated moment is something we all know a little too well.

On Wednesday Rachael, Helen and I were invigilating our PANIC exhibition @ NOISE in Manchester. I was very impressed with the layout, display and overall curation of the exhibition.

Oswiecim

After my trip to Poland and Auschwitz back in February I decided to use some of the photographs I'd taken on the trip to produce a small personal photographic response of visiting there. I found it easy to arrange my images in a way that would emphasize their composition, however I found it really hard knowing what text if I wanted any at all should I place on the images. I felt it required some narrative/explanation/poetry but I felt I tainted the simple interpretative language of the images. In the end I combined some found poetry with words of my own and produced a few small concertina books. The book folds out and on the reverse is a really poignant juxtaposition of two images of the same scene. The focus shifts. I began to think of the psychology of prisoners and how they may view what is beyond the fences.

I printed one book onto newsprint and when I began to photograph the book using strong lighting I realized you could begin to see the image on the other side of the paper, I though this added a new layer in the communication of the piece, perhaps I could contrast some images?

Irish eyes are smilin...

We took advantage of St.Patricks day this year to fund raise for the degree show. Working with Rachael, Maria, Helen and Fredi we designed four tshirts for the day. The four designs were...

** Irish eyes are smilin **
** I heart the craic **
** I'm a drinker not a fighter **
** I heart my Paddy Irish man **



We decided to make 80 shirts and we hand screen-printed them all on tuesday. We got to Waxy's where Maria had ok'd it with the manager, because we were fundraising they let us sell inside...what no-one told us was that they were giving away free tshirts upstairs! so we had to convince everyone to buy a £6 shirt! well we definitely had our work cut out. It was a long night but we were determined to sell the lot! which we did and have managed to raise a grand total of....£202.43!

Right and now back to some work....

Mothers day card's

I get this rack of guilt if I don't contribute to any of the fundraising events going on! so I made up a few cards to contribute to the mothers day sale in the Holden Gallery. I loved the Russian doll logo for mothers day a perfect metaphor for a mum! Just bought one of the canvas bags - love it!

Saatchi & Saatchi Summer Internship Programme

So back in January whilst I was sifting through jobs and internships on the net I came remembered Saatchi & Saatchi. I checked to see how to apply for a summer internship for this year. Man was there competition! So in true S&S style a competition bonanza was held to weed out all unworthy applicants....I think there was around

Challenge no.1 was to create a Facebook Group and get as many people to join as possible...well! This was a toughy as I came into the competition a little late but I managed to get a good following.

You can see the group I created here...
I remembered there was around 800/900 groups some about loosing biscuits in your tea, a lot about Cheryl Cole, some claiming to giveaway freebie Uggboots and such and others actually claiming to be the Saatchi & Saatchi Summer 2010 Internship group - well def some genius ideas there!

The group which did the best was 'YOUR OWN LEGO MAN:FREE'(approx. 249,00 members)
The group which came second was 'Secret London' (approx, 201,00 members) This group actually became a start-up business thanks to its success!

O.k so I had like 200 members! o.k so actually 265 current members. However all I needed to do was be in the top 50% which was actually achievable. I resorted to pure creativity and interaction to try and overcome so of these uninspired groups. I managed to wangle myself through to the next round. 800 went down to around 400. Second round....

S&S posted a quiz, a special quiz that had Saatchi specific questions (like what is written on the stairs at the London offices) some Advertising questions and some random ones (like if Facebook was a country where would it sit in terms of population...)

So in result although I did the quiz within the time my score wasn't high enough to put me into the top half....then along came wildcard round....

Are you familiar with the recent 'we can't go on like this' (heavily airbrushed) David Cameron billboard. Well if not here is the original.



The poster was heavily criticized and the online world took it upon themselves to design their own versions, plenty to see available here. BACK TO THE CHALLENGE! So wildcard round posted (meaning if I re-made my own decent witty, funny and brilliant version I could still go through.)

These are some of the idea's I'd come up with...



My final submission being...



Witty? yes, clever? yes, funny....probably not so i wasn't surprised to find I failed this hurdle. I was surprised however to see the winning ideas (Alistair Campbell chose two himself.) Little disappointed but onwards and upwards.

Chemikali

In-between working on the Degree Show Identity project and a live brief my friend asked if I could do him a quick logo which he could use for his mixes, which he wanted to put onto YouTube. A quick few hours on an evening and we came up with this after some experiments which I'm quite pleased with.

From the end of my nose to the tips of my toes...

Valentines Fundraiser Card and Cakes Sale

"From the end of my nose to the tips of my toes" is a quote taken from a card by Stacie who was running the fundraiser. Lots of people had contributed to the sale some of the cards were fantastic I liked Hannah Davies cards they were really beautiful and Emma Browns animals, Stacie had spent quite some time and effort on some cut-out cards. On the confectionery side of things there was a great selection including some home-made bath-bombs and some cupcake works of art. Below are a selection of my collage cards...

Auschwitz- Birkenau

So we had one day going to Auschwitz-Birkenau. I felt this huge apprehension about going as my mother had been and she couldn't go further than the gates. i was surprised at how many tourists there were for such an out of season visit. The three hour tour felt rushed and brief, there are so many stories and information to learn. I was helping my friend take notes and note statistical information which prevented me from being fully reflective about the place I was in.
I've always known that the sacrifice you make as a photographer is withdrawal. As soon as you lift the camera up to take a photograph you then psychologically step outside of the place you are in. You go from active-participant to passive observer in a second, I felt guilty taking the photographs and considering such menial thoughts like light, composition etc.
Besides that I tried at points to put myself in the position of a prisoner. Especially with these two shots - not particularity beautiful in anyway but carry such a heavy metaphor. My friend Nat was questioning chances of survival in Auschwitz, we were discussing how some people who 'gave-up' did not have anything waiting for them on the other side, we compared this situation to those driven to survive to care for others or loved ones. Some were prepared to escaped others didn't even consider it. This is what I was contemplating whilst I took these photographs (both the same photo, just a different focus.)


It seemed strange to see a cat wandering around the gates, I remember distinclty at Birkenau there are no birds, just a few trees but there is just no life. Its so vast as well, you don't really realise the scale of it all.

Krakow

The opportunity to go to Poland came when my flatmate was going over for research on her dissertation. I decided to go with her (just for two nights) to Krakow, whilst there we went around Krakow, to Auschwitz-Birkenau and to the Jewish quarter to the Galacia Jewish museum. Whilst over there I did a bit of photography I was concerned that my SLR may be affected by the cold weather, condensation/moisture but I luckily managed to avoid that with the cold temperatures! On one early morning the light was particularly beautiful. Here are a few of my favorites,

Brixton Academy

Over New Year my sister was performing at the Brixton Academy in London. I'd just acquired the new Canon EOS 500D as a late 21st present and this opportunity provided me with the perfect opportunity to give it a little test run. I popped a zoom lens on and tested out some settings during rehersals and began documenting the night. Aimee had a dressing room. I really like the snaps I took in there, because she was my sister I could get quite close and these pictures have a sense of intimacy and reflection behind them, most of the time she didn't realise I was snapping away. I think the monochrome and the grungy kind of lighting captured enhances the feeling of intimacy and emotion. It was quite a challenge to change the settings so quickly from when your up-close, to far away when she was on stage, to when the lights were on here, each time required different settings so I had to be quick on my toes. Luckily my new camera also has video options so I managed to get some interesting videos of behind the scenes and from the side of the stage.

ohhh puddles

Whilst wandering the puddle ridden streets of Liverpool I found it amazing the colours and reflections in the cobbles. It reminded me of my silence project as I was looking at fragmented memories. I took some images of famous stores with their bright logos shining into the puddles. Parts are clear and others are distorted. These are the best of the bunch.

Ca-Ching!!!

Friday Helen and I ran a little Halloween themed cake sale in the Union and around the studios. We'd like to thank everyone who supported us by popping in or contributing to our stock! namely Rachael, Helen B, Stacie, Sarah B, Jackie + Sarah G! (Hope I didn't miss anyone off!) Thanks guys!
O.K so we may have overcharged you all a little and used some tactical pricing strategies, but we managed to make around £160! I think we did a pretty good job and hopefully its a good contribution to our exhibition fund! It was fun to get creative with producing some tasty, pretty-looking treats!
.........ideas for a mulled wine, mince pie fundraiser are on the cards........watch this space

Devilish Delights!

Friday 10 until sold out at the Union, in the foyer - spread the word people!
Helen and I would appreciate you guys coming down if your in on Friday or contributing to our Halloween themed cake sale.
Just contact one of us If you would like to supply some goodies!
We wont rip you off and your guaranteed a tasty treat!

Here are also some ideas I worked with to produce the poster

Mish Mash

Some collages I made for some friends back in Sydney