Aaron Schuman Once Upon a Time in The West

Aaron Schuman is a senior lecturer at the AIB as well as lecturing in Brighton and I was lucky enough to catch his exhibition 'Once Upon a Time in The West' at the HOST gallery which ended on the 9th of May but the series can be seen on Aaron's website. The photographs for this showcase were photographed on the eroding sets and locations of Sergio Leone's celebrated 'Spaghetti Westerns', deep in the Almerian deserts of southern Spain. Aaron recently became fascinated by the notion that a fundamental American achetype-the Wild West, and it's associations with freedom, independence, rebelliousness, brutality, morality, honour and so on- had benn transposed by an Italian film director onto the landscape of Franco's Spain, and subsequently came to define this 'quintessentially American' genre in itself. Schuman has been particularly interested in exploring these remnants and what they may say about America today. (note: this blurb has been stolen from the blurb from the exhibition)

I really like being able to go to exhibitions whenever I am in London which isn't as frequently as I would like and it has been especially enjoyable to see some of my lecturers work in the form in which it is intended. Hopefully going to the print space to see 5 emerging photographers at the LPA Futures 09 including Ben Robberts (who I highly rate, and is an alumni at AIB) who recently won the BJP project assistance awards so congratulations to him.

London - Placement

Right i'm in London at the moment and about half way through my placement, I am currently working at Skinnydip and I have had great fun Street casting for a new catalogue for a large US company that is moving to the UK, I have also been meetin Art Buyers and other potential clients and delivering portfolio's to them, had a look through some great photographers work and it was really interesting to see the work produced at A3 size. Also had a sneek peak at Lawrence Watson's new book done in conjunction with Adidas. Containing some of his images from the last 25 years which has seen him work for the NME whilst Rap started to boom and develop strong friendships with bands like Oasis and Paul Weller over the years. This body of work is also going to make an exhibition running from 30th of May to the 7th of june at the londonNewcastle Project Space. Tommorrow of to Assist Stephan Morgan which I am really excited about.

Also fellow peer Toby Roberts has put together a book containing all of us year 1 photographers at the AIB, it's a really great idea and I know Toby has put in a lot of leg work to get this together, so I want to thank him for doing that. You can have a preview and purchase it here.

The worlds most popular man.

So the 44th president of the united states Barack Obama has now been in the Whitehouse for one hundred days, the flickr blog has some interesting fly on the wall style shots of the President on his everyday shots as taken by the Whitehouse photographers. Nothing photographically amazing just good to see the President working. 

Also Nadav Kander who is truly an inspiration to myself, is exhibitioning his latest work 'Obama's People' at the Birmingham Museum and Art gallery showing his commission by the New York Times magazine which existed only previously as a slide show on the New York Times Website (link) including some dialect about the project from both Nadav and Kathy Ryan the picture editor of the New York Times who originally gave the commission. The series has Nadav written all other it in the style of the photos and the poses and hopefully if I have any spare time I will be able to make it up there as this is an exhibition that I should not miss. The exhibition runs until the 30th of August but for more information click here. 

Eugene Kang, 24, Special Assistant to the President

Film is not Dead

The Fujifilm Distinction awards are open again, an award with a completely open brief, the only thing is that the photo must be taken on Fujifilm and you are allowed to enter as many entries as you like, a good opportunity to get your work seen, as well as cash prizes for the top 3 photos chosen by the judges an exhibition is curated using the winners and the images that are awarded merits . Deadline is 1st of September so a long time to go and entry is free. Last years winners including Sarah Turton  an alumni from the AIB gaining third place. 

Sarah Turton's Third Place Entry

On the flip side Kodak is ranked (by Moody's) as one of the big companies that could not see the new year due to the recession (link), Kodak is really important to those who still shoot film such as myself even if you only shoot Fuji, with Kodak going we would lose competition in the film market thus giving Fuji the monopoly and this could potentially mean the end for film. Films like Portra and Tri-x are some of the best films produced and are used by professionals and amateurs alike and would be a great shame to loose. It would be a shame to loose these films and we might see an apocolypse style buying of kodak. 

Rev. Dwayne Morgan by me, shot on Portra

Shot on Kodak Tri-x by Mikko Toiviainen

Jo Longhurst

I have just got back from a talk by Jo Longhurst who is an artist who works with photography, This was a completely different talk compared to the other photographers who I have seen since arriving at the arts institute. Jo has just recently graduated with a PHD from the Royal College of Art where she did a long term project in conjunction with the best whippet breeders of the UK. Interested in perfection and human nature.

Twelve Dogs, Twelve Bitches

This study has stemmed from Francis Galton (Charles Darwin's half cousin) and his interest into perfecting the human race, which has been greatly dismissed now in humans due to Nazi Germany, but still caries on in the animal world. 

Jo also talked about her current long term project looking at elite gymnasts. Again interested in perfection as well as human drive and the process of training. It was enlightening to see a more art based photographer to see the way in which they work compared to a commercial photographer, Jo talked a lot about how she displayed each of the pieces and why she did it in that way.

Bob Carlos Clarke

Just read an interesting article (link) on the life of Bob Carlos Clarke, an amazing photographer and one of the early pioneers of photographic manipulation, he has been noted by some as England's answer to Helmet Newton. In 2006 Bob ended his troubled life by jumping in front of a train. Their is going to be a retrospective look at his career at The Little Black Gallery as of 8th of May, which hopefully I will be able to attend as I will be in london (more news on that as it happens).

Champions

The Champions by Anderson & Low was an exhibition was produced in support of the Elton John AIDS Foundation to raise awareness about the global issue of HIV/Aids, it consisted of striking nude poses classically done of some of the worlds biggest international sport stars. 

Anderson and low described the project 'From the start, we wanted to photograph athletes from a range of countries, sports, and races. For all that they have in common, such as physical beuty, mental and emotional strength, and common to their goals, the participants offered us unique artistic opportunities with every shoot. Through their very act of participation, all the athletes have laid themselves bare. A major part of our statement is achieved through the project's nudity. These people have the most amazing physicality, but despite this they are as vulnerable to HIV and AIDS as the rest of humanity, and hence the nudity becomes symbolic of this. We want to make them icons of a different sort with this work.' 

This work was beautifully lit and composed as can be sen on the website and a lot of the images for me have a resemble that of Ancient Greek statues, especially the photographs of Joe Worsley and James Beattie. 

Joe Worsley - English Rugby Player