Avangelist Photography

3 years, 3 continents, 3 photosets and I finally get to see Nedry.

Yes, I have taken my sweet time. No I have no excuses and yes, they are incredible.

New stuff sounds like How To Destroy Angels, old stuff sounds like Portishead being done by Slint. It’s all bloody great.

Have a look through some nice, gritty, grainy black and white shots and go book your Ticket for SXSW next year because they’ve got an official showcase set and they’re going to sound massive.

I also got to meet Seb Dehesdine, he is as nice as I imagine he was and ever so slightly taller. He was filming the show (the 100th no less) and there is a really special video now in the mix I understand.

December is a few days away which marks nearly 2 months since I picked up a camera. It is making me wonder what to do with this site.

There’s somewhere near 4 years of my life sat in these pages, I know that I would be a fool to just let it drop off the map, but it costs me money to host it and run it and I am not sure I can migrate it to wordpress.com.

In a real quandary what to do.

Life takes you down different paths and after an exhausting summer experiencing the worthlessness of event photography from doing the festival circuit I had finally had one too many knives ground into my heart. The passion was dead. I did get to meet some fantastic people during my travels particularly all the crew at Sonisphere and Kilimanjaro who treated me exceptionally well and I would happily work with again in the future.  But I am not a photographer, I never have been, not in the sense that most people consider it. For me, the  camera was always a plot device. It was the medium I had found for documenting what I was going through via music and for showcasing the thousands of people around the UK and in the end the world,  and what they were doing in music the expressive art form that I have such a strong passion for.

In recent months a lot of things have shifted and changed. Some good, some terrible. It has left me very much in the same place I started. I am playing in a band that I have been working with for quite a few years now, I am able to express myself in the way I know how to, through smashing a guitar about and getting frustrated with my self imposed limitations. It’s good and I feel like I am part of something again which hasn’t been the case for years.

As for work, well don’t want to talk about it, but I do know where I want to go. Personal life has changed, money has changed, my car needs a serious clean and I’ve made up and broken up with numerous friends and aquaintances. Some doors shut firmly others half a jar many wide open if anyone wants to walk through them.

It’s all relative. The question now is whether or not to sell my gear and if so how much of a loss will I make.

Last night I viewed the latest exhibition to appear at Garage Studios in Brighton by photographer Matt Martin entitled Eat Well, Stay Fit and Die Anyway.

The short run exhibition was a collection of images from a trip from Baltimore to Miami, a mixture of scenes predominantly surrounding the people in his journey rather than the locations themselves.

Curator Kevin Mason’s introduction to the collection commented on how the series had no beginning or end in that it wasn’t really possible to say where one image was shot over another and that it provided something which you could glance at or stay a while longer. This is my general opinion of this form of art. For some it is something which they can become completely engrossed in looking at every minute detail of an image and some of these people will be looking for something clever which quite often isn’t there. It creates a position where the viewer is able to create whatever they like based on the capabilities of their own imagination. Some others will view this kind of series and throw it away as person’s holiday snaps on public display, and this is also fine, that’s sort of the point. The visual stories which we retain in picture, you just have to log onto facebook to see how this is becoming an increasing way for people to share and log stories and experiences.

The time factor is also highly relevant to the way in which modern society interacts. There are those who take things in bite size only, digest fast and dispose ready for the next 30 second surge. It is present in all art forms and it shouldn’t be disregarded.

Saturday evening I found myself sat in front of a television watching Renaissance Revolution a series currently running on the BBC. This week’s focus was on Piero Della Francesca. Whilst I became sucked into the intricacy of paintings as Matthew Collins divulged the secrets of Piero’s mathematical background and ability to produce images which use complex equations, shapes and formulas, my friend was commenting on how the paintings were quite dull, that they looked sort of amateurish in terms of the quality but it was nice that this man was so passionate about this particular artist.

I found myself reflecting on this contrast in view points as I looked through Matt’s photos. There were a few images that I viewed as being appealing snapshots but nothing that would keep me hanging, and then others which captured a little more than just a point in time, but personalities of the subjects displayed and the general feelings of the people captured. There were three images which stood out for me, but that doesn’t write off the entire collection which can be seen on Matt’s blog and are also available in a limited run book.

http://cargocollective.com/mattmartin

Richard Langridge – Here There Be Monsters 2008 – 2010 Read more…

I’ve been providing consultation to a new start up venture Clearsavvy.com over the last few months. As well as working on the web application I put together some simple shots for press materials as they get ready to tell the world about the fantastic application they have been working away on in Brighton, UK.

I wanted to show that not only are the founding members of the company Mike Oxley and Mark Hla incredibly experienced and professional in their respected fields, but that this is a company with a far more transparent and honest approach. A relaxed sofa setting in their offices foyer proved the perfect simplistic setting for these images to be produced. I used a very simple setup with two Nikon Speedlights being pushed into the ceiling from either side which has created this nice clean and balanced feel.

There’s a great behind the scenes shot on Marks’ blog where he details the discoveries of starting your own business.