L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N...

It has been 7 months since i fired a roll off a film with some enthusiasm, during that time i have been a tad lazy with progressing my practice. (booooo hisssssss!)During this photographers block, i have taken opportunities that don't often arise. A friend of mine revealed she was pregnant 3 months into the pregnancy. this was wonderful news, i was so delighted for her. 


A few weeks went by and i bashfully asked her if i could take a few pictures of her bump. She kindly said yes and asked me when i would like to photograph her, to her amazement i wanted to photograph her bump within days of her to be due to give birth. I  wanted to photograph this bump just before it became a baby. It may sound strange, but i want that child to grow up and look back at photographs and see what they looked like moments before the imminent event.

I had never documented the beginnings of a new life before, not just the new life of the baby, but the new life of a parent. In my future it is certainly something that i wish to document with great discipline.I photographed a cocooned young female, blossoming into a wonderful mother. This was what i was to capture in my imagery. I did not construct or stage my time with her, i simply let the day pass on by as if any normal day. soon i hope to give this small piece of work to the new family, with hope that they have an amazing adventure ahead of them.

Fake It, Make It Like A Polaroid Picture...

With the release of the new Digital Polaroid camera, that people are wetting themselves about. I have done some experimenting with my own makeshift digital Polaroid camera. There may not be the usual buzzing sound from the Polaroid camera ejecting the film but never the less i still reckon i have produced a digital Polaroid file. 


In a nut shell, i just place the viewfinder of the Super Colour - 635CL, over the lens of my Digital Harinezumi 2 +++ (1-10) camera. i then began to compose and frame my subject matter accordingly.

I composed and framed my images using a Polaroid camera, but used a digital format to capture the subject matter does that not make them Polaroid pictures? I am continuing with this interesting query, this may result in me using many forms of photo capturing devices, only to photograph the view from inside them.

Anyway its something new and may well help me with my current Polarvoid Project 'coming soon to a gallery near you'!

A Break On Through To The Other Side...

The last exhibition i was in was in October, since then i shamefully haven't made any new work, mainly due to work issues and financial difficulties, but fear not i am settled and bring in a regular pay cheque everything should resume to normality soon enough. Before all that some time in November i had been discussing the idea of curating a show on Red Door 44, this would not include my work or any work from within the collective.

 This show was going to be the first example of What Red Door 44 wants to cater for, Outsider Art. Red Door want's to give the opportunity to artists or anybody who would like to have an exhibition but has never had one or been able to have one. Since the opening of the studio nearing the end of October Red Door had remained dormant. nothing was happening in the space that we opened especially to be used creatively. 

So i took the initiative and told a great friend of mine, Mathew Belcher that Red Door 44 will host an exhibition of his work. This was something that hadn't crossed his mind at all. Mat had created an album of work on a social network site entitled 'Happy things Happy'. Mat would photograph objects and shapes that resembled a smiley face. This album had some many responses to it that Mat created a separate page purely for this new hype of 'Happy Things Happy'. I saw the Album in the early months of 2011, telling him to print and exhibit his photographs. Mat wasn't an artist at the time, just someone capturing happy things, half a year goes by, and now i have the opportunity to give him a show of his work. 

Mat Helped me through a tough period struggling for work, by allowing me to Volunteer in his shop. As a thank you to him i wanted this show to happen for him. I have never been on the other side of the fence before, i have always shown work, it was nice to have a change of occupation for a temporary period of time. i thoroughly enjoyed the process and now can apply that experience to my C.V. and hope it helps with possible jobs opportunities in the future.

Had An Exhibition in Mumumumumunmum...

Please excuse the bizarre spelling in the title of this post, its an in joke between me and my good friend David Long. In a nut shell, Munmumumumumum is actually a place near Swansea called Mumbles. Hopefully some of you reading this will understand what we were joking around with. Anyway a few of my fellow course mates after the degree show in London wanted to put on a show somewhere in the Swansea area for those who couldn't make it to either the University degree show or the London show.  The show was to be called 'A First Chance For A Second Look'. This will have been my second joint exhibition outside of university, but my first since graduating.

I was concerned that i hadn't made new work since the degree show and was worried that putting up old work would appear lazy and boring to people. The thing was i hadn't realized that Swansea hadn't seen my light boxes that i put up in the London Free Range Show, and so that work was new to people in Swansea. This made the organization of the show much easier and faster for me and also the other artists showing. The Work was shown in a little Gallery in called 'Oriel Bach', this is a welsh name, translated to English it means 'Little Gallery'. 

The opening night was nice, with an appearance from two of my old tutors from S.M.U. Hamish Gane, my Photography Tutor kindly opened the show with a little speech. It was nice to see the work in a different space and curate the show ourselves for the first time, Tutors always took that responsibility in University. The work went up surprisingly fast for the four of us, i guess we were on the same wave length with where everyones work should go.

Its Your Blog Sam, Somethings Got To Be Done About Your Blog...

Well, i do apologize for the dormancy of my blogging, its not been the best four months since i last posted anything. After a very long summer i finally signed off and hung up the Giro jacket for the last time. In November i found a minimum wage job and have been working there since. Not going to tell you about it as its nothing to really rave about. So i am now finally earning an honest crust after 6 months since Graduating. 


Along side that stable job i now do a bit of painting and decorating, this helps spread the workload over the week so i don't have to spend all my time in the week, at the other job. I am enjoying being a ' handy man' not only is it good money but also gives me some good experience on the C.V. for any future job opportunities. I also get a big sense of achievement from the decorating job. 


Moooving swiftly on, i will create a montage of the happenings that have occurred over the summer.(minus the epic 80's power ballads), Red Door 44 opened in October with a crowd of a hundred or so attendants. This was an amazing thing to have happened to the Red Door Collective, it gave us a true understanding of how much support we had behind us. Since the opening we have been planning future workshops and exhibitions to see out 2011 and bring Red Door into the new year.  

What was it that i Bespoke about....

Throughout the process of turning Red Door 44 from and old function room, to a brand spanking 'happening' studio, tidying the place up had to occur in order to use the space. there was an entire labyrinth of odds and sods. One major thing that the collective all agreed upon, was to recycle as much of the sods as possible. Broken table tops become shelving space for art materials, old benches became dividers for individual artist spaces. Rather than throw away what may appear to be useless, we had a go at making things useful again. An example of this, was a pair of draws discarded amongst the rubble. The original unit was never found in the space and so the draws were soon to be tipped at the scrap yard. I felt that i wanted to make something out of these now useless wooden trays. And so with a little thought and perseverance i now show you the new and improved MISCELLANEOUS TRAYS.

I need to find one more tray same size and preferably the same design, just to complete it otherwise i may have to hack off the remaining Thread on all four bars.

As one door closes, a Red door opens...

With university life now over, for this so called graduate. I have had to venture into the big wide world that is the rest of my life. Over the past few months of summer, i have teamed up with a collective of artists. This collective is based in a sizable studio in Swansea. Red Door 44 as we are now known, has become the first studio space i am to make work for future exhibitions. My father always told me stories of his many studios through his career as a photographer, i had always dreamt of having a studio space. 2011 is the year to do so. scraping, painting, trashing are all suitable words to use to describe the work and process gone into making Red Door 44 a reality. I cannot wait for the next few months when we officially open in October this is where i alight for my artistic pathway and career into the working world.