Uni trip to London!

So, my second trip at Uni was to London to see two recommended printers to print our work at. I was quite excited for this trip as yes it was the second of only two trips properly organised at University (in College I had about four or five trips and I was only there for two years and not paying £9,000 for going there). But anyway, we set off at 7 O'clock (I was excited to see who had got up in time) and we arrived in London at 10 O'clock ish due to incidents along the way and busy traffic in London.

Anyway, we got there in the end and we got ourselves into three groups of around 14 people. I was in the third group so I had some time to look around at some exhibitions and then head to Artful Dodgers printing at half 2. Our group split up quite abit and went on our own ways with what kind of exhibitions we wanted to go to. So in the end, I was with Justyna, Oana, Mark, Lauran and Claudia, we all decided to go to The Photographers Gallery first.

After alot of iPhone googling (which I didn't do as I have a crappy little phone) we finally found The Photographers Gallery and paid a reasonable £2 to get into the good exhibitons. The first one we saw was Tom Wood: Men and Women. The exhibiton consisted of a mixture of images from strangers he had met to portraits of family and friends, keeping quite simple his way of photographing the subject but the people from all occupations and walks of life.

I did like that Tom Wood looked at all walks of life and portrayed their characters and space they work/live in within the images and I also liked the layout of the photographs on the walls and in the tables. However, I was not wowed by his work.

The next exhibition we saw at The Photographers gallery was the SHOOT! Existential Photography Part 1. This exhibition consisted of a timeline of photographs by Ria Van Dijks called 'In almost every picture'. The photographs were all taken at the fairground, playing one of those games where you have to shoot something off the shelf to win a prize. Every time she shot, a photograph was taken of herself doing this so technically 'shooting herself'. She started to do this when she was just 16 years old and has continued right up until the age of 90.

When I first saw these images, I didn't really understand and was about to walk away. But I went back and started from the beginning and realised how beautiful the timeline of photographs were. They showed a change in photography, starting in a sepia tone and ending in colour. The clothes and style changed within the images along with Ria's ageing and change in decade. I found it fascinating and I would recommend anyone to go and see the photographs!

The next floor up continued with the same content of 'shooting yourself'. In this exhibition was a room which was pitch black and had four big screens up and was playing clips from films of people shooting, it was very bazar but interesting! The exhibition also consisted of a pellet gun which you had four goes for £3, shooting at a target. If you shot in the centre, the camera instantly went off and you could get the photograph of yourself shooting yourself. I thought the way they added this hands on photography and activity was very clever and was very fun! They should do more things like this in exhibitions!

The next exhibition we went to, we split up into smaller groups. So me, Justyna, Mark and Oana trecked to Somerset house to go and see Henri Cartier Bresson's exhibition. However, we were rushed for time as we arrived at Somerset house at 2 O'clock and had to be at Artful Dodgers printing at half 2!  

I walked around this exhibition in about 5 minutes, as I was bored by the images and found the contrast of black and white images and colour images along with images that weren't even Henri Cartier Bresson's very confusing! The images were very dull and I wasn't impressed at all!

Anyway, we rushed off on the tube to Artful Dodgers and got to look around at the very large enlargers, the printers and some of the images they had produced, including some film strips of the late Amy Winehouse! Whilst I was there, I also saw very big prints of David Chancellor's work and a book produced of his. The images were printed to a high standard and the people at Artful Dodgers explained that alot of burning out, lighting up areas in the images had taken place. However, I found David's work very beautiful printed although the subject matter was very disturbing. His work was of hunting and how people enjoy hunting and making money out of it. This image in particular, struck me as beautiful but awful.

The next printing place we went to was The Print Space. We arrived there at 4 O'clock and I felt they made us abit more welcome here. They talked us through all the different papers they printed on and how the different paper worked well with what subject matter and how you were presenting it.

This talk about different types of paper really helped and I will probably use The Print Space to print my final images as I felt the quality of all the papers were really good. He also showed us a retouched image of Gwen Stefani which I thought was interesting to look at as I was shocked at how much photoshop had been used on her!

Overall, I had a really good day in London and will definately use either one of the printing places to print my final images. I want to also look into more of some of the photographers work that I had seen during the day as they fascinated me!

Limehouse Lizzy

My first shoot I did about a month ago now (its taken a while for me to blog about it!). I photographed Limehouse Lizzy, a Thin Lizzy tribute band. It was all abit last minute as I just found out they were playing at the Wedgewood rooms the next day so I had to think of ways I could photograph them really quickly and think of some questions quickly too.

I arrived at the Wedgewood rooms at half 5 on 28th September. The band arrived and I was abit shy at first but the band soon made me feel welcome and I soon starting asking questions about how and why they got into the band and what they enjoy about being in the band. Wayne (The lead singer) told me that he'd always been told he looked like Phil Lynott (lead singer of Thin Lizzy) and once at a gig he'd played Thin Lizzy songs and someone told him that his performance was a great tribute to Thin Lizzy. Tim Read (guitar player) who also teaches the guitar, told me that he loved to inspire a new generation to become musicians.

They were very professional, especially Wayne, he told me the band was more like a business, saying that people don't just come to hear the Thin Lizzy songs but respect their own personalities as a band. I soon learnt this when the Wedgewood rooms filled up and the band started playing. They played with every single piece of energy within them.

Here are some of the photographs that I took that night for my project:

Here is a link to there website http://www.limehouselizzy.co.uk/

My Tribute Band Project

So going back to my Tribute Band Project, since talking about the X Factor contestants that went on as tribute acts, I have since researched alot more into artists and bands that I could gain ideas from and contacted bands that I could photograph.

I have looked into the work of Alison Jackson who brings stories that you wish you could see in the papers, to life. She uses lookalikes to pose as celebrities doing funny things, which I think is genius and some of the lookalikes, you couldnt tell apart from the real celebrities!

I love how she positions the lookalikes in these unrealistic situations, making celebrity abit more down to earth and funny.








Another photographer I have been looking at is Cindy Sherman. Cindy dresses up as different characters and takes photographs of her doing this. She portrays different roles that women take up in life, displaying that all women are different and have hidden characters within themselves that they don't always display to everyone.

 These artists/photographers display something within their work that I find very interesting; Masquerade. The idea of becoming someone else, that thought that we all have at one point in our lives 'What would it be like to become someone else for a day?'. They both have managed to portray characters in their work and as in Alison's work, she has given work for the lookalikes, making them famous for being 'someone else'. Whereas in Cindy's work she portrays different characters that aren't famous but she feels comfortable becoming them. She talks about how the characters she played actually mimicked the ways she has portrayed herself at some point in her own life.

I have taken from their work that you need to be clever with your ideas if you are portraying 'someone else' through a real ordinary person. In my work, I want to portray tribute bands as dressing up as the real band. I want to ask them why they do it and what they get out of it. Why do you want to become someone else?

Tim Walker: Story Teller Exhibition

I went up to London on Saturday to have a little look around London and to Photograph the Tribute Band Oasish in Watford in the evening. So I had a look on websites etc to see what exhibitions were going on in London that I could go and see, but most of them weren't anything to do with my project and I find some of their subject matters a bit dull. 

So when I saw a tweet on facebook by Topshop saying about the Tim Walker exhibition on at Somerset House, I was so excited! Tim Walker has always been my favourite photographer and his work is thoughtful and beautiful and really does tell a story.

So me and my boyfriend went to see the exhibition on Saturday, and although my boyfriend doesn't do photography, he was as amazed as I was at the creativeness of Tim's work.

The way Tim's exhibition was set out, truley told a story. The walls were white but the images rich in pastel colours. The images each were creative, displaying a beautiful model in an old, delicate room with massive, wonderfully made props. The rooms would have the props that were used in the photograph so you could see the size and detail of them. One room was painted a dark grey and had huge bug props in the middle of the room, which looked creepy but beautiful. 

My favourite room was the room with the huge doll inside it as I have a fascination with dolls, I love how beautiful they are, frozen in there youthful state. 

The room was painted white and had the images of the model and doll around the room. The images looked eery but amazing as you wonder how long it took to take the doll to the location and get it in the right position! You also wonder how long it took to make the doll!

Overall, I came out of the exhibiton in complete awe. Tim Walker's work truley told a story and you always wonder what he will come up with next. 

Ex Student Talks...

Last week we had a talk from Ex Students who talked to us about what they did at Uni and what they did straight after Uni and what they are doing now. We had five ex students come in, all who had achieved alot since leaving. I took in everything they said as its always so interesting to here about other photographers work and especially people that were once in your exact same position. So I took notes from every photographers talk and have put them in order in this blog...

Tim Bowditch

First of all we had Tim Bowditch. He explained how he was from Guernsey and after University he couldn't stand being back in Guernsey and moved to London shortly after. He talked about how he runs the Roof Unit, which also consists of other photographs. I was really fascinated how he seemed to just push himself into photography within London and has succeeded so well.

He went on to show us his website http://timbowditch.com/ . I found his style of Photography very basic but beautifully shot, every detail thought about. I particularly liked his work Leaf Peeper as it told a story and had a sense of humour about it.

Vicky Chiswell

Vicky had gone down a very different approach to all of the other photographs we had a talk from. Vicky explained how she enjoyed taking photographs of museums and galleries and used photography to get closer to these places. She said she had always been interested in these places and always knew she wanted to work in one after Uni. Vicky had done her work experience at Aspex Gallery in Portsmouth and photographed childrens workshops. After University she became deeply involved within childrens workshops and Aspex Gallery hired her full time.

Vicky was very inspiring as she had a way about her that could teach people how to be within the art industry, calm and caring. I thought it was brilliant how rewarding her job is as she is helping children of all abilities to explore art in different ways.

Chris Butler

Chris gave a very interesting and detailed talk first about what his main interest at Uni was. He explained that he used to photograph aeroplanes, going up to the London airports and photographing the Concord (The year it was stopped). His photographs of the aeroplanes were extraordinary and pieces of artwork in themselves. He was amazed by the movement of plains and used blur alot within his photography to show this.

It was then interesting that he then said he went on to do Portrait photography after University, something completely different from photographing planes! He explained he worked for Venture, then The Hayward Studio and then went on to open his own studio 'The Photography Lounge'. I felt he gave some very good advice during the speech, explaining how he took a large format camera to a wedding, put it at the side and didn't even use it, he just took it to look professional!

He also explained that the bad thing about working for a studio and himself was that it was alot of hours, some days you'd be working all day and some days you'd have no work. He also said that it is 25 % Photographs and 75% Marketing, if your 'brand' isn't profession, people won't think you are professional. But overall, he loved his job as he gets to meet new people and personalities everyday.

Here is his website, http://www.thephotographylounge.co.uk/

 Georgie Gillard

Georgie also gave a really good speech about her work and seemed like a really 'get up and go' person. She talked about how she always wanted to be a press photographer and did projects at University that she knew would be good for her portfolio. Whilst she was at Uni, she did work experience at The Times and got a few good shots for her portfolio from it. After Uni she went onto apply from a job at The Daily Mail as a press photographer and she got the job.

She showed us some of her work and had a really good sense of humour when telling us her stories about the job working at The Daily Mail. Her most amazing work I found was how she photographed all the members of the 2012 British Olympic Team, the photographers that would of killed for that job!

Nicholas Adams

In my first year, Nick came in and gave us a talk and I found him very truthful and honest about photography. He talked about how difficult it was and that you'd wait ages to get emails and replies from people. Two years later, he still talked about the difficulties in photography but he explained more about his successes. Nicks work intrigues me as I am very interested in Architecture and Interiors myself, and Nick is a very successful Architectural and Interior Photographer.

Nicks work is very clean and he likes his lines to be straight and precise within the images. This style is shown throughout all of his work. I was very impressed with his work on the Old Leather Works Factory, I found it beautiful and eery, it was just my cup of tea!

Overall, I was very impressed by the achievements of the ex students as they really had pushed themselves within their careers to achieve the best they can. It made me think alot about after University and how I was going to go about in the Photography world but they gave us the very best of advice; To be yourself, to be Patient and to work extremely hard because you need to grab every opportunity, they won't just turn up on your doorstep.

Brad Pitt in Chanel No 5 Advert

Working around Perfume advertisements, you can see where my interest in Celebrity and the image comes from. Every time I'm at work I am selling a dream to someone, I am telling them that this brand is good, this celebrity perfume is good. And most of the time, they only buy the perfume because they are huge fans of the Celebrity who has 'created' the product.

I was so interested in this concept that I wrote my two last essays on it and for my dissertation, I am looking into Celebrity power further (and I am also doing my Set Brief project on Celebrity). To me, Celebrity brings a weakness to people. We give our money, our hopes and dreams to be near our chosen Celebrities by buying what has their face on it and going to see them in Concerts. If I sold perfume with a normal bottle, no shape or design, just wrapped in a plain white box with just the ingredients on the front, no advertisements; I think the industry wouldn't be rolling in billions of pounds!

Unfortunately that would never happen as Brands and Celebrities sell so much! A recent addition to perfumes is Lady Gaga's 'Fame' which has been selling alot as people love Lady Gaga and will have something weird and wonderful of hers, even if it was toilet roll with her face printed on it! But the one that still gets sold incredibly well is Justin Biebers fragrances (he now has two), every single little girl and teenage girl that comes in wants to have Justin Bieber's 'Girlfriend' Fragrance. They think, if I buy his fragrance, I will be more respected by my friends and it will take them that one bit closer to Justin.

Another interesting advertisement that has came out is the new Chanel No 5 advert. Normally Women's fragrances have women advertising them and Men's fragrances have men advertising them. But Chanel had to be different. Women from Nicole Kidman to Audrey Tautou have been the face of Chanel No 5 but now the new face is Brad Pitt - The first man to advertise a Women's perfume.

Although Chanel No 5 has been the best seller ever since it was released, it didn't need a boost in the market. However, Chanel have been very clever here and have gained even more publicity as people will see the advert and talk about how Brad is advertising and we will have debates on it therefore, it will be even more well known. And then people will come into the shop to see what all the fuss is about Chanel No 5, gaining more profit and more recognition.

I think this is also a turn in advertising as the debate of men always overpowering women in perfume adverts always comes about. So in this advert is man taking over woman because they are telling women what perfume to wear?

My Set Brief idea

For my Set Brief project, I am looking at why people hide behind the persona of someone famous (tribute bands, acts and lookalikes). I have always been fascinated with why people are fascinated with celebrity. Growing up looking at magazines and wanting to copy Jennifer Aniston's hair style or be one of the spice girls, I have been there and wanted to be a celebrity myself or be the idea of a celebrity. We have all wanted to be a celebrity, be friends with one or look like one. Whoever denies it is lying.

I continually look around me while I'm walking around through town or am on the bus and at least every 10 seconds I am reminded of celebrity. Perfume adverts, Make up adverts, Clothing lines by Celebrities, films etc. They are everywhere. Switch on the teley and they are there. A program that I find is obsessed with celebrity or the idea of being ridiculously famous is X Factor. I was watching the auditions earlier last month and a Pink Tribute act came onto the stage Zoe Alexander. She looked like pink and had the stage attitude pink had. She claimed she was told to sing Pink. Another tribute act was on a few episodes later, Lorna Bliss, Britney Spears impersonator. She looked exactly like Britney but instead went completely over the top and she claimed that 'I just love being on TV, I just want to be on TV all the time you know'. Was she in it for the joy of becoming someone else to be able to achieve her own musical career or just in it for the fame and money?

 

It came to me whilst watching these two women striving for fame and fortune as impersonators, that I wanted to find out why they wanted to become someone else on stage, why they wanted to not use their own personalities. Therefore my project is going to be dedicated to finding this out. I will contact tribute bands, artists, lookalikes and photograph them whilst also asking them a few questions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

First session of Professional Practice

For our first lecture on Professional Practice, we were asked to bring along our current portfolio and also bring examples of our two favourite photographers. My portfolio was an online one so here is a link to my website...

http://laurenwhatling.wix.com/laurenwhatlingphotography

I will have to get used to showing my people portfolios as I was abit nervous showing a group of seven it! My portfolio consists of still life, architecture, landscape, portrait photography and fashion photography. As a photographer, I like to show that I can do a variety of photography and not just one genre. I had some good feedback from the group and my lecturer Judy Harrison saying it was a good start to showing my portfolio. However, some bits needed tweaking.

I also showed my two favourite photographs. My first one being Tim Walker. Tim Walker has been my favourite photographer since school. His work is not only photography but is art and is very creative and dreamy. Here is his website http://timwalkerphotography.com/ and here are a few of my favourite of his photographs...

My second favourite photographer is David Lachapelle. His work is so bold and artistic. He really tells a story within his images and even uses religious referencing. Here are a few of my favourite of his photographs...

In the best possible taste by Grayson Perry

 In the best possible taste by Grayson Perry

For 'homework' we were asked to watch a program called 'In the best possible taste by Grayson Perry' (I know, I love my degree!). This 'homework' really opened my eyes to more of Grayson Perry's artwork and really taught me a thing or two about how I can further and better my own work. Grayson Perry, a very brave man who walks proudly dressed as a woman, delves into the lives of the working class, middle class and upper class all in the name of art.

Grayson would follow around the different type of class for a while, recording with his little camera whilst also recording everything at the end of the day with drawings of what he had witnessed. My favourite program of the three was the working class one. This is because it was the most interesting and eye opening of all of them. I think it made people see that the working class are not as bad as they seem. They were more interesting and most relaxed out of all the classes. Although poorer in money, they were richer in happiness.

I found the middle class episode quite uncomfortable to watch. As it seemed that they were very careful with what they said and very stiff in the way they acted, like every action was planned. The middle class looked clueless and thought that buying certain things would put them into a more middle class 'accepted' category.

The upper class I found very intriguing as some of them felt that it was a burden upon them, that they should live up to what they're family had achieved for them. However, they felt that they didn't need to buy flashy cars and brand spanking new house items because they kept the rustic look and were comfortable in the way they were.

Overall, I found that all of the class programs were amazing to watch as we all know about lower, middle and upper class but society today refuses to talk about it. Grayson Perry really delved into each of the classes and discovered alot and certainly has caused alot of debate on how each of the classes are judged.

Wheres the Summer Holidays gone?

It happened last year and its happened this year. Someone tells you you'll have four months off from Uni for Summer you think 'YES!' but is it really a reasonable amount of time to have off from Uni?

Yes I've kept myself busy but I think about going back to Uni and I feel brain dead! Feel I have no inspiration! It's like taking a kid out of school for four months and telling them to remember everything and go back as normal with as many ideas.

But anyway, I wasn't going to sit around for four months moaning and doing nothing! Although I've been naughty and just realised I haven't done a blog since January! Woops! So I'm going to start again and reflect on what I have done this summer and think of ideas for future Photography projects :)

Some achievements this summer, I have Photographed my first event. As many Photographers will know, it is a scary thought of having the responsibility to photograph an event. But I did it! Becki Short created the event 'The Mad Hatters Charity Tea Party' which took place on Castle Fields, Southsea, Portsmouth. The event raised money for Cystic Fibrosis. On a beautiful sunny day, Saturday 21st July, the event took place and there were cupcakes, ice cream, intricate items for sale, etc! The day was enjoyed by adults and children (many little girls were dressed up as Alice, SO CUTE). It was also a big experience for me as I had dipped my toes into different waters and it has made me prepared for photographing more and more events.

Becki has made a website saying about the cause and all the people that helped at the event, http://www.themadhatterscharityteaparty.org.uk/ .. some of my Photographs are also featured on the website.

Overall...

Looking back, I think everyone contributed equally to the exhibition. Here is a list of what I contributed to the Ten Degree Souths, The Round Tower exhibition...

Myself - Responsible for sponsorship and catering.
            - Gained sponsorship from Steven Piper from 'Something Interesting' = £75
            - Raised £88 from selling on Ebay
            - Catering for the exhibition, My Mum made 120 mince pies for the guests, 60 for each day of
               the exhibition (Well done Mum!)

Big well done to all of the members of Ten Degrees South, Exhibitions are alot harder than we all thought to organise!!

Success!

After all our hard work, I think our exhibition went really well! The lovely man that brought one of my post card photographs has also kept in touch with me, emailing me about my work and how I should further it.

He said about emailing Fort Purbrook and Fort Nelson to see if I could sell my photographs at the Forts.

I took this on board and emailed Fort Nelson with this email...


Dear Sir or Madam,

I am a student studying Photography at the University of Portsmouth. For our first brief, we had to create a series of images based on the subject 'Territories'. I therefore decided to photograph Fort Nelson and Fort Purbrook. I showed my final photographs in an exhibition at The Round Tower and a man who brought one of my photographs told me that Fort Nelson produce a paper called the 'Portsmouth Paper'. I would love to see my photographs in the paper as they really portray Fort Nelson beautifully. I displayed my images as if they were a set of post cards on a table at the exhibition. I also think they would work well as being sold as Post Cards in the new cafe there aswell. I have sent you my set of 10 images that I displayed at the exhibition. Please let me know what you think.

Many Thanks,

Lauren Whatling

Still waiting for a reply though..

6.30pm - Opening Night

After a great first opening day and selling one of my photographs for £3 (very happy!), Our venue closed at 6pm to the public and we then had a special guest evening for our lecturers, friends and family to view our work. The evening went really well and we all had a great time showing our walking and talking to different people about our work too.

Here are some photographs from the opening evening. We had muled wine, tea and fantastic mini mince pies that my mum made! :)...

I also sold another two photographs on the opening evening (very very happy!), great to know your hard work is admired! :)