Final blog

The blog is now drawing to an end as we have to create a different one for next semester. I do not want this one to disappear completely so have decided to link it to my new blog, so that I can compare the two at the end of the year. Should be interesting!

I searched on the internet for some sites related to editorial photography and took a screenshot of the pages which I have shown below. Some of them might be worth checking out on a regular basis. 

Until next time then...! 

http://www.epuk.org/

http://www.commercialphotographersnetwork.com/

http://www.photographersdirect.com/ 

 
http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/EditorialImages

  

Cross platform project

This was a cross platform project carried out with UTA in Finland involving the Interactive Digital Media and Journalism depts at Uclan, centred upon the theme of 'impact of recession' and the economy. I emailed John Mills re the project who put me in touch with Andy S and I ended up meeting up with Jake Ryan and Hannah Carolin who were both post-grad students. They were in Rossendale and were working on a story about the economy and market traders. It has recently been published in the press that some of the Rossendale markets are under threat of closure and they wanted to visit some of them, interview the patrons and get a gist of how the locals felt about the potential threat.

There was a slight blip when we arrived in that they had not contacted the managers of the market directly and when the film camera appeared, the traders were obviously curious as to what was going on. I had mentioned that I would probably need to get permission to take photographs, the culmination of which was that the manager was contacted and in turn, he called the press officer from the council. Though she gave permission for the project to go ahead, she also advised that a certain etiquette was needed before undertaking such a project in a public space. I felt happier that we had permission to interview, take photos and film but it was a waste of 45 minutes stood outside a smelly toilet! C’est la vie!

The organisation to participate in the project was a bit up in the air as apparently there were no photographers available and the journalists had in the main, been taking their own photographs as no one knew what was going on. I had been unable to attend the initial meeting but did get a response from John Mills very quickly, so ended up helping out with the story on the markets in Rossendale, though this was mainly due the nearby location of the project. I would be more than happy to work on another project and they have my phone number so I will see what happens tomorrow.

I took some photos of the market, but because of the initial delay and deadline that the journalists had to stick to, I probably only had around 15-20 minutes to get the shots. In the ‘real world’ though, the situation would be very similar and deadlines would have to be kept to, so it wasn’t such a bad experience. I was able to briefly adjust the raw files and convert them to jpegs when I got home, then quickly upload them to Jake and Hannah for the 4pm deadline. They responded by saying that the photos were ‘amazing’ and I know they certainly weren’t that, but it was good to be able to help out and work on such a project. 
 

© Andrea Percival

Barnardos Project

Met up with the group who are participating in the photography project under Elaine Gansler, the Barnardos Team Leader and photographers, Julian Williams and Jackie Taylor at Rochdale Youth Centre last week. I had met most of the children and young adults who were taking part in the project already, but there were a few new faces. The idea of the meeting was to set up the lighting kit against a graffiti painted wall at one end of the room and get all of the kids to act both as the photographer and the subject. We wanted to allow them to decide who they wanted to photograph, how they wanted them to pose and to basically compose the shot themselves. The idea was that they experience what it was like to be both the subject and the photographer and compare the two experiences.

Some of the kids were more physically able than the others so we had to find the most suitable way in which to allow them to participate fully in the technical side of photography, ie behind the lens. It was mainly a case of adjusting the tripod on the camera and holding the camera at an angle so that they could look through the viewfinder in order to compose the shot. All of the children who wanted to take photographs were able to do so relatively successfully. The main thing that held them back was inexperience in using a professional camera, but with a little encouragement, they were able to communicate with their subjects and get them to stand in a variety of poses for their shots. By the end of the session, some of the kids wanted to take more photographs but time was a factor and we had to bring the session to a close.

We all gathered together before finishing off to evaluate the session. We wanted to know what the kids thought of their experiences both behind and in front of the camera. Some preferred to be subjects, others enjoyed taking the photographs and they were able to communicate their ambitions for the project and what they hope to achieve from participating in it. I have no photographs as yet to support these sessions as children are involved and I would need to get parental permission to use their images. I hope to document the sessions visually at some stage, when the kids feel more confident with me. The project is due to finish in March when the photographs taken by the group, will be exhibited.

10 Second Painting

This is a small video I created some time ago, using a series of 40 photo stills in which a work of art was created! Well, perhaps that is a slight exaggeration and I am still clearing up the paint splashes weeks later but hey, it was my first attempt. The artist has work on Deviant Art under the name Snofi, but I think he actually just enjoyed making a mess more than anything! Using iMovie, it took me a while to suss out the speed of the individual clips in order to determine the total video duration, but I got there in the end. Ok, so it is only 7 seconds but what's a few seconds between friends and anyway, 10 seconds sounds better! I want to experiment with timelapse movies in the future, so watch this space!

Editorial photography

On the advise of my tutor, I am looking at editorial photography as he feels that is probably the genre of photography I should be gearing myself towards for the future. I knew that my chosen subject areas in the field were varied and I appreciated the guidance, as I was a little clueless as to where I wanted to go, I just knew what I liked. Editorial photography is described as photography used to illustrate a story or idea within the context of a magazine and I can see now from comparing editorial work to my own my work, that it is an area I should definitely consider. I looked on the internet and found several photographer's websites, some of whom I have highlighted below.
 

Ivan Terestchenko

http://www.itopus.com/Portraits.html

Born in England and educated in France, Terestchenko was a painter until the age of 30 when he became a photographer and landed an assignment with French Vogue. He regularly contributes to many international publications, including Italian Vogue and World of Interiors. He also photographed The Private World of Ives Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge. He rarely shows his work in public but four of his large scale black and white prints are exhibited in the Musée du Louvre.

© Ivan Terestchenko

Andrea Massari

http://www.andreamassari.com/

Brought up in Brazil though Italian, Massari trained as a painter but also works as a photographer. Influenced by Sieff and Avedon, he likes to photograph nature and the simpler aspects of life.

© Andrea Massari

 

Silke Mayer

http://www.imagine-this.de/editorial.html

Mayer was born in Germany and attended art school in Berlin. She worked as a photo assistant in Germany and NYC, for Hans Gissinger, Ken Shung and Terry Niefield and has done photography assignments for magazines such as TimeOut - New York, Elle, Gourmet, Instyle magazine and Toshiba. She also works on photo art and documentary video projects and is inspired by Irving Penn. 

 

© Silke Mayer

Barnardos Project

I have been asked by a couple of photographers who are also curators of a gallery, to help with a project for Barnardos based in Rochdale. It involves a group of youngsters with varying disabilities and the idea is to represent them in through photography using their own inspirations and ideas as a basis for the project. It is a long-term project but a great opportunity to be involved in something so positive. It is a collaboration between Elaine Gansler the Barnardos Team Leader and Julian Williams and Jackie Taylor, the curators of See Gallery in Rawtenstall. The support that Barnardos gives is vital in order for the children to develop. It is also a great social event for the group and way to explore a range of new and exciting experiences and opportunities.

I met up with them for the first time yesterday and encountered the most fantastic group of young kids. They were funny, eager and full of brilliant ideas for the project. It will be a privilege to work with such a creative team of young individuals. We are meeting up again on Saturday 27th November in order to get the kids to photograph each other and be photographed. The idea is to give them the experience of being both in front of and behind the camera and explore the possibilities in available to them through creativity.

http://www.barnardos.org.uk/rochdale.htmhttp://www.barnardos.org.uk/rochdale.htm

Case study

Met up with the subject of my case study today: Tim Bradley, deputy picture editor at MEN Media Group. I had previously spoken with a journalist, Steve Kingston and a photographer working for the MEN Media, Vince Cole. I had chosen Tim Bradley as unlike Vince, whose insight was invaluable incidentally, he had years of experience and had witnessed firsthand, the changes in photojournalism over the last 20 years or so. I was pleased that I had spoken to several people working in different areas of the media as it gave me different perspectives on the whole working practice of journalism and photojournalism so that when I did speak to Tim, I was far better informed.

The eerily quiet offices of the MEN hosted both journalists and several working in the picture editorial dept. The photographers no longer had a base, victims of the massive cuts in the media over the last few years. As Tim was responsible for controlling the photography in the sixteen local weeklies and the Manchester Evening News, he had a huge responsibility. His job was to ensure that the eleven photographers were allocated jobs in and around the city and that deadlines were being met. His phone was constantly ringing and I kept having to pause the tape recorder. I realised he was busy and was just appreciative of the time that he gave me to be honest. He was a really decent fella and very accommodating considering he was obviously under pressure. I learnt a lot from him and once I have transcribed the interview he has said he will answer any further questions either over the phone or via email. 

I am also supposed to be meeting up with Vince Cole, the photographer in a few weeks to follow him as he goes on various assignments around the city so the whole experience has been really interesting and very useful.