PHOTOMARKT....

Some pictures of my images from the exhibtion. Thank you to Debbie Chapman for supplying me with these images!

Derlict or delightful?

Using digital photography I have focussed on urban landscapes in two of my most favourite cosmopolitan cities, Nottingham in England and Bilbao in Spain. I feel I have been fortunate to have discovered the city of Bilbao, courtesy of my sister who lives and works as a teacher in the city. I have relished the opportunities of visiting this city throughout the changing season of the year and in doing so have become captivated by its culture and beauty. I have explored many areas of the city as well as the surrounding countryside and mountains. Of course, when visiting Bilbao a trip to the spectacular Guggenhiem Museum is undoubtedly not to be missed .

Since enrolling on my chosen degree course at Nottingham Trent University I have now been living in the city of Nottingham for three years. Coming from the small Somerset town of Glastonbury which is largely known throughout the world for its music festival and the much debated burial ground of King Arthur, I have therefore found the difference between both places to be immense and I have had to adapt accordingly. As much as I have always loved the laid backed and relaxed atmosphere which can be experienced by most people who visit Glastonbury, I have grown to love the hustle and bustle along with the excitement of Nottingham and although it is a modern city it is also very proud of its history and heritage. Compared with Glastonbury there is so much to see and do here which is why I have develop an affection for this city.

When working on my series of images from Bilbao, I particularly liked the image of a derelict house with its shutters closed down. There is something about this picture that demonstrates that although it portrays a dilapidated building it also illustrates a building with charm and character. With this in mind I began to think that the majority of cities across the world equally have area of beauty along with areas of abandonment which filled me with the excitement of exploring areas of Nottingham to discover similar images of shutters over shops and garages. Although all three images show a certain degree of character the steel shutters along with the graffiti illustrate a cold look of neglect, abandonment and being unloved. It never fails to amuse me that no matter where you are a supermarket trolley will always rear its ugly head!

My overall aim of this project is to illustrate the characteristics of shutters and garages. The question is, do they depict charm and character or do they portray neglect and abandonment?

The Opening of PHOTOMARKT……..

Overall I think our exhibition has worked and looks to a high standard. Everyone’s images have come together to fit well within the projects brief.

Whilst sitting here looking after the exhibition the amount of people who walk by and take an interest in our work is amazing and it makes me so proud of all of us and as everyone strolls to the fish market their attention is instantly grabbed by Tom Matthews fantastic series of alleyways, well done Tom!

Another fantastic opportunity for us was that the Sheriff of Nottingham came and officially opened the exhibition. We each took in turns to speak to the Sheriff explaining our work and our thoughts and processes behind the photos. I don’t think he was particularly pleased that I had taken images of what he may think is Nottingham’s worse, I hope that he could appreciate all my hard work gone into the process. Although it did make me chuckle to the fact that he had pointed out that the area in which I had taken one of the images (NG7) that the bins in my image should no longer be green, they should be black!!!

Some comments from The PHOTOMARKT comments book:

“Excellent work, loved the black and white photos along with the garages and shutters.” Debbie

“Really good work, I love the dark photos with only the street lights used as lighting. Also the classic farming shots are good.” L.Sweeney

“There are some very interesting photographs. Students have obviously worked hard. I particularly like the farm pictures and the alleyways, they have really captured a ‘moment’.” Holly Hodges

“I love them all! Super super stuff!” Kate Johnson

PHOTOMARKT........

PHOTOMARKT is a collaboration of eleven students who are dealing with a variety of topics and ideas for this exhibition. This body of work represents their personal responses to issues affecting contemporary society. The group represent a mix of ideas and styles, whose differing skills and experiences inform their varying approaches to image making.
www.photomarkt.tk

This is how I am going to display my images at the exhibition. I have had images printed at VIVA IMAGING, Nottingham (www.vivaimaging.co.uk). I have had the images printed to an A2 size on glossy paper. I have chosen to have my prints framed as I feel it makes the images and overall outcome look more professional. I have chosen 50 x 70 frames from habitat (www.habitat.co.uk). They are frames which allow the images to float in the glass. The image is held between two glass sheets whit a white frame about 3 inches from the image. This then gives the illusion of the image floating as the glass acts as a mount. The frames weren’t the easiest to use as it was all a bit of trial and error, glass smashing etc! Its all been a learning experience for next years exhibition so fingers crossed!!!

Final Images.....

It’s been a while since I wrote my last blog…. Been sorting out the exhibition in this time an we’ve even had the opening!! Didn’t want to put my final images on my blog before the opening as I wanted it to be a bit of a surprise for Mum and Dad!

My finally three images I chose to exhibit was still focussing on my idea of derelict buildings and garages and shutters. I chose these images as I felt they were my strongest as I felt they showed what I wanted to portray. The characteristics of garages and shutters in my two favourite cosmopolitan citied, Nottingham England and Bilbao Spain. I wanted my exhibition piece to have my viewers asking themselves, do they show character? Are they beautiful? Or are they just abandoned buildings left there to rot? I feel that these buildings each have their own powerful story to why they have been neglected and even though they are an eye sore each building is full of memories and stories.

Garages.......

The idea of garages came across in last weeks session. I was talking about my main idea of my different worlds and the bilbao photograph of garages people kept picking up. This made me realise that it is most probably one of my most strongest images and should use it to my advantage. So i want to play on the idea of garages from bilbao to nottingham......here are a few test shots......

Flickr account.....i'm rubbish...

After taking more photos I thought I would add the images to my flickr account, but then forgot my password and username to my new account so I’m now back on my old account and I have had to add all the images again…..useless I know….so after I’ve finished adding some of my bilbao images I will start adding the Nottingham images….but for now please take a look at old images and new images……

http://www.flickr.com/photos/harrietchapmanphotography/

Nottingham Castle...

A couple of weeks ago I went to Nottingham Castle and spent the day photographing around the grounds. I wanted to expand the idea of my world. I decided to head towards the castle as I felt this was Nottingham’s main attraction and I think it links with the Guggenheim, Bilbao’s main attraction. Allowing the project to show my places main attractions towards a tourist. The weather wasn’t particularly great so I’m not over excited about the photos. I think I’m comparing them to the photos of Bilbao where the weather was beautiful, blue skies etc, but sadly Nottingham isn’t a blue skied city! I don’t think that I am going to continue with this aim to my project as I don’t think it will fit with the bilbao photos and look out of place therefore not telling a story…. more ideas to come….

My World...

After a discussion with Hugh I’ve come to realise that my photos don’t really have any meaning behind them, the photos work and are a good set of images but then again you can’t really take a bad picture of the Guggenheim as its such an amazing building, and its impossible to make it look bad. For example have I just taken photos of the Bilbao and Guggenheim because I love the place and the architecture or just because my sister lives there? I took the photos because of my love of the city. The Guggenheim is one of my favourite landmarks, the other being The Glastonbury Tor. To expand my project more I am going to take photos of my three places in my world. Bilbao, Glastonbury and Nottingham. Glastonbury being home and Nottingham of course being university. I am hoping to produce a series of images showing architecture and landscapes of all three places I spend long periods of time at….. My World. …..So for the next couple of days I am going to be taking LOTS of photos around Nottingham to try and further this idea and create a better project….

The School Run...

In a previous blog I mentioned the black and white images I have been scanning in. I scanned in one of my most favourite images of a street in Bilbao with the Guggenheim being seen through the street. I particulary like this photo as I like how I have captured the parents collecting their children from school and the busyness of the street. What I find interesting about this photo is the contrast of the old buildings and then in the distance you can see the modern architecture of the Guggenheim. I’m not sure if the scanning of the image has worked well as it looks quite grainy. I know this is a digital project but I thought I would see how film would work to be hopefully an advantage to the project. I think the composition of the photo works but I don’t know if the photo works itself with printing issues?……..thoughts please……..

Jehangir Sorabjee

Whilst researching different artists who photograph the Guggenheim I came across a photographer called Jehangir Sorabjee. The photos to this post are all his. Sorabjee is a Mumbai based photographer who has exhibited his images in various fora and has published his images in various books and magazines. He mostly takes photographs of his home city Mumbai but also takes photographs of landscapes and street photos when travelling. I feel like his photographs are very similar to mine of the Guggenheim, although I was more impressed with his street photography which has made me think about returning to Bilbao and take more photographs of the street life. I like how Sorabjee has used black and white images. I love the strong contrast in the images and how he has not gone for the conventional “tourist” photograph of the city, he is looking deeper into the city, the naturalness its as if he’s not there, just sitting back and watching, Its as if he is a local within that city. I find myself imagining what’s going on in that image and I’d like to think my images were able to tell a story and for people to use their imagination.

http://www.jehangirsorabjee.co.uk/index.html

SNOW in Nottingham...

Forgot to mention the snow!!! How can I forget to mention that outburst of white fluff!! I took a few photos of thought I would upload some onto here for you all to enjoy and bring back your memories of making snowmen and snowball fights!!

I miss Bilbao....

Its been a while since I last did a blog..…this is because I’ve been concentrating on editing my photos in adobe photoshop. When I say editing, I have been slightly changing contrasts, balances and curves etc. I am the type of person who just tends to spend hours on photoshop, changing things here and there to get the best outcome out of photographs. Sometimes after hours of photoshop I tend to just keep the photograph in the same condition before I attacked it with photoshop. Even if I do spend hours working on an image and don’t even change it I feel like I havn't wasted my time. Although you make think I am wasting my time but I feel glad that i've had the chance to change it even if I don’t like it and leave it to its original. Here are several photographs which I have of the city. I have also been scanning in images I have taken in black and white film. I know this project is digitally based but I wanted to see what my scanned images would look like if I digitalized them slightly…….yes again my playing around on photoshop. These photos I will add in my next blog……….. Also the title of this blog is true I do miss Bilbao, I miss the culture, the surroundings, the freedom, the people and most of all my sister.....hopefully i can have a quick getaway again.....

The editing continues....

For the last couple of days I have been editing my images from Bilbao. My original aim for this term was to have a collection of images of The Guggenheim Museum, but during the session Hugh talked about how it had been done before and how will my images be any different to those done before? . After this conversation with Hugh I’m glad I also photographed the city and the towns outside of Bilbao. Looking back at my images I am pleased with how certain images worked. For example the image seen here of benches. I am now in the process of thinking what do I want to achieve with this project and what do I want my final outcome to be…………

My first blog!

After living in the library for the last week scribbling away on my essay, I’ve finally found the time to start my blog. I’ve never written a blog before so all this is a bit of a new experience to me. At the moment I’m in the process of editing down my photos from a recent trip over new years to Bilbao, Spain. My sister has been living over there as a teacher for the last 3 years so it’s a city that I’ve grown to love even if I don’t speak the language!! So right now I’m just editing the photos……..so watch this space…….but for now this is a picture of where i'm sat right now editing down those images!!