We have a new international event in embryo! We are planning a Fashion Shoot Experience to take place in an amazing 17th-century mansion La Vescogna in Lombardy, Italy, on 8th and 9th September 2012. This will be two one-day events, each the same formula as we have done in London and New York.

Places for 10 photographers each day (including myself), shooting with 5 fully-styled models (creative team sourced by us), using the stunning interiors, environs and views to be enjoyed at this beautiful location, a stunning and peaceful paradise a mere hour from Milan.

Our event is a bridge between a workshop and a real fashion shoot, and a chance for you to test your mettle and develop your skills. Photographers of all skill levels (from amateur to pro) have gained confidence, experience – and had incredible fun – being saturated with creative opportunities and stunning models on one of our days! You may find it to be the most fun and rewarding event you’ll attend – by the end of the day, you’ll be artistically spent, with potentially a whole new portfolio of images.

We’re excited to organise and host our first European event, and being able to use significant outdoor space for the first time on our fashion experience – check out the beautiful gardens in the images further below.

Dates are:

Sat 8th September 2012

Sun 9th September 2012

For all the deal and shpiel on what our event is, frequently-asked questions, guidelines and so forth, please head to our dedicated website:

www.fashionshootexperience.com

Places on this event are £550 GBP per person. The price also covers your food (breakfast, lunch and refreshments) throughout the day. The price does not include accommodation or any travel/transfers. However, we’ll be helping to advise on local accommodation and anything else you need to be able to get to the venue. With the location being close to Milan, we’re hoping to attract plenty of you from Italy, as well as photographers from all over.

Our terms do differ between events, and these terms will be sent to you prior to payment. The event will be confirmed to go ahead as soon as we have enough bookings to make the event feasible. We’ll be keeping in touch with everyone so we can advise when to start booking any flights or travel.

Email us to join up!

contact@fashionshootexperience.com

More pictures of La Vescogna…

We pulled off our first stateside Fashion Shoot Experience!

When Matthew first suggested taking our event to New York I was highly sceptical at the scale of such a task! But with the experience of a year of London Shoot Experiences, the prospect became decreasingly daunting. Once we had the right location nailed for such an event (which took months to find) we sold out the places quite quickly, and with demand had to add a third day. We then spent several weeks putting the creative team into place, the most work needed to pinpoint the right stylist and costumes, and we were off!

The event took place at a glorious brownstone Brooklyn mansion which we hired for 5 nights; 3 of those being Shoot Experience days. The days were a sell-out, with some photographers joining to shoot on a double day. We followed the typical structure of our London events: 5 models, full styling team of stylist, 2 x MUA and 2 x hairstylists, with 10 photographer slots, all split into pairs to work with each model for an hour in a different room of the house. Stylist Jay Johnson pulled in designer dresses from Jovani, Tony Bowls and Faviana. Hairstylist Yasutake made hair pieces for the models to offer a diversity of wilder looks amongst the more classical ball gown looks.

The lighting set-ups were flash (TritonFlashes, from Photoflex our sponsor),  and we also had some LED constant lights available at times from the videographer, which added a diversity to the range. However, we were also blessed with beautiful natural light in a lot of the rooms most of the time. The spots around the house included a sunlit front lounge which looked like it was straight from the pages of Vanity Fair; a dark saloon area for moodier shots with flash; a beautiful bedroom archetypal of an interiors magazine, and a quirkier bedroom – the ’swoon room’, vibrant in blue decor and its own inhabitant, mannequin ‘Lola’.

We had a superb videographer shooting footage of the whole event, Josh Beadle shooting on RED, who also shot stills in a photographer slot. We’re much looking forward to what comes from the stunning creative footage we saw him creating of the models. Amongst the other photographers there was a great range of technology at hand, from your typical Canon and Nikon; compact Leicas through to Phase One IQ180s. Below is a superb image from Brent MCCombs shooting on Phase One.

Helpfully, the styling room was designated in the lower basement area, which kept numbers round the house low as needed, and so we could have some assistants on hand. These included some of the photographers who had joined the shoot – Ian Mears who came over with us from the UK, Diana Lemieux (whom I ‘met’ through Flickr, and was great to finally meet for real!) with her  husband Rick, who all stayed at the house with us.

The mansion itself was the perfect location for us, as the core team, to shoot and stay in. Luckily we had the owner as excited as we were, and even though so much goes on in this house (shoots, weddings, performances), she was particularly interested to see what we were creating, with the diversity involved. The food made for us by the house was delicious and it was a bonus to spend some social time with them in the evenings (well, just down the road in Clinton Hill – as far as we got in the whole trip, with being so exhausted!).

Here’s a group shot from each day:

I shot as a participant on the first and third days, but on the second, I nipped over the road with a couple of dresses to shoot with a 6th model Kate, who we recruited for the afternoon for a special shoot in a lady’s prop-laden house, full of peculiar and fascinating objects – like numerous mini museums brought together. It was a great little bonus to an already frantically-busy trip. Pictures from that, and the mansion shooting itself, will come later from me. I’ve been editing both Surreal Fashion but also enjoying putting together collections of completely different, ‘untouched’ images.

You can check out other photographers’ images being posted to the flickr group and to the Facebook group page.

After the success of our first international Fashion Shoot Experience, we’re already planning the next two for this year  – Italy in September and California in October, the latter which will coincide with an opportunity I will reveal later. More on all that to come. Meanwhile if you want to be sure to hear the dates first, email us at contact@fashionshootexperience.com or join the big mailing list.

We’ve also got our London events for April, May and June lined up, which includes a brand new Thameside location (see all London details on the website:

www.fashionshootexperience.com

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NB: B/w pictures in this post are by Simon Ghahary, taken on a Leica D-Lux 5, a camera I fell in love with during the trip…

Fresh back from our first ever stateside Fashion Shoot Experience in Brooklyn (so much to come later from that!) we’re adding a new London location to our Fashion Shoot Experience event for the spring and early summer.

The location is the Master Shipwright’s House in South London, a humongous and beautiful location with 5 centuries of history. This location is immensely popular with TV, fashion and celebrities: Jude Law shot here, Florence and the Machine has been only shortly after we visited, and it is where Mario Testino shot his infamous images of Kate Moss (like this one!) The house has various rooms with stripped-down walls, quirky props, and huge windows allowing excellent natural light as we enter the brighter months of the year. It is a house with a real character and vibe, nestled peacefully in its own cosmos by the Thames riverside, only seven minutes from London Bridge.

It has parts built as far back as 1500s by King Henry VIII to house one of the country’s then most important figures – the king’s master shipwright, and the offices of the then Deptford Naval Docksyards. Below is a close-up of the house from the painting above.

Here are some images from our recce. Fur rugs, piano, winding staircases, paintings, and old suitcases typify the kind of props found inside the restored house, and there is the added bonus of free unlimited parking.

Unlike the other locations we’ve used, this location has lots of outdoors space around the building, with a quirky ‘lookout hut’ (above) by the riverside which will be one of our shooting spots on the day of the event. Around the hut is the potential for shooting with the views of the dockyard and cityscape.

…and cosy kitchen for breakfast and lunch!:

Finding big, amazing locations that can also accommodate the numbers, needs and budget for the Fashion Shoot Experience is no mean feat. And this one took some hunting down, thanks to Matt’s ineffable work – but ironically, it’s one of the longest-standing locations on the celebrity and fashion circuit, so you’ll be shooting at a place loved by the best!

We have two dates set for the Master Shipwright’s House:

Saturday 19th May 2012

Saturday 16th June 2012

Both are 9am – 6pm. The price for this venue is £395 GBP per place (one-day event). We are taking bookings now. Owing to recent demand we anticipate these places to sell quickly, so email us early.

If you’re unfamiliar with what a Fashion Shoot Experience is, check out the website! You can see videos of previous events, see a showcase of photographers’ work, and read glowing reports.

Don’t forget what that price covers when you break it down: each pair of photographers gets to shoot freely for one hour with each of 5 fully-styled models, in every area of the location, with on-hand assistance guidance where needed, a range of lighting gear all supplied (flash, constant, HMI, plus reflectors etc), and full rights release for all of the images you take. Plus breakfast, lunch and refreshments, and editing movies from me afterwards. These are not workshops. These are events aimed at confident/experienced amateurs, semi-pro and pro photographers who want to bridge the gap between an assisted/laid-on environment and a real fashion shoot, and produce their own individual images. You get to shoot in locations that would be double or even triple the cost of just hiring the venue itself. Each Fashion Shoot Experience is a unique event with new models and clothing – which is exactly why we get so many repeat ‘customers’.

To book a place, please email us at contact@fashionshootexperience.com

New image Parasite (click here to view larger).

It can be considered a flipped, flea-shaped freakier follow-up to The fourth soil, another recent image of mine:

(View The fourth soil large, with description, here)

Parasite evolved from experimentation in Photoshop, following on from the same love of the shiny saplings rendered illustrative-looking after converting to monochrome, ‘timeless’ perhaps, or at least arcane. But here I was strangely inspired by the anatomy of the flea, and in merging the body with the branches, I called to mind a collage-like look reminiscent of Ellen Rogers. The result: the beautiful and broken human parasite. I have loved to see the comments so far on Flickr which have cited Dali and H.R. Giger, as well as taken on other interpretations of the creature as a seed of new life, the germination of a better humanity, life-making as well as life-taking.

Recently I’ve been writing more with my images. With this one however, having been inspired and stimulated by the comments on my images on Flickr recently, I had a better idea. I asked for your words. I wanted to place the words of my viewers directly onto the image, making it into an anatomical chart, as in the mock-up below.

I wanted to know your articulated thoughts on how humans are parasites on the world, feeding from its resources – that is: in both good and bad, and natural/inevitable ways. I wanted to hear what you truly feel in response to the conceptual subtext of this image – even if it involves digressing, or taking on a different reading.

Update: and here is the result. Click to view large.

In my career so far I have not entered that many competitions or magazine calls for entry, though I’ve always meant to, it’s either been through lack of organisation/time, high entry fees, or dismally sensing a mismatch between my work and the competition in question.

I have however just entered a competition called Picture the Difference. It is a competition with a relatively low entry fee which also gives half of the money to the charity ActionAid.

Being shortlisted depends on votes, so I’d really appreciate your votes on any of the 3 images I have submitted. I am aware that my work is so far quite different interpretation than the other entries visible in the pool, tableaux as opposed to ‘journalistic’, and more ‘ contrived’. This is my own interpretation of the specification of the competition which calls for all kinds of genre, and the 3 images I submitted are my reading of the theme ‘change’, all from my Ecology series.

The prize is a trip to Uganda and a subsequent exhibition and feature in a self-published book. Although the trip sounds like it beckons a certain genre of journalistic photography I think that if I were to win, I would enjoy showing children a creative approach to making images that involves using themselves and each other as their subjects – as well as being able to make my own creative images of them, and perhaps even myself, in the landscape.

Please vote for me at the following 3 picture links, note that you can vote more than once – every few minutes in fact but I’d appreciate at least just one from you! Thank you.

Heatstroke: http://www.picturethedifference.co.uk/photo/361/

Moored: http://www.picturethedifference.co.uk/photo/362/

Moult: http://www.picturethedifference.co.uk/photo/363/

By no means has it been an easy year, or a year where I’ve got everything I want.

This year has been more about making things happen in the face of not being able to get quite what I want, and learning slowly about what my goals actually are.

Above: my favourites of my images from 2011 whittled down to 9 – click to view larger (or to see them uncropped and whole, you can go to my newly designed website).

I’ve shot a large volume of work compared to other years (including over 30 models, thanks to the events), gained experience in new situations, engineered a new kind of exciting event, co-hosted a workshop production in a dream location, released a book and written my second, but most importantly, I have gained a clearer sense of direction than ever regarding where I want to go.

This year I’ve been working in two main series: Ecology and Surreal Fashion. Between them, I can cover most of what I currently want to express. They are quite different: Ecology uses stark nudes and landscapes, dystopian moods and ambiguous, environmentally-linked messages. It’s where my self-portraiture work has led to, though it’s not all self-portraiture. Surreal Fashion is my first substantial series featuring other (fashion) models, that has grown around an aesthetic that combines photos with other media, with more of an attempt at a conceptual core than most typical ‘fashion’ photography.

On the events side

This year I’ve done some teaching-based workshops in London, Scotland – and LA, right at the start of the year. I’ve also co-hosted a workshop for Phase One (further below). But what has epitomised this year has been our new event, what ‘we’ (that is, myself and Matthew my husband-to-be) have come to entitle the Fashion Shoot Experience.

It was a conception of two desires: 1) to transcend the typical ‘workshop’ and the limitations and contradictions it poses, as to what a photog/aspiring photog can truly take away other than some force-fed techniques and an illusion that the ‘art’ in photography can at all be ‘taught’. Maybe that is because I’m overall valuing being an ‘artist’ more than just a ‘photographer’. And 2) I wanted to put together a fashion shoot, instead of waiting around for a commission, but to make it happen myself. But the sentiment is not just “the only way to learn is to do it”, but “images get made whilst you are ‘learning’ – whilst you just do it“. Both myself, and all the participating photographers (who are everyone from students to seasoned pros) are on a ‘learning’, ‘doing’, and just ‘being’ experience together, making greater use of a great location that the typical workshop could.

The positive feedback from other photographers on the events has really made me proud of the event we have put out there. I really feel like I been able to facilitate a meaningful and fruitful experience for other people. And its growth is marked by going stateside: in 2012, one year after its launch in London, we’re taking it to New York.

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Books

Feels to me like it was ages ago, but it was only this year my book Self-Portrait Photography came out in the UK in Feb (Ilex) and in the US in March (Pixiq), which has sold 24,000 copies worldwide to date and is going into second print run. I’ve also been writing my second book this year, which comes out in the spring, Creative Portrait Photography. Writing these books is one of the best, if not the best, work I’ve enjoyed so far in my photography. There’s an inevitable commercialisation and level of compromise involved in the final product, but I love the freedom I get in putting them together, and I value the growth I gain in every book I write.

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Shooting at Weston Park

The PODAS Phase One workshop has got to be one of the best things for me about 2011 (see blog post with video). Getting to sleep over and shoot a workshop and eat great food – and even play dress up before the models arrived – in the most wonderful stately home, and be paid for it – wow – I was very lucky. There, I made what I think is my favourite image of the year overall, Storm Door (below).

And the important ‘OTHER’

This has also been a strong year for self-development. Particularly in the last couple of months, I have really solidified my sense of self and direction in life. Prioritising healthy eating and fitness above absolutely everything else, including photography. I’ve drastically addressed stress: the importance of getting headspace from perpetual computer use and the constant ‘I could be doing more’ mentality. I am so happy to be doing what I do for a living, but now I realise, for one reason much bigger than any other: the fact that I can organise my life around the priority of health, in body and spirit, which includes regular exercise, rest and rebuilding a connection with nature, in antagonism to much of the modern lifestyle that befalls most of us. Moreover, my intended direction(s) with my art have been in mental tumult over the last few months, finally landing on the one thing I want to do with my art: to question, and to seek truth.

Where 2011 has brought me

It was only a short while ago that this end-of-year post would have said something along the lines of: in 2012 I want to break into commercial work, grow my name, expand, in essence just get bigger, better, richer, greater, work and whip myself harder than ever, blah & etcetera. I’m questioning everything about that outlook. I still crave ways to use my work in other (commercial) avenues, but the right ones. This year, I have already felt this change coming, manifested in my Ecology series which has been somewhat a test run for me, for how matters of environmental concern meet ‘art for art’s sake’. I wrote a blog post about it earlier in the year where I professed to the series’ softcore quality and that “it’s not the place of my art here to tell people how to make the world a better place.” However, although I still crave subtlety, I now want to invoke deeper thinking, to actively engage my audience. I do want to make the world a better place, because it is possible.

I realise more about who I am as an ‘artist’. I’ve battled with feelings of dissatisfaction about my direction, feeling that a lack of commercial work meant I am less of a photographer. Maybe in a way, but not less of an artist. I now see what my work is: it is my dog by my heel, whom I want to stay true to me, close to my side. I see that my dream is to always be able to be myself, to channel every profound thing I feel, but not just for me. In that respect, as I grow in knowledge and awareness all the time (as well as passion and altruism) the art does too! I want to turn up the volume button, by increasing my work’s power and also its channels of expression; by using words, and by sharing more than just pictures that compel one to simply look and enjoy. There are too many issues around us to ignore, and too many layers to those problems than is typically regarded by the mainstream media. The kind of ‘issues’ I am referring to will become clearer later.

It is quite astounding to consider the potential power of a photographer who chooses to value truth over money, message over self-lording. What if my pictures can help expose truth, shift attitudes in one person and then another, and bit by bit make a difference to this world? That notion is just too exciting. I’m starting to even wonder, what is the point of art if it does not make a statement, to try make a difference? I want my art to have other purposes beyond our typical notions of ’success’, and I realise I’m going against some people’s advice when I say that. I’m interested in how this new perspective will change things. I know for a fact it will make me happier.

Above: Heatstroke (my favourite from Ecology this year)

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Some inspirations this year…

Here’s some references of things I’ve noted inspiration from in 2011: this picture ‘Mr Vet’ by Milosz Wozaczynski, pictures like this by Susannah Benjamin, and pictures like this by Chiara Fersini, and even illustrational Biblical stuff like this off Google Images, and weird animal hair pieces of Nagi Noda… also in a more general way by the following, in a random order: Tim Walker, Federico Erra, Rutger ten Broeke, Yulia Gorodinski, Martin Parr, Gregory Crewdson, Guy Bourdin, Noah Kalina, and Peter Kemp – as well as the other 4 contributors of my new book.

I also highly recommend this inspirational book Art & Fear, which has really helped me this year.

Cheers to a stimulating, enlightening 2012!

I was excited to watch the DVD, as I had seen the trailer. From the marketing it looked delicious and so tempting, I can only imagine the fervour of both young and seasoned ‘togs sticking this on their Xmas wishlists. I looked forward to watching a few hours’ worth of photography-related entertainment. After all, there aren’t many programmes on TV about photography, or at least beyond a simplistic layperson level!

I didn’t want to review it just from my point of view, but thought of questions that the potential buyer would want to ask: can it teach a beginner photographer anything? Can it teach an advanced photographer anything? Is it marketed correctly? Is it worth the money? ($250/$200 launch price).

I was aware most of my enjoyment came from seeing Joey and Lara behind the scenes. Being fairly familiar with their work, it was largely a pleasure of recognition and curiosity about their physical presence as photographers. The DVD is divided into parts, showing Lara and Joey each on a shoot as part of the four ‘challenges’, each with screen capture films showing them at work in RAW workflow and Photoshop.

The photography in this DVD is stunning. I am bored by 90% of photography out there but I was captivated by both Lara and Joey’s images throughout. Of course, you only have to go online to see their images, so it’s the content of the explanational material that is the object to review here.

The first shooting film, showing Joey shooting a rock star on a studio roof, is very comprehensive. Joey is careful to go into detail about every stage he went through (lenses, lighting, filters, techniques, forethought, contingencies… right through to how the lighting affected the clothing of the subject, and even where he bought the ‘cheap ass’ light fixture from). I really feel like I am in a direct conversation with him, having my questions answered. In the editing films, I like how both Lara and Joey show the other shots from a session beside the selected one – the rejected/sidelined shots – i.e. how they get to the ‘before’  and not just the typical ‘before and after’. This is something important that many other workshops/tutorials neglect! In some of the shoots though, there are gaps in the full information about everything that went into the shoot, a bit like seeing a dish being made, but not getting the full recipe. It’s still enjoyable to view.

I like that Lara speaks about other aspects as well as the photography itself; her input on styling for example, in choosing a model.  She is showing that there is more to photography than the f-stop, what you might consider the more ‘feminine’ pulse of photography. And I truly believe that the photography workshop industry lacks that in abundance, so to see a photographer like Lara in action makes me happy. But, this is a workshop DVD and it needs strong workshop material, so I would have liked Lara to address a few more technical topics to give a more complete picture.

To get something clear however, as a photographer myself, I am often not bothered about technical information and I am not saying that the crux of a photograph is the gear and settings used. It’s just that the DVD purports to tell you everything about the process, so I went into watching it believing that I would be shown everything. And with every photo that comes onscreen is a overview of its camera settings, so we are being told that they are integral to understanding the image. Some of the settings however are not explained, such as a mystifyingly high ISO and shutter speed on one of Lara’s images from the Shoot a Stranger challenge. During another of her shoots, she uses a constant/HMI light stating she wants a cool look, but has to obtain this later in Lightroom by changing the white balance drastically, going against her statement that non-destructive editing is important. So I wondered why she had not changed her white balance accordingly in the shooting. It really doesn’t matter – every photographer has quirks, makes mistakes, can fix things later – it is of little consequence! But it would be helpful if these things were mentioned, to avoid confusing the DVD viewer who wants to think and learn.

Lara refers to digital noise from a high ISO as flattering film camera ‘grain’, and that she wants ‘a nostalgic film feel across her images’ (in the way I understood this then, across all her work.) I was surprised to hear that, as noise really isn’t the same as grain, and I see Lara’s work as the opposite anyway: modern, professionally digital, unnoisy and clean-edged images, and there isn’t any visible noise in most her portfolio. I believe that in fact she only uses high ISO for some select shoots, not all, so it’s an example of a topic I did not feel fully enlightened on. Contrary to the description of the DVD, I felt there was a subtle, maybe even oblivious, insulating membrane in parts that prevents the viewer from truly getting the nuts and bolts of everything that goes into the photographers’ process. I don’t necessarily mean that they purposefully hold back tangible ’secrets’; just that they sometimes talk performatively rather than straight from the heart.

I liked the diversity in production value of the shoots: from the Pacific Ocean, to a street in India, to a deadly road in Bolivia, to a London studio. I think for a DVD marketing itself as a fashion/commercial workshop, it would be good to see a more ‘conventional’ fashion shoot somewhere in the series of films: something that shows shooting with a standard key, back and fill light. That is what I would have liked to learn more about. Because the shoots were all a bit quirky in their technique, it was a bit like having the icing without the cake… but a bit better – like a whole cake made out of icing. Perhaps, though, it is a covertly good thing that there are no ‘norms’ in this video, after all, photography is a bag of surprises, random encounters, thinking on your feet, and finding inspiration in unusual places.

For one of Joey’s shoots, he says to the camera that he has decided to shoot in an apartment because NYC studios are too expensive (admittedly ‘shooting last minute’ specifically for the DVD). Whilst the shoot worked just fine in the apartment, and is a great example to other photographers on practical ways to save money, part of me was curious that surely his shoot deserved the cost of studio hire for a DVD that will be sold. But then, he does say he seldom hires studios. Also, when Lara turns up to her London studio for the birthday-themed shoot to find just a ring flash and a HMI light, I wondered upon the somewhat strange situation that as a professional photographer (on a DVD teaching others how to be professional photographers), that she had not checked the studio’s lighting beforehand, or brought her own gear.  However, these are young photographers: fresh, rebellious and with work ten times more interesting than a lot of older, more experienced photographers that do things by-the-book. It is of personal opinion to each viewer as to whether that qualifies them to make and sell a workshop DVD.

I couldn’t help feeling that many illustrative shots could have been edited down (such as Joey’s translator shown speaking Spanish for 20 seconds, or wide views of set-ups shown for longer than we need), as well as the time devoted to Lara’s long anecdotes and also Joey’s non-photography-related jesting in front of the camera, which struck me as a little self-indulgent; it may be enjoyable, but my mind kept going back to the person who pays $200 or $250 to watch what seems more like a documentary than a workshop. I found myself saying ‘ok now let’s see some photography’, or ‘nice, so show me what the shots look like!’ a few times.

I enjoyed Joey’s India shoot; the set-up was described well, and I enjoyed the ambience of the footage (glad no music was put over those shots), I almost felt like I was there. I also liked seeing Lara approach strangers to shoot in the streets of New York, that part made me feel as if I was watching an objective TV programme where the photographer was making a real effort to step outside their comfort zone.

A difference I noticed between Joey and Lara’s footage was the quality of camera work. Lara’s was all shot with a manual focus (most likely a 5DMkII), which meant that the shots kept going blurry and was quite distracting. The editing also left in a lot of unnecessarily long shots on Lara in action, like cutaways trying to become real meat. We see her close-up at work, directing the model but we don’t see their reaction, so we can’t make narrative sense of what’s going on, and the footage becomes merely decorative, to say ‘this is a fashion photographer, and this is the model’.

This all made me reflect on the disadvantages of watching a film not edited by an objective eye, and not ‘professional’ in the strictest sense, but I also reminded myself that today we see so much more than TV would typically sanction, and this DVD is an example of photographers autonomously creating something that would not have had the means to do only a decade ago.

Probably my main critical observation was lack of discussion of inspirations. Photographers don’t exist in a vacuum. Work doesn’t birth itself on another planet free from all external influence. All artists’ work is a collective flow of ideas: like water running its rivulets into the work of each single artist in existence; the water can’t collect in a self-contained pool and say ‘this is it, this is where it begins’. To gain more of a credible glance at their processes, I wanted to hear about what influences went into the outcome of each of Lara and Joey’s shoots, and what inspires them generally. The complete absence of this conflicted with their expectation that their own work on the DVD will inspire others.

So, in answer to my questions:

Can it teach a beginner photographer anything? –Yes, although some beginners might find themselves out of their depth if they expect explanation of the extreme basics: it’s story-led, with a cocktail of all kinds of interesting things coming together at once.

Can it teach an advanced photographer anything? – Though I felt more excited to watch Lara’s videos, I feel I got more directly useful bits of info from Joey. But good photographers’ work can seldom be translated into easy-to-digest nuggets on technique to be swallowed up by the viewer. Whilst Joey can tell us about ND filters and his homemade modifiers, Lara just takes really great pictures, with simple uncomplicated methods: well-composed, well-styled and very well selected in the edit process. There’s nothing much to ‘report on’ about her process, except for her excellent eye. And you can’t teach someone ‘the eye’ as much as you can’t teach a blind person to see. The truthful paradox is: the more experimental, ‘unique’ and interesting any photographer’s work is, the less it can be ‘taught’ to people at all.

It is marketed correctly? –Probably not quite, more documentary style for the LJ and JL fans, demonstrating their own idiosyncrasies. But using the semantics of ‘workshop’ and ‘learning’ in the packaging obviously sells better. A couple of hardcore technical bits (such as channelling the energy spent on the comical boxing ring animation, into dynamic lighting or composition breakdowns instead) may have weighted it more into the marketing’s favour, and so too a technique-based structure rather than a story-based structure (though I enjoy the latter more). I love the artistic DVD cover, the inventive concept of rivalry, and the colourful array of shooting situations – so much more interesting than bog-standard stuff of typical tradeshow ilk.

Is it worth the money? –Depends if, based on the above, you learn from it or not. It may not be as useful to someone who does not know LJ and JL’s work beforehand. It may be expensive for a DVD, but let’s not forget that physical workshops are invariably more expensive than this, and can have less effort or energy put into them.

There’s a new iPad magazine out by Ilex called ‘Photographer’s I’ which is “a revolutionary departure in the world of photography magazines”, and I have found to be a delight. If you have one of those superfluous Apple/Android tablet thingies like me, and you’re into photography, then you have to see it.

I have a feature in there that covers the making of my images ‘The Smothering’ and ‘Their Evening Banter’. It’s a ‘how-to’ kind of spread, but things are of course slightly different in this context: with a clickable moving picture style narrative, showing the process to production. It’s really rather nice.

There is also a short video I made exclusively for the magazine, showing the production of my image ‘Loopy Lupinus’ (below), a whimsical self-portrait-with-cat-with-help-from-Matthew I did earlier this year:

Buy the mag even just to see the awkward moments of trying to hold my cat in one position. Or even just to hear the pretty birdsong of spring and hefty shutter clicks of a Phase One body, both which I’m missing already.

Of course, the magazine is full of much more than just my article. It has numerous interactive features from a range of photographers, well worth the price. This pilot issue is going for a cheapo price of £1.50/$1.99, which is literally a steal.

Check it out.

One of those prints is one ne’er before carnated onto paper… one my favourites from this year, shot with a Phase One IQ180 at Weston Park, Storm Door.

So if you are going along, be sure to check out the display at Spectrum’s booth. There will also be The escape, an image I produced on my first trip stateside in 2008.

VISION 11 is hosted by British Journal of Photography, and runs on Friday 18th and Saturday 19th Nov in west London. Find out more on their website.

…when the landscape strips itself bare. (click the image to view larger),

Thought I would put together a montage of b/w nudes. Three are from last winter, and also one I produced the other day, Against the grain, bottom left.

B/w is not something I do generally do a lot. But when I have an image which leaves colour looking redundant, and that has a form better rendered with the charcoal tones of black and white and grey, it feels absolutely right. Adjusting each colour channel in Photoshop’s black and white adjustment tool truly brings a b/w image to life than just desaturating it in one click! The paleness of the flesh against the darkness of the ground becomes a whole more dramatic than its original reality. That said, I really also like the top left picture, Denuded, in colour (see it here). The others, not so much.

These were all shot with Matthew, with his suggestive input on each one in varying degrees. That’s not to say he was ‘the photographer’ but nor was I the completely independent self-portrait artist. I spot trees I like, I usually pick the framing, sometimes he will adjust the framing and I will prefer his, he helps me keep my feet and head in the frame, and overall the task of posing naked in the public countryside is made a lot more feasible. Then I proceed alone to pick through the pictures and decide on the outcome of the shoot, if any. He sometimes offer suggestions in the edit, or just a ‘bah’ or ‘yeah’ to either stall or encourage me.

I put these images together and they became a tapestry of cool supine flesh, all set in Kent countryside. I like the set because I feel they express my commitment to art, in both the practical implications of posing for the images, but also my intent to show them no matter how exhibitionist they might be construed, or how different they are from my usual colourful and surreal work.

Not everyone will like my attempts at monochrome and indeed a gallerist once told me to stick with colour. But one thing I have learned is to follow my own heart on individual images’ directions, experiment with what makes them feel right, even if that means the saleability in someone else’s eyes plummets.

There may just be a book to come from me in the future dedicated to nude photography. I want to shoot more models nude, including men, pregnant women… and so hopefully a future book will be a wonderful offering to a ‘genre’ I love.

To see more from the ECOLOGY series, both b/w and colour, go to the website.