« June 2011 »
S M T W T F S
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30
Entries by Topic
All topics  «
100 people
365 days
aradale
art
artists wanted: exposure
bars
blogged
book covers
books
brisbane
budapest
calendars
collaborations
commissions
death
digital post-processing
divine diptychs
dreams
eastbourne
edinburgh
england
events
exhibitions
f-stop magazine
fashion
film
gig photography
greeting cards
holga
hospitalfield
jpg magazine
life
london
melbourne
minutiae
mixed bag
mooncruise* magazine
paris
phirebrush
photographers
photography
photography books
portraits
portraiture sessions
prints
road trip 2009
road trip 2010
rosebank, nsw
saatchi showdown
self-portraiture
sepulchre
shots magazine
the big issue
the bubble
toyota travel award
travel
travels with kyle 2012
twohundredby200
vignette press
visible ink
workshops
You are not logged in. Log in
scrawl
12 June 2011
all through the night
Now Playing: cyndi lauper - all through the night
Topic: divine diptychs

all through the night


Left: Lililly
Right: Me

This round, I again had the task of choosing the themes.

Sticking with the musical motif, I decided to select themes inspired by track names on Cyndi Lauper's She's So Unusual album, an old favourite of mine.

I gave myself and Lililly All Through The Night as I figured my chances of being able to sort out an image in the evening after work (or even on the weekend) was more likely.

As it happened, we were all a bit tardy this round, but Lililly and I both went with a double-exposure / long exposure image, conveying a feeling of sleeplessness and restlessness (a concept I'm, unfortunately, far too familiar with).

Posted by Bronwen Hyde at 12:48 BST
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
11 June 2011
i see a pattern forming
Topic: collaborations

i see a pattern forming


So, as I alluded to in my last post, I have been working on a new project with a writer from Brisbane, Simon Groth, that we're now launching and making public, initially as a blog, but which is ultimately intended for publication as a luscious coffee table book of text and image.

Simon and I met through the ever-lovely Lisa Dempster, former publisher at Vignette Press and current Director of the Emerging Writers' Festival, amongst numerous other writerly exploits in Melbourne and beyond.

I provided a cover image for Simon's short story, Coda, the first issue of the first series of Vignette Press' Mini Shots, way back in 2007. We met, albeit briefly, a few months later at the launch of the series at Federation Square in Melbourne; then not again until I moved to Brisbane. But we continued to harbour an admiration for each others' work, and he approached me last year, before I left that big brown land, to see if I might be interested in undertaking this project with him.

Suffice to say, I was keen and here we are.

I hope you enjoy our collaborative creativity, and hopefully, organically, over the next while you'll see the work blossoming, and a pattern forming.

Posted by Bronwen Hyde at 00:32 BST
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
8 June 2011
palestra
Topic: london

palestra


I was going to use the image above to promote a new project I'm working on with a writer from Brisbane, that we're just about ready to launch as a blog on Tumblr, but which is ultimately intended for publication as a luscious coffee table book of text and image.

It fits with the title of the blog as it currently stands, but wasn't an image I necessarily felt would inspire a piece of writing from my lovely friend. And as I want to keep the majority of images I create for that project solely for that project (though the first one will be recognisable from my blog, Flickr, an issue of F-Stop Magazine, and my website), that worked out nicely, thankyouverymuch.

However, on looking up the actual name of the building on Google Maps, also specifically trying to ascertain if what I was told was correct in regard to the occupants of the building, I have to admit, I descended into rant mode.

Because, like so many other photographers in London, I've now become just a statistic in the "I'm a photographer, not a terrorist" debate that still, unfortunately, rages here.

I didn't get into a barney with the guy; it didn't get heated; I didn't have anyone threaten to confiscate my camera, my memory card, or threaten to call the police. Hell, the guy didn't even ask my name, and didn't ask to see the photo I took.

I'm guessing because he'd seen me take the photo of the ceiling in the outer entry of the building, and that was okay; but taking a photo aimed at street level wasn't, so he came to stop me at that point.

And on one level, yeah, I can kind of understand the paranoia of "You can photograph the building at a distance, above ground level, that's okay, but no images of entrances, the ground floor, etc".

I have been alive long enough to witness planes flying headlong into the World Trade Centre, the removal of all bins in major London train stations, and so on.

This gentleman's reason for me not being able to photograph the building, on this occasion, is that apparently this building houses a Metropolitan Police office. Funnily enough, there was no sign screaming this to me, I had no idea. To me it looked far too fancy for them, but maybe that's because I've watched The Bill for too long: I expect The Fuzz to be all about bleak and grey.

But this building: it has character. I only saw one section of it, close up. The rest I barely saw as we only passed by on our way from Tate Modern to Southwark Station, and I was wary about lingering too long after being berated.

And looking the building up online tonight to find it is the Palestra building, I thought about the architects. How pissed would I be, as an artist (because architects are, mostly), that this fantastic design is not able to be interpreted and recorded by other artists as a pretty interesting and stylish building?

I'm sure if Gaudi were alive and heard that power-hungry security guards were banishing photographers and artists, rendering any section of his fantastic buildings out of bounds for interpretation, he'd have a fit.

You don't create elaborate, highly decorative buildings simply so a select few* can see them. At least, that's not how I understand it. In metropolises that often harbour ugly, dated, oppressive buildings, shouldn't we be celebrating those that stand out from the crowd, not cordoning them off from bystanders?

*okay, so the entire population of London isn't a "select few", but compared to the world's population, it's kinda piddling.

Posted by Bronwen Hyde at 21:53 BST
Updated: 9 June 2011 06:59 BST
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
30 May 2011
i don't want to let you go
Now Playing: angelo badalamenti - haunting & heartbreaking
Topic: self-portraiture

i don't want to let you go


him: when i asked you if you wanted to have dinner, i was actually inviting you on a date...
her: you know i'm leaving the country, right?

him: i can't understand why you've been single for so long.
her: i've been single, not celibate. there have been crushes, but i've not fallen in love with anyone for a long time.

him: i didn't know if i'd ever see you again. and i knew i'd regret it for the rest of my life if i didn't ask.

him: your hands are so small. every time i look at them i think, "jesus, i'm going to jail!"

her: i just want us to enjoy the time we have. i don't want to do long distance. when i make a decision - to break up a relationship, to move house, to move country - i immediately start looking forward, moving forward. i don't want to be in london but spend all my time looking back.

him: i've made a commitment to finishing my study and paying off my mortgage; i can't go anywhere for 3-4 years. after that i'll follow you anywhere.

her (through tears, less than 12 hours before they part indefinitely): i love you

her (a few hours later, clinging to him like her life depends on it): i don't want to let you go.

Posted by Bronwen Hyde at 17:31 BST
Updated: 30 May 2011 17:40 BST
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
kyle
Now Playing: the cure - the upstairs room
Topic: portraits

kyle

Posted by Bronwen Hyde at 17:21 BST
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
up stairs
Now Playing: michael nyman - up stairs
Topic: hospitalfield

up stairs

Posted by Bronwen Hyde at 17:12 BST
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
24 May 2011
where the light plays
Now Playing: lamb - darkness
Topic: hospitalfield

where the light plays

Posted by Bronwen Hyde at 01:28 BST
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
22 May 2011
rapture
Topic: hospitalfield

rapture

Posted by Bronwen Hyde at 22:58 BST
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
16 May 2011
she passed through
Now Playing: the dirty three - she passed through
Topic: hospitalfield

she passed through


Well, here we are: my last night as a resident at Hospitalfield! As expected, my month here has flown by!

I have had a fantastic, inspiring and productive month, and am, once again, so thankful to those who contributed to my Pozible [formerly Fundbreak] project.

If you're reading this, then you've probably been following my photographic journey through the month, so you've seen some of what I have achieved during this time, though I have many more photographs to edit from my time here, and *shock, horror* numerous photographs of Hospitalfield that don't include me!

I feel I have achieved what I wanted to in terms of utilising the property and grounds to create new work for my interior / exterior series. There will always be an element of "Oh, I should have done this or that in this or that location" after the fact, but I feel proud of what I have produced, and knowing that I've also created work that potentially opens up at least two new bodies of work for me to develop further in future.

I have also been inspired by the contents of the library and folk I have met along the way, which has been wonderful.

To me, this is all pretty amazing, considering my first few days here were full of angst.

After moving halfway across the world in January, finding work and finding a new home, and only having been in each 2.5 months and 1 month respectively, I was feeling a little stressed about living up to others', but more pressingly, my own, expectations, of this residency. I felt like I couldn't waste a minute; that everything I shot here had to be amazing. That I had to walk away with the portfolio of the century, nay, millennium. Not much pressure, you know?

But, after getting my bearings and calming down (and maybe passing through that bad patch of PMS), I just concentrated on letting the location guide me, and tried to approach this as any other opportunity to shoot anywhere.

Perhaps I could have produced far more than I have; perhaps I could have shot every minute of every day, edited into the wee hours, and injected the history of the property and the town into my veins, but the whole point of having a month or longer to undertake a residency is to just let the place act upon you, to step back and contemplate, to reassess your work and your direction, and I think that was something I managed to do. I could easily spend another two months here, and I can definitely see the possibility that I may return to undertake another residency here in the future, but for now, I think my work with Hospitalfield has been achieved [apart from the editing, there is still a lot of that to be done!]

Whilst here, I've had the pleasure to meet some of the Patrick Allan-Fraser of Hospitalfield Trust, in the personages of Willie Payne, the Director, and Ken Cargill, the Chairman, who have both been helpful, supportive and full of information about the property. Fellow artists Rebecca Westguard, Kelly Sim, and a Dundee film crew led by John Fairfield. Friendly and welcoming staff: Rod, Louise, Ange and Sonia, who each made sure I was adequately fed and bed during my stay. I even managed to meet a "local", John, a friend from Flickr; and let's not forget Luna the Weimeraner and Toby the Welsh Terrier who always made me smile.

So, where do I go from here?

There is the self-published book of the series I've already started working on, but which will no doubt go through various drafts as I edit more images from my stay and revisit older images from the series to decide what will make the final cut.

I would like to exhibit the series in London, and possibly even in Scotland (cost of shipping framed works from London to Scotland may be an obstacle to this option, though).

I have the beginnings of a couple of new bodies of work in the form of images, and the germs of new project ideas in my head and notebook, and currently a clear, fresh mind to entertain and expand upon these [talk to me in a couple of weeks once I'm back at work in London, and that may no longer be the case though].

There is a much-discussed-soon-to-be-launched collaboration in the air. More on that soon!

I have managed to snag a place on the Wellcome Trust Tweet-Up Tour on June 28th. I've been fascinated with this place since I heard about the Exquisite Bodies exhibition they ran a couple of years ago.

I am looking forward to a weekend of portrait photography workshops with L.A. photographer Lou O'Bedlam, whose work I have been following for a while now, in late June.

I have a confirmed contract for my day job until the end of the year and potentially longer; and hopefully the same for my living quarters.

There is a lot of work still to do [not to mention I am looking forward to hitting the gym again on Wednesday for the first time in over a month - yes, really!], but I am feeling positive about it all, and looking forward to diving head-first into the remainder of the year.

Posted by Bronwen Hyde at 22:20 BST
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
the distance between us
Now Playing: godstar - lie down forever
Topic: hospitalfield

the distance between us

Posted by Bronwen Hyde at 18:57 BST
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post

Newer | Latest | Older