PatrickPhotos

A personal photography project

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  • Year three

    Big Ben, London

    Three years. Three years since I started this project. Looking back it doesn’t feel like three years. It feels a lot less than three years.

    I’ve probably said it before but I’ll say it again, that if I combine all the hours I have actually worked on this project it really only amounts to a couple of days. This is really quite frustrating and it would be wonderful to be able to practice more of the technical techniques.

    But in the real world, bills have to be paid and errands have to be run in my spare time. To find the money or the time to dedicate on the extra studio time would mean having to sacrifice something else.

    The risk of giving more up to spend in the studio would mean not being able to do other things. Things that I would miss doing. It would be no good resenting this project because of the sacrifices being made. Striking a balance is not easy and there have been times when I don’t think I’m working hard enough on this. That maybe true but my enthusiasm is still high after three years and it would be a shame to spoil that.

    Over the last few months it is getting clearer in my mind with what I want to say with this project. When I look back on the early days I could not really say what I wanted from a shoot. It is much easier now that I’m getting into my stride.

    What is even more interesting is looking back at some of the material that influenced me at the start of all this. I find myself disagreeing with a lot of the suggestions in the early research I uncovered and rejecting a lot of the ideas.

    Finding a different path from my early “teachers” just goes to show how far I have travelled. Question is, am I any closer to my final destination? I would say there is still a long way to go. A very long way to go.

  • WOMEN: New Portraits

    WOMEN-New-Portraits

    I saw a poster for the WOMEN: New Portraits exhibition by Annie Leibovitz on the way to work today and I hope to make time to go along in the next few days.

    Since the announcement late last year of an update to the work Leibovitz did for the book Women I have been waiting with baited breath. Fingers crossed that I get to update this page following my visit soon.

    21 JANUARY 2016 Well I have managed to go along to this sooner than I expected.

    The layout is unexpected with the main room containing large electronic displays with a smaller reading room to the side. On the electronic displays the images of the exhibition scroll along and if you have the patience (which I don’t) you can watch them all.

    There was also a selection of images pinned to a makeshift wall which is an unusual way to display work but it does make it feel more personal. Choices that could have been made by Leibovitz herself rather than some picture editors or art critics.

    The personal feel continues into the reading room with comfy chairs available. In this room the main attraction are the two oversized books which I’m guessing contains her work. I’m guessing as the popularity of them meant I only admired them from a distance.

    Walking away from the exhibit I couldn’t help but feel a bit powerless being unable to take away some of her work to inspire me at a later date. Then it came to me what this exhibition is really about. It is about a photographer who is extremely proud of their work, knows the value in each and every image and does not want to give that away.

    There are many ways in which Leibovitz could have shared these images with the world. The fact that they are being shared in this format, while retaining exclusivity, as part of a world tour is very smart. There are reasons why Leibovitz is one of the world’s top commercial photographers.

    I must admit that I am a bit in awe of Leibovitz’s ability to be ahead of the cultural zeitgeist in the work she produces. If one day I get to a stage where I have even a tiny bit of that talent, I will be happy with that.

    Free entry at the Wapping Hydraulic Power Station in London until 7 February 2016.

  • Exposed: The Naked Portrait

    The-Naked-Portrait

    This week I managed to go to Exposed: The Naked Portrait at the National Portrait Gallery, a one room exhibition of unclothed portraits from their collection.

    What struck me glancing round the room was the proportion of women to men. Out of the seventeen people in the room only seven were men. Not a massive difference but the other thing I noticed was the larger amount of photographic prints over other mediums.

    The choices by the curators are definitely interesting. It would be reasonable to say that most of the subjects are fairly contemporary with a public persona. This got me thinking, would the photographs be the same if the fame was removed? Would the images be any different if they were of someone unknown but the poses remained the same?

    Going back to the room, one of the information panels described how artists have been using their own bodies to make a statement to their audiences. I’m sure there was a time in the past when the self portraits of these artists would have been more controversial than it is now. With the social media world we live in, the shock factor of a naked portrait has been slowly diminishing.

    Having said that, the technique still has a place in art galleries. Such a shame then that too many people who call themselves artists have either over used or poorly executed the idea of the naked truth. The truth is that nakedness or nudity is no shortcut to producing outstanding creative works that will be admired by future generations.

    Exposed: The Naked Portrait is on at the National Portrait Gallery until 11 September 2016.

    19 August 2016 Yesterday I went to the lunch time lecture given by assistant Curator Rab MacGibbon on this exhibition. It was an interesting insight into the work for this display. And seeing what nearly made it in gave me a better understanding of what the National Portrait Gallery considers is culturally significant.

    The talk did make me think about what constitutes as a portrait when the subject matter is a contemporary modern artist who includes themselves in their work. Is the piece a work of art in its own right or is it showing the artist doing what they do? Not an easy question to answer in some cases.

    I was also surprised to see how often art with a male central figure the nakedness is used to represent power and success. Which can not be said much when it is a female central figure.

    Our cultural attitude towards nakedness in art has changed through time and will continue to evolve. Should artists create work that challenges? Absolutely. But it is worth saying again, poorly executed naked or nude art should never go unchallenged. Especially if it has been acquired by an established gallery.