TOM RICE-SMYTH.

Image copyright Tom Rice-Smyth.

I remember way back in the mists of time (2007) when I started this blog. I had no real idea what format it was going to take other than it was loosely going to be about Manchester & photography (can you see how I came up with the name?)

Starting a blog is, for the first few posts a bit like shouting into the dark, you have no idea who if anyone is out there. And this went on for a while until I stuck a statcounter on here, I knew then that a couple of people were at the very least stumbling across my posts.

The first big land mark for a blog is when people start to leave comments, that's the important bit, that's when you start to connect with folk, that's the first evidence that you have of an audience. You have started to meet people and discover, albeit virtually, interesting people and fantastic things you may not have other wise come across. Tom was one of those people and his blog was one of those creations. Tom was one of the first ever people to leave comments here at MANCHESTER PHOTOGRAPHY, the first human contact I received here in cyberspace, other than someone who just kept calling me a wanker that is.

So it's with great sadness that I have learnt that he has hung up the blog. I think it's a real shame and a genuine loss to not only the photo blog world but the world in general. Tom has been a true pioneer of British photographers using the Internet, running his blog since January 2006 with almost daily uploads of photographs of this nations capital city. Never using the blog to massage his ego as so many of us do, I believe that it was acting as a worthwhile and increasingly complete mammoth documentation of modern London. Tom's understated style ran through the thousands of images without detracting from the near forensic inspection of almost every detail of London town. Finished sooner than I think it should have been, I really do believe that Tom has made a most complete Document, of London between 2006-20010. Wishing Tom all the best, here's to one of the best and most worthwhile photo blogs on the web..............

Oh God I Love The World.

Thank fuck for that. NASA have found water on the moon and Google are almost as excited by this as they were last week by the anniversary of Sesame street.

Funny As F##k Friday.

A little bit dated now but still funny, and just look at the skills........

New Simon's Cat!

Chen Wei.

Image copyright Chein Wei.

Some interesting constructed images on CHEN WEI'S website.

Matthew Brandt.

Image copyright Matthew Brandt

I like these pictures made from the images that come with the frames, it's a nice bit of fun. I'm not sure why he has to re-work them with the contents of used 'johnnies' though? more making photo's with the aid of body fluids HERE.

New Cliches of Photography #16

Photo's imitating old paintings........

New Cliches of Photography #15

Charging a $35 submission fee for exhibition/competition entry..... (an American idea)

Richard Kolker.

Image copyright Richard Kolker

Using 3D video gaming modeling techniques, Richard Kolker turns it on it's head and instead of virtual fantasy worlds he renders the mundane. Love it!

A Developing Story - will you help?

Benjamin Chesterton from DUCKRABBIT has his fingers in another pie! God does this boy never sleep? More HERE.

Look of Oppressed: About the Same, Except a Lot Less Blurrier

"Photographers such as Ed Burtynsky have been dashing about in record numbers chronicling and documenting the incredible industrial and manufacturing transformation that is the current day wonder called China. And while some such as Lu Guang have concentrated magnificently on the horrendously destructive environmental effects, few if any have looked beyond the mainland to notice the impact this emerging powerhouse has had on other developing nations".........

Continue reading this article by Stan Banos.

I spent the day in olde Lancaster today, went on the very interesting Lancaster Castle Tour. Them "olden times" people, jeez what a load of nutters. They believed in witches and all sorts of madness like hanging people. The last fella to get hung there was in 1910 and apparently he was innocent. Thank fuck we stopped that shit. Thank fuck we don't think like that anymore. Thank fuck that we have out grown mumbo jumbo ideas like 'Evil'. We realise now that there's no such thing, right? We are clever enough to know that we should banish such stupidity in order to understand why certain people act in atrocious incomprehensible ways and because some actions are so incomprehensible we owe it to humanity to find out in a grown up and responsible manner why certain individuals behave in that morally wrong and harmful way.

Or we could stick some gargoyles outside our doors and watch Channel 4.........

Michael Light.

'100 Suns' by Michael Light has got to be "The Mother of all typologies"

Lest We Forget, (The futility of Art)

DULCE ET DECORUM EST by Wilfred Owen.

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime . . .
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.

8 October 1917 - March, 1918

Tomorrow as we stand there for two minutes of silence and contemplate decade after decade, century after century of corpse mountain making, it might also be worth realising that neither photography nor painting music nor poetry have ever managed to prevent it happening again and again. In this circumstance Art clearly has no power to bring about change. So that begs the question, why do we bother still making it?

Renato d'Agostin

Images copyright Renato d'Agostin

I love stark, heavy contrast, chaotic yet lyrical Japanese photography. I can't do it myself for shit. I've tried around Manchester, doesn't work, at least not for me. I thought it maybe had something to do with the Japanese mindset. I'm beginning though to think that a trip to Tokyo may well facilitate the ability. Take for instance Jacob Aue Sobol and I TOKYO.

And now I come across the utterly wonderful TOKYO UNTITLED by Renato d'Agostin.

I would just like to say a big thanks to everyone who came to the opening on Wednesday night.
Considering the crappy weather and the fact that it went "Head to Head" with THE CUBE opening, we were well chuffed with the turn out. It was great to catch up with some older friends new babies belonging to friends and finally making real of virtual friends. The show is on at URBIS, Manchester until the 12th.

Latitude Photographers.....

OPULENCE
Peter Ainsworth, Marc Burden, Manuel Capurso, Ania Dabrowska, Hannah Dakin, Ellie Davies, Vron Harris, Jochen Klein, Richard Kolker, Rita Soromenho, Gill Vaux

Exhibition: 4th December 2009 - 2nd January 2010
Tuesday - Saturday 11am - 6pm
PV: Thursday, 3rd December, 6 -9 pm
The Feast: Monday, 14th December, 7.30 - 10 pm

In the run up to, and during the Christmas holiday Latitude Photographers take residence in a disused shop in the East End. As part of photomonth09, the artist collective curates a show that critically explores the notion of Opulence. Responses to the theme encompass artists' considerations of its meaning in our culture, asking whether opulence is an antidote to the recession, aspirational escapism, or a Utopian ideal. The abuse of wealth has caused economic and social neglect, so how have perceptions of opulence shifted within the contemporary psyche?
The show, consisting of photography, video, sculpture, and installations, will be presented as a period of dialogue: where the works can relate to each other, rather than an ultimate presentation of artistic statements. In exploration of the theme the exhibition also highlights the nature of artistic collaboration. This period of reflection will be celebrated during the key point of the exhibition, the Feast - a black tie, artists' talk around a dinner table in the gallery space. Guests from the public will be invited to participate in the event– the culmination of the artists' investigations of the theme.
Latitude Photographers is a group of international, emerging artists working in London. It has developed out of a co-operative response to debates within contemporary art and a desire to push the boundaries of photographic practice. Defined by experimental enquiry the ethos of Latitude is to incorporate differences in approach while retaining the feel of a group response.
http://www.latitudephotographers.com/
admin@latitudephotographers.com
To reserve an invitation to the Feast: ritalatitudephotographer@googlemail.com

PHOTO-SPACE: 530 Commercial Road E1 0HY, nearest tube: Limehouse DLR

press image: Marc Burden, Test Piece for 12 Rivers, 2009

Another interesting show put together by this London based bunch. They really are producing some tiptop work. If this level of 'original thought' spreads my

NEW CLICHES series of posts may become redundant! What's more they're UK based albeit London. Not NY or Chicago, not Gemany or Netherlands. UK.

Francis Bacon In His Own Words.

A true master of twentieth century painting, Bacon had a well publicised and honest relationship with photography as revealed HERE.

Four pictures from my new ongoing series SEMI-DETACHED. Here they are ready to go to Urbis to be included in a group show together with the MEATYARDS ARTS collective. Although the series is not complete I thought this would be a good chance to give it it's first airing, (and I'm getting bored with keep looking at "25 Weapons")

SEMI-DETACHED "Could there be a more utterly British dwelling than the Semi-Detached?
Straddling social divides and sharing partition walls the Semi is king of suburbia,"

Is the tag line for the series. The exhibition is on between 4th & 12th November at Urbis, Cathedral Gardens, Manchester.

All Images copyright Mark Page

Cheers to Marcus Doyle who sowed the seeds for this series!

I'm not sure if I love this about modern Britain or hate it. We adopt something like "trick or treating" from America and put a very British spin on things. We don't bother dressing up or taking our cute little toddlers around for sweets. What happens near me at least is some 17 year olds turn up at your door wearing tracky's with a can of Stella in their hand. Now correct me if I'm wrong but that's not the spirit. That's at the very best begging and at the worst money with menaces.

And while I'm at it and full of Autumnal cheer, upon leaving our local supermarket I heard the charming chirp of a small urchin. "Penny fer guy mate?" "No change" I replied and doing a double take I noticed this little angel had no Guy. I question him. "You've not even got a Guy" I say accusingly.
The cherub looked at me and says, "Well I'm not goin to fucking drag it up ere am a?"

Doorshee Boorshee shortlist 2010.

Image from "Cockroach Diaries" by Anna Fox

This seems to come round so fast. The 2010 shortlist and two Brits make it through. Anna Fox & Donovan Wylie

Reiner Riedler.

Image copyright Reiner Riedler.

Jeez I could do with a holiday. Even a "Fake" one. A seamless link through to "FAKE HOLIDAYS" by Reiner Riedler. Can you believe his website address is www.photography.at !

Jim Naughton.

Image copyright Jim Naughton.

Love these portraits of Re-enactores by Jim Naughton. I think the pretty heavy post production suites the fantasy nature of the subject.

More on The National Football Museum Move from the brilliant MULE.

Preston? Manchester? Preston?

Dedicated to the Trustee's of The National Football Museum Preston. HERE for what I'm on about.......