TOMALPRICE

OMD! Recently I had the chance to go to the Olympus Photography...

Wed, 08 May 2013 20:27:00 +0100

OMD!

Recently I had the chance to go to the Olympus Photography Playground in Berlin. Imagine three stories of a derelict looking warehouse, replete with rooms full of lasers, ginormous spider nets, cardboard tunnels and UV light and you’ll be getting close to what it was like. There was also this weird bubble-turret type thing, filled with various kinds of moulds and furs. We were told by a couple of Berliners that it was a famous experiment, not only did I feel ill, I felt ill-informed. :(

Upon entry you get given a lovely Olympus OM-D EM-5 to roam around with, and you get to take home all your pictures on a 4GB SD card. And it’s all free. Free, free, free.

Anyway - here are a few of my shots from what was a really fun afternoon. Such a great way to market a camera.

Luke felt sad.

Thu, 02 May 2013 13:59:00 +0100

Some of you will remember that last year I took some pictures at Tomorrowland Festival in a town called Boom in Belgium. It is known as the world’s largest electronic dance music festival, and, knowing very little about that sort of music, I felt that I needed to bring my friend Luke along for company. Luke is a musician.

Recently I had a quick look through some of the images that I took and I think that soon I’ll put some of them up on my website. However, as I was looking at these pictures I spotted something that I hadn’t noticed before. Something peculiar cropped up in a few of the pictures. I began to see a pattern emerging.

It slowly became apparent that I had made the mistake of assuming that Luke, as a musician, would feel instantly at home in (what is now very obviously) a very different musical environment from his usual habitat.

Luke, this is an apology: I’m sorry that if, during our time together in Tomorrowland, you felt sad.

At first, Luke appeared happy to be at the festival. Here he is, having a good time, entering the festival park.

He gladly made use of the site’s amenities, such as this deodorising booth.

Upon first hearing some electronic dance music, he found himself pleasantly surprised and soaked up the atmosphere with other festival-goers.

Gregarious as he is, Luke even made friends with some EDM fans.

And then things started to go wrong.

Luke saw some new things that he didn’t understand, and didn’t like the look of.

Waiting in the queue for the facilities, he did not expect this.

Even his new friends couldn’t cheer him up.

This man’s haircut came as quite a blow (as did the focusing skills of the photographer…)

This peacemaker tried to ease Luke’s suffering. To no avail.

This girl, upon seeing someone with a similar sense of style, leapt into this boy’s arms with joy. Luke was not consoled.

Neither Luke, nor I, knew what was going on with this lady.

I suggested that a haircut a bit like Mr Skrillex’s might help Luke relax into things a bit more. These kind girls were happy to help out.

It just so happened that she hadn’t cut many people’s hair before. :s

I thought it looked nice.

These guys thought they were superheroes. I think Luke felt a bit left out.

Oh gosh, this happened again.

Some nice person gave Luke a toy to play with. It almost worked.

Poor soul. Here he is, at the end of it all. Brussels airport. Utterly worn out.

Tearsheets from Laura Ellen Bacon’s book ‘Forms of...

Wed, 01 May 2013 13:40:46 +0100

Tearsheets from Laura Ellen Bacon’s book ‘Forms of Intrigue and Woven Spaces’.

The work will be on display at the Saatchi Gallery from the 10-13th May during Collect - the International Art Fair for Contemporary Objects.

collect2013.org.uk

Thanks Laura!

Miri Hersh

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 17:51:27 +0100

Miri Hersh

Drafting projects: After War / Stand at Ease I’ve not made...

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 13:51:56 +0100

Drafting projects: After War / Stand at Ease

I’ve not made public many of the images from any of my South Sudanese projects yet. Sometimes there’s this desire to make sure that the work is completely ‘perfect’ before you show it to the world, but that isn’t particularly helpful when you’re trying to get things done. And I think that one of the great things about the internet is how it can act as a drafting/collaborative tool.

With that in mind, and to help get me started, here are a few images from a series that has the working title ‘after war’. It features children playing in a nursery in Yei, a town with about 50,000 children and very few dedicated areas for ‘play’. I have a few friends who are play therapists and in my own work I’ve often found that play is far more important, multifaceted and complex than it’s often given credit for.

I had the pleasure of seeing these nursery children ‘graduate’ in an almost day-long ceremony, complete with marching band and a parade through the town. I ended up driving around twenty of them to the main square - which prompted me to write a little reflection about that particular moment which you can read below.

Stand at ease

As I arrive early on the morning of the graduation, instead of the usual rush of excited children demanding photos, I am greeted by neat rows and columns of determined-looking pupils robed in gowns and miniature mortar boards. In preparation for their triumphant march from Freedom Square back to the nursery, they are striding and strutting on the spot, proudly intoning their school chants in impressively unified high-pitched harmony.

The minibus arrives reasonably promptly to transfer the children to the square where the procession will begin. However, it soon becomes clear that there are far too many students for the bus. One of the teachers solemnly takes me aside and asks if I might transport some of the children in the Land Cruiser I have arrived in. I look over at the aging four-by-four and tentatively say yes, “I think there’s room for about 10, at a push”. I climb into the driving seat and peer round just in time to see a teacher squeeze one last child into the back of the truck before repeatedly slamming the reluctant door. Behind me, sitting, squatting and teetering are twenty-two wide-eyed faces peering out from underneath felt scholars’ hats. It must look as if I have kidnapped a pack of extras from a Nollywood Harry Potter remake.

Panicked about the safety and legality of ferrying this quantity of pre-schoolers, I drive at a snail’s pace towards the centre of town. The surreal quality of this journey is both intensified and fractured by the piercing singing that continues inside the vehicle, encouraged by the indefatigable member of staff perched next to me. I find myself beaming uncontrollably at the marvellous nature of the situation, as it is, only slightly marred by the ear-shattering noise levels as the choir reach new vocal heights inside the reverberating metal box, now thundering over numerous potholes.

Buoyant and only slightly dishevelled by the dilapidated shock absorbers’ ineffectualness, the graduands stream out onto the square and promptly resume formation. Shortly, the leader of the only brass band in the town paces over to the nursery squad. Wearing a bright, primary-red and yellow tasselled jacket, this carnivalesque military figure prowls around the group, brusque and stern, examining their uniforms, their posture, their sobriety.

“Attention!” He bellows. A pause. Feet stamp, backs stiffen, chins rigidly facing forward. “Stand at ease!” The little scholar-soldiers shuffle-slump back in compliance. “Attention!” It has been almost eight years since the ceasefire was declared and the peace agreements signed between the warring Sudans. “Stand at ease!” Yet militarisation still pervades the peace of South Sudan’s sapling civil society. “Attention!” The children noiselessly and efficiently conform to the authority, grave and focused. “Stand at ease!” It is visible in the armed and uniformed, in the silent scars of violence in the hobbling un-uniformed. “Attention.” It sounds out in the stamp and scrape of the Scout groups’ feet as they practice marching. “Stand at ease.” But there is also a determination to return to normality; to trade, to build and rebuild, to rear animals and work the land, to make things better.

Attention.

Stand at ease.

In this new country, that has known only war for almost half a century, beneath the forward-looking, the everyday and the humdrum, there is a tense alertness, and even ease is given as a command.

VICTORY!!! Full low-down here:...

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 14:51:00 +0100

VICTORY!!!

Full low-down here: http://lukeleighfield.tumblr.com/post/48772385684/london-marathon-thank-you-on-sunday-after

The fundraising total was reached on the day. Well done everyone!!!

Those who missed out can still help here —> justgiving.com/lukerunfield

lukeleighfield: Why I’m running the London Marathon When my...

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 18:35:48 +0100

lukeleighfield:

Why I’m running the London Marathon

When my brother called me up last autumn, I didn’t expect him to ask me whether I fancied running the London Marathon with him. I’m not aware that Steve has previously done any sport. He’s definitely not A Sportsman. So it was something of a surprise. Anyway, I don’t get to see my brother enough and I’d always fancied the idea of running a marathon (just not quite so soon) so I said, “why yes, I’d love to run a marathon with you.”

Roll on February 2013. I came back from a trip to a very warm South Sudan, landing in a very very very cold, icy, snowy Berlin. Like, rly cold. And for the past two and a half months I’ve been running in Berlin’s ice and snow at ungodly hours in an effort to get my weedy body to a point where it’s able to run 26.2 miles without me collapsing and dying. I bought shiny silver shoes and fluorescent yellow shoes, saw loads of statues and more snow than I’ve ever seen before in my life, tried to eat a bit healthier, and sampled mid-run doughnuts with my “trainer,” Monal.

It’s definitely been less than fun on some occasions, and getting up at 6am three times a week to go for runs in a temperature where, upon your return, your hands are too cold to operate the key to get in to your house, and other parts of your body are so cold that you can’t find them anymore, but there have been upsides, too. I’ve had the time to listen to countless episodes of This American Life and Ira has soothed my pain with his gentle storytelling. I’ve been able to wear tights without anyone laughing at me. And there’ve been some glorious moments where I’ve been running in a beautiful landscape, completely alone, with anthemic pop-rock blasting in my headphones, and it’s been nothing short of a magical connection with nature, and has felt like a total privilege. I think I’ve finally fostered a love of running that will never leave me.

And that’s all well and good. But the real reason I’m running the marathon is to raise money for Christian Aid. I don’t believe in a world where some people have an excess of food to eat and others have nothing. I don’t believe in a world where some people get an education, and others remain uneducated, unable to lift themselves from poverty. And I don’t believe in a world where people are dying from poverty-related diseases like malaria and HIV. Christian Aid’s vision is to see an end to poverty, by working globally to eradicate the causes of it, and it’s a vision that I share.

I’m currently at 57% of my fundraising target with one week to go ‘til the big day, and if you can spare some money to help me get closer to my goal, no matter how little, I would be very grateful. In return, I’ll be sure to post lots of horrible sweaty photos here for your enjoyment in a week’s time.

Please dig deep and make a donation here: justgiving.com/lukerunfield. Thanks for reading.

My best friend Luke looks like he wants to do you damage here, but he’s mostly a softy and could R3@77Y do with your help right now.

I went ‘training’ with him last week, dipped out after 7.5 miles and couldn’t feel anything but searing knee pain for the following 6 days. And that was in relatively nice weather. I am bowled over by the determination of someone who decides to go running, repeatedly, on ice before most of Berlin (or any other city in the right timezone) has woken up. He (and the rest of you) is/are complete maniacs.

If you could spare him a pound/euro/dollar/150 yen or two, then we could internet-propel him to achieving his target.

So, not that you need another incentive, but: I will be at the race to cheer him on and if we manage to get him to the £2000 mark or beyond I will promise you two things:

«< ONE »> A mostly full length portrait of Luke post-run, probably looking sad/happy.

«< TWO »> A macro photograph of some face sweat.

hang on… if you really want, I could offer one of those shots as a print for someone who tweets about donating and/or encouraging others to empty their pockets for his run using the hashtag #lukerunfield. I don’t know how I’ll pick the winner yet, but let that mystery tempt you to twitter fundraising greatness.

I realise that probably won’t appeal to most, but having that up on your wall will give any room the pep you always thought it needed.

So,

go on

justgiving.com/lukerunfield

go on

justgiving.com/lukerunfield

go on

justgiving.com/lukerunfield

go on

justgiving.com/lukerunfield

go on

justgiving.com/lukerunfield

go on

Oh, and supersorry for asking for money.

bookstacks: martinaboone: The Shapes of Stories by Kurt...

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 10:06:43 +0100

bookstacks:

martinaboone:

The Shapes of Stories by Kurt Vonnegut via Kami Garcia

Pick up the books of Mr. Vonnegut from the library! Click here!

This is fun.

explore-blog: You want to slow the spread of AIDS? Educate a...

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 16:48:05 +0000

explore-blog:

You want to slow the spread of AIDS? Educate a girl. You want to slow population growth? Educate a girl. You want to grow the global economy? Educate a girl. So, what exactly changes when the 600,000 girls in the developing world get a good education?

Everything.

Some stirring statistics in this trailer for Girl Rising, a moving documentary about the impact of educating girls worldwide.

At a time when even in the “developed” world the gender gap in academia gapes wide, what could be more important? Even Einstein knew that.

Help support the project with a donation – for the cost of an average New York City dinner, for instance, you can cover the school feels for one girl for an entire year.

(↬ Design Observer)

This is such an important issue, looking forward to seeing the film.

My friend Matt runs a clothing label called The Greatest of...

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 19:18:36 +0000

My friend Matt runs a clothing label called The Greatest of These and when a new blue version of their faith, hope, love tee got made up, we went out and took some pictures.

Since my project in Northern Portugal, I’ve fallen head over heels with multiple exposures. I prefer to shoot it all in camera, getting the dark art of it right first time, rather than poring over suitable frames and blends in the dispassionate and clinical halls of the photoshop. Getting it wrong, sometimes means getting it right. Right?

Feat. mega models @mattwivz and @onechloelouise.

On the 2nd February 2013, around 800 people gathered and marched...

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 18:44:59 +0000

On the 2nd February 2013, around 800 people gathered and marched through the streets of Bristol with lanterns and lights of all shapes and sizes. This is a little film I made about that community event.

The view. Yei, South Sudan.

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 09:44:53 +0000

The view.

Yei, South Sudan.

I met artist and photographer Sara Shamsavari last night at an...

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 14:58:47 +0000

I met artist and photographer Sara Shamsavari last night at an event for creative entrepreneurs in London. As well as allowing me to take the portrait above, she told me a little bit about her fascinating work.

Her latest exhibition is being shown in the Royal Festival Hall as part of the Southbank’s Women of the World Festival on the 8-10th March. Her exhibition, ‘London Veil’, documents and celebrates young Muslim women’s expressions of individuality and explores this interesting mingling of faith and fashion.

All the details of this exhibition can be found here.

As part of my recent trip to South Sudan, I worked with a group...

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 18:34:07 +0000

As part of my recent trip to South Sudan, I worked with a group of medical volunteers from Royal Hampshire County Hospital, documenting their long-term work in supporting the medical staff in Yei Civil Hospital.

The team recently reported back to the Department for International Development (DFID) and the Hampshire Chronicle covered the event in the above article.

Read the full article here: http://www.hampshirechronicle.co.uk/news/winchester/10207694.Winchester_hospital_praised_for_work_in_South_Sudan/

Trespasser on the bowls club.

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 13:45:01 +0000

Trespasser on the bowls club.

anchorsandsouls: Snow banter. Photos by Tom Price

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 12:32:39 +0000

anchorsandsouls:

Snow banter.

Photos by Tom Price

Just noticed that whilst I was away, some of my shots of Laura...

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 18:22:26 +0000

Just noticed that whilst I was away, some of my shots of Laura Bacon’s sculpture were put up on the BBC. Cool.

Sorry for the quietness over the last few months, lots going on, hopefully I’ll be able to post some more things here soon.

lukeleighfield: smalltowninertia: Market Town :...

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 09:06:14 +0000

lukeleighfield:

smalltowninertia:

Market Town : Shaunny

I’d first encountered Shaunny totally by chance as I’d taken a street shot of him taking his shirt off outside a pub in Market Town. Subsequently that shot went on to place 3rd in the Photo Radar POTY (Documentary) and I wanted to find out who it was I’d made this random street image of.

Market town is a small place and it did not take too long to find someone that knew someone that could put me in touch with Shaunny. I got an email and arranged a meeting at his home. At this time I was still borrowing a camera and lenses so I’d picked them up the morning of the shoot along with for the first time a 50mm.

My sessions always work the same. There is a lot of talking. I’ll always set out what the project is about, where images will be shown etc and then we really get into exploring life. Many times the people I shoot have no significant opportunity to talk, open up or be listened to. I like to ask a question then let things roll, to let the person reveal as much as they are want to share and interject with further questions throughout the conversation making fresh junctions together, seeing where it takes us.

I’d started with a 28mm, a f2.8 and the light was very dark that day and the D200 I was using was not the best camera for an interior, little light and so I was pretty much forced into putting the 50mm f1.8 to the body to give myself a little more room to play with.

This first shoot with Shaunny was one of the first that I’d really explored intense 1 on 1’s. Walking into a total strangers house was quite something but my own fears were suppressed by the desire to do justice to what was happening within the room. Shaunny was opening up more than I had expected. Within 15 minutes of arriving he was opening his soul to me, every pain, loss, regret began to flow forth, at first just a trickle but soon becoming a river that was to burst it’s banks.

“I never talk to anyone about this stuff” Shaunny said as we talked through the loss of failed relationships, finding his Mother passed away at 15, the death of his young children, his battle with chronic back pain due to an accident, his self medication with alcohol.

“Do you want to stop? I can put the camera down at any time” I told him, we were very close, the 50mm forces you to use your legs as a zoom so I was maybe 1 foot away from Shaunny, both of us standing parallel to the single window in his flat. Winter skies outside, I remember someone revving their car, redlining it, testing the engine outside a monotone drone that seemed to amplify the words, the stories Shaunny was sharing. There was no longer a camera between us. I often look over the viewfinder so actual eyes can lock, I shoot manual so that was spot metered and taken care of, shooting wide open at f1.8 hand held is tricky at the best of time and as Shaunny’s first tears started to come I fought to keep my own hands from shaking.

“Do you want to stop mate, I don’t have to photograph this” I asked again “No, I want you to, this is the first time I think I’ve ever opened up about these things, I want people to know I have regrets, that I am sorry, that I’m not who they think I am, I want people to see that I hurt too”

Shaunny saying that was a revelation for me. I could easily have put the camera down had he not said that. In that moment I knew that to not do my best in this situation would be a dereliction of duty. Here I was, in another mans home, toe to toe with him baring his soul and tears, very old, bitter, painful and real tears spilling from his eyes and I felt for the first time the burden of a very wanted responsibility. I could feel myself totally engaged in this moment, this shared moment and also aware of controlling the camera, probably nervously as I’d never used a f1.8 50mm before so I was as nervous as all hell of getting it wrong but everything was happening so fast I just had to let the fear go, rely on instinct and carry on.

I shot a lot in 10 minutes, maybe 40 images and most all with Shaunny looking right into the camera, right into me, right into the audience. These were intense shots. Being so close to another human being in pain, sobbing their heart out. As Shaunny reached the climax of his very personal cathartic outpouring I took one last shot placed the camera to one side “Mate, that was amazing. Have you any idea how much that touched me. I’m almost in tears too! How do you feel?” I asked. Shaunny drying his tears looked up and at me and said “Fucking brilliant mate, I feel fucking brilliant. Like a weights gone. Thank you.”

This really choked me. Thank me? I’d done nothing. Pressing a shutter is no big mystery to me. I’d not expected this day to unfold anywhere close to where it’s destination eventually was. It was becoming a moment of very real clarity for me too. These moments were teaching me why I had to pursue the Small Town Inertia series, that every person has their story, tales of loss, tales of joy, endurance regrets and hopes of redemption. Instead of 15 minutes of banal transient fame, instead of being the focus of an imposed ego destined to be art on a wall we all deserve to be listened to at the very least once within our lives.

I put my arms around Shaunny and gave him a hug “You don’t have to thank me mate, thank yourself, you found it in you to face all these things, to get them out. You feel the regrets you do, they affect you. You’ve shown that in extraordinary circumstances today. I’m proud of you… be proud of you too.”

I packed my gear away and as I left I told Shaunny that I’d sit on the images for a while and visit again with a print, if he wanted them public we’d go from there. When I got home I was relieved the shots had come out at all. Whilst editing them I found the shots with open eyes a little too obvious and they somehow through all their evident pain lost some intensity and they did not really reflect the most poignant moment of that morning. The very last shot however did. When Shaunny paused for that final moment, tears upon his face with eyes closed finally reflecting upon the life, his life and all it’s pain and all his regrets that he had just fought into and excised and shared for me epitomized the pain, struggle, endurance, reflection and acceptance of that cold morning shared in a flat with a stranger.

A few weeks later I returned with a print. I was weary, would Shaunny be pleased, would he not want to share the image at all. My fears were allayed instantly. Shaunny loved the image, was proud of the day. We have gone on to share many other moments together as I’ve documented his life and the portrait we made together hangs on his wall still.

Market Town : Shaunny : High stakes and diary entries

Beautiful.

Another remarkable story from Jim Mortram.

“I used to own this”

Sat, 20 Oct 2012 12:38:56 +0100

“I used to own this”

Before / After Joe Hartley is a 3D designer, or more accurately,...

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 19:07:01 +0100

Before / After

Joe Hartley is a 3D designer, or more accurately, designer/maker as he hand produces all the items he designs. Joe recently won the BDC New Designer of the Year award and was one of the invited artist-makers at the Making It Project that I was involved with recently.

I took an immediate liking to Joe after noticing that he was sporting some rather gnatty items that I later found out he’d designed and made himself. I’ve been inspired by Joe to have a little go at this myself, but I digress, this post is about bread.

Joe’s thing is sour dough (and as we speak, my own leaven is bubbling away menacingly in the airing cupboard and greets my nostrils with a sweet-sour slap every time I open it’s plasticky-lidded fermenting-grotto). Joe was particularly taken with this most ancient of breads for a number of conceptual reasons. One of which is the fact that it only uses three ingredients: flour, water and salt.

Taking this foundational trinity as inspiration, Joe decided that he would make his own tools and equipment for making the bread out of three materials: clay, wood, and… I forget the third, but there is a third, oh yes.

To cut the story short here is to do Joe’s great work a monstrous injustice, but I’m late for dinner, so cut to the chase I must. One of those tools was a circular, grooved clay plate to cook the bread on. I decided I would document the transformation of this baking key-stone which you can see in the picture above.

Sadly, the plate cracked after a few batches, which caused the dough to sink into the newly opened space, creating a sort of bready fault-line as the loaf cooked on top of its tectonic substructure. Which wasn’t so sad. It was actually quite nice.

Anyway - hope you LOAF the pictures (*sigh*), and do go and check Joe’s astounding work over at his blog here - he also blogs about his bread creations here.

#BAKEBAKEBAKEBAKE