Long time coming

It was forever ago that I last wrote something of substance. Something that avoided tones of self pity and bitterness. These delicious emotions are still out and about but today i offer you the professional in me.

As I pretend to ease my ever increasing work load I am in actual fact contently watching the latest Harry Potter film. I am cool for school.

Still carrying on with the final project of my degree I also did a shoot for my decisively stylish house mate Sarah Hennigan. Sarah also attends UCA but is studying a BA(Hons) Fashion Promotion course. In her third year she has been working on a final project CRAZE, a hub of information, advice and resources that help the average budding graduate transition from education to the professional industry. The images from the shoot were to be used on Sarah's website.

(styling: Sarah Hennigan, photography: Marion Jones, model: Jade Hudson)

I enjoyed doing the shoot, fashion photography does intrigue me but I must confess it isn't my area of expertise. Some would probably argue that these aren't fashion photographs and I would be inclined to agree with them. BUT. I followed Sarah's brief as well as possible and I believe we managed to create a result we were both happy with.

One of the best things i've seen in a while. A new favourite.

Gravity*01_ Nicolas Provost from Aurelia on Vimeo.

Testing: I like.

The latest:

Part 4:

Cutlery, 2011

WAIT FOR IT..................................BOOM!

I like this. It was an accident. I might try to have another accident.

Nicki Minaj - Moment 4 Life (Clean Version) ft. Drake

And this.

Saint Saviour - This Ain't No Hymn

LDN gallery day and new work ting.

Another weekend over and another false promise of being productive. I really don't know where my time goes. Quite possibly it could revolve around going to Pets at Home and attempting to rescue a bunny rabbit, dying my house mates hair bright pink and of course spending the day holed up in my room with dear miss 'Croaky May' watching Jurassic Park I and II, a characteristically productive way to spend ones Sunday.

All in all I've been a tad slack in getting on with things and my 'to do' lists remains undone. I have however got a few things to share and i'm sure your all dying to know about my educational gallery day t'other week and progress with my cutlery obsession. Well here goes.

On the 23rd we were solicited into an educational school trip which took us to London town. Split into our unit groups we wandered around London and various galleries that for me related to the realms of image management within the industry. Amongst them were, the Tate Modern, The Whitechaple Gallery and Hotshoe Gallery.

Tate Modern:

Photographic Typologies - 'Artists who use photography to approach a topic or theme systematically, creating multiple images of similar objects'.

- Within the exhibition there was work that I had a genuine response to, however I also appreciated the exhibition as many themes of the featured work relate to those of my current visual project. The work made requires order, control and are often repetivite in subject matter to allow for a overview of the chosen subject area.

Thomas Struth:

Bernd and Hilla Becher:

Alexander Apostol:

(installation view)

The Whitechapel Gallery:

(Exhibiton) John Stezaker -

Some of my favourite work from the Stezaker exhibition were from his book, The 3rd Person Archive. I think the work is most effective in its book format, but nonetheless the work creates intrigue through its context.

Whilst at the gallery there was also work on display by artist Mona Hatoum, her installation, Current Disturbance is a room-filling environment made from stacked wire cages, light bulbs and the amplified sound of electric currents.

HotShoe Gallery: On the Ephemeral in Photography

The exhibition features work from Steven Maisel, Steffi Klenz, Ori Gersht, and Rut Blees Luxemburg. The exhibition was a mix of contempoary and archive images and curated by Daniel Campbell Bright.

Lets get this show on the road...

Work in progress, Cutlery obsession.

Step 1:

Step 2:

Step 3:

This pretty much rounds it up, shooting in the studio again so i'll probably bring you upto date with that by the time i've finished my degree.

Thanks.

What else?

Heres some pictures of the sea.

(Portreath, 2011)

(Portreath, 2011)

scanned prints of c-type colour prints.

I'm sure it'll get done sometime soon.

I'm still struggling with the pace of my project but I keep getting distracted. During my time back home home I took few photos and very few for my visual work. I loaned the 5x4 wista and brought some film because I was really keen to take some large format images of the Bodmin Moors, however the weather man had other ideas and at the risk of being stranded on a bloggy moor I ended up in the comfort of the Three Ferrets with a drink in my hand.

I did however attempt some work and shot 4 sheets of 5x4 film, all tests that circled around my cutlery obsession. BUT. I messed up on my exposures so got very little in return.

To the untrained eye this (above) image may look like a whole heap of black mess with a couple of orange sludges, and it is indeed just that. This is a scanned contact print of the 2 salvageable tests from Cornwall. Basically I messed up my exposures, but these images are shots of the Kitchen area, and the orange tone is due to the colour on the enlarger, not the time of day. So the images are inspired but my obsessive need to have matching cutlery so I'm working on different approaches that show this trying to bring something new to the obsession.

As you can see from this blog: thingsorganizedneatly, there are a lot of like minded people out there fashioning through a creative means the way they like things organised neatly.

So thoughts of how I could approach my obsession from my own unique perspective sprung from a comment made during my previous assesment, that in my previous work (obsessions) have all been a part of the domestic home such as the bedroom and the kitchen. It is interesting to consider the change of context when the environment of the photograph is moved to a neutral one such as the studio. These images were intended to focus on the space of the kitchen and the atmosphere and feeling it projects. With the cutlery obsession it is about the familarity of using the same sets of cutlery and the control this gives me within that part of my life.

Although the images have not turned out the way I inteneded they have captured my intrigue through their aesthetic, with the vast blackness of the frame presenting an interesting use of negative space, if pushes me to ask how important are the objects we don't see in an image.

- I have just found this in my draft posts, it must of been a bad day.

Let me get a hold of you.

The days have been long and my actions sparse, financially crippled I rely on one outlet of social debauchery per week. The Terrible Tuesday.
I as usual occupy myself with the escapism that is Television, I am resisting the daily onslaught of soaps, opting for the American drama or courageous quiz shows that frequent our screens. I have on times found myself not photographing but writing, dramatic snippets of my inner psych. Those images I have sort to capture rely on gothic romanticism, something I so often associate with my home. Home being a fickle title as I consider two places my home.

Well with that insight into an obviously neurotic mind i've been doing some work, well not a lot of work but some.

I took myself for an unofficial half term back home to the sud-ouest.

I'm still working on my 'obsession' project, the Curtains are done and dusted, as is the Food Cupboard.

The food cupboard is all about my obsessive need to control space and use logic and order within my life. Since sharing a house with other students my need to maintain control and order within the house has become more aparent to me. Each of us has one space to hide all our culinary goodies and the comparrison between my space and my fellow housemates is perhaps what instigated the project. Like the curtains i've always had a need to order logically the objects of my life, make of this what you will.

Assesment feedback has been recieved (it wasn't to shabby), dissertation has been handed in and now i'm left to fill the void of no work. I need to pick up the project and continue with the work. This is easier said than done. This project has been designed so that each obsession is represented through an individual process. Each obsession is a mini project which is an attempt to sustain my interest. The project is no where near finished, I know this but i'm struggling to convince myself that assesment doesn't mean finished.