Friday 19 December 2014

E20-14


Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

The final edit of my short Summer project is coming to an end. I have completed 35 compositions that explore every corner of the new borough two years after the games took place in London. I have made a selection of 12 which is now available on my personal website. The way I will present them will become official later. Until then go to www.davidboulogne.com and click on Studies to get a taste.

I would also take the opportunity to thank again all the artists for their dedication, creativity and support. See you next year with more projects.

Thursday 9 October 2014

RUSSET HALFWAY


One month behind and still one month to go. We are very glad to have this large show at the Russet, which is a real hub for local communities and creative minds. All sorts of events, from parties to weddings, gigs and kids activities are taking place and it's great to have our works blending with local residents and other art forms. I would like to advise future visitors to take the liberty to ask the staff for help if visibility of the show could be improved. The Russet has a new bill daily with different settings everyday, so do not hesitate to ask for help if you need to have proper lightings when visiting. Few artists of our platform are also showing other works in other venues during the London Photomonth festival, so please visit their latest activities by clicking on the relevant link on the right hand side of the blog page. For the truly photo lovers I would also recommend you to go to Brighton where two photo festivals are being held at the same time (Biennale and Fringe) during the whole of October. Again, some of of artists have works there. Have a good Autumn and enjoy the festivals!


http://2014.photomonth.org

http://www.photofringe.org

Thursday 2 October 2014

ARCHIVE: Imagining the East End

You must see this show!

                                                                                                                  
Cass Gallery 59-63 Whitechapel High Street E1 7PF
020 7320 1903 Aldgate East tube
2 October – 2 November 2014 www.eastendarchive.org

The Photomonth opening exhibition, Archive: Imagining the East End showcases the work of a diverse range of photographers whose work relates to the East End of London. The East End is understood here as both a geographic location and an intangible space, a perpetually shifting frontier within the urban sprawl of London that is part real and part imagined. As a reflection of this approach, the images range from documentary practice to works of the imagination.
Books, essays, films and artifacts in the exhibition explore the shifting location of the East End; the role of other local archives; issues associated with digital archiving; using bodies of work in order to better understand the working methods of photographers; the relationship between myth and history in representations of the East End; found photographs; representing the 2012 Paralympians; the ‘archival turn’ in contemporary photography and a project to imagine Alfred Hitchcock’s East End childhood through photography.   
The exhibition is accompanied by the book of the same name, published by Black Dog Publishing. The book is a companion to The East End Archive at The Cass, an online photographic resource intended for artists, academics and researchers from a cross-section of disciplines. It brings together both historic and contemporary collections.

‘An invaluable addition to British photographic archives and the attendant discourses and debates that are examined in the variety of approaches to the subject showcased in the book.’ Paul Hill MBE, Visiting Professor, De Montfort University and University of Derby
'The Cass East End archive is a brilliant idea. It's a wonderful and necessary project and resource' Grace Lau, photographer and author.
‘Throughout the UK Museums, libraries, historical societies, government agencies, charities and trusts are wrestling with how better to understand the digital archive…The East End Archive at the Cass is a leader in the field.’ Zelda Cheatle

Photographers Susan Andrews, Ed Barber, Steven Berkoff, John Claridge, Ian Farrant, David George, Joy Gregory, Brian Griffin, David Hoffman, Tom Hunter, Stephen Gill, Jenny Matthews, Don McCullin, Heather McDonough, Rod Morris, Maggie Pinhorn, Spencer Rowell, Mike Seaborne, Mick Williamson

Archives Autograph ABP, Bishopsgate Institute, East End Archive, Eastside Community Heritage ‘Hidden Histories’, Hackney Archives, Theatre Royal Stratford East Archive, Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Whitechapel Gallery Archive.

ARCHIVE: Imagining the East End is curated by Sue Andrews & Mick Williamson, Photography Dept, Cass Faculty of Art, Architecture & Design, London Metropolitan University.

Sunday 21 September 2014

MANY THANKS to the 10 000

DEAR READERS AND FOLLOWERS, MANY THANKS FOR VISITING OUR PLATFORM AND THE OUTSTANDING WORKS EMERGING FROM OUR PHOTOGRAPHERS VISIONS AND DEDICATION TO THE EAST-END. I AM DELIGHTED TO WITNESS THAT THIS INITIATIVE HAS BECOME VALUABLE TO MANY OF YOU. WE HAVE NOW PASSED THE LANDMARK OF 10 000 VISITORS. I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO COORDINATE MORE EXHIBITIONS AND PROJECTS FOR A GROWING AND FOCUSED GROUP ENGAGING WITH THE THEME USING PERSONAL INITIATIVES. HUGE THANKS TO ALL OF YOU!
DAVID BOULOGNE artist, founder and coordinator

Saturday 13 September 2014

SEABORNE / BALFRON TOWER


Very special show happening right now in Poplar. A new photographic group under the name of Transition has invested a flat in the Balfron Tower overlooking Canary Wharf and the A12. Four different takes on the brutalist architecture in a ghostly environment. Mike Seaborne's work is the highlight for me. Simple, straight to the point and poetic with some original twists. I urge you to see the show as the dates are very limited. You will find all the info on the flyer.

Monday 8 September 2014

ARTISTS BLURBS / RUSSET SHOW

Paul Walsh
is a British photographer interested in the relationship between walking and photography. He began his career as a fine art landscape painter but soon became increasingly interested in the portability of photography. He went on to study a BA in Fine Art and Documentary Photography and an MA in Photography from Brighton University. He is presenting his series All Things Pass. Paul is the founding member of the photographic collective MAP6.
Kajsa Johansson
is a Swedish photographer who resided in East London whist studying photography. Her works essentially attempts to capture a mood from new surroundings. Her Considering Corners series reveal a bare and marginal East End whilst being promoted as something else by the media and hype.

Dominik Gigler
is a German photographer who lived for a 14 years in the East End. His work is today mainly commercial but he produced personal projects whilst living in London. He published his series in a book titled Along the River Lea and tells us the story of a landscape from source to mouth of the stream, a story of non-places.

Arnau Oriol
is a Spanish photographer who has been commissioned by the Hackney Council to photograph the borough’s transformation at the approach of the 2012 Olympic games. He has also been commissioned to make a visual mapping of Kingsland road. His personal works are mostly urban and tell stories of isolated individuals. He is presenting prints from his Pre-Olympic Landscapes series.

Susan Andrews
is a British Reader in Photography and MA Photography course leader at The Cass Faculty of Art. She is a practicing photographer whose research interests include the family, 
home, perception and memory, focusing on the boundaries between public and private worlds. She is a writer, curator and the research project director of The East End Archive at The Cass http://www.eastendarchive.org She is presenting prints from her series Up and down Whitechapel High Street - Photographs from the Car.

David Boulogne
is a French photographer who is interested in using social photography to invest the relevance of the photographic medium. His Arteries of a new East series show the transformation of the East End by attempting to understand the transient relationship between the old and the new. Boulogne also writes, teaches and curates the 2012pics platform.

Alessandra Chíla
is an Italian photographer who is interested in the relation that inhabitants have with their surroundings. Her Olympian Visions series translate a tension at the approach of the Games. She is also interested in digging the history and the concerns that make a place identifiable with photography and text.

David George
is a British photographer with a strong analytic practice. His works are often East End nightscapes and text based. He has an MA in Photography from the Cass school. He also runs the innovative independent photography review Uncertain States http://www.uncertainstates.com He will be showing the Shadows of Doubt and the Dissolutions series.

Christian Dorley-Brown
is a British photographer who has been collecting memories from the East End in the last thirty years. He uses this backdrop to experiment his narratives using different technologies. He likes to explore and blur the lines between traditional social documentaries and the myths it inspires. He will present a mix of his early social documentary years of Hackney.

Peter Marshall
is a British photographer who dedicates his life collecting London memories. He has been photographing the East End long before anyone and keeps returning to it. His endless street photography attempts to deliver a different perspective on the London. You can follow his work in progress. Long time not seen London derives from mid-70’s to mid-80’s will be available to the public.

Mike Seaborne
is a British photographer dedicated to landscape and documentary work. Former picture editor of the Museum of London he left to concentrate on his photographic practice. His work depicts urban views in their glory and autonomy. He introduces us to the East End in the most engaging way. Unseen images from his London Facades series will be displayed.

Monday 1 September 2014

WE ARE THE LANDSCAPE / PRESS RELEASE

The preparations are all coming together , it's all very exciting. I have to collect postcards and flyers tomorrow and will be spreading them as much as possible in the local key stores and general East End galleries. Meanwhile please find attached the press release/invitation for the imminent Russet show next week. All the infos are to be found on that document. We will not be displaying those at the venue in order to save money, waste and hopefully be greener. Only postcards will be at the visitor's disposal in the hope that they will trigger interest towards this blog and consequently re-route the viewer towards each artist's website. To be continued..


Thursday 28 August 2014

NEW SHOW / THE RUSSET



We are delighted to announce a new collective show coming this early September. The Russet has invited us to display for two months a new exhibition titled We are the Landscape. It will feature two new exciting artists and you will also discover new series from previous photographers. The works will come in all sizes and shapes and we have more than 50 prints to unveil. Come along for the opening night on Tuesday 9th September at the Russet. All prints are for sale at very affordable prices. More to come very soon.
The Russet 17 Amhurst Terrace London E8 2BT

Saturday 16 August 2014

PAUL WALSH INTERVIEW

1/ Paul, many thanks for accepting to join the 2012 pics project platform. I would like to start this interview in a chronological order. First, what brought you to painting? Then what made you shift to photography?
From early on, I had an interest in painting and eventually went on to study it at university. It was at university that I was first introduced to photography and taught how to process film and print photographs. At the time, I was fascinated by the abandoned industrial landscapes found on the periphery of Birmingham, the city where I grew up. I made photographs there to take back to my studio and started to incorporate them into my large-scale canvases, painting over them and etching into the prints. Over time, I became more excited by the picture making process than that of painting. The pleasure of walking outside, free from the confines of my studio was incredible and I came to abandon painting concentrating entirely on photography. I’ve been making photographs now for around 16 years and I’m still utterly obsessed by it.

2/ I remember my original interest for the theme of the “window” as a teenager. It then developed logically into the “frame”. This theme is to be found obviously is many art and other practices. That said it seems to me like there is a strong equivalence between painting and photography. Does that evidence have a strong predisposition in your practice and your way of engaging with the world?
Painting and photography have always been about me putting a frame around a world I didn’t fully understand and trying to make sense of it. By pulling the chaos of my surroundings together into a frame, I could hope to turn it into something that I could communicate with others. For me, framing the world within a photograph is not just about creating a view of a place I want the viewer to consider, but it is also about me exposing something about myself. I use photography as a method of expressing myself in a way that words cannot.




3/ When visiting your Into Nature series I cannot help but being excited about the way you photograph the un-seen. By that I mean that you succeed in defacing the perspective and set the viewer into what can barely be seen ahead. How would you describe this way of capturing the landscape and could you give us your thoughts about this sort of deconstructing?
Generally when I am on a walk, I am passing through a place I have never been before. The location is new and I don’t know what lies beyond the view ahead of me. This is part of the excitement that keeps me alert to my surroundings and persistently moving onward. With my series Into Nature I wanted to express the way the obscured places beyond the brow of a hill or a bend seem to entice one onward into the unknown. The pictures are minimal in their construction as they are not about a destination as such, but more about the path that gets you there.

4/ Maps are very important to your work. What is your relation to them?
Maps are incredibly exciting to me. They play an important role in my practice and I would be lost without them, literally. I find it fascinating to look over a map and see names and places that I have never visited before. I want to visit these places and discover how the names and shapes on the map translate into the real world. For me, maps are like another tool to express the intentions of my projects and create a greater sense of a walking journey. Maps in my work enable viewers to make sense of my journeys, to see where it began, passed through and ended.

5/ The act of walking might be your most important asset.  Could you explain where it comes from and could you envisage your photography without it?
I grew up in the centre of a large city.  My parents worked long hours and on weekends, we would venture into the countryside on long walks together. It was our time together away from the cacophony of the city, so now I naturally associate walking with a sense of freedom and well-being. This love of walking carried on and I spent years travelling and trekking all over the world. It was only in the past 5 years, however, that I made the literal connection between walking and photography, making it the basis of my practice. At this point of my career, I feel there are limitless possibilities for me to explore with walking, so I can’t imagine making work about something else. For now, I have lists of ideas for new projects but not enough time to get the work made.




6/ What equipment do you use and how does it relate to your walking process and mental approach?
I started out using an old Russian 35mm film camera called a Zenit. Years later, when digital photography became available, I bought into it straight away. Digital isn’t for everybody. You can tell the difference between digital and analogue, but it works for me. At the moment, I use a Nikon with three lenses and a flashgun. I walk a lot, so I want to travel light.

7/ Some people might not really understand your work and would critic that your photography might become repetitive because of your subjects and methodology. What can you answer to them?
All of my work explores walking in some way, so if you are not interested in this theme, then you may find it hard to be inspired by it. I try to make every series different and always hope to push myself in a new direction regarding ideas and technical application. My work is highly personal and subjective, but I hope that in some way, each series deals with other layers of complexity that go beyond where I have walked. There are many reasons why people walk: adventure, therapy, religious or political reasons, or simply to get from A to B. These differences are the underlying basis for each new series and before starting to make new work, I research into each area to ensure I am taking my photography somewhere new.

8/ Who and what are your inspirations?
Any photographer that shares my interest in walking immediately becomes an inspiration of some kind. Early on, I was influenced by the American realist painters such as Edward Hopper, and later by photographers such as Robert Adams and Harry Gruyaert, who have a unique way of constructing a photograph. In recent years, however, I find myself much more inspired by literature and am constantly reading. Some of my most influential books were written by the likes of W.G. Sebald, Robert Macfarlane, Rebecca Solnit and Iain Sinclair.

9/ I love reading your blog. I find it very instructive, seductive and soothing. You also put a great deal at helping, teaching and connecting people. Is that part of a walking community spirit? Do you see that part as important as your general practice?
I definitely believe there is a real bond between people who take walking seriously, beyond an everyday necessity. I also think that there is a growing interest in walking, particularly in art. Many people are putting on walks that I blog about and most public galleries regularly have some kind of event that takes participants on a walk of some kind, through a historical location or around a gallery space. What I learn and discover, I want to share it and this is the main inspiration behind my blog. I want others to be inspired by walking photography and I want them to join in.




10/ How do you find yourself connected to the world?
Being a photographer can at times feel isolating. Social media, however, has really expanded the world of the photographer and through Facebook, Twitter, my blog and my website, I have amassed a large network of contacts with whom I can share ideas with. Ultimately, it is when I am out making work on foot that I feel most connected to the world, and I am never happier as when I am experiencing the world in this way rather than from behind a desk.

Tuesday 12 August 2014

HOXTON MINI PRESS


I passed by a bookshop right in the middle of Shoreditch few weeks ago and I found this book called I've lived in East London for 86 1/2 years by Martin Usborne. Its title and cover photograph attracted me. I flipped through it and bought it. They also had Zed Nelson's A portrait of Hackney and East London swimmers by Madeleine Waller. Usborne's book was fascinating at first sight. He is following an aged and original local called Joe. This character is full of life, inquisitive and phoney. Usborne explains how he takes his time to get to know the man. This expanding relationship make him see and re-discover the East through Joe's eyes and brain. The way it is shot and the way it is published is very versatile, experimental and fluid. It is a lot of fun with a tragic end.
I didn't make any post at the time because I didn't know what direction was going to take this publishing project. Now, it seems that it has blossomed. The books involve different mediums and aspects of the East End. It has also been turned into an online arty crafty shop where collector's editions, prints, bags can be purchased.
Nice little project which is growing fast. To be watched...

Find more by visiting http://www.hoxtonminipress.com

Friday 8 August 2014

E20 final


Last day photographing a park almost fully open to the public. I spent my time walking around the Lea Valley Velopark and the Hockey and Tennis Centre. It is interesting to see how the last touches have been dealt with. Despite my omnipresent criticisms I can see that the kids playground and the greens around are already a big success, and so is the Timber Lodge Café. As you head towards the A12 the calm of the Hackney flats reappears from an original vista. We can now walk and access all areas. I think they did a good job in the end. Not amazing but it could have been much worse.

Monday 30 June 2014

PAUL WALSH part1


I am delighted to introduce new artist photographer Paul Walsh on our live collective platform.  
To start, taken from his website: “Paul Walsh is a British photographer interested in the relationship between walking and photography. He engages with the world on foot and creates work drawn from the physical, psychological and historical experience of walking. He began his career as a fine art landscape painter. During this period, he became increasingly interested in the portability of photography and started making photographs of his exploratory walks around the industrial hinterlands of the Midlands. He went on to study a BA in Fine Art and Documentary Photography at Liverpool John Moores University and an MA in Photography at the University of Brighton. Paul is also a founding member of the photography collective MAP6”

How did I come to know about Paul Walsh? I was simply browsing past events on the net when I came across a show held during the previous Photomonth. There was a collective show and Walsh’s photographs stood out not only for the project that interest us but also on a personal level. When looking at art works I always try to put myself in a sort of innocent mood. I put my thoughts and knowledge aside and let my body feel, then comes the mind. From the first glance I was captivated by Walsh’s subtle and large landscapes. They are not really landscapes as such, they are not engaged documentaries and do not follow any trend either. They have a gaze, a very special aura. There is something outside the frame that makes you feel confident and participant. You dive into those visions that seem so trivial somehow because Walsh has to ability to transcend the moment. His camera doesn’t record graphic and/or emotional moments only but it manages to transpose a time capsule in which you are immersed. Walsh’s originality lies in his ability to observe and make sense of the elements that come together in harmony, and then comes the camera. His method is very much the one of the painter as he once was (and still is I guess)

Then comes the walking. He is obsessed with its practice and I cannot blame him. There is something extremely gratifying and reflective about it. The world unfolds piece by piece as your walk progresses. The volumes and shades contrast and merge in your journey. Walking is a constant discovery, a new question at every curve and a new analysis as the day passes by. Walking is a therapy and it makes you see more than the camera use only would. The regular pace needed is your heartbeat and your vision endlessly alternates between the path ahead of you and the vast open. This constant mechanism if well trained is your own trademark and enables you to travel between point A and B in a sort of osmosis where the inner-self and distant thoughts live combined and peacefully. It is about you and the world. So Walsh examines the world carefully and by so finds answers for himself (and for us)


I then paid more attention to one particular series titled All Things Pass as many photographs depicted the East London area. They appealed to me for their melancholy and sincerity. They embodied perfectly a state of mind, a state of search where nothing comes to you explicitly but where you have to trust your heart and make your senses more acute to every detail that surround you. Eventually your mental dispositions and awareness make you feel the adequate moment. It is a unique journey where the signs are distant and for you to decipher later. Walsh’s walk in itself is the process and photography is just a tool to remember and share. But also let me copy below Walsh’ statement as it will explain precisely the reasons behind this particular journey.
It was in the autumn of 2012 when I got the news of my mother’s illness, a heart condition that eventually left her unable to walk. Over the coming months, I travelled back and forth on the train between London and Birmingham to visit her. As I gazed out of the train window, I wondered about what it would be like to make the journey back home on foot along the canal I could see running next to the train line. I decided that for once, I would walk back into the city and house where I was born. 
I plotted a route along the hundreds of miles of canal towpath that connected the river Thames in London with my parent’s home in Birmingham. In the current light of my mother’s illness, I soon became caught up in thoughts about the ephemeral nature of things as I walked. Everything in life comes and goes and the same can be said for places. Like my mothers story, the canals story is constantly changing, once a bleak industrial landscape, it has now transformed into a green space where people escape too. As I progressed the deteriorating factories of the city gave way to pastoral landscapes. I became more aware of the fleeting nature of the world around me as everything I happened upon came into view before disappearing behind me.
With All Things Pass, I set out to make a walk for my mother. I wanted to show her the places that she would not be able to walk through that lie beyond the view of the canal from her bedroom window. Above all, I wanted to show her that with time all places can deteriorate yet manage to recover, transform and eventually find a way to live again.


I think Walsh’s photographs express perfectly the creative process as a whole. From the aims and practice he sets himself to the discovery he let himself filled with. There is nothing more disappointing than working towards a goal where most parameters are rigorously controlled as you and we will learn very little from it. Walsh has this maturity and strength to let it go. This is why his work is so honest and unique. By capturing almost nothing he reveals a lot. That is his way of being engaged with the moment and the creative perspective. His method makes him vulnerable but extremely aware and sensitive to a whole human experience. Whereas painting is a laborious mental task and physical craft where you attempt to revive the past-seen or transcend its experience, photography has this function of freezing almost instantly. That said photography wrongly used records an infinite range of moments and it takes someone very alert, caring and skilled to combine all those attributes into one single frame. Walsh’s photographic walks are like a religious experience.