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Birmingham Loves Photographers
Run in conjunction with the independent coffee shop 6/8 Kafé, this is a space to promote Birmingham based photographers all of styles, both amateur and professional. We will also be a running events for photography around the West Midlands. If you want your work featured on here, please contact by Ask Me a Question, or go to our Twitter @birmlovestogs
Birmingham Loves Photographers Website
We have now moved to BirminghamLovesphotographers.com
Come check it out and get involved!
Kate Hook
How did you get into photography/what is your background?
It was when I was about 14 when my dad bought a camcorder where I started playing around with imagery, and then about a year later I got a compact digital camera. It was a really good camera to start with (it was a Fuji one but I can’t remember what model it was!) as it had manual settings so I taught myself the ins and outs of photography. I studied photography at Sutton Art & Design from 2006 to 2008, but due to personal circumstances I gave up photography shortly after I passed my course. Just over a year ago I was encouraged to get back into it and bought my first DSLR and never looked back.
How would you describe your style of photography?
Guess I’d have to say “fresh” as I’m still learning new skills with it and it shows in my work. I’m not known for having a certain style, just being able to do a small variation of techniques and being experimental. I’m quite edgy and starting to become a lot more risqué with my images.
What equipment do you use?
I use a d90 and I’ve started using a manual lens off an old Nikon SLR camera. Also I like to do Lomography so I use a Mini Diana and a Holga a lot too.
Who has influenced your work?
Terry Richardson & Ellen Von Unwerth I’d say were my biggest influences when studying photography. My friends are always throwing ideas at me for pictures, even models have given me some good ideas on shoots! I get a lot of my ideas from my surroundings, like I’ll walk into a scuffy lil corner shop and think it’ll be a great place to do a shoot. As well as different cultures, music, old books, even from old movies I get influenced by styles, colours, even just what an extra is wearing can influence me!
Do you have any ideas on how photography in Birmingham can be developed or ideas for events/projects?
There should be exhibitions that don’t cost a bomb to get involved with! Also maybe start up some workshops with different photographers so they can teach their own tricks of the trade.
Lewis Maxwell Bloor
Q. How did you get into photography/what is your background?
When I was around 18 I had no real interests apart from playing in punk bands, playing gigs and DJing parties and night clubs but I needed something to do between all these things to actually make some money to live… I applied for a bunch of jobs, one of which was as a photographers assistant at a commercial photographers. I trained as a commercial photographer for 5 years, starting with large format 5x4 film cameras and medium format hasselblads, then digital backs then dSLR’s. The boss retired and I went to uni to do a graphic design degree and used photography as my main medium borrowing cameras whenever i could. I left uni and moved to Birmingham to be a designer. I realised how much the company were spending on outsourcing so I started a photography department. Product photography, specialising in watches is my day job but always having access to a camera I’d never bought one or owned my own until last year when a friend asked me to photograph her wedding and I thought I’d have a go. the week I got a canon 500D my band were playing so I took the camera along to the gig to photograph the other bands and quite enjoyed it. from there I just took it with me everywhere and just started shooting.
Q. How would you describe your style of photography?
My motto is “point, shoot, hope…”. After working as a product photographer and training to be precise while using lots of lighting set ups, I enjoy just getting to somewhere, seeing what the lighting is like and going from there. I enjoy long exposures, movement, flash, available light, lens filters and having fun. I like to post produce as I used to enjoy cross processing and using different films, I see it as a natural progression from the dark room. I know there are a lot of people that swear by film still but after 5 years of 3 trips a day to the processors not knowing if the 8 shots of the day have turned out correct there’s no love lost where that’s concerned! I guess I like my shots to be slightly whimsical and show the viewer something extra than what they might see in real life.
Q. What equipment do you use?
I’m a bit of a canon fan boy nowadays, a 1Ds III in the studio, a 60D for weddings and location and a 500D for wondering around with. I buy whatever equipment I can afford, loads of lenses, flash guns, lens filters, lights, reflectors and daft add-ons that can add some sort of creative twist to any situation
Q. Who/what has influenced your work?
The first photographer that I assisted was a bastard, but I am eternally grateful for everything he taught me, his precision was unparalleled in studio environments although his manner left a lot to be desired. I love a lot of design based photography like Alexander Rodchenko and Josef Müller-Brockmann but I’m addicted to buying photography books and trying to work out how photographers light their shots. I guess from the younger photographers I enjoy the work of Tom Barnes and my good friend Joe Watson from the band Attack! Vipers! Check out his work and his rad music! then my band… Cannons And Tanks, obviously ;)
Q. Do you have any ideas on how photography in Birmingham can be developed or ideas for events/projects?
I’ve been a little scared to come to the meets as I don’t know anyone really and don’t have anyone to go with, I guess I’d like there to be a little club or get together on a Sunday afternoon where everyone can come and meet similar people in the same situation :D
Contact Lews on:
Website: http://lewismaxwell.carbonmade.com/
Tumblr: http://wentdownfighting.tumblr.com/
Twitter: @pointshoothope
Dan du Cros
How did you get into photography/what is your background?
I started getting into photography when I was 16. Like many people my age I was introduced to my first SLR via my parents - I wanted a camera to take some pictures of my friends skateboarding (offsetting my utter failure a being any good on a skateboard myself!). My mother had a Canon AV-1 and I started shooting on that. I remember studying the manual from cover to cover, and after a few test shots I was hooked.
By the time it came to deciding what to do at college I found myself at a fork in the road. During secondary school I had a really keen interest in travel & tourism, and was seriously contemplating becoming a ski resort rep! But I decided to go to Solihull College to do a BTEC National Diploma in Photography. It was a great course and really gave a solid grounding in the basics of photography - plus our tutor at the time (Emma Clarke) was fantastic and really supportive. She was also the resident photographer at the old Carling Academy in Brimingham, which is where I got my first taste of music photography.
After the ND I went to the University of Central England to do a BA in photography, but after the first year I had decided that it wasn’t really for me. It was very fine-art based, which is all well and good, but I wanted to be actively working in the industry - so I headed back to Solihull College and undertook a HND in photography. I owe a lot to the the head of photography Larrie Tiernan, because unlike how I personally felt at UCE, it seemed like he really was invested in getting the most out of his students - really pushing them to find work experience and get a job in the industry. Via the course I managed to get work experience with Automotive photographer Ed Lee, as my interest had switched from music to automotive over the past couple of years. I spent a week with him at Junction Eleven studios in Banbury, learnt so much and came away from it very focused and determined to succeed in this field!
4 years later and I am now working at Junction Eleven (and have been since finishing the HND course) as a photographic assistant and second photographer. The past 4 years working here under head of photography Manvir Rai has really moulded how I approach my personal projects - the intense attention to detail required when working here has certainly rubbed off! We’ve shot a huge variety of things from Range Rovers to kitchen room sets to multi-million pound diamond necklaces.
Over the past year or so I’ve found myself drifting back into shooting music at the weekends - more promotional material then anything else. It’s become my primary focus outside of the work at J11 and what I want to become known for - I really want to push it this year and get some stuff into magazines. That’s the side I’m concentrating on in this blog! My aim is to provide unsigned bands with affordable professional photography that’s going to get them noticed and on the whole kick their image up a notch.
How would you describe your style of photography?
I’ve got quite an moody/dark style when it comes to my music promos, but that’s not to say it doesn’t change from time to time! In truth I’m still expanding my knowledge and I’m always trying out new things (aren’t we all?) so I find my style of shooting does tend to flow and get refined from one project to another. At the end of the day I want to create images that stand out, that make people want to look at them in detail instead of just glossing over them. I’m definitely going through a ‘movie poster’ type vibe at the moment.
What equipment do you use?
I still shoot on my college camera - a Canon 1DS MKIIn! It’s my workhorse and I know it so well I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to give it up completely. It suits me fine for the way I shoot - I’m not looking to blow stuff up to billboard proportions! At J11 I use a Phase One / Mamiya 645AFD with a Phase One P45+ back, and a Sinar P2 technical camera.
Lighting wise I use Elinchrom Ranger packs and an Elinchrom Deep Octa softbox, with a couple of strip boxes if I need them. Quick, simple and power when and where you need it! I used to shoot with flashguns like the Canon 580ex, but found that they just couldn’t give me the power and speed I was after.
Who/What influences your work?
We’ll stick the usual suspects here first - the Strobist blog was a massive influence when I was learning off camera lighting. I can’t recommend it enough to every photographer out there. Get the basics down and you’re set, you can apply it to everything - from shooting your cat in your living room, to CEOs of big companies.
Influence wise I’m a big fan of Dave Hill, Joey L, Adam Elmakias and Joel Grimes. If I end up being half as good as these guys I’ll be happy! It’s a great motivator to see the amazing images that they produce, and then watch the behind-the-scenes videos that they provide and realize that there is no witchcraft involved, just an intimate knowledge of their craft.
Contact Dan on his website:
Matt Walford
Q. How did you get into photography/what is your background?
I first got into photography when I went to college, it was a City&Guilds course focusing on black and white photography, I was also studying Graphic design which was my main interest back then. But when I developed my first roll of film I instantly loved it, I really liked messing round with different darkroom techniques like scratching/burning negatives, as well as putting things directly on the enlarger.
After that I kind of forgot about photography for a few years and concentrated on graphic design, but my heart wasn’t really in it and I liked playing with photoshop more than actually doing graphic design… Flash forward a year or two when I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, apart from skateboard, and I found myself travelling around New Zealand for a month where I fell in love with Photography again and decided that I would try to get into a Uni to study it.
I got accepted (to my surprise) to the University of Gloucester on their Editorial and Advertising course. In the first year we had an excellent grounding in film and darkroom techniques, but during the second year whilst using digital I really started to know this was what I wanted to do. I graduated with a 1st in 2008 and after a few small assisting jobs I decided I wanted to go Freelance, but it’s tough!
Q. How would you describe your style of photography?
Surreal-digital montage?
I use a lot of different techniques when I’m making a picture, when I was at Uni I started experimenting with flat-bed scanners and how they capture things which I then incorporated with digital imagery for a lot of my work. This has kind of given my work a pretty unique feel. I have also got really into taking things apart (like flowers, or watches) and putting them back together again and a completely different way. This gives a very unique final image but is pretty time consuming! I recently made an owl out of tiny watch parts. Bit Frankenstien-esque :-) With the ongoing advances in technology the only real limits to photography are imagination and budget.
But along with that style of imagery, I love landscape photography which I apply the same digital montage ethos to, as I take a number of different exposures for each scene then blend them together manually to make it look like what I originally imagined in my head.
What equipment do you use?
I use Nikon DSLRs and lenses. I also use a modified Epson flatbed scanned for the digital capture of various things. And then Photoshop. For some of my images I don’t even use a camera, just the scanner and Photoshop.
Who/what has influenced your work?
Music, books, science, film, illustrators. Randomly looking at crap on the internet can be pretty inspirational sometimes. I just came across Luigi Serafini who is amazing! Some of the photographers who’s work I really love are… Guy Bourdin, Erik Almas, Olaf Veltman, Morgan Slik, Giles Revvel to name just a few!
Do you have any ideas on how photography in Birmingham can be developed or ideas for events/projects?
I think Simon Winnall pretty much hit the nail on the head, the photographic community getting together can only be a good thing, that and more photographic centred exhibitions in the area.
Contact Matt on:
Blog is…. www.lasoothemoon.blogspot.com
Email is… oi@mattwalford.co.uk
Nicholas Priest
Q. How did you get into photography/what is your background?
Art was impressed upon me from an early age: it stemmed from the influence of My grandfather who was a paid artist and subsequently designed many landmarks around Birmingham. Despite my family history in art, art classes were frustrating for me; I had so many ideas but I couldn’t draw and couldn’t paint. Photography came through for me at a time in my life where I needed a focus, looking at my A-level options; a photography course came up at my local college in conjunction with the school.
From the first moment I went out on a shoot and learnt the basics I managed to convert those ideas I had into my interpretation of art with photography. From there I chose to pursue my love for photography after my A levels at Birmingham City University.
Q. How would you describe your style of photography?
After Learning about many styles and approaches to photography, I found that my passion was sourced in documentarian forms of photography as well as, photojournalism and colour. Centred around: Places, people, areas and cultures, scenarios that exhibit some sort of significance and truth. I go in with an objective or witnessing a photograph opportunity that is relevant and relatable to the times. I aim to achieve a meaningful portrayal of people, areas, environments, I encapsulate ordinary things that are overlooked in everyday life in my photography, pictures that describe an area I am constantly seeking colour within the area and to illustrate its beauty.
Q. What equipment do you use?
When I first started out with photography had a Nikon F50, using different black and white and colour films. My next choice was a Nikon D50 then a Nikon D300, with a 18-55mm lens to a Nikon 50 mm 1.8. From there I started the to pick up some old point and shoots, a Canonsureshot 38mm lens and a Ricoh 35mm lens and recently I have acquired a Nikon F4 and a Canon AV-1, which I look forward to suing with both colour and black and white film.
Q. Who/What influences your work?
I keep my Grandfathers paintings and notes from his work framed around me when I am working to maintain motivation.
Moreover, the first time I saw a William Eggleston guide, I felt the want and need to make photographs like these. Looking at the common familiarity of everyday life, things and people. Stephen Shore and Martin Parr also influenced a lot of my work as they would go out with an objective. Similarly, I love the way Lee Friedlander traveled around looking for his photographs.
Myself, I revel in coming up with new concepts and projects and then trying to find the perfect photographs to portray the idea. I also love traveling within England, visiting various places and getting lost to make my discoveries. I also explore diverse cultures by traveling through various locations in the world.
Q. Do you have any ideas on how photography in Birmingham can be developed or ideas for events/projects?
I believe that more opportunities should be created for graduates and young and old photographers, especially in exhibiting and showcasing Birmingham in their work. I think that it is a matter Gathering photographers to try and come up with ideas to do this and try and raise some money to make it possible.
Contact Nicholas on:
