Birmingham Loves Photographers

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.

Exploring documentary photography - 3rd December

This is a discussion based workshop inspired by the current exhibition This is Not a House, by Edgar Martins at The New Art Gallery Walsall.  If you have an interest in photography both taking your own photographs and in discussing photographic styles and would like to meet like minded photographers within the region please book a free place and come along, its ideal for new photographers and seasoned pros.  This event will include a practical demonstration of how to use a 5 x 4 camera and the considerations needed for this; planning a photography project and the importance of this to continue your own personal development; and looking at the type of photography genre that you might usually expect to see on a degree level photography course.  The session will also be looking forward to a future exhibition at The New Art Gallery Walsall by photographer Martin Parr. The session is led by Malcolm Brice,  professional art & commercial photographer who has taught at Nottingham Trent University for the past two years. 

Check out Malcolm’s book ‘Incontinent Nostalgia and Sensory Ghosts’.

This FREE event will be from 1-4pm on Saturday 3rd December.

To book a free place (places limited) please call gallery reception on 01922 654400

Coming to Light - talk by Pete James 16/11/11

Pete James (Head of Photographs - Bham Central Library) will be giving a talk on the Birmingham Photographic Library collection is Wed 16th November at Calumet Birmingham Branch. The talk is FREE and will prove to be an illuminating insight into the UK’s largest photographic collection.

With over 20 years experience as the curator of this Internationally acclaimed photographic collection, Pete James has a wealth of knowledge on  many of the collections historically significant and more unusual images.

Birmingham Central Library holds one of the UK’s national collections of photography.  Totalling some 3.5 million images, these internationally significant collections include work by some of the UK’s greatest photographers: Francis Frith, Francis Bedford, Roger Fenton, Edward Muybridge, Sir Benjamin Stone, Bill Brandt, Tony Ray Jones, Paul Hill, John Blakemore, Brian Griffin Peter Marlow and Chris Steele Perkins amongst others.  The collection also includes a vast number images ranging from the less well-known to the downright bizarre. 

In 2013 the photography collections will move into the Library of Birmingham where new facilities, including state-of-the-art gallery space, will open up full public access to these collections for the first time.  In this, the first of a series of talks about the collections presented by Calumet and the Library of Birmingham, Pete James, Head of Photographs at the Library, will talk about some of the more obscure and less well-known photographs from the collections.  Further talks by photographers and curators will follow in 2012.

More information

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

Edgar Martins “This is not a House” 30 September - 24 December 2011

Exhibition at The New Art Gallery, Walsall

This extraordinary body of photographic work was originally instigated by a commission from The New York Times Magazine.  The artist was asked to create a photo-essay that reflected on the collapse of the US housing market. Shot initially in 6 US states over a period of one month, the work focuses on 16 carefully researched locations, exposing the full extent and impact of this worldwide crisis.  Martins has created a compelling series of images of neglected and abandoned houses, apartments, office buildings, golf courses and ski resorts.  The subjects are effectively contemporary ruins, and the artist knowingly plays with these associations to create dramatic, poetic and often theatrical compositions. 

Edgar Martins will give an informal tour of his exhibition, This is not a House at 12pm, Saturday 5 November

Magnum Professional Practice - Birmingham

IdeasTap have got 10 heavily subsidised places to give away on Magnum’s next two-day Professional Practice seminar in Birmingham on 3 and 4 December. This opportunity is available to IdeasTap members between the ages of 16 and 25.

With an emphasis on providing practical and vocational guidance to emerging photographers, this is an unmissable opportunity to gain tailor-made, impartial advice from specialists at the top of their profession.

Speakers for the Birmingham seminar include Picture Editor of the Observer, Tony Bell; Client Engagement Manager of 24 Productions, Rhiannon Reid; Head of Photographs of Birmingham Central Library, Peter James; Dewi Lewis of Dewi Lewis Publishing; Cultural and Education Manager of Magnum Photos, Fiona Rogers; and Head of International Picture Desk of ActionAid, Laurence Watts.

These seminars are always massively oversubscribed and photographers usually pay £250+VAT to attend. Not only will 10 IdeasTap members jump the queue, they’ll also pay just £50+VAT.

The seminar will take place at the Photography Department of Birmingham City University: School of Art, Margaret Street, Birmingham. Both days begin at 9.30am and end at 5pm.

To apply you’ll need to upload five photos to your IdeasTap portfolio and explain, in 100 words or less, how your career would benefit from this opportunity.

For full details of how to apply, head to this page

This brief closes at 5pm on Thursday 17 November 2011.

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:

http://www.danielducros.com/

BLP Meet Up - 1st November

We will be having our next get together at 6/8 Kafe on Tuesday 1st November at 6:30pm.

No guest lecture this time - it will be a friendly get together and a chance to meet other photographers and network.

….although we do have a couple of special things up our sleeves.

As well as showing the results from Portrait Project Round 3, there will also be announcements of several exciting new projects, events and opportunities. 

I would also like to hear from YOU! BLP is all about inclusiveness and I want to hear about your ideas, what you think would be fun and what opportunities you would like to in order to engage and challenge yourselves.

This will be an open floor discussion, so if you have any thoughts then just come and talk to me after the announcements.

Look forward to seeing you there!