Went down to George and Jorgen this morning to see Martin Newth talking about his latest (and oldish) work.
He's transformed one of the pillboxes into a camera obscura and using a sheet of red photographic paper, he's produced large negatives.
Newth's playful approach to experimentation is evident. Makes you think and want to try some yourself.
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I've always been drawn to the industrial nature of Dunkerque's port (or Dunkirk). Regularly, crossing with a ferry from Dover, I take pictures of cranes, ships, machinery etc. It's easy to visualise the 2WW history when passing through. We might never know why the Wermacht let 330,000 French and British men escape in 1940 but so much in and around Dunkerque is there to remind us.
Inspired by Newth's work I scanned some of my photos from Dunkerque experimenting with green and acetate paper.
The outcome
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Jim Goldberg won this year's Deutsche Borse photography prize for his Open Sea series. (He previously won the Henri Cartie-Bresson). He came ahead of three other photographers and artists - Thomas Demand, Roe Ethridge and Elad Lassry.
His recent exhibition at the University of Westminster featuring refugees and immigrants from Iraq, Congo, Bangladesh and other war torn or poverty stricken countries exceeded my expectations. One of the larger prints was this image of a man who found a rancid goat in Dhaka's city dump to eat.
Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries in the world. That's mostly because agriculture is the key economic drive and suffers from regular monsoons and floods caused by climate change. (Bangladesh tops the Global Climate Risk index out of 170 countries most vulnerable to climate change). The United Nations warn that if we don't take an immediate action towards global warming, as much as a quarter of Bangladeshi coastline may disappear if the sea rises in the next 50 years. The photograph of Dhaka's city dump should serve us as a reminder of consequences to our luke warm actions to tackle global warming.
I find Goldberg not only a great photographer but a great anthropologist. In some of his portraits the subjects are covered in their very own hand written messages, full of hopes and fears offering a personal insight into their lives and relationships. I like his subtle way to bring viewer and photographed subject closer together. His photography speaks to me on a very personal level.
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A great american photographer's currently exhibiting in Tate (Modern) - Diane Arbus.
Arbus's self-portrait
Her portraits of mentally handicapped, transvestites, naturists, dwarfs and giants, expose the complexity of the human condition.
Supposedly, 'normal' American citizens are captured leading their 'normal' lives.
The black and white photography intensifies the seriousness of the subject matter.
But there's something morbid to a portrait of a mentally handicapped holding a hand grenade...
more great photography at Tate
The first ever photographs taken in Afganistan were made by John Burke (Irish). There's portraits, landscapes, battlefields; some work seems more lyrical, some quite stiff. There are Victorian photographs by Norfolk
and some more recent by Burke. I found the more current prints from the US invasion more appealing. These are Afgan police trainees being taken to firing ranges by the US marines in Helmand
The blue photograph is a landscape covered in grave stones...
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I took some time off work/study in April to travel and take some photos
will load more ltr...
I've always been drawn to the industrial nature of Dunkerque's port (or Dunkirk). Regularly, crossing with a ferry from Dover, I take pictures of cranes, ships, machinery etc. click
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