London Photography - Video and Film Makers Blog

LPA Wrongly Accused Of Plagiarism

2010-08-16T17:23:00.003+01:00

EPUK has accused the LPA of plagiarism for publishing "For God's sake, somebody call it!" - an article written by Neal Burgess - on the LPA website.

  Firstly, let me get one fact out of the way: the LPA received permission from the office of Neal Burgess to publish his article about the demise of photojournalism. I have the email chain to prove that.

A simple phone call from EPUK to the office of Neal Burgess would have confirmed that point.   Because EPUK could not be bothered to do so, the LPA has been subjected to a tabloid style attack from EPUK which I will not dignify with any further discussion.

  This afternoon, I was asked by a member of Neal Burgess's staff to remove the article from our website, which I have agreed to do. They are clearly embarrassed and want to distance themselves from this rather sordid affair and, frankly, so do I.  

I have spoken to David Hoffman and apologised for using his picture of Neal Burgess without prior permission. Although I am not sure how directing internet traffic to his website was such a crime; but there we go.

  Perhaps a trip to Pakistan would do us all some good.

Kevin O'Connor
 Director of the LPA

Re: Ms Campbell and the blood diamonds

2010-08-05T12:29:00.006+01:00

It Won't Go Away !

Diamond image by Sue Golden
Campbell image sourced from wenn.com

LPA Competition's for Landscape and Urbanscape

2010-07-27T11:49:00.003+01:00

LPA Competition's for Landscape and Urbanscape are closed for entry and the judges are making their choices.

The Judges are,

Lucy Bell - Owner / Curator of Lucy Bell Fine Art Photography Gallery & Agency.

Sue Golden - Curator, editor, artist and photographer.

David Edmunds - Curator at Gallery 1839

The winners and finalists will be notified by email by Monday 2nd August.
Interviews with the winners and full galleries will be posted by 23 August.

Photography by:

Marrigje de Maar

LPA movingPictures Interview with M.T.Adler

2010-07-20T23:18:00.008+01:00

This is our first LPA movingPictures interview with the director and photographer M.T. Adler. We are presenting the interview in five chapters.

1. Introduction
2. Iraq
3. Influences & the media
4. Television & personal work
5. Women in the industry & new projects

Photography By M.T. Adler

The Art & Craft Of Photographer David Knight

2010-06-12T18:38:00.015+01:00

Art and Craft
Of

David Knight

Classically trained in the craft of photography, David Knight is now turning to his artistic side to inspire his advertising work and create a distinctive style.

David Knight has experienced plenty of change in his photographic life. The English-born photographer has worked in both Dubai and Australia.

He was trained in traditional photographic techniques only to then watch digital imaging slowly but surely replace film. And, in his chosen field of advertising photography, budgets have shrunk and a bit of smart software has taken over from time-consuming camera work, set-building and creative problem-solving. At the same time he’s been steadily trying to spend more time on personal projects, an area he confesses to having let slip for too long as he worked hard to get established as an advertising photographer in Australia.

Now, David says, the value of pursuing personal work cannot be underestimated as it helps with the development of a style which, in turn, informs a photographer’s commercial work.

“For a number of years there I had really neglected my own stuff and I was focused just on the advertising work. But I was having withdrawal symptoms so I had to get back to it. My advertising work didn’t really have a set style; it was just whatever the job required so I was a bit of a chameleon there. These days I’m trying to work more on my own stuff and hopefully getting awarded jobs where people are looking at my personal work and wanting to buy into that style. So, I think that, with time, my style will become more and more defined. I find it more rewarding and I feel a lot more invested in my work.”

David also believes that – no pun intended – the wide exposure of personal work is also important so he maintains a Website, but also employs ‘old-school’ promotional strategies such as sending out printed material. He also participates in photography awards, both locally and internationally, most recently making it into Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Vocational Training
Born a bit further up the River Thames at Oxford, the young David Knight wanted to be an artist, but then his mind was rapidly changed by the realisation that at career in fine-art would almost certainly involve teaching, a prospect that filled him with dread.

“One of my friend’s father was my art teacher and I remember, one day sitting, sitting under a tree with this friend – probably smoking –when we saw this man jumping around trying grab branches off another tree.Then my mate suddenly said, ‘Shit, that’s my Dad!’. He was collecting stuff for an art class and, there and then, I decided that that was something I definitely didn’t want to do.

“The thought of teaching absolutely terrified me so I began thinking about what else I could do that would still allow me to be visually creative. Then, at the end of my art course, there was a bit of photography and I think, like many people probably, I was absolutely hooked when I first watched a print developing in the tray. I thought it was magic and I never looked back from there.

“I then went to the Cheltenham & Gloucester College – there were two big vocational colleges in England at the time and it was one of them – and I chose there because it was a very structured course and they were specifically gearing you up to find work, either as an advertising photographer or an editorial photographer. A lot of the degree courses at the time were very arts based and weren’t so focused on teaching you how to use cameras or lighting.

“I was there for a couple of years, then I did the usual freelance assisting thing and then I got a full time job with a couple of photographers. One was Ian Fraser who was an all-round commercial photographer, but he was doing a lot of cars. And the other was Ben Campbell who was more people-focused and he was doing quite edgy fashion stuff. So I got experience in a good mix of things. Both were quite technical and loved the craft of photography which was a very good training.”

This was still in the days of film… “Digital wasn’t around at all at that point”. David was using roll film and 4x5-inch sheet film so he remains a “big camera” person and says that even for his personal work his approach is still “more considered” as learned from many years of using a Sinar view camera.

Chasing The Sun
Like many aspiring young Britons in the mid-1990s, David began to look beyond the shores of his homeland for somewhere he could get established professionally, although he says that his choice of Dubai was mainly influenced by the appeal of a warmer climate.

“England is bloody cold in winter. Basically all my friends had left and gone to other places and I was living in a share house and so one particularly freezing day I thought there’s got to be somewhere warmer. My sister was living in Dubai so I went there for a holiday. I didn’t like it much at first, but back in England, I was encouraged by Ben – who’d grown up in Bahrain – to give it a go so I did.

“Initially I offered to assist, but within six months I was shooting on my own, there was just so much work around. And it was very diverse too. You’d be hanging out of a helicopter one day, the next on a tug in the port and then you’d be working with a creative director from one of the major advertising agencies. You had to wear many hats which made it quite fun. And then, of course, there were the mountains and the desert right on your doorstep with all these fabulous places you could go and explore. And you could still really drive wherever you liked then so it was a great time both personally and professionally.”

David worked in Dubai for nearly four years, before deciding to move on… this time to Australia.

“Again,” he confesses, “the main reason wasn’t really anything to do with career advancement, but if I’d stayed I would have had to find a sponsor and get set up myself which required a big investment in both time and money.

And it was a very transient place so it’s hard to feel settled there and I was really ready to go anyway. Australia was on the top of the list because I’d always wanted to go there.”
Gaining a foothold in a well-established market that’s also quite small and reasonably close-knit must have been something of a challenge.

“Yes, I think it was although, compared to Dubai, Australia seemed like a massive place. In Dubai it was sufficient to go to the pub, chat to a few people and the grapevine would do the rest. At that time, everybody knew everybody. So, when I came here, I decided to get an agent to help get me work and then, a bit later, I dispensed with having an agent and instead had a freelance producer which worked very well for me for a couple of years. But, yes, it was hard initially to break in.”

Commercial Reality
David selected a vocational training course over an arts degree because he wanted to understand the
‘nuts and bolts’ of his chosen profession and to be able to operate a viable business. So he always intended to
be a commercial photographer and advertising work appealed in particular.

“I like having control,” he states simply. “I like to set things up. I like to construct a photograph and with an advertising shoot everybody is on the payroll basically. So there’s a great team spirit where everybody is working towards the same thing. You don’t need to cajole people into doing what you want because everybody is there for one purpose which is great. And while I have been moving more towards the art side, I’m certainly not going to stop doing advertising. Hopefully they’ll compliment each other and keep me inspired for longer… and hopefully they’ll be a crossover of ideas back into advertising.”

He’s become more convinced of the need for a distinctive and definable style as the nature of advertising photography has changed significantly, for both technological and economic reasons.

“There’s been a convergence of things going on. Firstly, we’ve transitioned nearly fully from film to digital, but there were a few years there where things were basically in limbo and it wasn’t really clear where we would go… so you didn’t know where to put your money as far as making big investments in gear was concerned. It was quite a relief when digital imaging got to the point of being, in commercial photography terms, the benchmark.

“Then there’s been a gradual reduction in budgets every year. The eighties and the early nineties were synonymous with massive budgets – almost the champagne era if you like – and I came in at the end of this and pretty much missed the whole thing! But budgets were certainly a lot healthier at the start of my career and they’ve been getting leaner as the years go by. Not that I feel it quite as much because, of course, as you do get older and more experienced you do get some bigger jobs. But I’m sure that 15 years ago we’d have been making three or four times as much money.

“Retouching has added another element in that why would you allow a photographer to absolutely perfect something over two or three days – as a car photographer in a studio would once have done – when two minutes on the computer will fix the problem?

“So, if you don’t bear this in mind, you just won’t get the job in the first place… it’s just a commercial.

Willing Convert

Despite his darkroom ‘revelation’ and training in film based photography, David Knight says he was a fairly willing convert to digital capture once it could deliver enough image quality.

“My first introduction to it was back in Dubai when we had a Phase One salesman come and give us a demo, and that would have been all the way back in 1996. Very early days, and really the only application for it was studio ‘churn and burn’ product photography where the images were only going to end up small.

“So it really wasn’t ready at that point, but I understood the concept of it so I did jump in with some early Canon cameras, although the quality wasn’t there. For me, it finally became viable when Canon brought out the EOS-1Ds Mark II – the 16 megapixels camera – and I bought one of those and first started shooting personal work with it, but then I used it for some commercial jobs and the results were pretty good. But I didn’t become fully committed until I bought a Hasselblad H2 four years ago.”

So, given how much can now be done on a computer – and with more to come with CGI – on balance has digital imaging been a good or a bad thing for advertising photography?

“For a while I was on the fence, but I think that, overall, it’s been fantastic. Ultimately, it’s just another method of recording an image and most of the work is still done in front of the camera with the composition and the lighting, and how you direct if you have talent in the shot. Whether it’s film or it’s digital, if you haven’t done all those other things right, it’s immaterial anyway. And I think everybody forgets, as well, that for quite a while film was scanned and put into the computer and worked on in exactly the same way. But I understand that some people still favour film because it’s obviously got a different look and perhaps it’ll
make a resurgence because of this, particularly on the art side. For me, though, the commercial realities are obvious, starting from just knowing that you’ve got the shot, knowing when to stop shooting and having the client sign it off there and then.”

Creative Control
David contends that having a strong photographic ‘identity’ is important in the advertising world, especially in terms of photographers being able to play a key role in the creative process rather than simply being directed.

“Well, you would hope that a client has already bought into what you do by seeing your work, so perhaps the discussions about creative direction don’t need to be had quite as much. This is definitely where having a more united voice or a clearer style helps… if your work is similar and consistent throughout, the clients come to you for that look.”

Which, presumably, is why self-promotion is so important so your work is seen frequently and so potential clients understand what you’re all about and how you shoot.

“Absolutely, but I neglected this for years. I think I was probably too busy shooting and not really thinking about it, but what I realised, I think, was that if you want to get a certain type of work – and you want to drive your career in a certain direction – then you really have to take the lead and you have to be very clear yourself about what it is that you’re doing so that other people can see that. Hopefully, the work will follow in that direction and, of course, you’ll be a lot happier with your work because you’ve driven it to an area you want to be doing.”

Having weathered the many changes in photography over the last 20 years and still managed to be successful in two very different markets, David Knight says he still has plenty of creative goals that he’d like to achieve. Not surprisingly, one of them is to be able to do more personal work, but still get paid.

“I suppose the very act of supporting yourself by doing what you love is a good thing… and not so many people truly, truly enjoy their work. But my ultimate goal – and it’s probably the goal of most photographers – would be to find a way to still make money only working on your own projects or on those you really wanted to do. And I’d like to have more time to do personal things… like riding around the world on a motorbike.”

Photograph | Finalist, Australian National Portrait Prize, 2007

Edition: April 2010
ProPhoto magazine: www.avhub.com.au
Publisher: Next Media. www.nextmedia.com.au
Editor/Technical Editor: Paul Burrows
Interview and article by Paul Burrows

The Death Of Commercial Photography

2010-05-31T15:59:00.004+01:00

The Death Of Commercial Photography

For those of you who follow the LPA you will know that I have been talking about the convergence of stills and moving images for some years now.

Having been around in commercial photography for a while I have witnessed the following 'deaths', or at least 'close calls'.

'death of the glass negative'
'death of black & white'
'death of dye transfer printing & retouching'
'death of the presentation slide'
'death of the pre computer photographic creative industry'
'death of the transparency for reproduction'
'death of E6'
'death of film period'
and arriving next week…. 'death of photography'

The death of commercial photography is a very contentious point and open to lively debate, but this is roughly how the industry has changed over the last forty years.

My point is that things have never stood still in photography. However, the rate at which our practice is now changing (due to the electronics industry) is frighteningly fast and one should be mindful not to get left behind.

We have interviewed two of our long standing LPA members who are working with moving pictures and I hope that photographers reading the interviews will take a positive view of the way forward.

Robert Dowling
Award-winning photographer Robert Dowling has been working in moving images since 1976, producing commercials, documentary and self-generated film. He gives his advice on getting ahead in an
industry on the up……. more

Philip Lee Harvey
Award winning travel photographer Philip Lee Harvey started to produce video four years ago.
"My prediction for the future of the industry is that photographers will be missing out if they don't offer moving images," Philip says."….more

Kevin O'Connor
Director LPA

Photography by Darren Hepburn - Title: Near the edge

Philip Lee Harvey Discusses Shooting Video

2010-05-29T19:41:00.004+01:00

An interview with top travel photographer Philip Lee Harvey talking about shooting video

Digital has been opened up to competition by connected networks, technology and web use. Many photographers have started to do a lot of video work, shooting high definition video on stills cameras. This added usage adds value to what you can offer clients, says Philip. "You're adding another string to your bow," he says. "I think we will soon be expected to be able to provide that content as well as stills."  

Read the full interview here

Philip's LPA movingPictures showreel

Will Wilkinson gains Associateship of the RPS

2010-05-29T14:52:00.001+01:00

Will Wilkinson gains Associateship of the RPS

Will submitted his ongoing project 'Thoughts On A Blackboard'.

Choosing to photograph people in the Arts such as actors, musicians and artists, I provided them with a blackboard and chalk and asked each person to write down what they were thinking at that moment. I then photographed them with their blackboard thought, so that there would be no doubt in the mind of the viewer what the subject was thinking when they were having their photograph taken.
Finally, I recorded them while they elaborated on the words that they had written on the board, giving a greater insight into what was on their mind. Their explanation sits alongside each photograph in this book.

Here's the link to the book on Blurb 'Thoughts On A Blackboard'.

LPA Student Member Luke Smith Wins Gold At AOP

2010-05-27T17:23:00.004+01:00

Luke Smith has been crowned the AOP Student Photographer of the Year 2010.

The idea behind the single image of the naked woman falling came from reading the work of 19th century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who spent the 1870’s deliberating this question of what is truth. Nietzsche believed that truth cannot be recognised stating that everything that is knowable is an illusion. He declared knowing always involves creating transference of meaning which people associate with metaphors. The reason that all knowledge involves metaphors is that knowing is supposed to be “the adequate expression of an object in the subject. And since the “subject” and the “object”, the “knower” and the “known” are imagined to be radically independent of each other, knowing always demands a “transfer” or a “copy-over” from one sphere into the other. This is seen as concept formation and it is these concepts that construct our world and our reality. Nietzsche viewed this concept as the creation of illusion meaning that there are no absolutes.

I considered through the creation of this image the reality of ones world without metaphors and wanted to illustrate this through the subject being naked and falling into nothingness to illustrate ones reality without illusions. I chose the formula of a high ISO so even what you see in front of oneself begins to denigrate encasing the subject within its illusion reasserting and reaffirming that all is construction and myth.

The idea behind the series of portraits came from reading the book Dorian Gray and staying forever young. I believe we live in a culture obsessed with staying young and it is this that can generate fear and crisis for many and can create ones own vanity. The images illustrate an individual who slumps deep in the blindness of vanity consumed by his putrid futility. It shows him straining to seek anything but vacillation. As you walk through the series of images it shows him wrenching from this conviction reaching out past his abyss to what he really is. It illustrates his own image being ruptured from its crux. No longer being condemned showing his body becoming unstrung, entering a new beginning and embracing each fleeting moment , illustrating his own destruction of vanity.

Tableau photography is the genre i predominately work in and would hope to move forward with, in a career as a photographer. I have been influenced greatly by artist such as Jeff Wall, Hannah Starkey and Tom Hunter and hope that i could possibly gouge out a career similar to theirs. Within my work i like to explore the individual, how we are influenced by our world, its social issues and the impact of culture upon us.

Luke Smith LPA Portfolio

Paul Ryan interviews Director & Photographer M.T. Adler

2010-05-25T10:39:00.007+01:00

Ginger - here is an out take of the interview we held with M.T. Adler last Friday. This is the first of a series of interviews we intend to produce featuring LPA movingPicture members - we will also offer this as an add on to our marketing and PR platform.

We had so much fun doing this, partly due to Paul and Marisol getting so well. Marisol is such an interesting artist and we are going to have a tough time editing down the footage. Our production team consisted of,
David Edmunds, Creative Director LPA movingPictures: on Mike
Paul Ryan, writer & interviewer:
Tony Campbell, cameraman and editor:
Laura Stark, location:
And me of course taking the dodgy out takes.

We hope to have this edited and ready for publishing in about two weeks time,

London Photographic Association Awards -The Nude

2010-05-19T12:37:00.003+01:00

The Nude - Competition Results

The subject of our latest competition - The Nude - is one which has a long history within art and photography. As we said in the brief for the competition, history has seen all sorts of bodies appear as nudes in photographic work.

A good image of a nude needs to offer us something new, by experimenting with a specific idea about imaging the human body.  We hoped asking photographers to use the nude body as a subject would fire the imagination, encouraging them to go beyond familiar ideas to create something compelling and perhaps even fun.  Here are the winners' along with links to their winning work, portfolios and interviews.  

Series Category

Polly Penrose - Gold - Interview

Jorge A R Gamboa - Silver - Interview

Vanessa Alami - Bronze - Interview

Single Image Category

Jorge Retana Madrid - Gold - Interview

Ginger Liu - Silver - Interview

Jayne Dennis - Bronze - Interview

With thanks to Sue Golden and David Edmunds for judging this competition.

Galleries of single and series winners and commended photographers.

Photograph by: Jorge Retana Madrid- Gold

Monica Orozco “It Lasted 16 Outfits”

2010-05-04T22:12:00.004+01:00

“It Lasted 16 Outfits”

Is a re-enactment of five weeks of my misadventures in dating in L.A. The first bloom of love may fade quickly, but a good outfit lasts forever. These self-portraits were shot in the exact places where Mr. X and I went on our whirlwind mini-romance and offer a peek inside the female side of the ritual: the mating dance, the dressing game, the spectacle, the theater. Are the outfits a shield for or a reflection of the woman within? Who knows.
Who was he? Does it matter? The fact is that love is a many splendored thing. And SHE wears many many outfits.

"It Lasted 16 Outfits"
Photos by Monica Orozco
ArcLight Cinemas Hollywood
6360 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90028

Exhibit will run April 30th thru June 16

Reception
Thursday, May 13, 2010
7:00pm-10:00pm

ArcLight Theater Parking Validation $2 first 4 hours
RSVP not necessary

Monica Orozco - "De Colores—Portraits of L.A Women"

2010-05-04T22:03:00.001+01:00

“De Colores-Portraits of L.A. Women”

An ongoing project that showcases eye-popping portraits of the “wonder women” of my hometown, Los Angeles.
Beautiful, diverse, strong, and fearless; they inspire me endlessly. These are the angels (and demons) of the City
of Angels I know and love. Reflecting the individual spirit of the project, each wonder woman is shot before a
backdrop of her favourite hue. This deeply personal project is an homage to my hometown and an expression
of appreciation for the beauty and strength of wonder women everywhere.

"De Colores—Portraits of L.A Women"
Photos by Monica Orozco
ArcLight Cinemas Hollywood
6360 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90028

Exhibit will run April 30th thru June 16

Reception
Thursday, May 13, 2010
7:00pm-10:00pm

ArcLight Theater Parking Validation $2 first 4 hours
RSVP not necessary

Ecohealth 2010 Schools Photography Competition

2010-05-01T11:10:00.004+01:00

Enter Ecohealth 2010
Schools photography competition for 11-16 year olds

Anyone aged 11-16 can enter photographs into this themed competition run by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the London Photographic Association (LPA).

Winners from two age categories will have their winning photographs exhibited at the international Ecohealth 2010 conference in London and online at the LPA website. Winners will also be given prizes from the Wildlife Trust and Natural England.

Call For Entry Closed 2nd July 2010

Further information here

Ginger Liu Exhibits in LA - Framed Stories

2010-04-28T09:59:00.007+01:00

New Puppy Gallery & drkrm/gallery
presents
FRAMED STORIES
Photographs

New Puppy Gallery in collaboration with drkrm/gallery present “Framed Stories” an exhibition of photographs featuring works by both local and international artists including Ginger Liu (Los Angeles), Stéphane Houari (Paris), Donald Schwartz (Los Angeles), Rafael Serrano (Los Angeles), Håkan Sjöström (Stockholm), Lauren Jack (San Francisco) + Jessica Yurasek (Los Angeles), Erik Boker (Los Angeles), Evi T'Bolt (Los Angeles), Hector Santizo (Los Angeles), Cerraeh Dutchess Laykin (Los Angeles)

“Framed Stories” opens with a special preview on May 1st . An opening reception follows on Saturday, May 8th. The show runs through May 30th.

New Puppy LA was founded in late 2007 to function as a creative space to reach out, share, explore and teach. To work with and promote community support to explore and develop creative healthy outlets for youth and families.

New Puppy LA is located at 2808 Elm St. in Cypress Park Los Angeles CA 90065 Close to the 5, the 2, and the 110 freeways.

New Puppy Gallery
2808 Elm St.
Los Angeles CA 90065
323-439-3355
www.newpuppyla.com

New Puppy Gallery & drkrm/gallery presents
FRAMED STORIES
Photographs
May 1st –May 30th, 2010
Preview May 1st 8-10 pm
Opening Reception Saturday May 8th 7-midnight

Photography by Ginger Liu from the series "You're Practically A Man"

People of Today at the NPG: Sukey Parnell

2010-04-15T14:50:00.003+01:00

A picture of Dame Joan Bakewell by Sukey Parnell has just been bought by the National Portrait Gallery for the national archive. The portrait was originally commissioned by Saga magazine and was featured on the front cover in March 2009. The print is currently on exhibition in the People of Today Gallery on the ground floor, alongside Sukey's other recent acquisition to the collection, a portrait of comedian Bill Bailey, which was Photograph of the Month in January 2010. Dame Joan Bakewell is 'delighted' by the news.

Sukey's personal work has been a two-time finalist in the Photographic Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery in 2006 and 2007 with images from her personal project on female midlife, Women of an Uncertain Age. The first volume has recently been published on Blurb.com. Sukey says that she now wishes to extend the project across different cultures and continents. 'I'm in the process of developing an idea for an ambitious gallery show that looks at old age and "femininity". Watch this space!'

Sukey has recently donated prints to the Guardian photography auction in aid of Samoa and for a second time to the annual gala charity auction in New York in aid of InMotion. 'It's fantastic that my work can be used in this way to raise money and awareness around domestic violence. I was so surprised when they asked me last year. I'd heard of everyone else in their catalogue but me! How great, not only to help, but to see my name alongside Diane Arbus, Martin Parr and Annie Leibovitz! I had no idea when they first got in contact just how big it is! It shows that images can still make a difference.'

Sukey is currently combining writing and practical work in her academic studies. She received a studentship to study for a PhD in September last year to carry forward her research into 'the representation of age and "femininity" in the photographic portrait'. 'I didn't realise when I launched into the PhD just how big or all consuming it would be. Or that I would experience such a huge culture shock! But I think I'm finding my feet now and it's starting to become a very productive arena to engage with and challenge ideas.'

Sukey was a guest speaker in the Ageing Matters series at the Wellcome Collection in February, chaired by Claudia Hammond and has just presented papers on her research and photographic work at Exeter, Boston and Thames Valley Universities. Sukey is just putting the finishing touches to her new website which features two blogs, a news blog and a project blog. 'I really want to open up a conversation about how we see age and beauty. Please get involved.

We need to support each other and our projects. Get people talking about images, how and why the affect us and our lives. Our community is changing and we need to be talking about that. What and how we see our world.' Visit Sukey's blog at sukeyparnell.com/project.

Daniel Moncur-Sime saves fashion Shoot

2010-04-15T14:26:00.003+01:00

Daniel Moncur-Sime saves fashion cover photoshoot for Viva magazine

Sunday 18th March, 7.30pm, mother's day - a call comes in from the editor of Viva magazine, Rebecca Legon. "Can you save a Fusion cover and editorial photoshoot tomorrow ?".

At Tropical World, Leeds, a whole creative team had been booked by Viva magazine for the fashion cover shoot of their premier issue of their re-branded look.

But the photographer from London pulled out at the very last minute,this meant the makeup artist who was traveling with the photographer also canceled!

'Dan can you take over?' My answer was indeed, a resounding yes! A re-jig of Monday's office work freed up the Monday and so I hit the long road for a 4 hour drive to Leeds. And to top it off I found a replacement makeup artist too!

Arriving in the morning at Tropical World Leeds I met Rebecca and found the creative team in full swing, all the models being made up by Adam Bryant the hair stylist and Laurra Cotterall the makeup artist. Having a quick creative meeting and general wreckie of the various scenes, we quickly decided on the best way to get the most dramatic imagery.

An incredible location, Tropical World was a walk through maze of different exotic indoor landscapes in a giant biosphere. From jungle to desert, waterfalls and rock walls the models, Katie, Marina and Luke, settled into the scenes and brought the clothes and accessories to life! Together with the striking makeup they brought a strong presence and we created series of eye-catching and incredible imagery.

It turned out wonderfully well, a whole set of story-telling photography - fashion in the jungle! Rebecca was thrilled that the day had worked out so smoothly, even if we did have to twist the park ranger's arm to allow us to stay past our allowed time!

All that remained was the 4 hour drive back to the studio, the upload of the images for selection of the photos to be edited for the editorial feature story. And by the end of the week, the photos Viva wanted to use had be fully edited and at the end of the week were on the editor's desk. Great job done!

To top it off this was a bonus photoshoot for me with Viva; I am booked with by them to do a separate shoot for inclusion in the same issue. So now, it's a double whammy two features of fantastic fashion story.

This next shoot is set for 19th April, in the wilderness of Chorlton-cum-Hardy's parklands! More on that fresh exciting creative shoot later!

The Viva rebranded premier issue is out at the beginning of May, in time for summer.

Daniel Moncur-Sime’s photography can be seen at www.danielmoncursime.com and at the London Photographic Association website. He can be contact on 07890 530 130 and email dan@danielmoncursime.com

Sebastian Rich - To Kill A Sniper!

2010-04-13T11:33:00.004+01:00

MARINE

“ I could start a brand new life with all this Sebastian “ a Marine who asked to remain anonymous quipped as he and his platoon grappled with the heavy cheap plastic shopping bags containing 17. 5 million dollars worth of the world’s purest opium.

“You could win my f*****g heart and mind any day” with just one bag or even half. The same Marine said with a smile.

This was day three of “Operation Moshtarak “ translated from the Dari meaning “Together” to take the sprawling town of Marjah in Helmand Province Afghanistan. The Taliban’s very heart of banking and commerce.
The millions of dollars worth of opium we found was just one of many stashes tucked away in the kiosks and ramshackle shops that made up Marjahs central bazaar. Other units would go on to find much more. But in the meantime our platoon of Alpha 1/6 company doggedly took the haul back to forward operating base to be turned over to the Afghan equivalent of the D.E.A. The cynical amongst us would say that one might as well just put the opium back on the streets and by pass the middlemen.

A snipers high velocity round whizzed and fluttered just inches above our heads and the platoons collective ear lobes instinctively touched shoulders.
“F*****g motherf***** when is somebody going to turn that piece of s**t into pink f*****g mist “

This was the Taliban’s mopus operandi. They were never able to confront the might of the USMC head on in an old fashion battle, as they knew all to well that they would be wiped out in an instant. So they resorted in hit and run tactics. A sniper would harass for a an hour or so while other insurgents would use the opportunity to bring a few men closer to the Marines firing RPG’s (Rocket propelled grenades)
But today we had a sniper “ who could shoot” as our Gunny would say. This sniper had killed a young Marine just the day before with a single round straight thru the centre of his head. I had filmed the young Marine being taken off the battlefield by corpsman and was well aware of the danger from this particular individual. Normally we never took much notice of the so-called snipers as they were crap shots and just sprayed their Kalashnikovs vaguely in our direction just to let us know they had not gone away. But this guy was a different matter all together and to be taken seriously.

I watched as the Marines poured huge amounts of firepower down on our sniper. First an air strike was called in. Two Cobra attack helicopters firing a total of four hellfire missiles at 68.000 dollars each and hundreds of rounds of 20mm shells from its M197 three barreled Gatling guns ripped into the snipers coordinates. But just a few minutes later he was up and running again mocking us with his gunfire. Another air strike. Two fixed wing aircraft with a five hundred pound J damn bomb costing 70.000 dollars apiece literally vaporized the earth and buildings that were the snipers reported position. Unbelievably shots once again came from the dust and mayhem. He somehow defied all logic and survived this unbelievable onslaught.

Our “Gunny” had had enough of this “bullshit” and put together a squad armed with a Javelin missile to end this guy’s run of ridiculous luck and temerity.

“You wanna come and kill a bad guy Mr. TV Newsman”

Fifteen Marines and I ran into open ground with suppressing fire for the missile operator just a couple of hundred meters from our sniper’s position. Two bullets smacked into the ground between myself and the “gunny” We quickly exchanged a rather odd glance at each other. I noticed all the while that the “Gunny was still sipping from his coffee flask as cool as you like. “In your own time “ roared “gunny” at the young corporal with 80.000 dollars worth of javelin missile perched on his shoulder. Bullets from another direction were cutting into the ground to the right hand side of us. More insurgents had joined the fray. With a huge dust erupting whoosh of flame the Javelin missile roared away from its slightly startled operator. The missile armed and deadly accurate slammed into the snipers position in a ball of angry flame spitting earth and assorted debris high into the air. Finally silence, well at least from that direction.

We all ran into the relative safety of a nearby compound firing as we went. Gunny counted us all into the compound and poured praise on the missile operator and the rest of the Marines. I pushed my camera into his face to be met with. “Mr. Newsman get that thing out of my face I don’t look good on Thursdays “ !! I was a little bemused, as it was Tuesday! As the days rolled on I was to learn that every day was not a Thursday even if it WAS Thursday. I had never come across this way of being told to get my camera out of someone’s face like this before. After over thirty years in this crazy business I appreciated the originality.

Every one grinned an adrenaline infused smile at each other and one by one we sunk to the dirty earthen floor of the compound gulping huge amounts of water. A mission successfully carried out and no casualties. The cost of killing one Taliban sniper (excluding an unknown amount of bullets) $492.000 dollars before tax.

Photography: Sebastian Rich
U.S. Marine in - Operation Moshtarak,Marjah, Afghanistan.

2010 Wannabee Gallery Fine Art Prize

2010-04-10T10:32:00.005+01:00

Kevin O'Connor of the LPA has been invited to join a high profile international jury by the prestigious Waanabee Gallery in Milan.  The Vito Montemurro foundation for young contemporary art, in cooperation with the Wannabee Gallery presents the 2010 Wannabee Prize at the annual International Art Contest.

Kevin say's "I am delighted to have been asked to join such a high profile judging panel.The inclusion of photography and video in this mixed media fine art competition is very healthy. I believe that the more photography is seen in art galleries / shows alongside painting and sculpture the faster photography will be accepted as a fine art collectable by the general public".... more

For applications and further information contact,

press@kinagency.com
Phone: (001) 310.925.7013

World Cup Football - Photographers Wanted

2010-04-10T10:11:00.004+01:00

World Cup Football 2010

"A Photographic Celebration of Multicultural London Inspired by Football"

LPA member Philip J. Bigg needs a team of photographers to shoot images during the World Cup this summer and exhibit their work in a West London gallery... more

This is a great opportunity to collaborate in a project that should get a lot of PR!!!!

LPA Let's Face It 6 - Portraiture Competition Winners

2010-04-07T09:57:00.019+01:00

LET’S FACE IT 6
The Picture-Perfect Portraiture Exhibition at the 2010 LPA Awards

A throng of admirers of commercial and fine-art photography celebrated some world class portraiture at the ‘Let’s Face It 6’ exhibition by the London Photographic Association on 31st March.

They packed the Assembly Rooms gallery space in Soho, London’s quintessential media-and-entertainment district, to honour winners of the 2010 LPA Awards at the sixth edition of the annual competition.

• THE WINNERS

The winners of the series category are:

Peter Adams - UK Gold series winner - interview

 Eric White - USA Silver series winner - interview
 Abel Ruiz de León Trespando - Spain Bronze series winner - interview

The winners of the single category are:

  Nina Contini Melis - Spain Gold single image winner - interview 
Nino Gehrig - UK Silver single image winner - interview
 Zak Waters - UK Bronze single image winner - interview  

Also commended were the excellent portraits by another 14 entrants. And the LPA would also like to highlight the participation of another 14 finalists.

• WHERE TO SEE LET’S FACE IT 6

Portraits by the winners and commended photographers were on display at the Assembly Rooms exhibition on 31st March. At the same event, attendees were also treated to the complete series submitted by the winners and the commended contestants via a slide show on a large screen.

The exhibition at the Assembly Rooms continues until 29th May.

An online gallery of the winners, the commended and the finalists’ portraits, plus exclusive interviews with the Gold, Silver and Bronze victors, can be accessed on the LPA website. Click here.

• YOUR OWN PERSONAL COPY OF THE EXHIBITION

A premium-quality catalogue featuring the complete entries submitted by the winners, the commended entrants and the finalists was kindly sponsored by Blurb, the international online book publisher. Each exhibiting photographer and the award’s judges will receive a free copy.

You can also purchase your own, for the non-profit price of £29.95 each, directly from Blurb’s website.

• LPA FOUNDER KEVIN O’CONNOR COMMENTS

“The LPA's raison d’être is to assist photographers to market themselves by gaining awareness in a very crowded marketplace. And running regular competitions is a great way of doing this,” says Kevin O’Connor, the LPA’s founder and the exhibition’s curator.

“The competitions give us the opportunity to show off the winners and their works through our numerous outlets: online galleries, published interviews, exhibition displays, and published catalogues.

“We then network this information through our social-networking platforms (including Facebook and Twitter) so that most of the planet will get to know our photographers’ output; it doesn’t get much cooler than this.”

• GUESTS AT THE LPA AWARDS

The full-house exhibition on 31 March was attended by a host of LPA members and supporters, including established photographers, new talent, photographers’ agents, image buyers from the BBC, The Times newspaper and stock-photography giant Corbis, and journalists.

Moreover, an interactive element was added as a TV-production crew followed LPA member Richard Bradbury, who was being filmed for a programme about his very special book project to raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital called The Children Of London 2010.

• HOP HOUSE’S IN-DEMAND DESIGN

The LPA would like to thank Laura Goode and Hop House Design + Advertising for the catalogue’s exceptional design.

It is so exceptional, the only two proof copies brought to the Assembly Rooms exhibition rather inconveniently disappeared.

We would like to emphasise to anyone who has seen them that they were there for display-only purposes.

• LET’S FACE IT 7

Call for entry for the Let’s Face It 7 exhibition and 2011 awards kicks off in September. More details to follow shortly.

Advertising Photographer wins Art Prize

2010-03-21T16:59:00.004Z

The West Midlands Bi Annual Art Prize has been won by midlands based advertising photographer, Lorentz Gullachsen.

Gullachsen say’s "I was aware that I had two images selected for the exhibition and that was great, but to have won was a great shock. There was some wonderful paintings, fine art illustrations and sculpture in the show. I was honoured just to be selected’"

The image is of an Attendee at the Wolstock festival and part of a personal project, ‘In the American West Midlands’ which was shot in a portable studio over a weekend in Wolverhampton.

Lorentz say's "the last year has been tough for all in advertising and so I have taken the opportunity to do a part time MA at Birmingham City University. It is having a positive effect on my work and I feel I am going to be better equipped for the upturn".

West Midlands Open, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, March 6th – May 2nd 2010.

View Lorentz's LPA folio here.

Andrew Lever Wins Professional Photographer Award

2010-03-17T14:59:00.004Z

LPA member Andrew Lever who is a Travel and Documentary photographer has just won a Commended Award in `The Professional Photographer Of The Year Award 2009`. This Annual photo competition received over 7,500 entries worldwide.The awards ceremony took place at the `Sustain` Gallery London on the 28th January.

Andrew`s prize winning image was of a lone naturist walking across an empty beach in the Canary Islands.Andrew says " I`m delighted with the award as it was a spontaneous shot I took while on holiday .He added " This is the perfect example to always carry your camera with you as you will just never know what you will come across, even on a deserted beach ! "

Did Daniel Moncur-Sime really pull off a fashion shoot in the middle of a Bhangra music Video?!

2010-03-14T19:10:00.002Z

Short answer – Yes! As always trying to do something different!

The quick details
Client: Virk Films International, when: Friday 5th March, where: Green screen studio, Birmingham University,

Commissioned by Jazz Virk (Virk Films, jazzvirk@gmail.com), international award winning music video and film director and producer who has previously produced ground breaking videos for celebrity stars Nelly Furtado, Jazzy B, Basement Jaxx is working with established music producer Simon Nandhra, to produce the video for his latest single release ‘Wherever you go, Bhangra will be there’.

Jazz was very happy to finally work with Daniel – having already kept Daniel’s creative fashion photography on his Iphone as reference and influences. Interestingly, part of the commission was to recreate one of the looks that Daniel’s creative team had devised and produced on one of his previous fashion shoots!

Setting up a mini studio within the green screen studio, Daniel worked with makeup artist and close friend Arpita Karania (info@Arpita.co.uk) , turning the multitude of professional dancers and models into icons of beauty! Anyone who was privy to the shooting was immersed in a fairground of creative excitement, with lights flashing off, cast and crew buzzing, and everyone could feel the heated excitement of the day!

The music video tells the story of the singer journeying from the stars to Earth searching for his dream soul mate. On the journey he discovers all most desirable sexy androids and beautiful women. At the end he realises the female hologram companion on his star ship is really the one, bringing her to real existence.

The photos produced are being used as embedded windowed stills in the video and in the promotional literature. The release of the video is set to be around April 2010.

It was all very exciting stuff, new friends were made and even the international models Kimberley Thomson (Kimberley-thomson@hotmail.com), Tia Magno (tiamagno@gmail.com), Colleen Deary (colleendeary14@hotmail.com) asking how soon can we work together again, even for just for the photos – a real rare treat!

Just the sort of positive feedback we all need!

To contact Daniel for your new photography project please call 07890 530130, or email dan@danielmoncursime.com , to view his exciting portfolio visit www.danielmoncursime.com or at the LPA website http://www.lpa-folios.com/Daniel_Moncur-Sime.

Phillip Lee Harvey's forthcoming London exhibition

2010-03-12T16:25:00.003Z

Phillip Lee Harvey's forthcoming exhibition at the AOP Gallery 20th April - 1st May 2010

Philip Lee Harvey has travelled the globe in search of his subjects, finding them everywhere from the dark drama of a Haitian voodoo ceremony to the stark brightness of Bolivian salt flats. Now, out of an archive of thousands of pictures from across the globe, forty of his remarkable images are to be shown to the public at a leading London gallery.
Lee Harvey has spent the past 18 years travelling the world taking photographs for magazines and for advertising agencies. Last year alone he worked in over 20 countries, as diverse as Yemen, China and Hawaii. He draws his inspiration from the great travel photographers such as George Rodger, of Magnum fame, but also from Victorian explorer-painters such as David Roberts and John Frederick Lewis.

Editorial: A frequent contributor to BBC Lonely Planet magazine, he has also published his work in National Geographic Traveller, The Independent, the Saturday Telegraph, Condé Nast Traveler, Tatler, Vanity Fair and Geo magazine.

‘As a writer interested in far-flung places, I have been fortunate in having made some trips with Philip. It has been a revelation to see someone thinking about light, working with light, and in the end capturing light in the way that he does.’ Giles Foden, author of The Last King of Scotland.

Commercial: Lee Harvey’s advertising clients have included Shell, UPS, T-Mobile, Ford, Bentley, Ericsson Communications, the Irish , British and Egyptian Tourist Boards, Sony, British Airways, Volkswagen, UBS Banks, Intercontinental Hotels, ITV, Mastercard, Kodak and BP. 

Awards: Lee Harvey has won numerous awards including ones given by the London Photographic Association (LPA), Association of Photographers, Creative Circle, Royal Photographic Society, John Kobal, Travel Photographer of the Year, the International Colour Awards and Campaign magazine.

Biography: Born in Canterbury, England in 1969, Lee Harvey completed a Graphic Design degree at the Norwich School of Art and Design, before going on to assist some of the UK’s leading advertising photographers. Eager to develop his photographic career, he soon started taking on editorial and advertising commissions of his own. Since then, he has worked in over 100 countries, ranging from Antarctica to the Sahara. His journeys have taken him to some of the world’s most inhospitable and demanding destinations.

For more information see www.philipleeharvey.com

Philip Lee Harvey is available for interview, and will make available some of his images for use alongside reviews of this exhibition. For further information, please contact jon@philipleeharvey.com
Philip is represented in London and New York by: Peter Bailey Company, www.peterbailey.co.uk,

Telephone: 020 7935 2626 email peter@peterbailey.com