Les Rencontres d’Arles – Galerie Huit

I will be exhibiting some of my images at the Open Salon at Galerie Huit in Arles this summer. For those of you who don’t know…. every year Arles hosts one of the biggest photo festivals in the World so it’s definitely worth checking out if you’ll be in the south of France in the next few months. The show will be up from the 4th July till the 18th September. More info here. I will be in Arles on the 8th and 9th July for the private view and to check out loads of photography.

Roma Tearne / Anfield

Roma Tearne, Oxford

I was recently commissioned by Albin Michel Publishers to photograph the artist and writer Roma Tearne at her home in Oxford. Although I didn’t have a huge amount of time with her we managed to squeeze in some interesting chats about her work and about the troubles in Sri Lanka.  As a consequence I’ve started reading her book Brixton Beach, and from what I’ve read so far, I’d highly recommend it.

I’ve been slowly scanning some more images from my recent trip up to Anfield in Liverpool to document the ongoing redevelopment of the area.  After doing some more research into the proposed plans, it seems there is a lot of anger directed towards Liverpool FC’s indecision over whether they are going to rebuild their stadium in situ or move it to Stanley Park nearby.  What they finally decide to do will have a huge impact on the surrounding residents and the direction of the regeneration.  Apparently some form of decision will be made in the next month.  Alongside this there is uncertainty over future government funding for the scheme and there is now a growing fear that these once busy residential streets will remain boarded up for years to come.  I’m now planning on visiting a number of other regeneration sites around the UK (there are several hundred) and documenting the changes taking place.  I’m interested in these areas that are deemed to be in need of redevelopment and how top-down regeneration schemes alter the urban environment and affect the communities involved.

Anfield, Liverpool

Lothair Road with Anfield Stadium in the background

Lastly, if you’re in London and are looking for some interesting photographic exhibitions to go to, I would highly recommend checking out Paul Graham’s show in The Whitechapel Gallery and Simon Norfolk’s new exhibition at the Tate Modern.  Both very different styles, but equally inspiring.

Yuppies Coming…

I’ve been a bit slack with the updates again.  I have been out and about enjoying the incredible weather and the multitude of bank holidays and as a result have tried to stay away from a computer as much as possible. Instead I’ve been out shooting lots and I now have a stack of negatives sitting on my desk that need scanning.  So I will slowly start adding some online here.

A couple of weeks ago, I revisited the Heygate Estate in the Elephant and Castle.  I hadn’t been to see it for about a year, so I wanted to take some update images.  The place is fairly deserted, besides the last handful of residents who seem to be dotted around the flats and maisonettes, plus an active bunch of guerrilla gardeners who are planting up fruit and vegetables in the old communal lawns.  The image above is of one of the metal doors put up to keep out squatters.

Continuing with the regeneration theme, I went up to Liverpool last week to photograph the boarded-up terraced streets around Anfield stadium. Anyone who supports Liverpool FC will probably be very aware of them already.  I only found out about them a few months ago when I was photographing Wayne Hemingway and he talked about the Anfield regeneration project, which is sadly resulting in the demolition of these historic houses and streets.  I am sympathetic to the viewpoint that these houses can be quite small and lack gardens, but I do think it’s short sighted to demolish and replace them with fairly characterless modern houses and apartments.

Anfield Regeneration, Liverpool

Funnily enough I did a shoot recently for Modus Magazine (here), of the Victorian Terrace retrofit project at the BRE site in Watford.  They have been exploring new techniques and technologies for refurbishing old houses rather than demolishing them. The image below is of the two gentlemen who run the project.

John O'Brien and Peter Bonfield, BRE

I also got some good news last week.  I have been selected as one of the UK winners of the Magenta Foundation Flash Forward Awards for 2011.  It’s nice to have my work recognised by the foundation alongside some other great photographers.  More info can be found here.

Burned out Rolls Royce (well, that's what I think it is). Marble Drive, Brent Cross, London

Lastly, many of you will have heard the terrible news about the death of photographers Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros in Misrata in Libya.  There have been a lot of articles written about both men, but this one in Vanity Fair by Tim’s friend Sebastian Junger stood out to me.  You can read it here.

Blossoming

Urban Blossom in North London

I had to drive up North last week, so I decided to swing by Derby city to check out the Format International Photography Festival. I had never been to Derby before, so it was a nice excuse to go.  There was some fantastic work on show and it was a real pleasure to wander round the city looking at the different exhibitions.  I particularly liked Zhao Ling’s city scenes, which he shot and filmed in China.  The festival finished on Sunday but hopefully it will return as strong in 2 years time.

March continued to be a pretty busy month, with a nice mix of personal work and shoots for RSA, Dragonfly and Barclays.  I’ve also had some constructive meetings with a few local community groups regarding my Cricklewood project and I’ve lined up a few shoots with residents nearby. So hopefully I’ll have some portraits to post up very soon.

I was at my Aunt’s 60th Birthday in Hereford last weekend, so I pulled out my large format for the first time in a while.  Now that we’re all getting older, my extended family don’t get together as much these days , so I convinced a few of them to stand still for some portraits in the evening light.  The two images below are of my lovely cousins Tammy and Josh.

 

 

 

Fringes

Claremont Park, Cricklewood.

For some reason I have found myself working on assignments in the commuter belt around London this past couple of weeks, with jobs in Woking and Watford and Maidenhead.  All places I have never really been to before.   I generally either work in central London or much further afield, so it was quite nice to have an excuse to explore these towns that sit on the fringes of the city.  I’ll post up images from the jobs once they are all out in the public domain. I also did a fun casting shoot at Shoreditch studios the other day for an advert for the Olympics.  I’m guessing there will be a lot more ads about the games now that they have started counting down the last 500 days.  I’m really looking forward to them next year and have already put my name down for a shed load of tickets, so hopefully I’ll get a few of them in the lottery.

I’m continuing to work on my Cricklewood project now and again, and I will be starting to take some portraits very soon.  I’ve been contacted by a couple of local community groups who are interested in what I’m doing and want to team up, which is great.  So if there is anyone else out there who’s interested in being part of my project, please do get in touch.  You can read a bit about what I’m doing here.

And for something totally different, I recently came across this great set of self portraits by a young photographer Alex Stoddard.  Check them out here.

Michel Madelain / Moody’s

Michel Madelain, Canary Wharf

A recent shoot I did for an interview with Michel Madelain, the President and Chief Operating Officer of Moody’s.  Out in today’s Libération.

Irish eyes are shining

"Tales from the Promised Land', Kenneth O'Halloran's series on the Irish property boom and bust. Copyright Kenneth O'Halloran

As many of you will know, Ireland has come in for a bit of a bashing recently, with the IMF bail out, house repossessions, spiraling unemployment and now the general election tomorrow.  It has all been pretty negative.  However, on the photography front, Irish photographers have been doing well on the world stage recently.  At this year’s World Press Awards, there were three Irish winners.  Seamus Murphy with VII agency won second prize in People in the News Singles category, Andrew McConnell (Panos) deservedly won first prize in the Portrait series for his Last Colony Project, and he also won in the Arts and Entertainment singles.  Lastly, Kenneth O’Halloran won 3rd prize in the Portrait series too.  All great photographers producing fantastic images and stories.  I’m delighted to see them all rewarded and getting recognition for their work.  To add to this, I can’t forget two school friends of mine from Dublin that have been producing some great work over the years…firstly Ross McDonnell of Milky Blacks fame….some of his images can be seen here on the NY Times website….and Niall O’Brien who’s got a solo show up in London at the moment.

Hampstead Pergola, February 2011

 

Paint Splatters & Cocktails

Above – Paint Drips & Splatters – Cricklewood, North London

Below – Three portraits from a series that Boutique Creative commissioned me to shoot for Bacardi recently.  The brief was to take portraits of some of the top mixologists in the UK and Ireland for the prestigious Bacardi Legacy Cocktail Competition.

Wayne Hemingway / Modus

Wayne Hemingway

I did another shoot for Modus magazine recently.  I was asked to take some portraits of designer Wayne Hemingway at his house near Chichester.  You can see the issue here.  Some of you may know Wayne from the clothing company Red or Dead that he set up with his wife Gerardine and his appearances on The Big Breakfast tv show.  However, he’s also been involved in sustainable housing design for quite some time, which he talks about in the interview.  He’s a very interesting guy and has some strong opinions about urban design and conservation. A little bit of trivia for you…Wayne is the son of Canadian Mohawk chief and former wrestler Billy Two Rivers. This is one of my favourite designs of his.

Cricklewood Regeneration

When I first heard of Cricklewood, I thought it sounded like a village in a Harry Potter novel. For those of you who don’t know it, it’s a suburb of North London, wedged between the A5 and A41 and bordered by Golders Green, Willesden, West Hampstead and Brent Cross.  It’s a funny area because it’s wealthy in parts and extremely run down in others.  I moved up here nearly 2 years ago to rent a cottage off Brigitte Lardinois.  Before then, I had never seen or heard of the place.  Last June, after hunting all around London for a house with a large back garden which didn’t cost the earth to buy, I realised that Cricklewood ticked many of the right boxes.  Hence I now live here.

Although Cricklewood sits alongside some of the wealthiest suburbs in London, it is a world away from the chic cafés and boutique shops.  It’s a green, low density area, populated by many Irish, Eastern European, and Middle Eastern immigrants.  Anyway, the reason I’m telling you all this, is because the area is now planned for a massive £4.5 billion regeneration.  So big in fact that it will be one of the largest in the country.  Over the next 10-20 years, the whole area is going to be transformed, with most of the redevelopment taking place in an area of about 150ha in the northern part of the suburb.

I have always had an interest in urban planning and design and I’m especially interested when it comes to large-scale redevelopments like this, as they are opportunities to do something different and radical. Unfortunately, like most things, the design of this project seems to be dictated by money, and from what I can see from the initial plans, it lacks imagination.  For a city that prides itself on innovation and design, it is disappointing to see that the planners and developers are more concerned with how many housing units and shops they can squeeze in, rather than coming up with some world class ideas.

Barnet council and the developers Hammerson received overall planning permission last year.  However, the final design is far from clear and there seems to be an opportunity now to help push them in the right direction.  There is a growing coalition of local residents who want to see the redevelopment become a beacon of best practice design and planning, with carbon neutral homes and offices and great public transport links.

Most crucially, my main concern about this plan is the impact such a massive redevelopment will have on the local community and the environment.  A large number of people living in council houses and apartments will be forced to move, an incinerator is to be constructed, 3 schools will be demolished and rebuilt, and a large number of local businesses will have to relocate or shut down.  So my aim is to try photograph the people and places of the area as much as I can before the development begins, because in the not too distant future this area is going to look very different (see below).  Since construction will not begin for some time yet, I will be working on and off on this project.  I will post images up on this blog as I go along.

Anyone interested in what I am doing or any local residents who want to be part of the project, please do get in touch.

Developer’s image above from PlanningResource.

 

A less flattering view of the regeneration area, looking north.