Visiting artist studio

John has organized for 5 student to visit Nick Veasy's studio outside Maidstone on Friday. I am really looking forward to seeing his x-ray machine and having a go at x-raying something myself. he has said we can all bring an object to x-ray and I am thinking about bringing a photograph or maybe a film strip.
I want it to connect to the topic of memories that I am looking at.

DON DUDENBOSTEL

I was searching for x-ray artists and found this guy living and working in America.
Don's Website

Broken ground Symposium

This talk was at the Pheonix and I am so disappointed that I missed it. And only missed it by a day.
Alison went and she said I would have loved it. I am still planning to go see the show which will be on for another while.

Broken Ground Symposium

interesting article

As I was reading on the photographer John Maltby I found this article really interesting. It was talking about the photographer capturing the architecture of the striking looking of Odeon cinemas that was built in the UK and also the US.

Maltby was commissioned to photograph all of these cinemas and carried on as a photographer until his death in 1980. Towards the end of his carried he moved inside and photographed interiors working for magazines such as Modern Woman and Ideal Home.

Read the article here.

John Maltby: Images from the Photographs collection of RIBA

John Maltby: Images from the Photographs Collection of the Royal Institute of British Architects

This book is devoted to John Maltby (1910 - 80) an architectural photographer who produced some of the most enduringly evocative images of British architecture and design during the 20th century. Maltby rose to prominence during the 1930s, when the camera was influencing architectural practice. Maltby was closely allied to Lubetkin, one of the great modernist émigré architects working in Britain at the time. Maltby also recorded fashionable Art Deco style with a lucrative commission for Odeon Cinemas. After World War II and in stark contrast to the opulence of the Art Deco cinemas, his photographs of Alison and Peter Smithson's Hunstanton school were admired and reproduced around the world, while his commercial work helped to spread the popularity of the Contemporary look.

Author: Robert Elwall
Published: London: RIBA Publications
ISBN: 1859460828

RIBA books

Whitechapel Gallery on Thursday

I am going to Whitechapel Gallery on Thursday with my friend Maria. We haven't had a day together for a long time and I am really looking forward to a day out with her. I hope it will cheer me up a little and also get my energy back to get on with my work.

Zarina Bhimji is on and I have heard that the exhibition is great. Alison went up last week and she called me from the gallery because she really felt I would like it, when I didn't pick up the phone she even left a voice mail to tell me so. That was probably the niceest voice mail I have had.

how to find the seeds..

Visit The Millennium Seed Bank in Ardingly.

Visitors information 

adopt a seed

In a fire all of the worlds wild shining nematolepis was extinct. You can now help ssave this plant by adopting a seed.
Adopt a seed

Bridget Smith

b. 1966, Essex, England

Bridget Smith works within the documentary genre but she photographs places of fantasy and escapism. Smith is interested in the places where people go to seek refuge from the outside world: to escape boredom, to be diverted, transported, absorbed – places to lose oneself, where pretence and reality are often confused.

Smith’s photographs have documented the construction of fantasy and the architecture of entertainment, the function of which is to disconnect people from their everyday lives and concerns. Since 2005 her practice has expanded to include both still and moving images which address our struggle to feel connected: within society, the landscape and the wider universe. The photographs and videos often point to the gap between one’s imagination and reality and the interplay between the two. The work flits between objectivity and subjectivity, the real and the fake.

From her bio on Frith Street Gallery

Bridget Smith Odeon Green

Odeon cinema Sutton

Pic: Hartland Martin

chester odeon

Dudley odeon

Harry Weedon was the architect behind the characteristic style of the art deco style.

Swiss Cottage Odeon

Majstic Wine Balham

Photograph by John Maltby of what now is Majestic Wine in Balham

John Maltby and Odeon

The Odeon cinema chain was both a cultural icon of 1930s England and an architectural landmark. It was founded by Oscar Deutsch, a modest financier who acquired his first cinemas as one business venture among many. Within a few years he had developed a chain of cinemas to rival the ABC and Gaumont.

The name Odeon was first adopted by Deutsch in 1929 for a cinema in Perry Bar, and in 1933 the Odeon circuit came into existence. New cinemas were built, but the pace of expansion was so rapid that many existing cinemas were acquired and rebranded. 136 new Odeons were opened by 1939, in addition to cinemas which were taken over. The name Odeon was registered as a trademark.

An important element in the Deutsch's success was the 'Odeon style', which broke away from that of the traditional theatre which had previously influenced cinema design. In addition to the distinctive lettering of the logo, Odeons embraced the modern movement and Art Deco. Foyers, auditoriums and every aspect of these cinemas were integrated into the design. Contrasting strong vertical and horizontal lines, curved corners, buff-coloured glazed tile on the facades, the use of neon lights, and contemporary interior decor made Deutsch's houses stand out from their rivals.

We do not know whether it was with an eye to posterity or merely for publicity that Deutsch commissioned the architectural photographer John Maltby to make a comprehensive visual record of all his cinemas. The resulting collection is available for consultation in the NMR.

Story author: English Heritage from ViewFinder

The Regal (on the Finchley Road at Childs Hill) opened in 1929 as an ice rink. It was reopened as a cinema and dance hall in 1932, before closing in 1956. It was reopened yet again, four years later in 1960.

The Ritz was considered to be one of the best suburban picture houses. Designed in an art deco style with a tea lounge, the local newspaper said that the cinema would establish Edgware as the pivotal centre of a large and increasing district. The cinema changed names several times before being demolished, as an Indian cinema called the Belle Vue, late in 2001. The site is now occupied by Centurian House.

The Hippodrome at Golders Green was built in 1913. With the ability to hold an audience of 2000 people, it was intended to attract customers from much of North London through the tube railway and trams that had been running since 1907.

Sidney Road commenced building in the 1870s of terraced houses intensively developed on an area known as The Freehold in Friern Barnet. Provision of housing on The Freehold was said to attract newcomers employed on building Alexandra Palace. On the same road lived Robert Paul 1897- c.1920 , pioneer of cinema whose laboratory and scientific instruments factory lay adjacent to his house. His early films were shot in streets around his home.

Source: Barnett online

The granada Hove

The Granada in Hove is due to be demolished and I am seeing this as an opportunity to document the structure before if is gone. The Granada has its own website here.

x-ray stock

After a long time of researching online I finally found one UK supplier of x-ray film stock that is willing to sell to a non-medical practitioner "this film is intended only for medical usage".
100 sheets of 24x30 green sensitive film. I will have black and white film to last me a lifetime. All I need is my own b&w darkroom equipment and I can really get into the techniques. First I will try our the equipment at uni, hopefully I find it as interesting as my first encounter 10 years ago.

daguerreotypes

Christoper Breton is:

"One of the very few practicing Daguerreotypists in Great Britain."

A workshop introducing the techniques costs £400 he sure knows his own value. I am interested in giving it a go myself but there are so many things I would like to try. I think photography really has enough in it, enough "gooeyness", to last me a lifetime.


Breton's website is here.

A mirror with a memory

I have been watching the first episode of The Genius of Photography originally broadcasted on BBC 4 and really enjoyed hearing about the daguerreotypes what an intriguing process to look closer at. I wonder how difficult if would be to try a hand at it for some family portraits. This portrait of Kate Moss is really beautiful an proximate her appearance in an uncanny fashion (I guess I am saying this without having met her in particular but every freckle and tiny hair seem to be reproduces with perfect detail). It really is a mirror with a memory. So, what is a mirror without a memory? The thought connects to my own grandmother, a mirror or a shadow of her former self, without a memory due to her illness. Wouldn't it therefor be fitting to photograph dementia patients with daguerreotype?

Mres/MA?

I am thinking about what to apply for the coming term. MA in Photography or Mres in arts and cultural research perhaps. This looks interesting Mres. This course was founded by Mary Ann Francis.

The Awesome

Certain ideas and projects struck me as awesome it can be anything bu it has this core of invincibility. Like the German holiday camp at Rügen in the Baltic sea. Here Hitler built 8 huge buildings where germans could stay for vacation. The buildings were never sed for this purpose but is a great example of the Third Reich architecture according to Wikipedia. 

Another example of a project that struck me as awesome is the Millennium Seed Bank. It is located at Kew Garden in Sussex and aims to collect seeds from each of the plants of the planets. 

The Millennium Seed Bank Partnership is the largest ex situ plant conservation project in the world. Our focus is on global plant life faced with the threat of extinction and plants of most use for the future. The seeds we save are conserved outside their native habitat.

From the Millennium Seed Bank website.

Another such projet is the replica of the Earth built at Marilyn University in the U.S.

x- ray film stock

I am considering trying out the x-ray film stock for architectural photography. Using it in a normal camera the result will not appear like a x-ray images seen a in a hospital but the idea of using this kind of filem still adds a notion of transparency to my project. I am going to photograph some of the buildings that used to be cinemas and I think x-ray film would be suitable.

I am still not sure of how these negs will be enlarged but I have been reading about someone using the Pyrocat HD developer and I found some here. I also read about the D76 developer. 

I found it a bit funny to realise that the x-ray film is made from old bones (gelatine).. It is interesting that old boned is used to keep other boned healthy. 

x-ray photography

I was looking at some large format films and came across x-ray photography. I wonder about the techniques used and what effect a normal camera would have with the x-ray sensitive film.

Nick Veasy uses this technique.