Well its been a while since i wrote what i have been up ! .After i got back from holiday things have been pretty full on in all departments!!
As you may know i also do some volunteering & part of the Cultural connectors volunteer group for Creative Barking and Dagenham (C.B.D).It is an amazing experience & due to the continuous hard work of people like Helen Ball (Engagement Director) & previous Programme Director Manager Miriam Nelken amongst many others ,we get to have some amazing events and opportunities in our borough,also we play a huge part in how things are put together on steering groups etc,last month we had a visit from the London Assembly & many others to discuss how we do things in our regarding arts and culture in our area,as it is really working here and becoming a blue print for other London boroughs to follow.
We have C.B.D,Boathouse Creative Studios,Studio 3 Arts & The Whitehouse all pushing and encouraging local artists & projects in the area and its growing daily !! Search your own areas for things that are happening as you will be surprised what is out there and where it can take you in terms of gaining experience,networking ,meeting like minded people and expanding your mind & horizons.
I have shot quite a wide range of events lately from being up on a roof,boxing grannies,youth parades,festivals,Chas & dave,leisure centres,gym launches,staff head shots ....85 in a day! A soft launch of a Beautiful Balconies project, Construction sites & and assisted one of my mentors ;) Saira Awan on a couple of shoots and curating gallery images .Actually got a few short street sessions in amongst the chaos,been sweating in the heat,soaked in the rain
and loved every minute.
I was also very fortunate to be asked to display a couple of my work amongst some amazing images captured by Saira for a local project called Open Estate by studio 3 Arts ,it was the culmination of over 18 months hard work by these guys documenting the demolishing & regeneration of the estate near to where i live,Stories, personal belongings & images gathered from the local residents who have called the place home for a few or many years of their lives .I was only involved at the end so felt privileged to be asked to help out, such a great experience to see what goes into organising the displaying of art, images and bringing it all together to provide a real experience for everyone coming along . So a big thank you to Saira,Rosie Ross,Del Taylor,Liza Valence,Alison Cormack & Steve Lawes for making me feel more than welcome
Speaking of Exhibitions......... I have been given such an amazing opportunity to mount my own street photography one local to me, its a challenging space but after talking it over with some really talented people it looks like it could actually work in my favour, also a massive thank you goes to Carole Pluckrose for her belief in me and putting me forward for the space at the Boathouse,Barking & Steve and Claire from Rooff who have given me freedom to do what i want in the space. I didn't realise it would be so challenging and costly but i can assure you i am well up for the challenge and it will not be the standard framed images on the wall experience, dates are looking to be early November around the 11th and i will posting the updates on all my social media platforms and would love for as many people as possible to come along ,it will be up for a few months so no excuses :).You will also be able to order prints.....speaking of orders at the time of writing the Boathouse Cafe/Bar is only a couple of days from a fully opening,i have been documenting the transformation by its new owner Derrick and believe me when i say this is a little piece of paradise ,Quality coffee,cocktails,food and the best atmosphere for miles, so when you come to the Exhibition you can stay a while and chill out.
Took another amazing portrait workshop with Photoion Photography School, learn,t so much about natural light portraiture,amazing group of people and model.
I can highly recommend the courses from this school as i have taken a few now and the passion the tutor has for teaching you the important aspects of photography like light & competition are priceless
I have a few things in the pipeline that i may be able to elaborate on in the next post but don't want to mention until confirmed .As i said earlier it really has been such a mixed bag of making images over the last few weeks, so thanks also to Hazel Minns ,Julia Pearson & Sarah Belchambers for the events ,i can honestly say i have enjoyed every day of it.
Well thats about it for this piece & i know i have mentioned a few people above but there are so many more i could go on forever and don't want to bore you all...if i haven't already !
The encouragement,mentoring and support from my wife ,Kids,Mum & dad,sister,friends and even random people has been beyond my dreams so thank you all,it really means a lot x
Various images from the past few weeks & things mentioned above ,including some phone shots of the Open Estate Exhibition & the space i am having for my own one in November
