Rhubarb Rhubarb‘s one day artist development event, The Crossing, is being brought to Birmingham, after the success of it’s London event back in October.
The Crossing: WM will be taking place in The Theatre at The Custard Factory on 26 March, and asks photographers one question – “Are you going to stay where you are, live in the past, or cross over into the new world offered to you through technology, tenacity and a mind shift around money, dependency, what is possible and how it can be achieved?”
With speakers including London based agent David Birkitt, mobile media maker Christian Payne, photographers Ed Clark and Michael Donald, and Benjamin Chesterton & David White of DuckRabbit, the event will cover sessions on ‘Cashing In…Not Selling Out’, ‘Shifting Terrain’ and ‘Photography Still Moving’.
Tickets can be booked online, and are £10 for West Midlands attendees, with transport provided if you’re traveling from Wolverhampton, Walsall, Coventry, Stoke and Hereford. For outside attendees it’s £20.
Dee Patel‘s photographic series ‘Land of Hope & Glory‘, is a non-political piece aiming to remind us that immigration is not a 21st century phenomenon, it’s been occurring for hundreds of years, bringing with it opportunity and diversity.
Behind each immigration statistic lies a story and with it, a human being. Throughout the series, Dee photographed and listened to stories from the people in Handsworth communities, where 170 of the world’s countries are represented.
I sat down with each individual asking questions to get an idea of their roots. I laughed with them and we shared coffee. This opportunity enabled me to look into their lives, into their histories, listen to their hopes and fears and to share a moment at some deeper level.
‘Land of Hope & Glory’ is currently on display at Handsworth Library until 18 March. From there it will join Anna Fields in the Creative Leap Exhibition at The Drum , opening 25 March until 14 April.
Handsworth Library is open Mon/Tues/Sat 9am – 5pm; Thursday 12 noon – 7pm.
Jonathan Cherry is a photographer based in Stourbridge, whose portfolio focuses on fine art documentary and portraiture. It’s well worth a look.
Since graduating from University College Falmouth with a BA (Honours) in Photography, he’s produced the series ‘Greenlands‘ which studies the lack of a traditional community in English rural town life. The series is set around his home town of Stourbridge, which the photograph below was taken from.
He also runs the website MULL IT OVER, a series of web based interviews with innovative contemporary photographers from around the world.
Yoyophoto is a contemporary print service offering unique, limited run prints, recently launched by award-winning photographer George Benson and image maker/ musician Sam Underwood.
The site currently features work by George and Sam, but they’re keen to get more photographers on board in the near future.
They’re currently at the collecting contacts stage, so if getting your work featured on the site is something you may be interested in, sign up to their mailing list to receive news on when the site is accepting portfolio reviews.
Since launching, they’ve also been featured on 4Homes and are supplying to Mydeco, so you’d clearly be in good hands!
Well done to Birmingham based architectural photographer Tim Cornbill, aka Polyester Powder Coated. He’s been shortlisted in CABE‘s Areas of Outstanding Urban Beauty competition with this photograph of Gas St. Basin.
Photographer Liz Hingley spent two years researching and documenting the diverse culture and religious communities who inhabit Handsworth’s Soho Road.
Her critically acclaimed exhibition ‘Under Gods’ stories from Soho road is now open at Wolverhampton Art Gallery, running through until 26 February 2011.
At a time when religion is seen to cause much social unrest and breeds fear through misunderstanding, the photographs show the reality and intensity of different lifestyles and the beauty religion brings to everyday inner city life.
- Liz Hingley
Take a look at the collection on her website for a few interesting quotes which accompany the photographs.
This joint exhibition by photographers Louise Holgate and Martin Pickard is opening at The Moseley Exchange on 2 November, taking place from 7 – 9pm, with free wine and cake. The exhibition will run until January 2011.
Martin Pickard will be displaying his collection, ‘Obscured’, which is a series of sometimes abstract images from experiments with motion. Louise Holgate’s collection, ‘A Different Perspective’, is a series of images exploring new angles and ways of looking at the world around us.
To tie in with the Face to Face exhibition we told you about the other week, Collecting Contemporary Photography… In conversation with Brian Griffin and Stuart Whipps, is taking place on Tuesday 9 November at 6-8pm.
Pete James, Head of Photographs at Birmingham Central Library, will be discussing the ways in which Griffin and Whipps create, make, exhibit and sell their work to institutions and private individuals. The library holds one of the ‘national collections of photography’, and has recently acquired work by both Griffin and Whipps to add to this growing collection.
The event will be taking place in the lecture theatre at BIAD, Birmingham City University, Margaret Street. To book your place e-mail katja.ogrin@artsandbusiness.org.uk or call 0121 248 1200.
If you’ve already been, or are planning a visit, to the current Face to Face exhibition at Snow Hill, you can also leave your own review on the Facebook page. If the existing ones are anything to go by, this exhibition is well worth a visit.
Simon Winnall is a Birmingham based lifestyle and advertising photographer with a rather lovely looking portfolio. This shot from his ‘Vintage Snapshots’ project has recently won Best Image from The SUN (Shot Up North) awards, which celebrates non-London based photographers – congrats!
Multistory in association with The Public present Martin Parr’s unique look at life in the Black Country. After spending a year documenting modern day society and culture, The Public are preparing to unveil this collection of over 750 photographs.
Parr’s process of documenting and recording is fuelled by his passion and a curiosity, taking inspiration from his surroundings. His intimate approach, photographing his subjects in their own environment, gives him space to explore their lives and values in ways that often involve inadvertent humour.
Running alongside this will be an exhibition of photographs by students and staff of Sandwell College Photography Department. ‘Show Me A Secret’ will explore and display their own interpretations of Black Country life following Martin Parr’s mentoring.
Both exhibitions run from Thursday 11 November 2010 to Sunday 23 January 2011; opening daily, 10am – 6pm, and have free entry.
If Caressamba/Jill gets enough people to vote for the above pic then she’ll win a competition.
Published by Punch and OOM Gallery, Birmingham based photographer Pogus Caesar is releasing a book entitled ‘Musik Kinda Sweet‘, which collects his iconic photographs of black performers over the last twenty five years.
This evocative and nostalgic book captures candid snaps on the city streets, along with the contrasting vibrant energy by the stage, including photographs of Stevie Wonder, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Grace Jones and Jay-Z. All of his images were shot on 35mm black and white film, with each negative developed by hand – a far cry from today’s heavily digital performance photography.
The book launch will take place as part of Birmingham Book Festival on 15 October on 6.45pm at mac‘s Terrace Gallery.
Signed copies of the book will be available to buy via the Punch website from 16 October.
‘Empire of Rust’ is an exhibition of photography by Birmingham based artist Brigitte Winsor, currently on show until 30 October at The Warehouse Cafe.
…an abstract exploration of wabi-sabi – the Japanese aesthetic of the imperfect, the incomplete and the impermanent – where beauty can be found in the unconventional. Abstract and colourful, it highlights how art can be found in the least likely places of the everyday environment.
From 30 September – 21 November, a major retrospective exhibition, Face to Face, will take place in two adjacent locations in Birmingham’s Colmore Business District, exhibiting the work of Birmingham born photographer and filmmaker, Brian Griffin.
A large-scale outdoor retrospective will showcase Griffin’s portraiture over the last 38 years, including many of his most prominent portraits of leading musicians, politicians and celebrities. Two accompanying indoor exhibitions will feature Griffin’s award-winning series’ Team and The Water People.
The outdoor retrospective will be displayed at Snowhill Station, with the indoor exhibition held at the new One Snowhill development.
Following the exhibition, Team and The Water People will be on long-term loan to Birmingham Central Library, adding to their extensive collection of vintage prints.
The Photography Collective and Birmingham Photospace have teamed up in association with Rhubarb Rhubarb, to bring us Contact. From 3-18 September the Rhubarb East Gallery will play host to a collection of seven emerging photographers working in the West Midlands.
Curated by Kathryn Kliszat from Light House, exhibiting artists are gwbenson, Ian & Mark James (Jimmy Photo), Hannah Rumsby, Jo Hallington, Jasroop Grewal, Rita Fletcher and Matt Murtagh.
The variety of styles and formats challenges the viewer to consider how contact is made between objects both animate and inanimate, between the past and present, between analogue and digital and between photographer and subject.
The exhibition will be open Thursday – Sunday, 11.00am – 5.30pm, and there will also be an Artists’ Talk on Thursday 9 September, at 6.30pm, allowing members of the public to meet the photographers and discuss the stories behind these powerful images.
