Had a nice afternoon testing with Marc at his studio yesterday.  My good friend Hana, a very talented photographer and model (check out her website, especially the project Young Hollywood), joined us to be our victim as she finished work in the early and rainy afternoon.

Hana with oversize knit

Title: Me Me Me

Artist: Anonymous

Press: Kodak Inkjet Printer

Paper: Bristol Card

Cover: Shiny black

Size: A5

Number of Pictures: 16

Publication Status: One hand made dummy. To be published in an edition of 100 in March.

Re: Control at the basement of The Oubliette, 8th of January, 2010. (photo: Peter Watkins)

The photography show Re: Control will be closing it’s doors on tuesday 12th of January together with the latest base of The Oubliette art house.  Unfortunately, the magnificent space on Shaftesbury Av. in central London will be once again vacant for rat’s and pigeons to do their thing.  It has still been a fruitful month for everyone involved in the shows, exhibition’s, performances and gigs that were organized by the fantastic crew of the Oub.  I look forward to the next interim base.

The Oubliette is currently located at 136 Shaftesbury Av.
If you wish to attend to the show, call the number on the door (open till late)

I will have my series Portraits, with a few new additions to the ones on my website, at Re: Control, a photography exhibition curated by Lorenzo Durantini as part of the cultural agenda of The Oubliette art house.

Private View:
6pm, Thursday 6th of January
136 Shaftesbury Avenue
W1D 5EZ

A London Dandy’s Afternoon Tea?

Click to Enlarge

The second portrait is of Sebastian, a London based sculptor.  I suppose that this is a less obvious photograph as it does not explicitly scream fashion, but none the less, it is quite posed and directed.  I really like this photograph.  When I look at it I have the feeling I’ve seen it before (as with the previous one, clue: HN), but again, it is very general and I can’t relate it particularly to one photographer.

The expression of Sebastian is somewhere in between thoughtful, worried, and contemplative.  His awkward position, the coffee and the newspaper place him in an indeterminate time, a pause perhaps, which we both know wont be very long.

The photographs around him, seem to be people that are in his mind.  The mirror only shows us more photographs and he appears to be only in their company.  The wood and the chairs have a french feeling.  Is he in France?  As we look at the top left, the blackboard is written in english and the prices in pounds.

Click to Enlarge

Any more thoughts? Please feel free to comment.

Ricky, Brereton Heath Park, UK

I’ve always kept my distance towards portraiture in photography and thought “man, I really don’t like doing that”.  Having done a few portraits already, I realize that there were two reasons I was not inclined towards this faction of photographic practice.  The first reason is that while living in London, my most common place to practice portraiture when practiced, was the studio.  Boring. I did not go from studying Chemistry to Photography to stay inside a studio (or laboratory) for many hours a day and not enjoy the fresh air and sun.  The reasonable alternative to the studio then, became the city where I live in.  Central London, Zone 1.  Impossible again, too many people, no engagement with anyone, everyone is always in a rush, and people are too self aware and paranoid.  There is always something dodgy about a photographer who wants your photograph these days.  That’s how I feel about it.

Matthew, Bristol, UK

I’ve always done portraits of people I know.  I feel that the intimacy generated, and the connection that is created from what the sitter wants, and how I want to shoot the portrait, always culminates in an interesting photograph (Matthew, Bristol, UK).  It is true that as Avedon and Soth have said that portraits say more about the photographer (and the spectator), their reaction towards the “sitter”, than the person portrayed.  But then again, I’ve always thought that my friends are my friends because I see something of them in me, or something of me in them, so in this way, portraiture can say more about the “sitter” than conventionally it is thought to.

On the other hand, I wanted to say that I am now inclined to portrait photography.  Last week I was around Manchester shooting for my new project on the Mancuspia and approached some people randomly.  It was the first time I really felt comfortable photographing someone who’m I didn’t know (English Boy, Holmes Chapel, UK), and didn’t spend much time with either.  It was the curiosity that drove both the person being photographed and myself to a short relationship and interaction that I admittedly enjoyed.  I will continue doing portraits.

English Boy, Holmes Chapel, UK

Deira, Holmes Chapel, UK