Looking for Muses in and around Manchester
It’s that time of year, where I’m trying out new ideas, scratching my mental itches, looking forward to my next portfolio of work.
And so I need some subjects to work with. I want to try out lighting scenarios and locations and ideas and stories that are in my head. And sure, I could hire professional models for that, but I want a more diverse set of subjects than going to modelling agencies or networking sites will get me. I need everyday people, not people who know how to work in front of the camera.
If you're in or near Manchester and you're interested in helping me make some interesting images, hit me up — on the contact form, by email at hello@gmb.photo, or on Twitter or Instagram. I don't know what I'll come up with, but I'll come up with something (I have a notebook full of ideas, so no fear there).
What will you do with the images?
I'm going to start sharing some of this self-commissioned work here as I shoot it, along with behind-the-scenes, idea-to-final-print and so on. My goal is to get all of these images finished before I start the next one, since one of my worst habits is not finishing what I start. Once I've got a final print together I'll happily give you a copy.
How does this differ from your 15 Minute Portraits?
My 15 Minute Portrait shoots are all about doing something new and unique in a very short space of time. They're necessarily studio bound — because I don't have time to be setting up and tearing down between shoots.
These images are far more experimental. I might ask to just turn up and shoot with you with absolutely no definite ideas about where I want to start. I might shoot a picture in which you're mostly anonymous. I might shoot something in which you're only in the distance or in which you're super close-up.
Whatever we end up shooting together, I aim for it to be amazing. I can't wait to get started and work with you!
550 days of evening.camera
Whitworth Street West, Manchester
I've been shooting for my evening.camera project for nearly a year and a half now. In that time I've amassed some 530-odd (and growing) images, of which I've managed to post, pretty much on time, one a day.
That's quite staggering for someone like me, who has issues with actually getting stuff done sometimes.
Beyond posting the images to the evening.camera blog, and Twitter, and Instagram every day (you can receive those by email, you know, if you don't want to have to follow the project through social media — just fill in the form on the evening.camera page), I don't really know what to do with them all. It feels like I should make a book or a magazine or an exhibition of them, but honestly I don't quite know where to start with all that.
One thing that I have noticed, looking at all 500-odd images zoomed out in Lightroom, is the colour palette of the project. There's very little black-and-white in there (a deliberate decision), and so you find these repeated fades from blues to golds, pastels to vibrant colours, as the night draws in and contrast increases. It's also affected by the seasons, because "evening" is lighter in the summer months than the winter.
I'm going to keep shooting for the project, of course, I'd be silly not to. But it's time to start something new as well, because evening.camera is more like visual pushups for me rather than a mountain that I must climb. I need a new mountain.
I also need to finish the stuff I start. But that's a separate blog post.
Stovepipe Wells, Death Valley, California
I Made a Thing
The DeeVees at the Castle Hotel, Manchester, December 22nd 2017
Late last year, just before Christmas, I shot The DeeVees' first ever show, at the Castle Hotel in Manchester. I'd had the idea in my head for a while — after it was suggested during a portfolio review — to shoot a small documentary book about a band's first gig, just as a way of promoting the fact that I exist.
Well, today that book — actually, a one-shot magazine — is finished and available for sale on Blurb.com!
It's been a fun little project to do. The hardest part was figuring out how to lay out the images that I shot. Is this going to be a new promo mailer for me, as I'd intended? In the, no. It's too much of a documentary and not enough of of a portraiture piece, and portraiture is what I do best. I did shoot a couple of promo images for the band — I'll talk about the technique I used in a later blog post — but that's not the point of the magazine.
Here's the thing that I'm trying to learn this year: it doesn't matter how much you miss your target by, it doesn't matter how hard or soft you feel like you've failed. Everything is worth trying, everything is worth doing. Sure, you've got to be discerning: would I do this project again? Probably not. Was it immense fun to do? Absolutely. But the point is that I tried, and I succeeded in making something, even if it wasn't what I'd intended.
My greatest thanks to The DeeVees for having me. If you're near then when they're playing and you fancy hearing some "filthy Manchester trash punk," you should check them out.
Finishing subject|object — seeking subjects of colour
It was 2015 when I started the subject|object project. Or maybe it was even 2014; I don't really remember. All I remember was coming up with the original brief:
Each subject is photographed twice for the project: A head-and-shoulders portrait (“object”) and a full-figure nude (“subject”). The two images will never be displayed together; there is no link between the “object” and the “subject”.
With the “subject” are displayed the subject’s details: their name (or pseudonym), age, profession, and their thoughts on the objectification of people in the modern world.
The “object” images are displayed alone, to allow viewers to have their own thoughts on the person in front of them
Since then I've photographed 35 people, and I'm getting to the point now where I'm getting ready to put the project out there in the wild. At the top of this post are some of the "object" images — the portraits. I haven't yet worked out how I want to display the nudes, at least on the web (though you'd think I'd have figured that out after a couple of years).
Overwhelmingly, the people I've photographed for subject|object have so far been white. I really want to change that before I wrap things up and start preparing for a gallery show. Britain is a wonderfully diverse country, and I want to photograph way more people of colour before I call the project done.
So, if you're a person of colour, and you're within reasonable travelling distance of Manchester — or you know someone who is — please don't hesitate to get in touch. I'd love to photograph you for this project. If it's going to be about the way that we, as a society, objectify each other, then it should be made up of a representative cross-section of our society, don't you think?
That's not to say, by the way, that if you want to be part of the project and you're white, I won't welcome your participation — I absolutely will; I just really care about this project being as diverse in its participants as possible.
You can get involved with the project by filling in the form on the subject|object project page.
It's Always Worth Doing Something That Terrifies You
Until very, very recently, I've never entered a photography competition. Well, that's not actually true: I entered, I think, one competition at the Lancaster Photographic Society some part in the last decade. But nothing national, or international, or indeed particularly outside my little bubble. Partly because failing was scary, but mostly because I was absolutely convinced that there was nothing in my output that was competition worthy.
If there's one thing that I've finally started to learn this year, it's that you've got to do the stuff that scares you. If you don't, it will continue to scare you, and you'll never know if you could have done it. Fear will have won, and all you'll be able to do in the future is make some excuse about not giving it a shot — "I didn't have anything that was a good fit for the competition," for example, which is just code for "well, I was too scared to try." If you're really honest with yourself and the people with whom you're talking.
So this year, I decided to throw my cap over the wall this year. And because I'm a lunatic and I don't like to do things by halves, I decided that the competition to enter would be the British Journal of Photography's International Photography Award.
Yes, I am that mad. I've got no illusions that I'm actually going to win anything. After all, I'm just a guy submitting some work. Maybe next year I'll do something more considered. Photo competitions like the IPA are about getting your work in front of the judges, and about making sure that people know you're alive. Other than that, it's pointless caring about winning — there are so many great photographers out there and so many stunning images.
I entered two sets of photographs this year: one of character studies — partly drawn from my Fifteen Minutes Portraits project, partly from stuff I'd shot on other commissions — and one of evening.camera images. Because after 400+ images in that project, why the hell not?
Here they are for your enjoyment: hope you like looking at them as much as I liked making them.
