Skip to main content

Joel, Simon and an Inspection

I've had such an intense week, really glad its done with. We had an inspection at college this week which at the risk of sounding like a moany teacher is incredibly stressful as its essentially like waiting for a job interview all day, every day for five days. However it went to plan and we got a pat on the back.

So I got home today and was just lying on the sofa feeling hard done by when I got an email pop through on the iPad from Joel Meyerowitz!! For the non photographers he's one of the most famous and influential photographers in the world. Originally famous for iconic street photographs of New York in the 1960's and 70's, later know for his large format pictures of Ground Zero just after 9/11. I should point out that he wasn't cold calling, I had emailed him about a blog entry I made in response to his work:

http://www.marcprovins.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/meyerowitz-made-me-do-it.html

However I was just amazed that he took the time to respond and so generously saying he really liked my picture and asking to see more work!  Wow a red letter day for me.

So I did allude to a strange coincidence in my last blog entry which I didn't go on to explain. Whilst doing studio photography with the students recently it was realised that we needed some opaque perspex to use as backgrounds. I remembered that I had a load stacked up in my workroom from an exhibition I'd been in and made huge light boxes. The exhibition was at Viewpoint Gallery in Salford in 1997, so I'd been storing these works for 16 years! The exhibition was under the name of 4play, which was Aj Wilkinson, Jo Hall, Matt Forman and myself. It was a really exciting space run by Simon Grennan... bare with me.  I took these sheets into work last Thursday after not touching them for many years and then later that night went to see Peter Fraser speak at Manchester Art Gallery. The first person I saw as I walked into the lecture theatre was Simon Grennan who I'd not seen also for probably 15 years, weird! Peter Fraser had an exhibition at Viewpoint before us so there was a connection, but all the same, weird!

As I've been very teaching focussed I've not seen daylight this week so I've dug some previous work out of the archive along a street photography theme in honour of first contact with Mr Meyerowitz.







Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Lovely Pair of Pins

I knew the expression 'pins' referring to legs but had to Google what the Cockney rhyming slang comes from. It looks like 'pins & pegs', but there are some great alternatives like 'bacon & eggs' and 'dolly pegs'. I think I might start trying to incorporate more Cockney into my everyday speak, I do have London roots but they are more South  (Saff)  London than East London, where I think it originates.  Anyway this is all to illustrate a new picture that sits quite neatly with an older picture. So brogues, legs and a sea view from my two main muses. This might be turning into a set...  Oh by the way the top view is Morecambe Bay and the lower image is from The Wirral looking across towards Wales. The North West of England is a beautiful place, with some stylish residents. 

Liverpool Periphery

L1 City Centre L2 City Centre L3 City Centre, Everton, Vauxhall L4 Anfield, Kirkdale, Walton L5 Anfield, Everton, Kirkdale, Vauxhall L6 Anfield, City Centre, Everton, Fairfield, Kensington, Tuebrook L7 City Centre, Edge Hill, Fairfield, Kensington L8 City Centre, Dingle Toxteth L9 Aintree, Fazakerley, Orrell Park, Walton L10 Aintree Village, Fazakerley L11 Croxteth, Clubmoor, Gillmoss, Norris Green

Hold Your Hair In Deep Devotion

At last after a week of being indoors, I walked into the light! I went solo and had a photography day in Liverpool, just what the doctor ordered, as they say. I'm a bit out of words at the moment and was going to include a Philip Larkin poem, but I've been thinking that Alex Turner is my modern day poet hero and this is my favourite track on AM, tucked away at the end. He's in his twenties and yet the words suggest a time before he was born, filling my head with images and memories. I've included a link to the track if you want to listen to The Arctic Monkey doing their thing whilst taking in my pictures... UPDATE Well since writing the above it has been pointed out to me that the song is actually based on a poem by John Cooper Clarke, which makes sense of the time frame (being written in the early Eighties) and the fact that I responded to the lyrics like a poem. Apparently Alex Turner first heard it read by his English teacher whilst at school. So mayb