I have regularly made fine art prints with Marcus Coates for several years.  His quirky and humorous approach to life often induces a side-ways look at the world—his latest show, Questions and Answers, will surely run in a similar vein at Kate MacGarry in Vyner Street, London, from 3rd September to 10th October.

For this exhibition, I made an Archival Pigment Print of ‘Beryl’ measuring 96x96cm on Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308gsm with HP’s DJz3200:

Do also take a look at Workplace Gallery here in the North East for more examples of Marcus’ work.

For your enjoyment, here is a video from Tate Britain looking at his performance piece, “The Plover’s Wing”…

…and two further images from his ‘Galapagos Fashion’ series for which I also made Archival Pigment Prints:

I have recently finished working with Paul Kenny on his latest piece, ‘Northern Lights’.

Paul describes it as, “Plastic jetsom flattened and cut, the curved edge made by the abrasion of nature.  Found at Downpatrick Head, Mayo—that thick polythene kind of plastic—I suspect it’s the bottom of a storage box…”

Another beautiful print made on Hahnemühle Bamboo 290gsm with HP’s DJz3200 and the Vivera Pigment ink-set, all-in-all a special piece at 100x70cm—highly tactile and giving with gorgeous, deep blacks.

If you have a moment, please take a look at the Galleries page for more of Paul’s work…

Everyone else seemed to know about it already but July was the month I discovered ‘Hipstamatic’, the wonder-app for iPhone which emulates the behaviour of the Eighties camera of the same name.

Here is my original post on the subject, covering a bit more detail and some links that may be of interest.  Ever since, I have become a little addicted (shooting over four hundred during July alone).

By clicking here you can view a gallery showing some of my favourites from last month.  If you have a moment, leave a comment and tell me which ones you like or leave a link to your own for us all to enjoy…

By the way, image No. 30 in the gallery is a classic game—Tomy Super Cup Football.  A favourite with clients of Jack Lowe Studio…!

A visit to Paul Kenny’s studio is a treat, yet never the same treat twice.  The tools, materials and new works on his desks and shelves are always on the move, always changing.  A time-lapse project in this environment alone would be fascinating and that’s before we’ve got as far as the finished pieces.

And where is Paul’s studio?  The building adjoined to his home, a journey to the beach, or the beach itself?  All three, I reckon, as they are all an interdependent magical formula.

A revisited beach changes from one day to the next, revealing potential material for a new piece.  Even the glass slides carrying the beginnings of new works shift and alter according to climatic conditions.  A truly organic, stimulating and ephemeral world…

A small gallery showing more images of Paul Kenny’s surroundings is here.  If you are unfamiliar with his work, click here for a search result within this blog (or type ‘Paul Kenny’ into the Search field in the top right corner).

Of course, you should also visit Paul’s site…

A belated congratulations to my friend and client Duncan Davis for winning Second Prize in Ag Magazine’s ‘Brilliant Book Awards 2010‘ with his creation ‘The Villagers‘.

Duncan’s fourth self-published book depicts the demise of village life over the 26 years that he lived in Capheaton, Northumberland.  To me, his approach to life and photography is the epitome of Britishness and this a fine example.

As Duncan summarises in this quarter’s Ag Magazine (Issue 60), “I mourn the passing of ‘community’, the village hall meeting, the weekly dancing class, the singsong in the pub and the carnival dance.  Facebook just doesn’t do it for me.”

I must introduce you to Twitter, Duncan…

Please take a look at this gallery, a selection of Duncan’s work—some from the book and some not, a few of which I have worked on with him.

A coffee and some quiet-time for this post, not really knowing where to start (or where to end) due to the sheer quantity of beautiful work made with Julian Germain over the six years that we have known each other.

Over the last few weeks, we have gradually been collating recent imagery as well as revisiting older images to update Julian’s portfolio.  As is the way with portfolio work, it usually serves as a wonderful reminder of just how much has been achieved in a relatively short period of time—some of which I would like to share with you.

Julian is known for his extraordinary knack of being able to turn his hand to so many photographic genres, managing to retain and convey the utmost humanity and integrity in the most varied and obscure scenarios.  So much of this work you will no doubt have seen, whether in the fine art or commercial worlds.

The list of these scenarios is long—classroom portraits in schools around the world, football stars for Adidas, ad campaigns for Vodafone and T-Mobile, the documenting of multi-generation families, snow globe fanatics, Brazilian street children, Subbuteo super-heroes, the 1966 England squad…not to mention Julian’s celebrated exhibition and books including ‘Steel Works’, ‘In Soccer Wonderland’ and ‘For Every Minute You are Angry You Lose Sixty Seconds of Happiness’.  A full list of these publications can be seen here.

So many varied subjects and situations but somehow always retaining an intimacy and a genuine ‘captured moment’ to which his audience can relate.

To offer a more comprehensive flavour of our work together, I have compiled a couple of galleries: The first is a collection of various images showing some examples from the list above.  The second requires its own gallery as it is dedicated to Julian’s vast Classroom Portraits project.  We have now worked on over two hundred of the latter—one day I hope we will see the cream of the crop in one splendid collection…!

If you have an extra moment while you are here, please do take a look at the growing collection on my Galleries page…

It has been a very busy time at Jack Lowe Studio lately.  I haven’t quite found the time to write posts as frequently as I would like of late. This will be remedied over the coming days, however, with news of comings and goings through my hard drives and printers.

In the meantime, here is a wonderful Polaroid SX-70 promotional film from the 1970′s, brought into my life by PetaPixel (via Twitter).  Polaroid has always been a beautiful medium—immediate (well, almost), organic and idiosyncratic.  This film sums it up sublimely from concept to mechanics…

Congratulations to Mark Westerby, a neighbour and client of Jack Lowe Studio here at Hoults Yard.  He has just heard that ‘Hockey Pitch‘, a print I made for Mark, has been included in the final exhibition and book of the prestigious Association of Photographers Awards 2010.

‘Hockey Pitch‘ is an Archival Pigment Print made with the HP DJz3200 on Hahnemühle Fine Art Baryta 325gsm.

Once again, well done Mark and good luck on the presentation night.

As well as stills photography, the moving image has also always intrigued and entranced me.  In my early teens, with a make-shift darkroom already installed in my bedroom for a few years, I spied a second-hand Sankyo Super 8mm cine camera in a local camera shop window.  For £30 it was mine but, of course, at that age I didn’t appreciate the hemorrhaging my limited funds would suffer by supporting such a habit.

The acquisition of a projector and editor made it even more fun, and the costs didn’t detract from the wonder of thousands of still images on metres of celluloid creating the sensational illusion of a moving image.  I still have all these items (above), which are now consigned to display pieces here in the studio.

The days of tinkering with film are long gone but I still love to see such illusions.  There’s a fine example at the moment in the castle at Belsay Hall as part of the Extraordinary Measures exhibition—Mat Collishaw’s zoetrope Garden of Unearthly Delights:

The Garden of Unearthly Delights from Dariusz Sebastian Burdon on Vimeo.

Thankfully, my friends and colleagues know I love these visual treats and send me things to look at.  Neil Barstow pointed me in the direction of the following clip, Phonographantasmascope, which I also thought you might like to see:

PS If anyone can tell me how to centre video in WordPress posts, I’d be grateful…!

I read today in Campaign Live that the government are “to tackle airbrushed ads“.

The industry awaits the outcome with anticipation and expectation—I guess this will still be playing on their minds…

As one Campaign Live reader says, “You would have to be all kinds of stupid not to know images are airbrushed.” I couldn’t have put it better myself.