Exhibition: Various - The Great British Public

White Cloth Gallery, Leeds, 28/08/12

This was a great exhibition, showcasing the work of several photographers, previously shown at the London Festival of Photography.

I was particularly inspired by Zed Nelson's 'Hackney: A Tale of Two Cities', a fantastic collection of images demonstrating the disconnect between old and new Hackney. It really inspired me to start seeing my photos as more than single images and to try and create coherent bodies of work. Also the fact that Nelson had lived in Hackney all his life demonstrated that one doesn't always have to look very far for inspiring subjects.

While I was at the gallery I got talking to the attendant who turned out to also be doing a photography degree. She told me about lots of interesting events planned, including an open crit session run by one of the tutors from her course. I'm looking forward to getting involved in as much of what they have to offer as possible!

Exhibition: Peter Dench - England Uncensored

White Cloth Gallery, Leeds, 28/08/12

I didn't take to this work at all really, I found it quite unpleasant. It's difficult not to compare Dench with  Parr, and for me this comparison does Dench no favours. While Parr shows us his subjects and allows us to make up our own minds about them, Dench leaves us in no doubt as to his opinion on his fellow man, which is invariably pretty low.

Perhaps it is unfair to judge this work in this way, although the program notes cite Parr as an influence so maybe not.

Exhibition: In the Blink of an Eye

National Media Museum, Bradford, 15/08/12

This was a rather fleeting visit, being more of a family excursion than a study trip, but I saw a few interesting works. The exhibition was concerned with the relationship between both photography and film, and movement.

Part of the exhibition demonstrated photographers attempts to freeze time, from the methods used by early photographers such as Roger Fenton to hold people still for long enough to be sharp in the long exposures necessitated by the technology of the time, to photographers such as Eadweard Muybridge and Harold Egerton's work making visible events that are too quick for the human eye.

Perhaps obviously, another section showed the use of slow shutter speeds to show movement, I liked Roy Robertson's 'Fulcrum'.

The exhibition featured the prototype of Tim Macmillan's 'Time Slice' camera - as featured on the BBC's 'Tomorrow's World': http://bit.ly/h7UkRm
I was interested in the possibilities of using multiple cameras to take simultaneous photo's of a subject from different angles.

I was very pleased to discover that as a student I can make appointments to see any part of the museums 3.2 millions photograph collection. Now I just need to think of what I'd like to see!

Exhibition: Sarah Lucas - Ordinary Things

The Henry Moore Institute, Leeds - 11/08/12

I visited this exhibition after reading reviews in the Guardian and Aesthetica, so I arrived with some idea of what to expect. 

It was as humorous, and in places crude as I had expected, but I was surprised by how beautiful her Nuds series is. In these sculptures, the Ordinary Things are tights, stuffed with cotton wadding. From such base materials Lucas creates wonderfully evocative pieces. I am interested in exploring the art (or alchemy) of creating beauty from the mundane.

Exhibition: Karolina Szymkiewicz - A Study of Dance

Leeds Art Library, 23/08/12

This was an exhibition of drawings rather than photography, but I really liked the way the artist had depicted movement in her drawings. It tied in well with the In the Blink of an Eye exhibition I'd seen at the NMM with it's explorations of movement.

The drawings were the pencil equivalent of using slow shutter speeds and flash to show movement but still have a pin-sharp subject. It was the first time I'd seen movement portrayed this way outside photography, and it got me thinking about trying to capture dance in a similar way. I also like the idea of combining photographs with pencil drawn movement.

Part of the work was displayed in an Artists Book, I was interested in this as a concept.