JUNE 2016 - REVAMPED, UPDATED

LESS IS GOING TO MEAN MORE 

 

A NEW SET OF PHOTOGRAPHIC SERIES IS NOW AVAILABLE AS FREE DOWNLOADABLE PDFs FROM MY WEBSITE THROUGH THE LINKS BELOW

 

ALL SERIES FEATURED HERE ARE NOW AVAILABLE

For the bulk of 2015, I have been working on several  different photographic series, some of which are still in long-term production.  Some of those series are presented on my website under the 'E-PORTFOLIOS' tab.

 

2016 is going to be the year of many series, but containing  fewer images than some of the large projects I have been engaged with in the past.  I have a lot of ideas and it is time to make them real.  So to begin with the website has been recently revamped, with new work and new galleries.  These will be regularly updated, particularly the 'RECENT WORK' gallery and the  'E-PORTFOLIOS' galleries, as new work becomes available.

 

Recently completed series are:  TUVE MÖRK, MAY 2016, A DARKER VIEW, and HIGHGATE

 

 

 

In a way, TUVE MÖRK follows on directly from THE GÖTEBORG AFFAIR, in that it was shot in the same area, albeit this time in a rural forested area of Gothenburg, a little suburb called Tuve, and in the winter, over Christmas and New Year 2015/16.  It was very peaceful and had a hard beauty.  Hours of daylight were short.  This area of Sweden is remarkable for the fact that their suburbs of what used to be a city of heavy industry have been built - planted - in forested areas.  Flats and houses, robustly constructed, spacious and pleasant, are never more than a few minutes walk away from beautifully managed forest.  The rooflines never get higher than the trees so you have the impression of living in a very rural area, even when you really are not.  It was a lovely three weeks or so that I spent wandering the forests, investigating the lakes, and generally chilling out with nature.  Although there is generally an absence of litter of any kind which puts the UK to shame, of course I managed to find a burnt-out car in the middle of the woods.  I have included this uninspiring sight in this series as a protest against our despoliation of the natural world.  I took a great many images, which is reflected in the size of this series, although I am now thinking of restricting the editions of my series/portfolios to only 20 or so images, so as to avoid viewer exhaustion. 

 

 

 

 

 

Later, in May of this year, I produced, over a very few days, a small series of images entitled 'MAY 2016'.  Prosaic, but it was produced when the Spring bloom was at its height in a small area close to where I live.  Now a managed public access area, it was originally part of a farm that still exists, and was a mixture of pasture and watermeadow.  At some time in the past, there must have been habitation there as well, as there are a few areas containing now-feral orchard species.  A place I regularly walk on my way to elsewhere, I have not really devoted a lot of time to investigating it in detail, but my attention was caught this year.  At the time, I treated it as a meditation on the time of year, and found it immensely satisfying.  Even here though the less attractive aspects of our modern life intrude; the blur of a supermarket sign through the dapple of the leaves in the Spring sunlight; the wisteria trying to consume a tatty old outbuilding.  We should protest against these insults. 

 

 

 

'A DARKER VIEW' strives for something more meaningful, deeper, and, well, darker, I suppose.  It is about boundaries, between life and death, light and dark, soft and hard.  In its inception, it was to be uplifting, and I believe that I have succeeded, even if a little sombrely. 

 

 

 

 

 

'HIGHGATE' was a lot of fun.  It came about from a visit to the cemetery with my old friend and ferreting partner, Rufus.  I suppose you could get deep, you could take thousands of images, make it gothic, add vampires, whatever.  I chose to give it a slightly filmic, mixed monochrome and colour treatment, and delivered - there are only 20 images, as I promised myself - a sort of casual wander through the space, concentrating on only some of the many interesting memorials.  I particularly like the rather Father Christmas-like rendering of Karl Marx. 

 

 

 

All the photographic series presented here are available free of charge on application through the 'CONTACT ME' page.  Just drop me your email and which portfolios you are requesting, and I will email you a pdf of the work you would like.  I offer my pdf portfolios free of charge.

LOOKING FOR MUSHROOMS - NEW RELEASE - 22 JAN 2014 AT 12:00

My new e-Portfolio, a celebration of Autumn, entitled 'LOOKING FOR MUSHROOMS' released today at 12:00

Some of the images from the portfolio are previewed here.  

To view the whole portfolio, and order a FREE copy of the PDF e-Portfolio (5.8MB), please visit:  http://www.srbrook.com/photo_12390286.html

NEW YEAR, NEW PROJECT
 
Decided to go in a slightly different direction this year, and move away from taking photographs OF things and do more photography ABOUT things.  So to start, I did a little project, inspired by a rather well-executed piece of graffiti on the brick wall of an underpass in West London.  It struck a chord, because as a photographer, I often want to go where job’s-worths don’t want me to be.  Why not?  I only want a picture. 

Subsequently removed by the Authorities in what I regard as an act of Civic Vandalism (I pay my Council Tax, who are you to decide?), it was one of the more accomplished pieces I had seen there, and it appealed to me.  Then I found, during a trip down the Regent’s Canal, a beautifully-executed, stencilled, Banksy-style anti-war protest work of art.

I started to look for related images, and began thinking about the degree of physical and electronic surveillance, restraint and control we are all subjected to, and then the American NSA story broke; GCHQ involved as well.  Our privacy is important, as is freedom of expression.

The two sometimes do not go together.  Artists and activists always maintain that they have the right to (a) personal privacy and (b) total freedom of expression.  The two can conflict.  Complete anonymity together with complete freedom of speech and expression is bad, if others’ privacy is invaded.  A population totally lacking in privacy from the State cannot have complete freedom, of anything.

The trick is in finding the balance.  In the case of the graffito above, I preferred it to the rather stained brick wall that the council has left there now, after it was removed.  I understand that others may find informal art works aesthetically or politically offensive, imposed without consultation or approval on a public space.  The message of ‘2013, not 1984’ is clear, and it is both telling and amusing that it was placed in an area rife with CCTV cameras, but in a place where the cameras can’t – quite – see.   It is my opinion only, but I think it should have been left there. 

Incidentally, if the artist who placed it there happens to read this, or if someone knows who it is, I would be interested in communicating – I have in mind a collaborative project. 

My New Year project referred to above can be previewed here:  

http://www.srbrook.com/photo_12390166.html
 
(And a free copy of a pdf of the portfolio is available from that site as well).

The Images below are from the Portfolio:
  

I want to remind us that we are being observed, controlled, imaged and prevented from gaining access.  For our own good?  How do we know?  You can’t see beyond the fence, but they can see you.  Do I need permission to photograph?  Does whoever controls the CCTV ask your permission when they image you?  This all spills over of course into arguments about the Nanny State - or is it more sinister than that?  One person’s autocratic, all-powerful, untouchable, corrupt 1984-style of ruthless dictatorship is another’s comfortable, safe, protected lifestyle.  After all, Orwell’s Proles were envied by Winston Smith.  And they knew no better, of course.

Even so, we should always question and probe limits because for every moral, well-meaning public servant, bureaucrat, minister, CCTV Operator - where ARE all those Images? - or minor council anti-graffiti official, there are tens or hundreds or thousands that either aren’t, or can be easily corrupted.  It is how and why the Third Reich was so successful at first.  Lack of concern.  Who is looking at your images, your data, your thoughts?  And what are they doing with them?  If all this was an easy problem to solve, it would have been solved.  I am watching the world very carefully.  So, who needs watching?  Us, or the watchers who watch us?  And who would watch them?   And who the Hell adorns razor wire with roses?

Having finally got to the point in my life where my OCD is offset neatly by my Attention Deficit Disorder –and vice versa – so that now, like most people, I start to tidy my desk and line things up neatly, then get bored with it and go on to do something more interesting, I can finally get around to doing the stuff I really want to do.

I enjoy the whole process of image-making (taking pictures), from selecting the equipment for a particular project, to the process with the camera, its settings and choice of lens, to the post-production of the RAW image, be it simple or complex – all a most enjoyable experience.

I admire so many artists, painters, photographers and musicians from many and varied styles and genres, and I suppose I am influenced and informed by them, but that is far too complex and boring to go into here.

I try to document my world, and also tell a story. I do produce works – like the flower portraits – that simply please me as images, but I am not above a bit of social commentary if I feel the urge. Along with a photograph or two or more, I occasionally write about the things that impress or annoy me. Hence, the Bloggery.
I can also be found at http://www.srbrook.com/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/simonrbrook/
Glad to have you visit if you want