As I mentioned in my previous post FIELD TEST – WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU GIVE A VERY SMALL CHILD A CAMERA TO PLAY WITH? I mentioned that I batch processed about a years worth of films after having delayed so for lack-of-financial reasons!  On one of the 35mm films, I found some shots taken when being a “responsible adult” on a school trip to London.  First stop was the Victoria & Albert Museum for a general peruse, followed by a visit to the Design Museum to see Super Contemporary alongside a Javier Mariscal retrospective.

As always, I have little or nothing to say about the exhibitions – if you were interested in that, you should have gone yourselves

But I did take a lot of photographs that day, which is much more interesting.  isn’t it?

SCHOOL TRIPS TO LONDON AND THE PAIN OF COACH TRAVEL

Coach Window (2010)

Taking a coach to London is generally a rubbish idea.  Nobody does it, apart from 1) old people on a day out, 2) broke people who are using Megabus and of course 3) school trips.

It is slow, uncomfortable and ultimately frustrating.  Why anyone would choose it as a method of transport is beyond me – when there is another means, take it!  That’s what I reckon.

Anyway, as I was on a school trip, there was little choice – but at least I had a camera for company and being one of the “responsible adults” I got to sit at the front under the watchful gaze of the vast windscreen, which provided almost constant entertainment from its reflection.

If it wasn’t for putting the bus driver off, who probably thought I was some kind of coach spotter, I would have taken many photographs of it.

Desgner Curtain (2010)

Floor // Foot // Shadow (2010)

THE DESIGN MUSEUM, LONDON

To be honest, I wasn’t that interested in visiting the design museum!  I went on the trip as it was a day out, generally speaking – I find graphic design a bit of a dull thing to view in a museum or gallery environment.

Ignorant I am sure – but I see design around me every minute of every day and it does little for me in this setting.  I am sure it is because I am missing something and I get why good design is artistic, important and clever – but it usually leaves me a little dry.

But, where there is dullness – there is always interest.  The eye wanders and spots a line, shape, shadow or colour and the whole trip has been made worth it.  Luckily, photography means the whole world is your museum and anywhere you find yourself, something interesting will find you.

JAVIER MARISCAL & SUPER CONTEMPORARY

Jazzy Paintings (2010)

Come on then – lets mention something about the exhibits on display.  First up, I can remember little or nothing about the Super Contemporary show!  I seem to remember there was a few interesting pieces of design in there, but generally – I wasn’t that bothered by it (see above!).

BUT – Javier Mariscal, yeah that was actually rather brilliant.  Whilst I was aware of Mariscal’s work, I had no idea what his name was or who he was!  I had simple absorbed his illustrations in various guises and various mediums.

Perhaps one thing most people might know his work from is Cobi - a cubist dog that was adopted as the mascot for the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games.  Reports have it that Cobi soon became the most profitable mascot the games has ever seen.  Cobi went on to have his own cartoon!

All in all, Mariscal’s work was playful, colourful, highly diverse and highly prolific!  It was a joy to see and a bit like stepping into the mind of a slightly deranged child!  Brilliant.

Check out his work (http://www.mariscal.com/) as it really is worth some investigation and is colourful in a way only the Spanish seem to be able to pull off.

SKY V (2010)

Nice!  I love school trips.  Not only do I get to see art and get paid for it, it is also a great chance to go to our fair capital city and take photographs…and get paid for it!  Long live the rule of the technician.

LONDON GREYS (2009)

WHY IS LONDON SO GREY?

I guess this does not apply solely to London, but to a variety of British towns and cities – they are all constructed in grey tone.

Perhaps this is most noticable in London due to its immense size and the sheer number of buildings crammed into it.  I took this photo last time I was in London, eating lunch on some steps just opposite St James’ Park.

I have always been struck by the monotone look of the architecture and the inhabitants of our fair capital city.  Obviously the suit is the chosen uniform of the city and so a huge percentage of the population walk round in shades of black or grey - perhaps their tiee of if lucky, their shirt inserting an injection of colour.

But it all seems quite drab – more so on a winters day.  You can happily sit somewhere and be surrounded by different tones of grey, be passed by grey people and look up at the grey skies.

To its credit, London does OK for park spaces and tree lined streets – which give a welcome break from the singular vision.  Granted, you could argue the lights of Piccadilly are colourful – but really, that’s advertising and should never count.

Go to a city like Barcelona and you cannot escape colour.  The buildings are painted or even built in a wealth of colour.  Colourful public art fills the area and the people are an explosion of different shades.

Now of course there are exceptions to the rule in London or any other British city – but stop and look and you will notice how drab a lot of it can come accross.  Hannah often wears a variety of colours, more vibrant than the general populous of London and gets innumerable dirty looks for daring to splash some colour amongst the greys.

Is it that we are afraid to stand out or make our buildings shout out from their surroundings?

What I don’t get is that London is not a grey and drab place.  It has a huge personality and is filled with wonderfully creative and excetric people – perhaps we should begin to allow this to be reflected in our personal appearance and that of our architecture.

BLACK & WHITE PRINTING

Incidentally…

Not sure why you want to know this or there will be any interest, but you know – this is a blog, an online sketch book, some I am going to tell you anyway…

This is the first black and white print I have made in a long while – hence its not that well printed!  During the dark days (when my digital lens smashed), I returned to 35mm and shot some Black and White as I knew I could process and print it at work.

So, over the past month or so, I have processed a few of those films and done contact sheets.  Yesterday, I was trying to re-align and enlarger and thought it was the perfect chance to print one of the images to test the focus was even on the enlarger.  So here it is, for all to see!

I must say, it was great to work in the darkroom again.  Not done much of it in the past few years and its always a pleasure to have the smell of chemicals around you and be bathed in nothing but red light. (Does that sound perverted!?!?).

LETS TALK MORE ABOUT BLACK AND WHITE

Shall we?  Do you want to?

I am not sure I do – perhaps another few posts should be dedicated to this topic.

But to tease you – I am really not sure its for me these days.  I like the printing and all, but the results are never as pleasing to me as colour.  I do like Black & White street photography, but the world is in colour and that’s how I like to capture it…generally.

Perhaps I will address the B&W v Colour issue in more depth soon.  Perhaps not.