Whilst tweeting

Whilst on twitter today lpv magazine tweeted 'I'd be impressed if a photographer rigged up their own car with the same equipment Google uses for Street View & drove across the country' - to which someone has done, on an amazing scale. Alastair Thain is the man that is in question. The very man who used such high quality equipment that NASA uses the same technology. One particular project comes to mind when his name is mentioned. In 2007, Tate Britian held an exhibition called How We Are: Photographing Britain, to which Alastair Thain and many other photographers exhibited work. Thain displayed huge portraits of Royal Marines who had just been training, showing the exhaustion and the strain that it took on these individuals. The raw emotions screamed through the quality and scale of the work, every tense muscle, sweat drop and gland are available to see making these images very powerful and compelling. 

However if we go back to the point I was originally making, it was made available to me that Alastair Thain has done a 'Google street view' piece of work, with this incredible bit of equipment. Not exactly subtle. I quote.. “The idea behind it is that I can drive along the streets at night with a large-format camera and capture life, because people don’t notice you if you’re in a car. It’s a completely arbitrary process, but the advantage of digital is that you can take 10,000 shots and get maybe 50 revealing images.” OK I understand the digital part. But really? No one notices you if you're in a car? I think people would notice the large amount of equipment and the 'epic flash' that goes off in their faces! At least being in a car means you can drive away from those people who believe it is against their right to be photographed without permission, even in a public space. 


This is something else I don't understand. If you aren't doing anything incriminating and a photograph of you is taken in a public space why be angry about it? You're captured on CCTV 100s of times a day, what is the difference? OK that might sound a bit naive, but it is effectively the same concept. Obviously there are boundaries.

I diverted again, but I think this post was a good chance for a bit of a ramble. 


Anyway if you wish to read further this was the article I nabbed the photograph and quote from. 

Oh Christmas Tree

Posting a little late...

Our Christmas tree malted a lot this year.
The hoover came out regularly.
Our carpet was about an inch deep in pines once we took the decorations off and the tree down.

Surely not?

(taken from guardian.co.uk)

This photo is incredible, it looks like it has been constructed for some hollywood film purpose. But no, this is not the case. Apparently in Spain they ride a horse through a bonfire in honor of Saint Anthony, the patron Saint of animals. hmm..? OK. You learn something new everyday.

'To infinity and beyond!'

Today I'm feeling inspired and motivated to take on the world! Ok perhaps not the world but at least university. This semester I'm hopefully going to get a head start and power on through to do things I am proud of. I do work hard, I'm not saying I don't, but I want everything to count, every bit of effort to ooze out of my blood and sweat for the next six months. This is the plan anyway, but how many plans do we ever stick to? This one I plan, to plan, to stick to.. This could get confusing, so I will stop.

Dissertation is well under way and coming to an end. An end that will have a beginning again with re-drafting and prof-reading but oh well, it will still be an end. Not that this is necessarily a good thing, I have enjoyed it and learnt a lot from it, so maybe I will feel sad when it becomes finalised. We will soon find out.

What a frightful site

Whilst working on my dissertation a memory arose. There was this fascinating place I visited in Rome (I think in 2006) called the Capuchin Crypt. It was one of the most morbidly fascinating places I have ever been to. The walls were elegantly decorated with bones belonging to friars (and other people who were moved from a mass grave) as well as friars who were not yet quite just bone. These friars were standing (with aid) or laying upon a mass neat pile of bones whilst their skin remained in a state of decay. I predominately remember one friar who lay upon a pile of bones, whose hood of his robe covered his eyes, but his jaw had slid open and to the side as if in an awkward scream. It was horrifying, but not enough to put me off to see the rest of the Crypt. At the end however was a sign that read “As you are, we once were. As we are, you will someday be." Enough to send shivers down anyones spine. I shortly left, particularly when I found out the place was rumored to be haunted. 


A place that is defiantly worth a visit, and one I would re-visit. 




Photograph taken from Google.

Sneak Preview

Just a little glimpse into my set. Am going to try do a re shoot on 5x4 instead with the aid of a fellow student, as I seem to have an inability to work with one!

What Will Be Will Be

Currently I'm in between two states of emotion, excitement and anxiety, I believe the two will go well together in the production of my work, (I hear the two don't mix so well biologically). Dissertation seems to be making progress, a slow one at that, but nevertheless still progress. Plus I feel like I'm learning furthermore, which makes me feel like I have accomplished something, like when man landed on the moon. OK perhaps slightly exaggerated but still.
My practical will be shortly going into production, a little nervous as I have never constructed a set in my life, but currently it feels like it might just require basic DIY... that of which I do not have. This time I'm sure I will blame my tools.