Scars...

Beautiful Bugs...

Adverse Camber - Photographic Degree Show

Adverse Camber - Photographic Degree Show

16th - 20th June 2010

Shoreditch Town Hall, London

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War & Ice - Finally Finished!

Over the hills and Herne Bay

This week's travel update... nothing to report - amazingly! I did what I should have done last week and just stayed on the M2, I got to Herne Bay in the predicted 2 hours as opposed to the 3 and a quarter hours it took me last week!

Steve and Gary weren't running the lesson this week so I met two new faces, Ted and Heidi.

Health and Safety was on the agenda and Heidi explained that she had an additional fire alarm in her home alongside the traditional battery operated version.... her little dog! Heidi has trained her dog to bark like crazy if there's a naked flame in a room with nobody in it! For example, if there's an ambient candle left burning in the living room and the occupier leaves for any reason, the dog will bark and go nuts until someone re-enters the room - absolute genius!

At the end of this weeks lesson I explained to Heidi and Ted what on earth I was doing in their lesson and who I was and made my request for models. Would you believe it, 7 out of the 8 attendees agreed to be photographed which was absolutely fantastic and much more than I expected - I thought I'd be lucky to get 2 people to agree! The people I've photographed (all of whom are potential Olympic Volunteers) look fabulous in the pictures and there are some real characterful (is that actually a word?) faces, which have made the set of photographs really interesting.

From my previous journeys to Herne Bay and Tunbridge Wells, I knew I wanted to have a consistency in the images, so I took head portraits against a light background using fill flash. I wanted these images to say something about "Volunteers" more than anything else and the fact that volunteers are so often unsung heros, especially in the context of the Olympics... the additional cost of paid staff would render the Olympics financially crippled.

To this aim I took the pictures slightly out of focus using a long exposure, therefore blurring the portrait of the person.

This was to signify two things:

1) Volunteers are proactive - hence movement in the picture

2) Volunteers are rarely noticed, they are more like objects that blur into the background

Above is my test shot of Lewis to give you an idea...

War & Ice (work in progress...)

Stay on the M2

This is more like a "modern travelling around England" update than a Creative Campus update!  

I went to Herne Bay, mapless and tomtomless, on Tuesday to meet another arm of the Personal Best group. Not really knowing the east of england too well, as I was brought up in the west, I made a note of the roads I needed to go on M25, A2, M2, A299 and planned my journey before hand... However in this great travel plan I didn't take into consideration the fact that there might be more than one exit onto the A299! Having successfully navigated my way to the M2 I finally came across the exit screaming A299.  Enthusiastically I left the M2, proud with myself for having been so astute with my memory map reading... 

And here it went wrong... I proceeded along a scenic and confused jaunt through Chatham (WRONG WAY), on my way to Rochester (WRONG WAY) turned around, drove to Maidstone (BETTER DIRECTION BUT STILL WRONG), only to find myself on the road to Hastings (DEFINITELY WRONG WAY).  Having pulled over 3 times to let traffic past and try to gather my bearings via my shiny new (but free) iPhone (THANK YOU!!!) I decided to go back to the M2 and keep on the M2 until I got to the end of the M2 to conveniently discover the correct exit for the A299 - right at the very end of the M2!  It should have been so easy!

Finally in Herne Bay I met up with Steve, Gary and the Personal Best group.  I don't need to say it, but what a lovely and determined group of people.  It's really inspiring meeting people who have chosen to fight.  Giving up can be so easy, anyone can make excuses, but these individuals are really fighting to overcome their demons and you can see the determination in their eyes motivated by Steve.  This group are slowly rebuilding their lives through this programme and the opportunities it affords them such as being Olympic volunteers... All of the people I have met at these Personal Best groups really deserve to be part of the Olympics, they are real champions...

I think a few of them will be happy to be part of my project - I'm developing my photographic slant on how to capture the subjects and will actually take some images next week...

Reaching a Personal Best at Tunbridge Wells...

To be honest I was dreading my M25 journey - not sure if I mentioned it or not??? But it was fine - I flew round and pretty much avoided all traffic jams - says something for 6:45am starts and I'm not going to mention it again!

On arriving at the Angel Centre in Tunbridge Wells an hour early, I set about finding where the course was to be held.  The lady behind the glass screen on the reception desk said, "Classroom 3, top of the stairs, turn right end of the corridor."  I followed the directions and found many rooms with names and numbers on them, but no "classroom 3". Having wandered round corridors in vain, I returned to the reception desk and found that I should actually have been looking for "Castle 3".  All became clear - I should have had that large coffee before I rushed out the door this morning!

I finally met Steve in person today and I can honestly say he's one of the nicest and most inspiring people I've ever met.  Steve's method of getting the learners motivated and enthused is fantastic and the learners really seem to enjoy the course, Steve's teaching style and each others company.

There were only 3 learners at this Personal Best course, the other 5 were off sick, but the 3 learners I met appeared keen to be a part of this photographic project.  I'll need to put together a full plan to put to Personal Best team.

It was a great day to visit the Personal Best course as they were learning about the Olympics and volunteering.  Steve enthusiastically explained the benefits of becoming an Olympics volunteer and the 3 learners on the course saw the path they'd have to take in order to achieve that goal... lots of volunteering. 

Shortly after I arrived 2 ladies from the Kent Event Team turned up to give a pitch about volunteering around Kent over the next 2 years.  It took about 1 minute for all 3 learners to sign up to volunteer - they eagerly assured me it was nothing to do with the free pen and t-shirt!

I have been invited to another Personal Best meeting in Herne Bay.  Steve has told me I'll be able to meet some more learners who may want to be part of this project.  So I've got just over a week to get some sort of proposal ready to give to the learners and try and get their permission to be photographed...

Great day - well worth the M25 trip...... 

Creative Campus / Personal Best

This project finally has movement!  Now that I've found the right people to talk to they couldn't be more helpful and appear to be as excited about my photographic project as I am...

Tomorrow I'm driving to Tunbridge Wells, I've never been there before and I have a lovely journey around a whole half of the M25 at rush hour!  BUT it'll most definitely be worth it.

I'm meeting the lovely man I spoke to today, Steve Beech, who is the Development Officer of the Shaw Trust.  Steve has invited me to a Personal Best meeting and is going to introduce me to some of the Personal Best learners.  With any luck I'll be able to chat with some of the learners to find out what they're doing with the Shaw Trust and the Personal Best project, why and how they've joined the project and what they're hoping to get out of it.  From this I hope to be able to build a solid project plan and be able to work long term with some of the Learners to photograph their journey.  I think they'll get as much out of it as I will and it feels great to finally be taking such positive steps...

HOW EXCITING - apart from the early morning M25 bit!!!

Creative Campus - UPDATE

Massive break through!!! I have phoned, emailed, text, missed calls, return called, waded my way through information and names and have finally found the contacts and direction for this project!

I don't think the good people of Britain realise how MASSIVE the Olympics programme is already and how many different people all over Britain are putting in time, energy and commitment... it's HUGE! There are so many different projects being run... One of the main reasons London won the Olympics hosting for 2012 was for it's energy and commitment to long term goals and social programmes throughout the UK - it is most certainly living up to that commitment already... if you don't believe me check out the Olympics 2012 website... http://www.london2012.com/indexb.php

Anyway, back to my photographic project...

PERSONAL BEST

I have spoken to many people throughout the UK who are working on a project called Personal Best. The aim is to offer the opportunity for people from all walks of life to learn and be trained and gain a formal qualification. This will further lead to these learners being given the opportunity to volunteer at the London 2012 Olympics.

The Personal Best scheme is launching all over England and thousands of people are being given the opportunity to train and learn new skills, some for the first time and some for the first time in a long time!

I have spoken to one member of the scheme already, the Shaw Trust based in Kent. The initial contact is going brilliantly and the project's underway through the Shaw Trust are very exciting - I'm hoping to get the opportunity to meet and follow some of these learners over the next few months, with the possibility of continuing this project after the Creative Campus end date has past - it would be great to follow these learners to the Olympics.

Having made this initial contact I'm hoping to meet some of the Personal Best learners and find out first hand what excites and encourages them about this project.

I can't wait to take some photographs and start the practical side of this photographic journey...

A homage to my Grandad -work in progress.....

Blue Lagoon

Reykjavik

Iceland in a day and night....

Ready, steady, Creative Campus go......

Well, I'm about to embark on the Creative Campus / Cultural Olympiad project. I'm creating a photographic documentary on the Volunteer sector, specifically the Personal Best Programme, for the 2012 Olympics. Around 70,000 volunteers are needed for a range of jobs for the 2012 Olympics. I don't think I'll manage to photograph 70,000 volunteers - but we'll see how far I get!

Tomorrow I'm going to start making the important calls - I think I'll start at the top with Ruth Mackenzie the Director of Culture for London 2012. Ruth reports to Tony Hall and the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad Board, but I might leave that phone call for a bit later!

This is going to take quite a lot of organisation and phone calls, but I'm very excited about who I'll meet and where this project will take me...