There are two photo exhibitions on. One of London in 20th century and one about bridges around the world. Here are my favourite photos from the day.
Walking over the top of Tower Bridge is well worth the £8 the tickets cost (payable on the day); it’s such an enjoyable and unique experience! We’ll also get to see some amazing black and white photos of London, and take photos of our own from the bridge.
The photographs have been chosen to represent six categories of London life: Tower Bridge, waterways, work, life, buildings and boats. The shot chosen as the main publicity image is of St Paul’s Cathedral seen behind an early 20th century river frontage that is very different to the present day structures – today, the newest river crossing the Millennium Bridge stretches across the Thames in this very spot.
“There couldn’t be a better venue for this exhibition than Tower Bridge,” said Tower Bridge director David Wight. “ Some of the locations shown in the photographs can be seen from the Walkways which adds a unique dimension to the experience. Tower Bridge is a potent symbol of the rich historical significance of the City, surrounding area and the River Thames so the opportunity to be able to share this with visitors from both home and abroad was unmissable.”
Read more on the Tower Bridge Exhibition website.
Today I was down at Southbank and had a chance to spend an hour at the World Press Photo 2010. If you get the opportunity, it is well worth a look at and is showing in the Royal Festival Hall until 5th December.
This year’s exhibition showcases 167 winning photographs, including work by seven photographers from the UK. The winning photographs encompass the horrors of war, natural disasters, sporting endeavours and the beauty of the natural world.
For the beginner photographer, going to see an exhibition is a great way to learn more about photography. As you go around it, have a go at studying photos for their composition and gain ideas that you can turn into your own photographic themes.
This exhibition doesn’t include technical information on how the photos were captured, but if you see a photo you like, trying asking yourself the question, “Why do I like this image?” and have a go at guessing what the aperture or shutter speed might have been.
The exhibition is on both sides of the Royal Festival Hall. The Photo School won’t be going as a group this year to see the exhibition, but it is open until 11pm every night so I hope you do get a chance to be inspired.
Last weekend I was in Brighton for a day trip out of London. It’s an interesting place to take photos as there is both the seafront, the pier and the Lanes to explore.
There was also the surprise of a wildlife photo exhibition along the sea front. This exhibition is run by NHM and Wild Planet and shows various photos from across the years of the wildlife photographer of the year competition. It’s there until 26 September and is lit up at night!
There were also a few billboards with beginner photography tips on them. I enjoyed seeing these as the photography group are off in September to the London Wetlands Centre to learn how to photograph wildlife, so it was good to read the tips and get a head start!
So Brighton is well worth a visit at the best of times, but definitely until the 26th September if you like photography as the outdoor exhibition is a great chance to learn. As it says in the shot above, pick out your favourite photos and work out what makes them a great image.
“Exposed offers a fascinating look at pictures made on the sly, without the explicit permission of the people depicted. With photographs from the late nineteenth century to present day, the pictures present a shocking, illuminating and witty perspective on iconic and taboo subjects.” Tate
Our next Friday night social will be to see the Tate Modern’s current exhibition ‘Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera’. The tickets for this exhibition cost £11. This is a chance to learn from professionals about photography and share your thoughts with other hobbyists.
We’ll go for drinks after looking round the exhibition, giving us a chance to get to know each other. I encourage you to bring and share your own ‘Exposed’ photos; just 1 or 2 prints will do!
From the Tate website, “The UK is now the most surveyed country in the world. We have an obsession with voyeurism, privacy laws, freedom of media, and surveillance – images captured and relayed on camera phones, YouTube or reality TV.
Beginning with the idea of the ‘unseen photographer’, Exposed presents 250 works by celebrated artists and photographers including Brassaï’s erotic Secret Paris of the 1930s images; Weegee’s iconic photograph of Marilyn Monroe; and Nick Ut’s reportage image of children escaping napalm attacks in the Vietnam War.
Sex and celebrity is an important part of the exhibition, presenting photographs of Liz Taylor and Richard Burton, Paris Hilton on her way to prison and the assassination of JFK.”
We’ll meet inside the Tate at the top of the Turbine Hall. Please buy your ticket online and let me know via email once you have purchased it. Buy your ticket for the 6:30 entrance. If work keeps you late, you’re welcome to join us later, but please do text/phone to let me know.
Social, Exhibition & Friday Night Drinks – Please Join Us!
The Photographers’ Gallery is currently showing the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize. On March 12th at 6:30pm we will have an expert, introductory talk to the exhibition and gallery.
We’ll have a few drinks after looking round the exhibition, giving us a chance to meet other photo-hobbyists. I encourage you to bring and share your own significant photos and photo-stories; just 1 or 2 prints will do!
Contact me (details at the top of the page) if you’d like to join us for the evening.
What’s On
Deutsche Börse Photography Prize rewards a living photographer, of any nationality, who has made the most significant contribution, in exhibition or publication format, to the medium of photography over the previous year. The four shortlisted artists for this year’s Prize are:
- Anna Fox (b.1961, UK) - part of the new wave of British colour documentary photographers that emerged in the 1980s, Fox creates a compelling study of the mundane and bizarre in British life
- Zoe Leonard (b.1961, USA) - a chronicler of the overlooked, for the last 30 years Leonard has recorded urban landscapes, creating an eclectic and personal inventory of our material world
- Sophie Ristelhueber (b.1949, France) – investigates the impact of human conflict on architecture and landscapes and records the resulting aftermath in places such as Bosnia, France, Iraq, Lebanon
- Donovan Wylie (b.1971, UK) - systematically documented the fabric and physical structure of the eponymous Northern Ireland Maze Prison and its subsequent demolition
Location & Meeting Point
We’ll meet inside the Photographers’ Gallery at the reception desk. I’ll be wearing a badge saying The Photo School. The talk starts promptly at 6:30pm. This get together will probably be 3 hours in total (first 1h30 at the exhibition and the second half having drinks). If work keeps you late, you’re welcome to join us later, but please do text/phone to let me know.
Please note the Photographers’ Gallery is now at 16 – 18 Ramillies Street behind Oxford Street.
Truly amazing, there are nearly 140 years between the photos of how London was then (shot by Henry Dixon – 1870s) and how our capital looks now (shot this year by Rob Ainsley).
Mostly photos of the city, we are privy to see the changes that have happened with buildings that either were bombed or spaces that would change as society changed.
View the photos on the BBC website.
Look closely, you can see extensions, renovations, or in the case of a couple, our food and drinking needs have wiped away the whole building.
And a great warm up for the Points of View exhibition being hosted by the British Library that The Photo School is going to this Sunday.
Photos from Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew
Back in August, the Photo School spent a sunny summer’s day at Kew for our Garden Photography Masterclass. So it was nice to have a reminder yesterday of the fun we had by seeing some more stunning photography shot at Kew.
This time is was by professional photographer Heather Angel.
Heather spent a year capturing the plants and animals that inhabit west London. I love the commentary that she gives in her slideshow. See her pics from Kew on the BBC website and our beginner shots from August on the Photo School’s events page.
Looking forward to seeing more wildlife photos at the National History Museum later this month.
Join us if you can!
Happy photographing! Natalie
It’s currently on show at the National Portrait Gallery and is a small and sweet, yet great insight into the world in which others – artists – work. It features photos of Gilbert & George, Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst amongst other less well-known artists.
It’s well worth a visit if you are in town. You can whizz round the 14 portraits probably in 14 minutes, giving time to stop off at the cafe just next door :) It’s on until the end of the October.
He joined the Observer in 1976 and was voted Sports Photographer of the Year four times between 1978 and 1984. In 1988 he moved to the Guardian as Picture Editor and became the chief photographer of the Guardian profile portrait. In 2000 he left the picture desk to concentrate on photographing people in the arts.
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