Ready steady exhibit

Yesterday was dedicated to getting the exhibition piece printed!

Hayman graphics in Nottingham were such a great help. They not only gave me a great price on the print but even though they were busy preparing work for many other students they managed to get my print ready for me in a few hours. The print looks great, from what I can see, trying to keep it wrapped up until it's installed on Monday.

Having to wait around for a while meant I got chance to check out the current exhibition at Nottingham contemporary by Mika Rottenberg. I had not seen her work before and still don't think I have got my head around it. I didn't have a great amount of time to spend watching all of the films but the whole time I was there I felt like I was in a bizarre dream, or trapped inside of a weird film where humans sneeze rabbits and scary things happen in cabbage fields...I'm going to have to research and find out what that's all about!

Mika Rottenberg currently at Nottingham Contemporary

Back to the exhibition, everything is ready for the opening night on 18th June. All I need to do is figure out why the quality of my photofilm decreases when I export it, and then I can get it up on YouTube. 

Believe The Hype

First Photo Film complete....well, nearly

It has taken me all day but I think I have completed my first photo film! 

I still need to source some background noise but besides that it's pretty much there. At the moment I'm thinking it's not bad for a 1st attempt...but I'm going to give it 24 hours and see if I still feel the same way and if I do, I will share it and get going on the second one.

Square Eyes Syndrome

My eyes are going square from all my time being spent looking at this computer screen at the moment!

The main chunk of my efforts being focused on getting everything ready for the exhibition at Burton Town Hall on the 18th June. It's only a few weeks away now and me being my usual self has set myself the challenge of displaying work in a way I would never normally do so.

There are a lot of photographs involved, design elements and the layout it paramount. It needs to be perfect. It's getting there but there is something just not right and I can't see what it is yet. I'm the sort of person who likes to know every little detail and what i've got to work with, however i have very little way of knowing what exhibition space i have to work too. And there is always that voice in your head when you do something a bit different that says "Is it just me that thinks this is a good idea?" No one is around until next week to see it and I'm planning to take it to print on Wednesday.

The piece I'm working on is looking to be a 3m x 1m possible 1.5m print. I'm trying to encompass as much of the St. George's Project into it as possible, making it visually interesting while at the same time somehow tying all the different strands of the project together. Going through photographs, interviews and audio clips over the last week I could have filled the town hall - if only I had the budget! Trying to cram it into 3 meters is harder than it may seem.

Taking a break from getting the exhibition piece ready I'm attempting to work on a few photofilms, something I've not really tackled fully yet. I'm confident all will come good in the end, it always does. I see many more late nights and square eyes in my future.

D&AD 'Best of Year'

A little late (I have been a bit wrapped up in other things) but better late than never!

Last week I received an email congratulating me on achieving 'Best of Year' for this years D&AD photography brief!

The second award in the space of two months, I'm still a bit flabbergasted. It's a great feeling that I could happily get addicted to and the perfect ending to the course ... you've got to love it when a plan comes together!

http://www.dandad.org/awards/student/2012/categories/20/photography/11040/stephanie-gilbert

Eden Project

It was great to head back to the Eden Project a few weeks ago. I spent a week there last year, mainly focusing on product photographs but I was still a little concerned as to how I would handle a week photographing an area I thought I had already photographed to death. 

It might not be obvious from these photographs but the weather was terrible for 90% of the week, working on five briefs in five days in bad weather was a bit of a challenge.

Last year the bakery was still under construction so this was one of the areas I was keen to photograph this year. There is something very clean and uniformed about food that seems to attract me to photograph it. I have had a project in my mind for some time now around the idea of food photography and I was hoping to communicate these ideas to those at Eden. Unfortunately I was unable to reach the specific people, possibly a blessing in disguise with the majority of my time at the moment spent on the St. George's Park project.

A project for 2013 possibly?

It's always a pleasure working with the Eden Project, great photographic opportunities and challenges to overcome.

Burton - Now and Then

There seems to be a few interesting projects on the horizon that next years students are going to be working on, involving history and documentation on Burton on Trent. To test some ideas and generate a bit of creativity we were out in Burton town centre armed with historic photographs. Our aim was to recapture these photographs as they are now. In the way that the Museum of London have created a map of old photographs that could then be seen via interaction with a smart phone. 

What I found really interesting was being at a location with the old photograph and trying to figure out where the photographer must have stood to take it. Where they stood up, shooting at eye level, knelt down, standing on a wall that was no longer there?