Observations on Photography sat outside Notre Dame, Paris

A slightly long title but I thought you might enjoy one of my finds in my notebooks. I wrote this last October whilst on a trip to Paris. I spent a few hours alone wandering up and down the river and sat outside the Notre Dame observing strangers (which I do constantly, but I don’t always write it all down). There were some sketches of what people were doing, their behaviours and poses etc but they aren’t really necessary with my already sketchy writing. I’ve been reading through my notebooks as I have a new brief/theme at University to explore and it is Culture, especially in regards to digital and new cultures. I found my writing quite relevant despite being a mixture of rambling and excitement. So here goes…

I’m sat in front of Notre Dame after walking from the Latin Quarter. Someone is doing wedding photographs in front of this massively historic building. I’m not sure what that means; to be photographed in front of it apart from stating ‘I was here’. I feel like Martin Parr, sat there observing the poses people make, the people in the images and the way they photograph. Some are knelt down, some use tripods, some use flash, some photograph people photographing. It’s madness really .

I feel like going around and asking if people want me to photograph them. Just by walking into this area, I must already be in hundreds of people’s family holiday snaps. I wonder if they’ll ever look at the photographs and wonder who I am. The wedding party has gone. Now there’s a film crew doing an interview. I’ve started a game with myself; counting the people that I can see without a visible camera on them. I’m at about 4.

Oh my, someone just used a timer in front of me. They look adorable. Now they move to a different angle of the Notre Dame. Madness I tell you. People seem to have disappeared; the cameras are still out though.

Vivre la Photographie.

Monday 3rd October 2011

After reading through and collecting it all together, one sentence in there sticks out to me and that is; Vivre la Photographie. I cannot quite remember what I meant by that. My french is good at times but I’ll often give it a guess and be wrong, and something about that phrase made me uneasy. I think I was attempting a “Live on Photography” type of line but in fact I said something far more intrinsic to what I was saying.

Vivre la Photographie, essentially means… To live photography. This could be seen as:

• To live through photography
• To live with photography
• To live by photography
• To live in photography
• To live using photography

I asked a friend who knew more about the definition I was trying to capture and they came up with a more rounded answer. Vivre la photography means to live through the idea of and by the ideals of photography.

Cat’s False Alarm – Sample12 Exhibition

Cat’s False Alarm – Jasmine Gauthier (2010)

I’ll be exhibiting in a group show called Sample 12 at ThePrintSpace in London (see address above), from 3rd – 28th Feb 2012 (Mon-Fri). The Private View is on the 2nd February, 7pm until 9:30pm. I’d love to see some of you guys there or perhaps drop me a line if you do visit another time during the week and tell me what you thought!

Thanks!

Erwin Olaf Photography & Films

Olaf is well known for his photography  but I was not aware of his film-making so much until last year when I stumbled upon his book in a library, it came with a CD of his films and it was fascinating. I hope you enjoy a few of these trailers for his films, you definitely get the feel of them. Perhaps I love them so much as they are all about a strange suburban american dream that gets twisted in different light, a bit like gregory crewdson’s series.

Annabel Elgar

Annabel’s work was a fascinating find at the recent exhibition at the Wapping Project: Bankside (http://www.thewappingprojectbankside.com/exhibitions/index.shtml). I kept returning to her work more than any of the others as they were dark and beautiful, reminiscent of fairytales and full of strange narratives.

The exhibition had this to say about her work:

Annabel Elgar stages her work in imagined places that might initially appear idyllic, but contain unsettling details that suggest otherwise. Her photographs recall strange fairy tales and cultish activity, but their subject matter is real life torments: relentless s truggle between the rich and the poor, the home as a site of poverty and ruin; the family a source of treachery and despair.

http://www.annabelelgar.com/

Happy New Year – Exhibition Soon

What will 2012 bring? That is all that I think about at the moment! I’ve had a wonderful break for Christmas and New Years, visited Paris, received good news and relaxed with family and friends.

In 2011 many exciting things happened; from exhibiting work, experimenting more and more as an artist and my work being written about. It only makes me more excited for the year ahead.

My good news is that I’ve been asked to be in a group show called Sample 12 at theprintspace in London. It begins on the 2nd February 2012 with the private view and continues for three weeks. Do tell me if you get to visit it!

I will leave it at that for now, as it is a busy time preparing for the next year!

Happy New Year!

Fleeting Other

Here is at last a final edit of a piece called Fleeting Other; looking at pregnancy, the female form and the experiences of pregnant women in their lead up to motherhood. I wanted to explore how women see one another as well as how they see themselves; the forms suggest growth, proportions and perspectives. The work also touches on the isolation of experience of each of the women despite the solidarity as mothers.

Do let me know of your thoughts on the work.

Pregnancy Series Continued VII (On Location with the Women II)

It’s about a week before I have to have all my images up on the wall and today was the last shoot before that. The girls were wonderfully co-operative and we managed to get the shoot done in an hour which was an achievement in itself. The images above are just a snippet of today’s shots, none of them are touched up or anything but I thought I’d share them with you all.

You’ll get the final line up etc in the near future.

Pregnancy Series Continued VI (Location Shoot III) Plus Creative Boom Feature

Man, that’s a long clumsy title, I do apologise.

As ever I’ve been busy researching locations, artists and writing lots. If anyone is interested I might include some of it on my blog, even though it’s not made for this purpose.

Last week I was surprised and pleased with a wonderful feature on my work by Creative Boom, do check it out and let me know what you think!

http://www.creativeboom.co.uk/london/lookbook/jasmine-gauthier/

Here are some more location scouting photographs that I find interesting for various reasons.

 

Pregnancy Series Continued V (On Location with the Women)

So here is the first shoot of hopefully a few more of my pregnancy series without a name yet, I was focusing more on the interactions between the women, leaving some to their own devices and others where I intervened. These are just some rough shots to add to my growing collection of content. Photographing such a large group outside, especially with the weather like it was, was a challenge but good fun.

Tell me what you think, of the project as a whole so far or of these images in particular, I love getting feedback.

Pregnancy Series Continued IV (Location Shoot II)

 

More photography from location scouting, these locations have something extra special about them and I can’t wait to shoot in them. More photographs to come soon!