Anti Hipstamatic

tree resin, blood and india ink The trained artist could draw a head or a hand from a dozen perspectives. The photographer discovered that the gestures of a hand were infinitely various. 

John Szarkowski: "The Photographer Eye"

 

Had a Gmail chat with Gareth [GB] this morning @ about 9:17am. He was at home (Bangkok) with his foot up_ He stood on a shard of glass he did not see because of the flooding. GB shared his new set of Photographs with me with a facebook link.

He calls this series: Anti hipstamatic - real prints, actual effects, tangible. Here's a preview and some 'blurb' from our chat.

Gareth:  i have had it up to my ears with Hipstamatic and iphones

and this is my most recent work

me: cooool G... I will looksee...

Those are  beautiful_ tell me more about the process_students must see this... 

Gareth: Its tree resin, blood, and india ink, the images are burnt or stained... me: Dan Aldon journal inspired? Gareth: dan eldon, peter beard, philip blenkinsop

 

Gareth: photographs that exist in a real place that have been worked on and had a story added before becoming virtual are just way better  

 me: why? 

 Gareth: well for example - you take a picture with your iphone, chuck the image in your hipstamatic and upload it_ it looks like it came from a polaroid except everyone looks the same.

me: these images are about pixels and humaness...the human qualities_ the blood etc give the blankness of the pixels texture and make it visceral (instinctive/emotional) 

 Gareth: there is no individuality no self expressno thought process

no art 

  me: it does it for you?

 

Gareth: I HATE IPHONES

Gareth: and HIPSTAMATIC  me: I don't understand I am Googling Hipstamatic as we speak.      Gareth: i like things i can touch and feel or at least I know exist in a place where I could touch and feel them...

  art

  as in photographs

  paintings

  drawings etc me: I want an iPhone (and then I told him about my BB#7 saga) :'(  

 Gareth: hahaha

 

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being back in Asia is everything I was looking for...

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I found myself caught between a thousand pigeons a twinkle of sun and a tremendous down pour_ an almost spiritual moment_I managed to capture as I tripped the shutter before retreating to the nearest tuktuk to save my gear from the fist sized drops streaming past me like birds dropping from the sky. 

I am home, I am happy and things seem to be on track...

Read more: buka lapha

blogPAL Gareth visits the Department

Gareth Bright [GB] made a presentation yesterday at the Department for staff and students.  On osmosisPROJECTS, GB has been sharing his images and travel destinations since February. Yesterday having his presence in the real rather than virtual was a reminder, that no matter how accessible and 'wonderful' technology is nowadays for keeping in contact, exchanging and communicating_ conversing with someone at face value is still the most engaging. GB kindly 'dumped' all his images, video's and some movies from his presentation onto my desktop to share with you_ I will put these on the 'Botswana' external harddrive (password Gaborone). 

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This post is all about saying a big THANK_YOU & a SIYABONGA (Zulu) & a DANKIE (Afrikaans) to Gareth for taking the time to come and visit and share your 'way with Photography' with us, before you leave for Bangkok in the next two days.

I am including some of my favourite images from Gareth's collection and some comments made from students (who I will leave anonymous for ethical reasons). I am constantly trying to urge students to leave comments on my Blogs (some students would most probably agree that the word force is more appropriate)... but I am still puzzeled by their reluctance...I am trying to understand why when someone gives or shares something with you, one is unable to articulate your thoughts, or openly show a gesture of appreciation with text. For me it's like acknowledging the person and their endeavors, for example it's like saying thank-you or glad to meet you or thank-you for coming or thank you for sharing!

Anyway here are typed out (by me) responses from some of the written responses I asked students to write about straight after the presentation.

•

I asked the students to "Please write down your thoughts" on:

1> What did you like about the session?

• To hear about other Photographers experiences. 

• It was interesting to hear from some one our own age

• Gareth is seriously interesting 

• Gave an idea of what was is happening in other countries

• eye opener

• His Photographs and engaging conversations about his work

• it was informing, an eye opener and intriguing 

• I learn't alot about documentary photography

• Thought provoking and interesting

• The way he interacts with people of other races_ how he captured the moment without being too emotional.

2> What did you not like about the session?

• the aircon 

• the sound

• the projector

• class was rowdy

• someones smelly feet

• class figidty

• little long_ need a break in between

• class disrespectful_ on cell phones

• I am scared to work as as War Photographer, you can easily die.

• the emotions from the images_ I am an emotional person

3> Do you have any suggestions for other visits from Photographers?

Tyrone Bradley

Liam Lynch

Paul Weinburg

Kevin Goss Ross

Jacki Bruniquel

Black Photographers

Roy Reed

4> What can I use from this session?

• The insight of looking at things in a different way

• the idea of putting aside all your fears and following your passion

• enjoy your trip and good luck in the future 

• one should think about a persons dignity and try to portray them positively not negatively

• improve Photographic skills

• incorporate video into my work

• different perspective to fuel my B&W Photography

• being open minded to my surroundings & looking at it from a different perspective_making photo/video

• I should go out there and do research and come up with good ideas_ I should inform myself with whats happening around me.

• being a photographer doesn't mean I can't do video_ I am going to try video. 

• Makes me think and look about where I am going to once I leave the Department.

• Gareth's encouragement

• Your will power, and the passion you have in Photography_ I would like to instill that in me one day.

• A deeper appreciation of my surroundings and to look at it from a different perspective.

• Use tools like writing and internet

• must multi-task and try to be more unique

• views of what a travelling photographer gets to experience 

5> Message to Gareth:

• Keep it up_ amazing Talent

• Can you invite me when you are travelling?

• You've been a great inspiration and motivation for me to get out of the rut and explore life

• Please come again

• invite me on Facebook

• keep up motivating aspiring photographers

• I like the way you can live with different places with different people and their cultures

• Please please please can I tag along

• Lovely to hear you still use film_ you are very talented_ look forward to seeing more of your work.

• Thanks for wisdom and advice :)

• Keep doing what you doing

• Bring more of your work_mwah :)

• Come back and keep us updated

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...playing around with video

I am no genius at this at all,

but I have been playing around with video...

Gareth Bright (GB) has sent me this link of  a video he just made whilst in Mozambique.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySvqIKiyg48

GB says:
"Share it if you may. Video for me is a way to look at the outside of my pictures, the surroundings etc...this is just a play on that and of course in black and white...with some nice music".

osmosisliza made a comment on YouTube: Love the tempo_ how one moves with a sense of caution from a "barren INDOOR landscape" to the outdoors where the tempo becomes more playful, whimsical, carefree and joyous_ My most favourite moment is when one gets a glimpse of the outdoors from what seems like a crack in the wall _ and ooh gosh_ love love love the shimmery palm tree. Beautiful metaphors (I have made associations with) and imagery with exquisite music to accompany them_ This video makes me feel happy!

osmosislizatube 1 sec ago 

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travelling blues and shoes

I find myself ready to leave before my Mother continent eats up my passion and spits me out...

 Gareth (GB) has just returned from an Operation Smile assignment in Madagascar and has recently updated his BLOG with images and a wonderfully personal/ descriptive account of how he is feeling right now...

SNIPPETS and images from GB's blog:

Gareth Bright

"I don't know how many damn flights in the last few months. I just put down the most recent of my I have no idea finished books, turned off the I pod that's been plugged into my brain to provide silence from the heavy, uncomfortable, breathing from the strangers next to me, and realized its time to provide some sort of brain fart of words to update this Blog I have been neglecting of late."

Gareth Bright

"These are pictures of people on the move in a very confusing place, the World.I guess we are all the same, and that's why we have got to keep moving forward where ever we are going, whatever our situation. So have a look and keep moving, I will be..."

I left a comment on Gareth's blog that said.  

osmosisliza:  "Hey Gareth_ fully feel your blog post... going somewhere where all eclectics roam... and that is in the comfortable space of nowhere coz in nowhere there are the possibilities of anywhere... and you thought you were confused :)

 

I am finding the images on his blog to be graphic, they look like charcoal drawings, and have the gritty, moody and tenacious marks and textures of a drawing, yet they feel transient... lasting only for a short time_ impermanent_ creating tensions of pushing and pulling.

Is this just me relating to Gareth's feelings... can you see it too.

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Is everything as it seems on the surface?

Reflections from Gareth 

as he forms a new perspective of a 'past' previously portrayed.

Email from Gareth: Hey I am back..and staring at piles and piles of text and gigs of images for post editing...but funnily enough I have managed as I always seem to do, found something else to work on while I was there... something I am looking at going back to explore more, I am astounded at the state of Rwanda 17 years on... and how effective and efficient the country appears, the keyword 'being' appears...Here is a small group of images I put together in between the actual work I was doing. The 'Operation Smile' work still has to be edited and I have to add loads of text to it, which I still have to be inspired to write.

 "Recently returning from Rwanda I found myself going though images that I shot, just walking about or whilst driving from place to place. In doing this I found my self amazed at the state of the country 17 years on. Having seen footage of the genocide and having gone to some of the memorial sites I find the transformation from what was literally a bloody mess astounding.

 Exerts from Gareth's vii visionaries page: 
(click link above to go there_ read and see more_ buka lapha)
 

What I saw was this beautiful, clean country... with beautiful proud people... carrying the weight of the past on their shoulders"

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Madonna and Child

Madonna and Child

Click the above hyperlink to see all the historical art references to the theme of 

Madonna and Child or go to Google Images by clicking below:

buka lapha

An image recently shot by Gareth in Ruwanda_ he says that it maybe be one of his favourites portraits yet. The child suffers from a cleft palette and about to receive treatment. Please make some comments on what you 'see' in the image.

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James Nachtwey

Gareth: I am ready and packed and thought I might share this video with you seeing your TED post ----> this is a huge source of inspiration.
 

James Nachtwey: TED Prize wish: Share a vital story with the world

Accepting his 2007 TED Prize, war photographer James Nachtwey shows his lifes work and asks TED to help him continue telling the story with innovative, exciting uses of news photography in the digital era [exert from www.YouTube.com].

Gareth packing: off to Rwanda

11:54 AM me:  Hey Gareth_ How are you?

 Gareth: Well and you, just busy nailing loose ends before I leave for my Rwanda trip on Wednesday. Read Gareth's recent blog post on packing for Rwanda, click title 'Gareth packing: off to Rwanda'.

11:55 AM me: Any idea what your assignment is?

12:01 PM

www.prlog.org

Gareth: Yeah, actually for a change in the loop on what I am doing. I am working with Operation Smiles a organisation that is fixing and repairing children with Cleft palates and or any other facial defects from birth or inflicted: ie burns or facial trauma. 
My assignment  is to specifically shoot portraits: kind of before and afters, as well as the surgery and all the 'pre and post op' going ons.  I will also be shooting a story of a little boy from the North of Rwanda who has already started his journey to Kigali the Capital.  I will shoot a Photo essay for the Organisation putting into perspective the lengths some of these people go to to be helped.

  

12:02 PM me: Have you been in touch with this little boy and his family before you shoot?

12:03 PM Gareth: Not personally, but the Team has, and are currently up there at the moment hoping to meet up with him in a few days.

 me: Where will you stay?

12:05 PM Gareth: I will be staying in the Hotel provided, but probably given the hours end up sleeping in the clinics and hospitals, not wanting to miss out any important happenings.

 me: Do you photograph this alone

12:07 PM Gareth: Yes, preferably I shoot alone anyway...unless of course in a media frenzy zone where it cannot be avoided. That's why I like taking assignments like this...it gives me freedom of movement

 
me: What do you pack?

12:10 PM Gareth: Well because I still shoot a lot of film (a lot more than most Photographers these days), my leica and another film SLR, a couple lenses, a lot of film, some bulk roll, developing tanks and chemicals. My Laptop and as few clothes as possible...because my camera gear weigh so much I like to travel with about 12 -14 kgs of stuff in total- just in case< and you NEVER KNOW, something happens and I have to be able to move with all my gear on my back!

12:12 PM me: Do you take anything from home_ like a momento?

12:15 PM Gareth: OH YES, I have this scarf, I bought in India maybe five years ago, and its been all over the world and on every assignment with me! Its a joke amongst colleagues and friends that I think its bullet proof because of the the way a I cling to it, but to a certain degree although its not bullet proof it certainly does provide me with a physcological comfort.

12:16 PM me: How do you feel about going?

12:18 PM Gareth: Excited as always, I have never been to Rwanda before, and obviously with its violent but very interesting history I am very excited to see how the people and country have recovered from the the terrible events of 1994.

12:19 PM me: Do you ever think to take images for yourself? Can you behave like a typical tourist at times?

12:21 PM Gareth: Oh always, I often find it"s where some of my best stand alone images have come from, wandering the streets interacting with locals on the same level rather than as a "reporter'. I am also at fault of self timing cheesy images of myself doing typical tourist poses in foreign countries.

12:23 PM me: You are so passionate about Photography. I am going to ask you a strange question.  What would you do if you didn't have a camera?

12:26 PM Gareth: Probably would be involved in some form of humanitarian work. I think I am more passionate about people and helping than I am about photographing them, but still very passionate about photography and the idea of not having a camera scares me about as much as not having food.

 me: I know you have read the comments by the students on seeing your images and reading your responses to the 10?'s. Tell how you felt?

12:29 PM Gareth: It was tremendously humbling, some days its really really tough to keep going...especially during the preparation phases of trips where I am with stuck piles of paper, briefings, flight shedules and plans itinerary etc...And the day I read those comments I was having one of those days, and to hear the word INSPIRED, made it all worth it, even if it was a few comments. I guess thats all I really am to do, inform and inspire because ultimately that leads to change. So I am very very humbled and in awe of some of the comments... So big thanks to them.

12:30 PM me: ThanX for the chat_ I will keep in touch and hope all your preparations go off well. I also hope we can chat before you go? Take Care :•] (clown face)

Gareth: YES, of course, and amazingly Rwanda has great internet. So I can in down time keep in touch from there. Thank you for the chat.                                                                                ☕

10 questions @ Gareth Bright

I asked Gareth 10 questions...
and this is what he had to say:

1:   What does Photography mean to you?
Photography for me is a platform to shake people from indifference; I believe the strength of photography lies in its ability to invoke a sense of humanity. It’s a form of expression that can provoke change and has. The notion of this seems way out of proportion to the ongoing chaos and turmoil in our world, but it’s this exact notion that keeps driving me and always will. Photography to me is hope for change, or cause for change frozen in moments of time.


2:  What genre of Photography are you passionate about? 

 Documentary, Humanitarian and (despite my hate for the word and lack of a better one) Photojournalism.
 

3. What aspects of Photography do you love?
It’s ability to communicate, inform and inspire.  

4. What aspects of Photography do you find challenging?
Well in terms of my work it’s when to shoot and when to help, and of course in an ever competitive modern world where everyone has a DSLR or some camera my biggest challenge is to stay ahead of the “pack” and keep up to date and fresh with new ideas.

  

  

5. Where do you find inspiration? 

 I find a lot of inspiration in the people I work with and the people I photograph. I once read that some people are born to suffer and that you and I will never understand that suffering or the place it comes from, but from the same place comes honesty, integrity, love and pride_ you and I won’t understand either. This statement is perfectly in tune with the people I have photographed and that inspires me, they inspire me to keep fighting for them when they are so often forgotten. I am inspired by silence and contemplation while paging through some of my favorite photographers books and or images. I also find piles of inspiration in revolutionaries (Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, and Gandhi etc) and their ideals, in this sense I try use the inspiration I draw from them in the way I work with my subjects –compassion and patience and BELIEF in change.

6. If you could share one thing with others who are also interested in Photography what would it be?
TAKE PICTURES OF EVERYTHING-never think you have learnt or know enough_ you haven’t, you never can. Have fun, be passionate and persevere it’s always worth it.

7. Name Photographers that have influenced you.
Philip Blenkinsop, James Nacthwey, Sebastiao Salgado , Ed Kashi, Robert Capa,  The Bang Bang Club, Jugen Shadeburg, Alf Khumalo, Gary Knight, All the photographers at NOOR agency


8. List  3 words that describe your experience as a student.
Passionate, Impatient (this is not a typo) and Hungry

9. List 3 words that describe how it feels to be engaging outside DUT.
Inspiring, Humble and Stressful


10. What advice would you give students who are embarking on studying to become professional Photographers?
Choose your field whatever it may be, but concentrate on being diverse. Work HARD, take criticism to heart because despite the heartache you will find you learn faster. Believe in yourself, always, at all times and never listen to anyone (and there will be many) that tells you PHOTOGRAPHY is a dead end career.

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