Our Day Out.

I went into town today to meet up with a good friend. He's a total photog expert, so I enjoy our discussions of the medium as I learn so much. We checked out the RCA MA students' exhibition of their final works at Wolstenholme Sq, and the Wolfgang Tilman exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery.

The RCA stuff was more than patchy, a couple of good ideas poorly developed, interspersed with a lot of dross. Tho it was fun to read the explanations of the work, some of which bore absolutely no relation to the work itself.

The Tilman at the Walker is great, tho, and well worth checking out. It's a special series of photographs commissioned as an installation in the space, so they're dotted around the gallery in the different rooms. The Walker is a traditional art gallery, with lots of old paintings in it (and also host to the John Moores Painting Exhib at the moment, too). Tilman has responded to the themes, styles, and subject matter of these different rooms with his own photographic work, so to really get the work you do need to see it in it's context. Stripped of the context, a lot of the images lose their poignancy and purpose. I really liked the general idea that the framing of the objects confers as much value on those objects (if not more, in some cases) than the objects inherently possess. I guess that fits nicely with my whole "Framer's Intent" ethos, so it's hardly a surprise. Anyway, if you're in the area, do check it out. But give yourself a bit of time, as you'll need to take in the painting work in the different rooms as well as his set of photographs.

I've been digging into street photography a lot. I've done bits of it myself, but still feel very unsure about the form and what makes one picture great while another boring. So, I've been checking out the likes of Parr, Wood, Winogrand, Frank, and Gilden in the hope of gaining a greater confidence in my own eye for things. I've also dipped into the newer strands of street, like Turpin and co. This week, or maybe next, I'll be checking out some Parr and Gilden prints, which I'm very excited about. Serious quality prints of two key figures in this, uh, movement. Anyway, the blip for today was a candid taken on my iPhone 3g (no S...) and was in part due to me thinking about shooting street a bit of late. The girl was young, maybe 13 or 14, but wearing heavy make up. I think this counts as street, even tho it is on a bus, but if you feel differently or just have anything to say on the matter, feel free to leave a comment. ;-)

And yes, I have backblips to get up, I know. I also have to tidy up and back up my hard drive. Again.