Benjamin Hay

2010-06-17T20:46:00.001+01:00

This blog is now defunct. Please go to:

www.benjaminhay.co.uk/blog.html

spanks!

Today...

2010-06-10T20:17:00.005+01:00

...that I am VERY color blind. I always had knowledge that I was, but this morning I realised the extent. The eye doctor asked if I could tell the difference between the red and green lights when driving, and I can, so became very confused, stating 'you shouldn't be able to'. When I was younger, I always used to wonder if my pink was someone else's green, and so on and so on, going through the spectrum. I got so far with this thought that even considered that, if I swapped vision with someone, would we both be driven mad by the alien world we suddenly saw before us. Language can only give a subjective description of what we see. I started to think about perception, and thought of this...

and then this...

The above image is by Diana Arbus, the much troubled street photographer. Perception in all forms is subjective, and sometimes you need an eye doctor to remind you of the fact. Where some see disability, other see beauty. Where some see beauty, other see munipulation. It all depends on your perception...and maybe your ethics. But i KNOW I can tell the difference between the red and green light...can't I?

This Time Last Year...

2010-06-01T20:21:00.000+01:00

I am having a faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaag

2010-05-27T13:54:00.002+01:00

Flyer...

2010-05-24T00:06:00.002+01:00

I still think the SNES could be better...

We come, we go...

2010-05-16T20:57:00.002+01:00

I found out today that a very good friend of mine died a few days ago. I met Leslie at a very difficult and strange time in my life. The irony of our meeting wasn't wasted on me, one person at the end of his life taking on someone who had no idea where his life was going at that time. He gave me a focus and drive when I needed it the most.

Leslie was a staunch Labour supporter. Not what we know as 'New Labour' but the old school trade union Labour, from the roots up. He was constantly, right until the end of his life involved in campaigning for better housing in Kent, better awareness of the social and political consequences of how we live.

He served in the Second World War. He drove his tank regiment from India all the way up into Burma. I once asked him how he survived, how all those bullets missed, all those shells never found him. He told me that the one thing he had learnt was that 'everything is luck'. It was purely luck he never 'caught a bullet'.

He was possibly one of the most intelligent, well read individuals I have ever met. His lunches became a legend in my household for their interesting....content. He was always ready to talk, fight and debate, no matter what the subject.

What happens to energy when we die? I wish I knew. That amount of energy, that intelligence, experience and humility cannot just vanish. I hope perhaps I get a little bit of it. I know he, like me didn't believe in a creator, so I hope the universe finds a place for him.

I will miss you dear friend. I will always regret not being there more at the end.

Moan and Whinge

2010-05-12T21:52:00.002+01:00

There was a photographer (his name escapes me, if anyone knows, let me know!) , quite famous who tried to burn all his negatives in a skip after a bad day. He was later quoted to saying he 'had had enough'. Thirty or so years of work gone, although a large part was salvaged.

I had an MA interview the other day, and halfway through, I looked at what I perceived to be a strong portfolio, and considered it on a more... objective level. The idea of the 'project' has been very much on my mind. The pre-conception and arrangement of a series of images on the same subject, loosely bound into a body work, for me finally does nothing. I greatly admire stuff like( http://www.phillipsdepury.com/auctions/lot-detail.aspx?sn=NY010210&search=&p=12&order=&lotnum=344) but also, why confine yourself. I must see a dozen photo's everyday that I should have taken, but because of the precious way I treat film, and the fear of 'not belonging' to a body of images, used to scare me.

Then, you have Eggleston. I was trying to think of a photographer who worked on a far looser scale, and immediately thought of him. I think Eggleston takes a long time to understand. Last year a group of students after seeing his exhibition, simply said they didn't 'get it'. Up to that point, I had always got immense satisfaction from viewing his images, but had never considered them under anything more than a beautiful observation on mundane, ordinary and generic. He clearly has the ability to perk a visual interest in any object, or rather, can find those objects which are hidden that have a visual quality that makes us question them. I strongly urge you to buy/borrow any book of his. Look through it again and again and just enjoy the images. Restores my faith anyway

Pasta, Pasta, Pasta...

2010-05-09T19:55:00.002+01:00

Acomo Pepe (tiny, bead-shaped pasta) Bucatini (thick, hollow straws of pasta) Bumbola (bee-shaped pasta) Cannelloni (meat-filled tubes of pasta)Capelli d'angelo (Angel Hair pasta - thinnest long shape pasta) Capellini (very thin, round pasta strands) Conchiglie (seashell-shaped pasta) Cavatappi (tubular, corkscrew or spiral shaped pasta)Cresti di gallo (curved-shape pasta, brown in color) Ditali/ditalini (Short pasta tubes, similar to macaroni) Farfalle (medium-size pasta, with crimped center & pinked edges; bow tie shape) Fettucine (flat, wide pasta strands) Fusilli (hollow, corkscrew or spiral shaped pasta) Gemelli (medium-sized pasta, like two short pieces of tubular spaghetti twisted together) Gnocchi (small dumplings, made from potato, flour or semolina) I gomiti (short and curved, tubular pasta with semi-circle shape) Lasagne (ripple-edged strips, about 2-1/4-inches wide and 10-inches long) Linguine (narrow, flat pasta) Lumache (snail-shaped pasta shells) Lumaconi (big pasta shells, often used for fillings) Mostaccioli (diagonally cut, tubular-shaped pasta) Macaroni (long or short cut, pasta tubes) Orecchiette (small, ear-shaped pasta) Orzo (pasta usually used in soups) Penne rigate (diagonally cut, tubular-shaped pasta with ridged surface) Perciatelli (fat, hollow pasta strands) Radiatore (short, chunky, ruffled-shaped pasta) Ricciolini (two-inch pasta strips, twisted gently) Rotelle (corkscrew or spiral shaped pasta) Rravioli (pasta cushions, filled with meat or spinach) Rigatoni (large, ribbed tubes) Rotini (corkscrew or spiral shaped pasta, about 1-1/2-inches long) Spaghetti (round, thin pasta strands) Tagliatelle (thin strips of ribbon pasta) Tortellini (little pasta 'hats' with meat filling) Trenette (long, narrow strips of pasta) Vermicelli (round, thin pasta strands - thinner than spaghetti) Ziti riigati (medium-sized tubular pasta, slightly curved)

Pas has this tattooed on his back....honestly

Young ones

2010-04-29T21:04:00.002+01:00

Myself and Steve ( I miss you!) were up our local pathetic hangout dustbowl last year, and out of the blue he turned around and asked if I had ever thought its weird how we hang out with kids half our age. He then went on to tell me about having Stacy in his car, and Stacy seeing all his friends walking around. Up until that point, I had never really thought about it.

Actually, thats a lie. I had, but never in the terms Steve was suggesting. I suppose, firstly, I don't really see them as young people, but rather young skateboarders. There is a distinction there, but how to explain it is hard. Perhaps, when having a skateboard tucked under my arm, I turn to an 'Us and Them' mentality. The public simply merge into either being in the way or about to get in the way. Nothing else really comes into it.

The public perception of this can't really be positive, but then again I am a 26 year old single male walking around with what is perceived to be a toy under my arm... not much really matters after that.

I know when I started skating at the age of twelve, my parents first voiced concern at me riding in cars of twenty year olds. This, however, soon turned to a must from my parents, once they realised that a) they weren't pissed, b) they weren't too weird and c) they actually looked out for me. If I had a pound for every time i was bought home with a busted ankle/wrist/head by someone twice my age I would....well, have about six quid, but thats not the point. I grew up too fast, yes, but I also had a great deal of protection that would not have been their otherwise, and I honestly think some of the situations I got myself into as a younger man would have perhaps not turned out in my favor.

So, here's to you young ones. Don't try to hard, because as soon as your up, we will push you back down. But right down inside, we love you, because basically, we are the same.

Get ya guns out....

2010-03-31T12:56:00.004+01:00

About three weeks ago, I saw a report on the BBC about the Ministry of Muscle. The report ended, and as they do on the news these days and the 'sign-off' included the location, which was Maidstone. I didn't spit my tea across the room, but was surprised none the less, simply because nothing of any interest happens here. This place basically trains all the strongmen and powerlifters in the region. Considering their small location, their effect has been wide felt.

As I tend to do, I literally walked in and asked if I could start snapping; sometimes the direct approach is often the best. They agreed, and I very quickly forgot any stereotypes I had created in my mind about the sport. I was expecting an aggressive environment, with little co-operation from the lifters, but instead I found a very tight knit community doing a very misunderstood practice, who were more than happy to be in front of a lens.

As we speak, I am a few visits in, and so far this has been a really nice opportunity to get some shots i've been wanting for a long time, including mixing black and white and color, which although very very difficult, could be done with this.

Tarris, Templeton and Paranoia

2010-03-14T21:13:00.004Z

Ask anyone who knows me as a creative person, and they'll vouch for the following. I am the most disorganised, on-a-whim image maker possible. I pick up and put down idea's like no one else. I cant help it, and recently have found myself beginning to embrace it. Honestly, I know feel its the only way I work; I have to vent my creative outlets in multiple ways. There have been trips untaken, projects unfinished, zines still sitting on my floor waiting for a cover. The amount of planned images that only exist in my head way outweigh the actual amount of images i have ever shot. That being said, there are one or two projects which i find myself picking up, and hanging onto them, one of which is the following.

I've been shooting photo's of my friends (who happen to be a cohort of skateboarders) pretty much since I began to get seriously into skate photography, around 2007. I stumbled in and out of it for some time, but last year whilst doing my teaching degree had to look into some Templeton stuff for a lecture I was giving. I simply forgot how angry his images made me feel. On a photographic level, Templeton is just the most beautiful image maker. He has that authentic touch, where you never question his images. It was more in terms of representation that I found myself getting annoyed. What he portrayed skateboarders as was 'sensationalist' to say the least. I don't have a problem with nudity, drug use etc, but I found that when trying to explain to a bunch of 19 year old students, that, yes I am a skateboarder, yes, here is some photographs of skateboarders by Templeton, but no, i don't travel around the country on drug fueled fuck trips, I live a rather normal boring life, they seemed disappointed. I've had some good times (some very good times) thanks to a plank of wood and four wheels. Anyway, I decided that i knew what it wasn't, so why not find out what it is.

Three years later and I'm looking through, thinking of ditching the whole thing. Sometimes i get what i can only describe as creative paranoia. Its not the 'oh feel sorry for me' tortured artist gig, but a proper 'chuck the whole thing in and become a postman' deal. So here i was sifting through millions of negatives, trying to find anything I had miss to try and pull the 200 or so final images I already had into a coherent body. Thats the problem with a large body of work, through editing you can pretty much make it say anything you damn well please.

I came across this gem. Those of you who know Tarris don't need an introduction, and this post is so long I really cant be arsed to explain him. Basically, I saw this, and it restored my faith in the whole project. I have no idea how I missed it the first time round, thats the nature of taste, ever changing. There's something so awkward, yet appealing in Tarris's pose. He looks so lost, proper uncomfortable, but at the same time, totally at ease. He's actually very photogenic somehow. I saw it, and i thought to myself its worth another three years. I hope i'll keep doing it until I find what it is I'm trying to say.

So Tarris, thank you. I suppose I owe you a drink.

Hopes...fears.

2010-02-20T15:39:00.004Z

I wrote a brief statement for this. I find it helpful, as it allows me to work within a contextual frame. It follows:

'In October 2009 I was diagnosed with a un-ruptured brain aneurysm. Overnight, my perception of mortality, and my own life, changed completely. Brain aneurysm on average effect 1 in 15 people, with a third of those suffering a rupture dying immediately. Coming to terms with having what is effectively a time bomb strapped to your head is challenging. I began to notice subtle changes in my attitude towards the finding of this abnormality, from a state of neutrality and acceptance during the daylight hours to something closer to terror at night. My domestic surroundings, once a place of comfort and security became a colder sterile place; only the light of day seemed to offer any comfort. At the same time, morbid curiosity forced me to seek out tales of others who had suffered the rupture I feared so much and imagined often. These texts moved and terrified me, gave me comfort and offered concern. These strangers spoke of my biggest fears, and my deepest desires.

I found myself looking out of a window more. I was born in the room that it is situated in. Looking at a familiar 'view' from a domestic place is a strange thing, you tend to not look at the view, because it never changes, but rather you look at yourself. Its a very reflective thing, which i what led to this repetition within the images and in the complete set ( 10 images) day slowly turn to night.

This is a starting point. I shot these digitally and worked from prints, scratching the quotes directly into the surface, but i want to re-shoot onto film. Using image and text has never been a strong point of mine, and I use it only because the concept requires it. That being said, there is a 'right' and a 'wrong' way to go about these things, so more working with text will be done i expect, although the scratching is very very satisfying!

2009-10-21T13:42:00.002+01:00

I was looking at Ori Gerschts work awhile ago. In his book, he takes the journey the polish jews did on their way to the concentration camps. As a series of images, I highly recommend them to anyone. They both highly mundane, yet their significance transforms them into something far more moving.

I started to think about Journeys. When i was traveling in Australia i did the red eye greyhound bus run from Sydney to Melbourne. I had no ipod, no book and no one to talk to, so i spent all evening and the morning looking out of the window (you cant sleep of those buses no matter how hard you try) watching the landscape whiz by. I cant remember any specific features, yet i have a good timeline of the journey, the general 'gist' if you will. This got me thinking on how we experience journeys, as a a series of memorable events, or a smooth timeline? This led to the image above. Twenty three photos from a trip to the coast. The journey isnt important, but rather the image contains every feature of that journey which gives me that 'gist', if that makes sense, but instead of showing them in a linear left to right sequence, they have simply been combined into one image, an average, or a medium (if you prefer maths). Now if i could only think of some interesting journeys to take...

2009-10-20T18:51:00.002+01:00

I have too much time on my hands. Walking along the river the other day, and i became interested in the opposite bank. No idea why, so i went back and took some digital snaps. Theres something i really like about them, but what i dont know for sure

Quiet Corners

2009-10-06T12:25:00.003+01:00

Life is good until you get a fogged pack of film. An angry email is working its way towards Fuji now

2009-10-05T22:03:00.003+01:00

Photoshop - Something which has been bouncing around inside my head, and this is the first of many experiments, whilst it try and get back into the idea of image manipulation on a large scale. The question at the moment is whether to embrace emerging technology (CGI) or go with using image banks and paying. Each has its ups and downs i suppose...

Anyhow, don't look too close at the trees! This took about 90 minutes, with serious room for improvement, although its a good start. The original image was shot on 5x4 (thus the tiny depth of field) and the explosion image was grabbed from the internet. Its a total fluke that the lighting in both images matches up slightly, but as i said, Cutting around leaves gets a tad boring!

Any thoughts, send them on a postcard. Oh, and the project is about new theories of the sublime, in response to Gene Ray's "Notes on the Politics of Fear".

(image file size is quite large - if on dial up, get a better internet connection you klutz)

Theory...

2009-09-26T20:27:00.005+01:00

and practice sometimes don't meet. This was a good idea, but the practical results I'm not to sure about.

Its been a while...

2009-06-12T22:11:00.005+01:00

since i last posted on here. I wont bore you with the details, i have no idea who visits anymore. Recently, i came across some images by Rodchenko, created in the 1930, where he had been asked to sensor out the sitter, due to Stalins regime. The images themselves began to fascinate me, or rather, the idea of the images. It assumed that by someone how eradicating the visual representation of that person, that in turn would wipe them from a national memory. The persons in question were of course killed, but this final step seems to me to be as significant. A crude doctoring of the image. This got me thinking about present government censorship, usually under the guise of 'terrorism'. Im all up for fighting anyone imposing their belief system through violence, but not at the expense of free will. Finally, what interested me the most about Rodchenko's images, were the traces left behind, wether it be a shape of face, a nose, or rather the memory of the deleted. It always remained

OLD.....

2009-01-18T23:18:00.003Z

I am currently going through the epic mission of scanning all my old slide film in since changing to a Mac. This one cropped up. Rad trick, rather lacking photo....

2008-12-28T00:29:00.001Z

2008-12-17T16:24:00.001Z

Took a trip to 'Landon Town' with grot to work on a video peice, and had a little digital camera in tow. The Docklands as seens from New Cross Gate station....

Sky

2008-04-06T22:03:00.003+01:00

Ive been pondering doing somethink like this for a while, and after orginally discarding the idea, after seeing Frank Tobias Müller's work, decided to give it another go.

I like the idea of shooting the reflection of something, rather than the object itself. Besides all the representation issue (which could be argued for quite awhile), its refreshing to produce something that isnt classical 'photographic' but rather more towards the fine art and conceptial camp.

The idea is rather simple. Shoot the sky above the chossen object rather than the objects itself. Im not going to wade into the politics of light polution, not my place or my concern.

This one was of the M20 motorway, near where i live. More moterways, factories and so on to come.

2008-03-31T19:06:00.000+01:00

2008-03-06T22:25:00.002Z

2008-02-26T22:33:00.002Z

kris rogers-fake wallride
john bell-k grind
munson-b/s smith
lewis threadgold-ollie

A certain someone, nameing no names of course (think red hat...friends with toadstalls...enjoys ragu) has recently been making a big deal out of the fact i never ever show 'off cuts'. My defense has always been, why show work im not one hundred percent happy with?

You dont see the bbc (not im comparing myself to the most established broadcasting corporation in the history of the world..........fuck it i am) begin a programme with the a vioce over such as 'well, this shrew documentry. The idea was good, but we just messed it up a bit'.

So the following are shots that never worked out, either blown out, bad comp or just didnt like them

Anyway, in other news. Had a rad mini skate. Work is shite and im yet to check my balance of my account in 6 weeks. Saving and all that

Melk...

2008-01-28T22:13:00.001Z

...enjoys spilling buckets of scolding water on his feet so can do better one foots...........this one was landed.honest. {cough}

tweedledee, tweedledum

2007-12-30T18:40:00.001Z

Best 'scissor' action ive ever seen

2007-12-16T23:16:00.000Z

The curse of the ride away. Always a bitch, espcially with the price of slide film, but it happens. The most annoying this is it always seems to happen on that one photo when it actually works. The angles right, the lighting works, and then bam, a fucked ankle, snapped board or simply a case of CBA..........

2007-12-02T03:20:00.000Z

Bank of Doom mrk 2

2007-11-17T21:56:00.000Z

Well, winter is actually here, and after donning silly hats and beautiful mittens, we set out in ball busting freezing weather, only to end up skating the bank of doom, mrk 2. The Bank of Doom mrk 1 was basically the shittest grass bank ever with a curb on top.......but look, were moving up the world, and we have been treated to concrete. Yeah!!!!!!!!!!

States of the Don

2007-06-27T00:58:00.000+01:00

whoops

2007-05-05T21:41:00.000+01:00

Chopped hand....bugger

2007-04-09T21:49:00.000+01:00

Booze and skating, not the best combination, but they came together to form a beautiful partnership at riverbar's game of skate. CBA to write about, so if you wernt there, you didnt miss much, if you were...it was pretty ace.

2007-04-03T23:34:00.000+01:00

Cba to write anything....too lazy.

Good Times

2007-03-28T16:08:00.000+01:00

Oh dear....

You would have thought, 23 years old and a vast drinking history, and i still cant manage to drink a pint of water before bed, which led to a serious assualt on my craniun this morning by the dreaded post drunk headache.

Pas's birthday was the strangest 24 hours ive had in the last year. Went to ramsgate, skated, noobed about on the beach...then went to a disused power station and freaked ourselves out for the next hour. Ended up chucking massive stones into a flooded lake and making big splashes...every man is a child when with his freinds. Must admit was a pretty awsome place, the possibilities of some kind of photo-project there could be in the pipeline.

Went to source bar, danced like a moron till 5am, then merked lordy whilst he was asleep. His reaction to 3 blokes running into his room at 5am screamin 'yeah lordy!', 'Beef, Beef, Beef!' and the alike didnt seem to angry, then we sprayed him with a fire estinguisher, niked his ironing board and woke up joe by swapping it for a plate of old chips....

Good Times

Art of......Being Micah

2007-03-18T23:26:00.000Z

Being micah involves the following in no particular order...using the phrazes, cunt, fuck, shitbag and yeah boi as often as possible. The more public the better, a good example being...'holy shit, you see those sparks of that cunts trucks'.

Looking as australian as possible. Sounding as australian as possible. Having an overwhelming sense of national pride which, unfortunalty, cannot be trampled. Talking about local brisbane skaters and assuming we know who the hell they are.

Being small, trying to show your penis as often as possible at any given situaction. Walking into mcdonalds with your trousers round your ankles. Calling James 'Poofin'. Laughing insanly constantly. Having annoyingly good nollie heel's,nollie front heels and steezed ollies. Heelfliping stairs and sticking bannanas down his pants and asking lee to give him 'a hand job'.

You gotta love Micah

The art of....round 2

2007-03-16T21:19:00.000Z

The kickflip

The kickflip is both the easiest and hardest trick. When you try to do a good one, its flots nose up like a speed boat on choppy water, and when your trying to do a stupid one, you get jackie chan mega flips which would make haslem go home, lock the door, pull the drapes and cry into deawon's lap whilst he stroked those beautiful golden locks....'there there haslem'

The kickflip, although it premotes good intensions, harbars a deep secret. Its the killer of shoes and the primo king.

The kickflip is also the only trick which is easier switch than regular. Also nollie...and also fakie. Infact, the kickflip is easier if your doing it any which way but normally.

The kickflip is also the destroyer of skate ambitions. Its impossible to master yet impossible to let go...

The art of....

2007-03-15T22:57:00.000Z

General steez
Steez cannot be bought or sold. It is both invisible but visual. It is all and nothing. If steez was to fall over in the woods...it would make the sound of one hand clapping. Lee here is demonstrating smith steez. Note how he is laid back in a 'i dont care style', his face expressionless
Steez is also like those little hair things you see on your eyes, when you look up. Or pas filming. As soon as you notice them, there gone never to return. You cannot be aware of steez if you are the creater of said steez, otherwise that steez implouds and causes a tiny blackhole, otherwise know as a steez hole. steezholes are dangerous, and are know for sucking in lighters from your pockets, and some country wont even alow you through borders if they find a steez hole on your person. Steez holes also deposit a substance, know as steezcheese. Steezecheese tend to gather between your toes, its black and smells funny. You can always tell when youve had a steez skate by how much has been deposited...

The hill bomb.
Find the biggest hill you can and tighten your trucks untill you hardly move them. Stand at top of hill and exhale breath through teeth like they do in the movies. Shake your head a bit. Maybe even walk down the slope slightly kicking imaginary pebbles out the way...now your ready to go. Jump on your board and give two graceful pushes. The art of the hill bomb is to look steezed at all moments during your decent down said hill, so i suggest either weaving, doing some kind of grab, or if your ultra cool, get some leather gloves and re-enact 'gleaming the cube' by doing some serious hand trailing...
Pas here is doing the 'cocker spanial'.
Observe his hair flowing behind him, much like the ears of the cocker spanial. Also, the stupid expression...
Also, once you have achived a worthy hill bomb the terms 'radical' or 'gnarly' can now be used to describe such hill bomb. Pas could have to said to Tarris after the achiveing the 'cocker'...'blimey, that was a bit radical'.

South Park (woot)

2007-03-13T20:49:00.000Z

Went to southpark....no chavs, amazing weather meant loads of photo's...which makes Ben something something?

Barney (gumble?) tre fliz no shiz

Woooooot

2007-03-07T22:51:00.000Z

cheers Leo and Ben for fully outdoing themselves and including

the shot in sidewalk after last months mix up with names of shame...

if you wanna check out some more shiz...hit up www.benjaminhay.co.uk for more images....

2007-02-25T21:26:00.000Z

oh god its back. Due to a massive user response (even the queen emailed me begging) ive started using this again. Got myself a digital cam (ill never feel clean again) and www.benjaminhay.co.uk is far to much effort to update with decent digi shots, so im using this again...

MK, 3am....

2006-08-12T12:26:00.000+01:00

2006-08-09T23:47:00.000+01:00

spot where i need the rim light.eeeeeek

Nick-Gap ollie with a sprinkling of...oh i cant be arsed.

2006-07-16T17:18:00.000+01:00

Nicks ollie from yesterday. Pas, after tarris's amazing challange ( if pas landed it first go tarris would get a job) failed to rise to the challange. Pas, im disappointed..

the others

2006-07-14T20:35:00.000+01:00

computer says no...

2006-07-13T20:14:00.000+01:00

I need new flashes, well, i want new flashes. Spent all weeekend drouling over muzz's, so think its time to invest in some metz's. Had one once, loved it but sold it, so think im gonna twin up and get me a 45-CT/CL-4. Cant wait

graphic

2006-06-08T13:36:00.000+01:00

from my bored disillusioned days......

blue

2006-05-09T21:58:00.000+01:00

Legends

2006-05-08T02:05:00.000+01:00

2006-05-03T20:58:00.000+01:00

Erm, some stuff from that Holga i bought, wierd camera

2006-04-28T22:58:00.000+01:00

A stupid idea, i must admit, didnt buy proper wood, what the hell is a tree ride anyway???This kid is shank, although the gun is kinda scary

A:L

2006-04-24T19:25:00.000+01:00

whoops

2006-04-18T22:59:00.000+01:00

Dont you love it when everything runs smoothly, all exposures are perfect, and Eric Koston and the whole girl team turn up at your local spot requiring a photographer
i suck

Lurker

2006-04-18T11:32:00.000+01:00

Would just like to thank my lurker, Pas, doing an excellent job as always

some trees

2006-03-07T22:29:00.000Z

errrrrrrr..........trees!

More Wak

2006-02-27T20:14:00.000Z

day at the beach

2006-02-05T12:28:00.000Z

ermmmmmmmm

2006-02-03T14:50:00.001Z

Hmmmm,playing on photoshop at uni learning how to re-touch.

ratbo......i mean simon

2006-01-30T20:43:00.000Z

Errrrrrrrrrrrr....simon. Ive been going through another one of my 'experimentle' phazes (which really means shit photography). Was mucking around with balancing flash in varying ways and also longer exposures with daylight flash and ambient lighting, and some 'compostional' stuff. So yeah, thanks Simon for the awsome tricks, which as it happens where all landed, but half of which i missed, becasue i was poncing around with flashes/backs/fisheyes/smoking a fag/not concentrating.
It must also be noted, where the hell did Si suddenly pop up from. Last time i remember he only did mobbed flips and backside boardslides, now he can rip the courts banks like a legend. So he's to an old dog learning new tricks (simon, not me)

Simon-looking lovely

Blunt stall, to something, then something else

Ollie to disaster, not landing in frame, but landed later

Pole jam, ironically without the pole

hmmmmmmmmmmmmm

2006-01-27T17:59:00.000Z

the following rules have been noted and acted on

1.Metz flashes are fucking powerful and should be placed at least 1 kilometre away from subject at all time's
2. Fisheyes are shank
3. Cross processing, although risking and not always reliable, is also shank
4. I still have so much to learn

mamiya

2006-01-18T21:44:00.000Z

Ahahahahahahahahhaah.................AHAHAAHHAAHAHAHAHA. Ahem.............it arrived

grab hold of my rollieflex of power and love

2006-01-13T10:44:00.000Z

Check out me metering, huh, HUH! Shot both of these a while ago, and, yeah, thought they were a bit wierd. Started to use my old school rollieflex again, which i havnt used in years, so bring on the 6 by 6. Ive got a thing with this window, but cant quite figure out what it is, there's somehting about it which i havnt quite got yet, hmm, wierd.

2006-01-11T08:10:00.000Z

Sorry i havnt been out everybody, working on a big new projects so thats been taking up most of my time, as well as this essay which is due in tomorrow and which ive only done half of!

Camba

2006-01-04T20:29:00.000Z

Stoke=unstoked

2005-12-17T00:19:00.000Z

Had these cross processed fims sitting around, knowing i would never actually get round to printing them up i decided to have some fun with some channel bluring (rinsing kingpin here)

Polaroids

2005-12-11T18:21:00.000Z

Got bored, avoiding doing uni work so i shot these this morning. Someone came round my house for the first time and said it had 'rustic features', and everytime pas stays over he always wakes up and say's my house is uber photogenic. Ive lived in this house my whole life, was born in my mums room so ive never really noticed, but took some photos anyway. There a little wierd

2005-12-02T01:59:00.000Z

More from Paris. Think this will be the last blog for a while, the rest are going in the NM gallery, so check there on Monday and hopefully everything ive shot recently should be in there

Graveyard

2005-12-01T00:24:00.000Z

This place is huge, i mean HUGE. Massive, but so cool. Paid homage to Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison (lead singer of the Doors)

The Edge

2005-11-30T20:37:00.000Z

The Man in the shirt is called Barry. Its not very common that you meet someone who amazes you, i mean really has an impact. Id seen him around my Uni and places before, but never spoken to him because he looked like a bit of a geezer, and we all make the assumption. Barry has been off drink for two and half years after given about 6 months to live when his insides litterally fell out of him. But what amazes me about him is how he can talk so normally about the whole ordeal, and then turn his life around and do a BA in fineart. SO next time your thinking how hard you have it because your playstation broke and now you cant play on Tony hawks underground untill mummsey comes with a new one, think about Barry. I can honestly say i think my outlook on life has been changed forever.
In the words of Barry, sometimes you need to go to the edge to see the whole thing

2005-11-29T20:42:00.000Z

Repeat after me, power tools are good. Infact, the bigger and more dangerous, the more of a man you are. Which must make me a real man because about 10 minutes before i shot this i almost killed Kris by leaving the chuck key in the drill and then starting it up, how dangerous am I!

2005-11-29T00:29:00.000Z

How post modern am I, huh, this is one fucking postmodern photo. Damn im bored......

Edit-this has given me an idea.......to be continued

Paris

2005-11-25T17:39:00.000Z

Er, just got back from Paris, im hammered, but hopefully got some sick photos. Update soon. Apologies. The stoke photos are gonna take a while coz thier slide i dont want corss process them

16mm

2005-11-18T11:42:00.000Z

Yet another pretty wack update. Erm, went to Brompton and shot some stuff while Pas was arsing around with his 16mm camera. Id like to take this opertunity to offcially apologies for the lack of shank images of late, nothing has been happerning.My Gallery is now up on NM, just click to the photography Tab. But, in about 6 hours should be in stoke hitting up the best UK plaza to date, me, Tom,Kris, and the whole of Team Melk will be present. Also TM will be there and the lads from Casual representing as well, so its a kind of skateathon. Kudos to casual, had a very funny skate last night and was good fun to skate with them, all seem like very nice blokes.

2005-11-11T01:27:00.000Z

Right, er, basically heres the deal. Was going to Brompton to help pas (bottom image) shoot some footage for his 16mm project. Thought id bring a camera so grabbed my bronica and relised i had no film, so rummerging around in some draws i found some film giving to me by a mate that had expired in 1980. So thought what the fuck, might as well. Also decided its time to stop being lazy and start metering properly, which meant no invacone anymore (non photo geeks you might not understand), so reflected light meter reading only using a rough zone system in my head. Quite chuffed with the results. The film has degraded in some places (which is surprisingly cool, look like lith prints), but stayed amazingly sharp in others. I meterd at 400 although it was 200 iso, then pushed it in processeing to 800 asa. Anyone got any expired b/w 120 film, pass it over!

2005-11-09T22:23:00.000Z

Errrrrrrrr, long story. El Mish, ill post the final image when i can be arsed, might put it in the gallery that i will finish eventually

2005-11-07T21:14:00.000Z

errrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, long story, but thought id post this. never ever try to shoot flash with a generator on top of bluebell hill in the wet.........just not worth it

untitled

2005-10-31T22:04:00.000Z

Ever wondered how roy does those crazy flippy things, ever wondered why pas is such a gay-all answered here. Mucked about with some b/w 3200 film. Erm, these are pretty shit, but i got one or two interesting ones which ill post somewhere soon.
Er..................shank

Pas be shank

2005-10-24T21:10:00.000+01:00

This is what happens when you let pas play with your digital camera, and these are just a handful of the image the happy pastranaut decided to shoot. So i present to you, pas's self portraits.............

Errrrrrrrr-no excuses

2005-10-23T19:19:00.000+01:00

Sorry about the lack of media, but i am waiting to A) finish my roll of velvia, i aint wasting any shots B) my new camera coming from the states, so basically be patient chumps. This blog will also come deviod soon having i learnt html and built a gallery on www.niiicemedia.co.uk, so wont be using this nearly as much, but, you know, check back from time to time, ill probs keep posting the un-shank stuff i shoot and the things that go wrong!

high heels and bridges

2005-10-05T12:21:00.000+01:00

hotel's and night

2005-10-05T12:17:00.000+01:00

not much going down

2005-10-01T20:13:00.000+01:00

Not much going on at the mo, so no new stuff. Today i realised, its a bit of a miracle that i, or anyone else for that matter are alive. In fact, ive been thinking this for quite a while since i watched a thing about blackholes. The cinema is the best place to think about these kinds of things, its dark, you have sweets and no one else is watching you. When you think about the rest of the universe, i mean its HUGE, MASSIVE, it seems stupid that life could only be on one small tiny little itzy bitzy planet around some randow sun in the middle of no where. It must exist somewhere else. It has to, otherwise all of this, everything, is some horrible fluke, the WHOLE OF EXISTANCE SOME REALLY BAD JOKE!? now that is a scary thought. All of the thoeries, all your endevours come to nothing because, in the end, it doesnt matter, because it was never meant to happen anyway. Therefore you existance is simply to do.....well.....nothing.

Nothing makes me more hungry than contemplating my own mortality so im gonna go eat

Oh yeah. click on image, they open bigger and look far shanker

Hope your foot gets better dude

2005-09-28T20:18:00.000+01:00

everyone seems to be hurt at the moment, so get well kris and pas, hope to see you boht out again. On another note, here's Kris. I love that top one of him, sometimes you catch something in a photos, and this is one of my favorites of Kris.

six kris's are better than one

2005-09-25T21:16:00.000+01:00

Boredom is dangerous

kickflip and wallride

2005-09-25T20:38:00.000+01:00

Melk Me Dry

2005-09-22T21:41:00.000+01:00

(One footed ollie)

Toast is shank-the following are also shank, telly, evolution, the 'property ladder, kris's herrnia(r.i.p ernie) trampolines(the bigger the better) and Melk.
A one man team, classic.

magic hour cont.

2005-09-21T23:07:00.000+01:00

A Day in the company of Alexandre Harry Pasquini

2005-09-21T19:39:00.000+01:00

Its always the same. The people you take the best photos of/enjoy it most usually hate you taking them. I think Pas would rather have his finger nails ripped off one by one by a naked Dehlia Smith sporting a chest wig than to have me take photos of him. Thats why you have to go covert, and just harres the shit out of him untill he lets his gaurd down. I enjoy it thoough, its always a challenge, and pas is one of the most photogenic people i know (that includes his kickflips)

Kris bs smith

2005-09-21T12:59:00.000+01:00

Magic hour

2005-09-21T02:49:00.000+01:00

Righty ho
These were all taken as part of a project that kinda came to me whilst skating with pas. we were doing runs near the big curbs, and pas pointed out how shank the light was and how cool a tree looked, i told him it was the time of year when 'magic hour' was about. Magic hour comes around late august early september and carries on right into winter. Its that time when the sun is really low, you get amazing side lighting but also teh light is actually golden, not white. I started shooting quite a bit in this hour, just where i live, but this project has really become more of an examination of the suberban enviroment. I also seemd to have a thing with a)lawns and b) shadows.
I dont think much when i shoot, tend to follow the camera and my instincts and see what happens. Some of these im quite happy with, some are not so good. Ill put up three a day i think, theres also some skate photos coming soon as well.

I think i also half ended up examining the texture, as well as the light. Surbaban enviroments are usually considered boring, estates ect. I found these quite cool and fun (although i doubt you will). Being creative in a shit hole can be quite difficult

Brompton (again)

2005-09-17T23:23:00.000+01:00

Kris nosegrind
kris wierd wall nose pick thingy
Pas - rolled ankle, hung over, not filming, bad skatin, cant wall ride

Had better days.
Kris switch (yea switch!)one footed wallride
Switch wallride

Hmmm, wierd day. twas my birthday yesterday, got pissed woke up this morning, took and passed theory test with extreme headache, then went skating.
Brompton seems to be becoming my demon. I just cannot have a good skate thier, its impossible. So i took some quite frankly wank photos, im hating digital at the mo.

Blogtastic

2005-09-17T13:56:00.000+01:00

hmm, gotta suck being homeless. What funny is never in my whole life have i been to a city with such friendly homeless people. They all play chess in Hyde park (sydney, not London), i was there shooting some morning stuff, started talking to a South African bloke. He came to Sydney on holiday 6 years earlier and had lost his passprt, wallet and everything. The embassey in Sydney had basically just ignored him, so with no job, no right to work and no where to live, thats how it happens i suppose. He was a really nice bloke, played a game of chess, gave him a few dollers (he didnt ask, and i had to practically force them on him), and told me he was hoping his daughter was coming to rescue him once she had enough money.Hope can do amazing things. This image was shot outside the Opera House, what makes me feel ill is that behind me while i was taking it was a swanky resterant, chucking away endless amounts of food. What a world we live in.

video geek avec le twilight

2005-09-16T20:35:00.000+01:00

Video Geek

Brompton off cuts

2005-09-16T00:40:00.000+01:00

Some off cuts from the days skate at brompton. I think pas is under the influence that sunglasses a)make you look cool b)drastically increase your chances of becomeing an american cop when infact they are a) fucking annoying b) make you look like a tit c) are useless unless driving.

And also the joys of having both a medium format and digital camera are displayed above, yes its new, yes its groundbreaking, yes, its digital images looking through a medium format camera viewer. You saw it here first.

Daisy Cam

2005-09-16T00:07:00.000+01:00

Hahahaha- trip to Brompton resevior. It was one of those days when i knew no skating what so ever was gonna get done. This came from mishing up a hill and sitting down over looking chatham, watching melk trying to kickflip of a grassy bench in the middle of a field full of flowers, and thus daisy cam was born. Wak photo=funny day

team melk group photo

2005-09-15T23:47:00.000+01:00

Team melk group photo, need i say anymore?

Better get started

2005-09-15T23:18:00.000+01:00

Lots of images to get up on here, so yeah, gonna put a couple up tonight, the think one by one each day. Dont know why i like this image so much, everyone else hates it, maybe that why i like it. Was taken in a motel room in the blue mountains in australia. Motels are strange places and this caught my eye, its a dangerous thing being alone for 5 months, and more and more these kinds of photo started to crop up, taking a photo just for the joy of taking a photo.