Monday, March 26, 2012

You should go to Ayoka: Photomonth 2011 review

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The 2011 East London Photography Festival exhibited some fantastic photo projects, not least my own.

But the highlight for me was visiting a tiny charity shop a few hundred yards east of Bethnal Green Underground.

Suke Driver’s exhibition in Ayoka was as memorable for its venue as it was for the images themselves.

Dress Up London documented people… well, the title is kind of self-explanatory. People dressing up for fun, fashion, sport, protests.

The exhibition was Ayoka’s first. In 2012 the venue is surely to be coveted by photographers looking for an innovative exhibition space.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Talking about smoking photographs at Redeye's Hothouse

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Redeye, if you didn't know, is one of the UK's leading photography organisations - or networks as it likes to say.

It's a national outfit but it just happens to be based in Manchester.

For the last two years I was lucky enough to work under one of its larger projects, Lightbox. For this project I attended a week-long photography seminar and exhibited Women and Alcohol at Look2011: Liverpool International Photography Festival. Women and Alcohol also made its way to London for the Photomonth 2011: East London Photography festival.

And in March 2012 I presented my 2007 project, Flashes to Ashes, at Hothouse.

The event was a series of projects talks by photographers from various disciplines. There was a lot of people in the audience. They asked me a lot of questions about smoking.

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This work will be exhibited properly for the first time this summer to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the ban on smoking in public places in England.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

National No Smoking Day

It's Wednesday March 14, 2012.
In Britain, this is National No Smoking Day.
To celebrate here is a photograph of someone not smoking.
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Taken in Bolton in 2007.