Exhibitions

Nadav Kander
The Lowry

"Nadav Kander has successfully removed the gap between celebrity and none, to unite us all as what we are; individual human beings. A must see." - Emily Bonner

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Cecil Beaton

The Imperial War Museum North

"He doesn’t quite have the same vulnerability as his younger counterpart, which is why the photographs together seem to fuse as a beautiful juxtaposition of the extent the war." - Emily Bonner



Final Idea Layout Development

Final Idea

The idea I settled to produce my book on was an unconventional guide book and reference to the origins of street names in manchester.This idea evolved from looking at the work of Neil Roland a manchester based photographer who works with signs and door and such physical objects. This type of photography is was I like most; objects do not change, do not move, do not need much control, unlike people. His two pieces that sparked of the idea to work with signs are the two below.

I intially was going to mak pieces that could be split into sets of inconic Manchester buildings, general buildings, an A-Z of letters from iconic buildings and build upoon that to make small parts devoted to placed such as Oldham Street and Afflecks. This idea had great potential but lacked direction and with discussion with my tutor my sign idea got directed into a workable project.

The book I have produced serves as a little guided walk through the streets in the area from near the royal exchange theatre to the town hall, that is shown on the map included. The reader is intended to take the walk in a spare hour and re-evaluate the way they look at a place they believe to know so well. This is where the main preface for this book comes from, many people believe they know Manchester so well, when infact they know very little abouts its history and important people and events that led to the names of some of the most famous streets. This book allows those people to be enlightened on this area, in a short space of time. There is no daughtingly long pages of information to trawl through just consise and interestig accounts of the name origins. As well as serving as a little guided walk, the book provides to owner with a journal like keep sake that can be referred to when the origins fade in memory. The book has been made in a modern style, the signs taken out of context photographed alone, and placed onto colourful textures to make the images pop. This is what makes the book different from most guide books, it is visually magnificent, as well as getting to the point.

The title 'The Unfamilars' comes from a discussion with a tutor and feedback group of 4 other people of a similar age group. My book is aimed at my age group 16-25, and so their input of style and organisation was very important. It was discussed that the book refers to an area we all are very familiar with - street signs. They are used everyday by everyone and because of that they become unnoticed. I have undertaken this project to bring street signs there own stage, and show people what they see as familiar, infact and quite the opposite.

The name 'The Unfamilars' reflects this well, my book contains a set of photographs of a familar medium but whose name origins in unfamilar to the majority. This title also proves to be an ambiguous one that would draw a prospective buyer in and make them want to investigate the book. The choice to not have an introduction back up this idea as it will force the reader to investigate further and become intrigued by this unfamilar layout and initially secretive subject. It also links in with the title that is strange and in itself a juxtaposition, like this book is of usual layouts. Explanation is offered after the sign images and the linking set of information, in the form of an afterword, that explains the walk that can be undertaken and the whole preface for the book.

Len Grant Talk

The notes I made from Len's talk are evidence enough of the vast amount of advice and invaluble indstry knowledge he shared with us. It was an amazingly interesting and helpful talk, of which the notes I will keep and refer to. He discussed the most important thing to a student; our careers after, and how to make them as great as possible.

Origins of Street Names in the City Centre of Manchester - L.D. Bradshaw

ISBN: 978 0 907511 87 8.

Format:	Paperback, 58 pages
Published:	01/10/1985

This book has allowed my book to be created. The information is where I have adapted mine from, along with the some of the images included in the book, and ordnance survery maps. It had been an invaluble tool, and below are some snipits from the book.

Initial Ideas

Initially I looked for a fresh artist to give me some inspiration and found some interesting collage images. The first three black and white ones are by a French artists Colette Saint Yves. These were some of my favourites, in composition and in their somewhat comical tone and female focus. The images are a mixture of vintage photographs or paintings and new-ish collage elements. Although her work is beautiful visually I couldn't come up with a solid enough concept for my interpretation of her style, but it is something i would like to pursue at a later date.

 

The next set of images are by a collective French graphic deisgn team known as Ma+Chr. Individually they are Mathilde Aubier and Christine Delaquaize. The main elements of their work are collage, text, comedy, shapes, colour. Their work had been used for decoration in restaurants, cafe's, published in magazines, and for advertising campaigns. I like the style of this work, how it brings together a photograph and a solid element which simultaneously joins people with animals to make quirky comical pieces. The other piece involves a vintage photograph and a caption added to give background to a possible senario. I like both these sets of the pairs work but again couldnt find a good enough concept to follow through my own interpretation.

 

My next idea came not from image inspiration but from mere thought. I proposd to work with common sayings/cliches, and give them a visual interpreation, with some elements of the above style used such as block colour layered over.  I did a trial piece for the phrase "Cursiosity killed the cat", but this idea seemed to lack photographic quality and essense of my own skills, along with lack of context an equally important part of what we are assessed on in this module.

 This was later developed into using 'adages' of which I would produce an image of that represented this whilst also depicting a big story from the news. I produced a list of ideas;

1.   Curiosity killed the cat

News of The World phone hacking scandal.

2.   No news is good news

Chilean miners trapped for 17 days without word before a note reached the surface saying they were all safe.

"Estamos bien un el refugio los 33."

-picture of the miners

floating banner above, vintage style, with note quote on it.

3.   Too many cooks spoil the broth.

Coalition government. Labour lose power after 13 years. First hung parliament for years. Coalition deal made between Torys and Lib Dems.

4.   He who hesitates is lost.

BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. CEO Tony Hayward’s botched handling of crisis.

-Man with puzzled expression.

Block colour question mark over head.

Holding paper with oil spill headline?

5.   The grass is always greener in the other side

Ashley Cole’s affair with hairdresser Aimee Walton which broke up marriage to Cheryl Cole. January 2008.

6.   Opposites attract.

Princess Diana and Emad 'Dodi' Fayed’s controversial relationship. Him the playboy, her the angelic princess, and there are many conspiracies surrounding their death together in the Paris tunnel crash, including involvement of the Royal family to stop any more embarrassment.

7.   Better late than never.

Royal wedding. Met at university. 2002. Split after five years of dating in 2007 to check if they were right for each other. 2010 they get engaged. After 8 years of dating and one brief breakup they are finally getting married.

8.   You are never too old to learn.

The former prime minister said he was "mortified" after being caught on microphone describing a pensioner he had just spoken to as "bigoted" on the election campaign trail in Rochdale.

9.   The best things in life are free.

The standard rate of VAT went up to 20% on the 4th January 2011. By Chancellor George Osborne.

10. Don't judge a book by its cover

Manchester City beat Manchester United 1-0 at Wembley stadium on Sat 16 Apr 2011, to go into the FA cup semi finals.

This idea proved very hard to phisically create when thought about properly and I decided it was something I wouldn't have enough time to complete because of how much of a challenge to reflect likeness and reality it was.