Larger Format

Blackpool & Fylde BA (Hons) Graduate Exhibition, Cube Gallery, Manchester

Opening night was a great success, with a big turnout, and comments from tutors being best graduate show in many years. Big thanks for everyone contributing to the exhibition!

Catherine Scrivener (right) and Sofia Ali (left)

Anna Dyson (left)

Cube Gallery, Manchester

Hannah Allen (right)

Laimonas Stasiulis - Into the wilderness (left)

Laimonas Stasiulis – Into the wilderness (right) Sofia Ali (left)

Laimonas Stasiulis - Into the wilderness

Adam Wilson - Preston Bus Station

Read the rest of this entry »

© Laimonas Stasiulis

My latest project “Into the Wilderness” is being exhibited in:

Cube Gallery (Manchester) 22nd-26th June

Sustain Gallery (London) 29th June- 3rd July

Two aluminium mounted prints, 60″ x 48″.

Feel free to come along and see my work alongside other students from Blackpool & Fylde School of Art.

I am looking to exchange links with other photographers, if you have a blog running or would like to swap links to your site, please contact me: info@laimonas.co.uk

© David Laventi

I came across David Laventi’s project Romania Revisited and was quite impressed by the imagery. Below is artist’s statement on the series:

“I found myself sitting in a wooden hut making an effort to down another swig. The dirty plastic bottle labeled American cola was the only object keeping me in this century. It was filled with tuica, a clear fiery plum brandy. Like the village, the old man, my drinking companion, seemed unchanged since the days of the Ottoman Empire. I had come following the story of my great-grandfather, who had been imprisoned here in Romania for seven years as a dissident.

Romania Revisited  retraces my great-grandfather’s footsteps into an unexpected past. Based on stories told by my father and grandmother, I traveled to Romania with a 4×5” large format view camera, collecting lost memories on a journey through a country now struggling to put behind it a lifespan of tyranny, while all the best and brightest who dared or were able to left.

I went to Sighet prison first. The building stands as a concrete eyesore in the green tranquil landscape. It was here that in 1948 the victorious communists imprisoned their political opponents. Now, the prison is the museum of the resistance to communism. The walls have been whitewashed. Children on school trips run about aimlessly. I asked the curator if they knew of Asra Berkovitz my great-grandfather. They were shocked that I had come from America – I became an instant celebrity by default. They knew more about him than I did. My great-grandfather had been a senator and publisher of a liberal newspaper. The curator showed me his cell, where Iuliu Maniu, the former prime minister, had died in his arms. She pointed out the black and white portrait of my great-grandfather on the wall – the same one my grandmother has on her night table.

Drink, the old woman gestured to encourage me. After our drink together, the old man appointed himself my guide and guardian…”

Source

© David Laventi

© David Laventi

© David Laventi

© David Laventi

© David Laventi

© Paula Muhr

Ideal Place is a project about the views on life of several Eastern Europeans, having grown up in socialist governments which offered the ideal system for the general good, suppressing individual’s dreams and desires. (Thanks to Juliet for the find)

© Paula Muhr

© Paula Muhr

© Paula Muhr

© Yann Gross

I came across Yann Gross while flicking through photography magazines in the library and discovered several amazing projects. Gross’s work is about “identities, dreams and senses of belonging to communities“. I will start off with Kitintale, series on the first skate park made by youths in the East of Uganda.

The first Ugandan skateboarders were inspired by television, and as there was no concrete in the town to practice on they built a skate park by their own hands without any help from the government to overcome boredom. This keeps the youths busy, and combats the development of negative behavior keeping them in a good community. The older skaters are seen as role models, teaching the kids about problems like HIV and Malaria, as well as instill values of respect and solidarity.

© Yann Gross

© Yann Gross

© Yann Gross

© Yann Gross

© Yann Gross

© Yann Gross

© Yann Gross

© Jim Naughten

I came across Jim Naughten’s series “Re-enactors”. Some really nice portraiture.

© Jim Naughten

© Jim Naughten

© Jim Naughten

© Jason Knott

Blackpool & Fylde College print auction has gone live, all earnings go towards BA Photography class Exhibition fund. Good opportunity to get cheap prints and photobooks by notable artists including:

Jason Knott, Stephen Gill, Stuart Whipps, Britta Jaschinski, Tim Flach, Colby Katz, Dinu Li, Catherine Chalmers, David Short

© Stephen Gill

© Stuart Whipps

© Michael Baister

Last year Lydia has paid a visit to my university as a visiting lecturer, showing  a beautiful portfolio of work, as well as talking about fine-art and editorial markets. Visit her website to see more work.

http://www.lydiagoldblatt.com/