InYourSpace

No time to piss, as they say. Been very busy these days. Got a nasty chest infection the other day and the flu though i braved the cold air with sweat and force and continued to shoot these last few days. And tomorrow going to Newcastle to shoot a short film. For those who don't know, Newcastle is north of London, in the north of England and it is much colder than down here. One locations is a barnhouse in the hills. When i went for a recee, it- was- COLD, maily because of the wind. So I'd better get better very soon. Like today. I nearly coughed out my lung the other day and boy was it painful. Right after that short, will be going to Romania to help a friend doing participatory video with some marginalized teenagers. Then back here to shoot another short film. Heavy sigh... No rest for the talented...

Hm. I have been getting 'friends request' over MySpace in the past month from people i don't know. Which i know is 'normal' on MySpace but i find it dubious (normal being the operative word for a platform so fickle). I have never made a request for someone i actually didn't know in the flesh. Maybe i just can't be bothered with people i actually don't know for real. i dunno. Anyway. I got a few models requesting to be my friend. Woo. Hoo. Though it's weird because i think they think i am a photographer. Which i am, but my space says i am a cinematographer. Anyway. But my two strangest ones was one from 'Fans of ...' some czech model i had never heard of and one from a guy from Austin who owns a swimwear retail outlet... Why the hell would he want me to be in his list of friends? I haven't granted him 'friend' status yet as i am afraid of what it will do to my career. i shit you not. I am also procrastinating on wether or not to grant these models 'friends' status. I'm not into fashion photography and couldn't really care less about it so why should i have 'fashion' people on my page? Saying that, someone said to me recently that i was not typical of 'media' types. I don't consider myself a 'media type' so i don't have the benefit of being not typical of it. I have less than 20 friends on my MySpace page which must be a MySpace record. Despite being MySpace dubious for a while, I did eventually join, for work. And I haven't gotten any work from it! But I still am weird with it. I guess i never really will warm to it or think it has any use except for killing a bit of time and engaging in the little trivia of the new millenias internet 'global village' (though the ratio between normal folk and the village idiots/perverts is reversed on MySpace). Despite my overall cynicism, I think there are some fun pages out there, mine, not being one of them. And to prove how serious i am, heres a picture of me and Chris ( a few weeks ago) doing our 'after 3 years' pick up from the feature film Horace K48...


The Moustache is not real.

I will be back with pictures. Maybe from the weekend shoot. Maybe not.

- J

lucky soul

Last weekend I shot as fast as i could for the Lucky Souls music video but we still couldn't get it all done (despite the missed shots not being crucial). We shot with 6 cameras on an untested mounting system. And boy, should we have tested it because it was slipping all over the shop and i worked very hard to maintain the static- ness of those cameras. It was a shoot that was for me, like formula one racing, racing against the clock. We worked really hard and it was an achievement.

went to newcastle to recce (locations scout) for the short Florid i am shooting next week. I just brought my lovely North Face Jacket and on sale mountain walking shoes the day before i left. And am i glad because the rain, hail and snow was coming in horizontally when we were on location (near a forrest). It was cold. A good -10c than it is in London. My first time meeting with the director. We nailed down everything by the end of my 24hr stay. I was on my way back on the train and then we halted at York, which was just under a third of my journey. Due to adverse weather and the roof being blown clean off kings cross station, we weren't to go any further. So i had to go back to Newcastle and spend an idle night there before getting back today to organize other 2 shoots.

camera rig for lucky soul

where there should be a road there is a stream (York)

where there should be grass, there is a river

I think 11 people died due to the high winds. trees falling on cars, walls falling on people. I was a lucky soul.

We aren't waiting for the 'so called' climate change we have been worried about for over 20 years anymore. It's interesting when you hear the media state, 'what can we do to change it?... turn off your lights? Drive less?' Who gives a shit if the UK has the top 10 companies that are 'green'. This- is not a local phenomenon and I- am not one try to scare anyone. If you haven't seen the film, 'An Inconvenient Truth', I implore you to see it. I have known a fair amount about global warming, since i was in my early teens. There was only one peice of information that surprised me. This was when Al Gore talks of 20ft sea level rises. Not 5 inches, not 1 ft but 20ft. And temperature rises? If you watch the news on TV, they are underestimating by a long, long, shot. Flooding not only becomes widespread with drought in some areas, but they happen in the same vicinity due to the nature of weather systems. And then he shows you what that would do to the worlds coast lines it really is a bit like 'The Day After Tomorrow'. It is already happening to small islands where indiginous people live.


What can we do? Everything we must.

- J

http://www.climatecrisis.net/

http://www.luckysoul.co.uk/index.html

Do Chinese Dream of Electric Cars?

Beijing? Shanghai? Guangzhou? Thirty years time? Think *'Bladerunner'. Despite being optimistic about the future of China and ultimately the powerful nation it will become/becoming, this ultimately will bring out the diverse problems of capitalism (not democracy, not unlike the USA). China is one of the oldest cultures/peoples that have survived over the least few millenia and this is another step in it's 'evolution'. This time though, will be one which will change the dynamics of the planet in at least the next 100 years. It is a brave old world...

Two photos taken in Beijing. One of propaganda slogan and one of a homeless man.



Taken with the Leica.

* Bladerunner: Film directed by Ridley Scott in 1982 based on the book, 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep' by Philip K. Dick

- J

Mothers and Daughters

First is from Beijing. Mother and Daughter on bicycle. Second is from Hong Kong, mother and daughter on metro system (MTR/KCR). Unless specified, all these current photos i am posting are from the contact sheet so they can be a little dirty and low res.



Taken with a Leica III with Fuji Pro 160.

- J

trunks

less talk, more photos. first from Pippingford while on a shoot, the other of the sultans elephant event in London.


Both taken with the Nettar Zeiss Ikon...

-J

The Inconvenient Truth

I was excited picking up my rolls of film today. Here are two photos i took with transparency film with my lovely 1920's fold up camera that shoots 6X9cm frames. A Zeiss Ikon Netttar with Velvia. Venice, Nov 2005.

- J

Brand New Retro

I have been sans posting photographs of late, well, since my travels were over. I haven't really shot a lot. Saying that, today i put 55 rolls of film in to process (which is costing about £300, with the discount). Most are 120 (12 shots each) and about 12 rolls of 35mm (36 shots each). Half of them go back about 5 years so i don't know what's on them. It will be exciting to see a new set of 800+ photos taken over a period of 5 years. I am only getting the neg developed and will be scanning them myself, which is why i got my scanner really, so i wouldn't have to cough up £10 for each contact sheet. It has paid for itself already. A lot of what i hope to collate the exhibition for PCRF for is within those rolls. I planned to have started collating them at the beginning of 2007 three months ago so this is good. I will be posting more photos up that go back in time in the months to come.

I took this photo while on a train going over a bridge a few weeks ago. The sun had set and the sky was weird and wonderful. It looked like a city i didn't know. It looked like a city that was full of hope and light...


- J