THE ISSUE
NDY ET – K 37
Candy Magazine
CAND SWEE TALK
Candy Collective Choice Cuts DEAF
— sweettalk 37
22.10.09 Sugar Club Doors 7.00 pm Tickets 12 Eur
tickets 12euro available
Vaughan Oliver
graphic designer/v23
David Rodigan
dj/reggae encyclopedia
David O’ Reilly golden bear
winning film maker
from ticketmaster.ie or 15euro on the door
www.candycollective.com
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Who We Are
Candy Magazine
candy collective
candy staff
CandyCollective and Candy magazine were set up to showcase what we felt was exceptional creativity, here in our homeland of Ireland and around the world.
Aidan Kelly Editor / Tea www.aidan-kelly.com
We stand behind the artists herein. All content belongs solely to, and is copyrighted by, the various artists. We published their work with their permission.
Cameron Ross Editor / Web www.newmedia.ie
We hope you like what you see and that you may commission the artists profiled for future work. Please contact them directly from the links provided.
Siobhan Kane Contributor
None of the artwork may be used or reprinted without permission from the artist in question. Please direct all queries or requests to either the artist directly or through Candy Collective by way of representation. Š 2009 candy collective
Alice McGillicuddy Contributor John Paul Keating Contributor Makeitwork & Swollen Design / Art Direction www.makeitworkdesign.com www.swollen.ie
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Presenting
Candy Magazine
page
feature
3 4 5 –10 11–15 16–21 22–28 29–33 34–38 39 –41 42–48 49–54 55–59 60 –64 65–68 73–77
Who We Are! Presenting Brad Elterman Erin Jane Nelson Rob Hornstra Simon Hoesberg Timothy Saccenti The Rock Archive Photography, Remebering… Amandine Alessandra Neil Gavin Alex Prager Jesper Lindström J.P Keating Aidan Kelly
I
N THE DISTANCE, DRIFTING FROM THE POOLSIDE AT THE BACK OF THE DIMLY LIT HOUSE, MUSIC WANDERS IN THE AIR AND ACROSS THE FADING LAST HOUR OF SUNSET AND WITH ITS HORNY RHYTM, THE WEEKEND HAS BEGUN ON TEN YEARS OF HIGH. ON A DOLLY TRACK THE EYE OF THE CAMERA DRIFTS AROUND OUT OF FOCUS CATCHING THE REFLECTIONS OF SHIMMERING LIGHTS AND THE HEAT WARPS OFF THE HORIZON. THE MUSIC IS GETTING LOUDER AND AT THE EDGE OF THE PARTY THRONG. A TOPLESS GO GO IS STRUTTING HER HIGH OCTANE STUFF. IT’S A BEL AIR BOOGIE AND ALL THE EXECS ARE AT THE PARTY. WHISKY, COKE, SOKE AND CHOKE, HEADS BACK IN LAUGHTER, SHUFFLE AND SPANK. HELLO THERE LOS ANGELES! WELCOME TO 1970. INCONSPICUOUSLY A YOUNG MAN IN THE KNOW IS SNAPPING WITH A CANON BLACK AND WHITE SAFETY FILM, CATCHING THE REMAINING LIGHT, THE HEAVIES, THE GIRLS THE ROCK STARS AND YOUNG FILM IDOLS. HE KEEPS CALM AND COMPOSED, WATCHING AND WAITING FOR THE MOMENT. interviewed by aidan kelly
Candy Magazine
www.bradelterman.com
BRAD ELTERMAN
Brad Elterman
01/ 06
Brad Elterman
it seemed like an idyllic lifestyle that you were seeing thorough your lens? but was there sadness too? do you still have many friends from that time?
Sadness? Never. It was all one big party. We were all so young back then and thought that we would live forever. No one missed a free meal or a free drink, no one got AIDS and no one ever considered getting old. It was a party that lasted for a solid decade. I have a few friends who I stay in touch with from that period. I use the word "friends" very selectively since L.A. is a town where you are lucky if you can count your true friends on one hand. I am still close with Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols. I had dinner with Steve the other evening and if I ever have something on my mind and need to speak to someone, he is a great listener and a good mate. I am still in touch with a couple of girlfriends from back then. They are married and still gorgeous. So many of our friends did not make it and I miss them. One of them was Richard Creamer a brilliant eccentric photographer who was my greatest inspiration in the photo industry. what made you think photography was for you? who or what inspired you? what was your first camera and do you still use it?
I was and still consider myself a bit shy. The camera was a way for me to gain access to people who I worshiped. At first the camera was between us, but eventually I got to know many of these people and we became friends. I took a darkroom class at summer camp and I was hooked. At the same time some of the greatest bands, British bands, were coming to Los Angeles. So there I was, camera in hand and a backstage pass to the Roxy Music concert. I was in heaven. I did not even have a camera so I had to borrow my brother's camera. It was a Canon with just one lens. I eventually bought a Canon AE 1 and saved up for the power winder. I will never forget how excited I was to have my first motor drive/ power winder! It was euphoric!
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Brad Elterman
Candy Magazine
you refer to the easier access you got in those earlier
do you hope to change peoples perceptions with your
days – do you think that the paparazzi digital culture
work? what's your own favourite photograph?
has changed photography for better or worse?
To set the record straight, I have not taken a paparazzi photograph in over twenty five years and I never plan on taking one again. I was in-crowd with many bands and they would pose for me and we were pals. If I could not get a photo session and they were on my radar, I would just show up and try and get a candid photograph that would tell a story. That is what inspired me to wait all night for David Bowie at the recoding studio in 1975 or to make a once in a lifetime photo of John Lennon with Ringo Starr. If I had the tip and could make the photo, I did not care about the repercussions. There were none. I was so young that all of the PR thought my teenage paparazzi actions were cute. Today's modern digital camera has given anyone the potential to become a paparazzo. The problem is that many of today's paparazzi are not photographers. They do not have a clue about how the camera works, the depth of field, shutter speeds and of course they have never experienced the joy of shooting black and white film. I have heard stories about L.A. Paparazzi out in the field using cameras with all of the settings taped down by their bosses. Some of them really think that the "P" mode, "Program" as we all know it, is the Paparazzi mode! Today it is all about shooting massive quantities and praying for a decent photograph. Such a waste of time and effort for nothing. For me it was and always will be about capturing a special moment.
I would hope people will begin to think that paparazzi can be an art form. Certainly it is. My pal and another mentor Ron Galella has just had his work accepted at MoMA in New York. It really helps if you are photographing an icon and in my book, there aren't too many around today. Possibly Lindsay Lohan because she photographs so damn beautifully and her relationship with Samantha Ronson is rather provocative. I always tell our Buzz Foto photographers to be proud of your work and try and make iconic and elegant paparazzi imagery that will not only grace the pages of magazines, but could also wind up in a gallery or museum. My favorite photograph is "The Party Crashers". The reason being is that these dudes are two weird looking nobodies who would crash all of the best parties in town. Record company parties, the Oscars, Bel Air mansion parties. You name it, they were there and they did not give a shit what anyone thought of them. The tall one on the right was Eddie and his rather short pal with the terrible wig was Gene, who we called "The Midget". I took this photo of them at a Hollywood Hills pool party. They were so delighted that someone wanted to take their photo. Do you think Diane Arbus would have photographed them? what's happening for you now? is the future about reliving the past?
I am having the time of my life these days! It is fun to relive the past, but you can only do that for so long. For me the future is taking photos again and shooting in B&W film. I just bought a Contaxt T3. I am not going to reinvent myself again at this stage of the game. I want to be unique in today's environment and take photographs again in the same simple fashion that I did thirty years ago. I see that this type of photography is so in vogue these days. Just look at the fashion magazines. This month I have eight pages of my seventies photos in L'Officel magazine in France. Leave it to the French, they are always the first to catch on to cool trends. Hopefully Gucci or Louis Vuittion will knock on my door one of these days.
Brad Elterman
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Brad Elterman
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Brad Elterman
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01/   09 www.erinjanenelson.com
ERIN JANE NELSON
Erin Jane Nelson
Erin Jane Nelson
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Erin Jane Nelson x
You mean you won’t be back till when? —[distant voice on the phone]
y x y x y
x y
x y x
I won’t be back till midnight at least Where are you? I’m in the snow actually, up by the mountains, near the river Don’t you get lost now I won’t, don’t worry, I just needed to get out of the flat, I’m really bored of studying, I thought if I brought my camera, I’d catch a few things whilst I’m here Mmm okay… y’know you left the milk out? Did I?, Shit, sorry, I'll get a new one… it’s really amazing up here, the colours are really different than in the city, like saturated and deep, you should head up and see it Yeah, whatever No, no...You should, it’s really beautiful Yeah… Listen don’t forget that milk I won’t… I promise —[phone dies]
y
Jeez, one milk and the whole world collides
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Erin Jane Nelson
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Erin Jane Nelson
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ROB HORNSTRA 01/ 06
Rob Hornstra
I
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SPENT WEEKS ON END TRAWLING THE INTERNET, MAGAZINES , NEWSPAPERS, BOOK SHOPS , BOUTIQUES , GOTH KIDS, TO FIND MY FIRST FEATURE IN CANDY. LOST IN A WORLD OF DIGITALLY ENHANCED AND ROMANCED GENERIC BILE, I SAW A LIGHT. BIT BY BIT (SORRY) I CRAWLED ON MY BELLY THROUGH A PRIDE OF PRETENDERS – LYING CHEATING PARIAHS OF PRINT, AND AT ONCE I DISROBED AND BASKED IN THE DEEP, SOOTHING WATERS OF A MIND THAT IS NEITHER VEXED WITH CURTAILING MODERN TREND, NOR INHIBITED BY A FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN, MY FRIENDS, I FOUND ROB HORNSTRA.
www.robhornstra.nl
interviewed by j.p keating
Rob Hornstra
my diary reads: i lost my visual virginity this week, to a man that, not entirely unlike a big, fat, blue bottle of gatorade in a futuristic texan refugee camp, quenched my thirst and gave me something to fill with petrol. thank fuck for rob, i think he saved someone.
In 2004 Rob Hornstra graduated from the Academy of Arts Utrecht, Netherlands. Since then he has won numerous awards and published two books as well as one in his final year of college. His work shies from the typical, as does his approach to publishing. Each of his books are self published, limited edition and sold out . With a passion for social change, his first book focused on the first generation to grow out of the collapse of communism in Russia. With only a few words of rudimentary Russian, he and his Mamiya 7II and Horeseman 45HD went deep into the eastern abyss and photographed life as seen only through his eyes. Citing Martin Parr as an influence, yet Hornstra’s work skips to a new beat, with hyper colours and intense situational portraiture amidst stunningly detached landscapes. Rob takes it all in, gently rolling it around the lens barrel, seducing colour and line before fucking it, and you, right in the face with a mirthful, candid darkness. He warms my heart and makes me seethe with jealousy. Rob Hornstra everyone.
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Rob Hornstra
what is it that you look for in a photograph that makes it great ? is it something you are conscious of each time you pick up a camera ?
In my documentaries I combine portraits with interiors and landscapes. My aim is that each image makes an intrinsic contribution within the documentary, but also can hold its own as an autonomous image. The photo is not so much a recording of a place or person, but an archetype of that place or person. My goal is that the image becomes timeless as a result and stands as an example for a larger whole, whereby the viewer is forced to make their own interpretation of the image. I am convinced that this has more effect than images that already contain all the answers. how do you get so close – into peoples homes / lives / psyche when you don’t speak their language? do you bring a nice a nice cake? biscuits perhaps?
I bring a nice interpreter (or I try to do that). Sometimes I bring a cake, or Dutch cheese, sometimes not. I don’t have rules or techniques, which I can rely on. It just happens when you start talking to people. I think people trust me after a while. In Russia almost everyone thinks that I am around 20 years old. If they see me working (struggling) with my old looking cameras they often think that I am a student. Maybe that helps me?
for me your work offers glimpses of confrontation. you have an innate ability to take the most telling shot, the one the subject might not have necessarily wanted you to take but the most reflective nonetheless. has this ever gotten you in trouble?
Depends on what you think is trouble. Of course I have been threatened, but have never been beaten up. And my equipment is never stolen or broken by angry people. In some occasions you need luck. Especially when you make photos of people who drink a lot. In particular, the combination of ‘village’ and ‘nightlife’ often gives problems. I work on film, so people never see immediately what the result of my work is. When I show my work afterwards, people are often a little bit disappointed. I think because of my big equipment they expected to look like a fashion model. When they see the pictures, they are facing themselves like they are. So sometimes they are bit disappointed about that. before studying photography, you spent a year as a probation officer. was it then that you felt compelled to document social issues? had you always taken photographs? if so what of
?
I think my first photos in a paper were published when I was 13 or 14. I had two hobbies: speed skating and photography. So I combined these two. At a certain point I had the feeling that my pictures of skaters were better than the pictures I saw in the local newspaper. So I wrote a letter to the picture editor and he invited me to bring him the pictures on Sunday evening after a weekend competition. And so I did. Making pictures, developing, printing and on my bicycle to the house of the picture editor. After a while he started using my pictures. I don’t know if he really thought my pictures were better or that he just felt compassion with a young boy being so fanatical. After a few years I stopped making photos of skaters. My interest was changing. I wanted to go to the Art Academy but my parents didn’t allow me to go. Right now I am happy that I listened to the advice of my parents. So I started to study Social and Legal Services, worked as a probation officer for a while and realised that I still wanted to make photos. I started at the Art Academy when I was 25. And again I combined photography with my own interest: social issues.
Rob Hornstra
Candy Magazine
Rob Hornstra
you are currently working on “the sochi project”. can you tell us a little about that?
In 2014, the Olympic Games will take place in Sochi, Russia. In collaboration with writer/filmmaker Arnold van Bruggen we plan to document the changes in the area around Sochi over the coming five years. The Sochi Project will be a dynamic mix of documentary photography, film and reportage about a world in flux; a world full of different realities within a small but extraordinary geographic area. The Sochi Project is a unique, in-depth and as such a costly project. Newspapers and magazines are unable to undertake or afford a project of this scale. We think it is important that independent, documentary journalism continues to exist. That’s why we are trying to organize this ourselves. And so we are calling on everyone with a love of slow journalism, documentaries or photography to become a bronze, silver or gold donor. Details of the donor benefits can be found on our website www.thesochiproject.org.
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Rob Hornstra
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SIMON HOESBERG
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www.simonhoegsberg.com
Simon Hogsberg
01/   12
Simon Hogsberg
Candy Magazine
man in yellow blazer and glasses
I was thinking about Spencer Roane, who was a chief judge at the Virginia Court of Appeals in the late 18th and early 19th century and wondering whether or not he was a political ally of Daniel L. Hilton – a Virginia planner who was a party in two supreme court cases in February 1796. I’m trying to figure out how he ended up being the defendant in both of these cases. Two cases that had to do with state sovereignty in 1796, and were a sort of a run up to the Jeffersonian revolution in 1800. Hilton was sort of an unknown figure who for some reason ended up being the named party in two really critical constitutional cases in 1796, but no one is sure exactly who he was or why he ended up being the named party. So I’m working on an essay, kind of accumulating all the data that’s available about him and trying to figure out whether or not I can draw a sort of tentative connection to other political figures in late 18th century Virginia. words by simon hogsberg
Simon Hogsberg
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16 The very thought I was thinking is, where’s my friend? And so my friend, David Black, is supposed to come down here and meet me and take a… video-record my project, me breaking it down or putting it back together into the Mobile Coffee Unit and then wheeling it away. So basically I’m out here for four days serving free coffee to the New York citizens and just taking their Polaroid-picture in return, and that’s it, I send them on their way with a smile. I’m actually showing at a gallery right over here which is called Participant Inc., and so they have the coffee-project on exhibit, but typically I don’t exhibit my projects – I just do it out of the… the good will of my heart, I guess. The video is just documentation, I had my friend film me this morning coming out and then film me giving coffee to a few people, and so it’s just kind of to close it up - to, you know, book-end it, and I have a website, and I’m going to put it up on the web. I’ve done this in San Francisco, and I’ve also been doing this other project called The National Dinner Tour, and I’ve visited four cities now. Chicago, LA, New York and Saint Simon’s Island, Georgia, and I take strangers out to dinner - people that I just meet on the street or through referrals of friends or parents of friends and things like that, and so… It’s good times. The other night I went out with two older ladies. I just walked into a restaurant, I was supposed to have met somebody there – a bus driver – and he didn’t show up so I just turned to these two old ladies and asked them if they liked to have dinner, and they said, suuuuuuure, and one of them just so happened to be the… a drummer in the very first all-female band named What Four, F-O-U-R - and she was a riot. And she couldn’t keep her hand off my leg, it was kind of weird, but, you know, whatever, but…yeah, so it has been pretty cool. I’ve gone out to about 15 dinners... I was on the Morning News in Chicago, and so I got, like, 350 emails from people wanting a free dinner, it was… it was a trip, you know. Yeah, it was a little intimidating and very scary, but…I went out with some really wonderful people there – it was really cool.
Simon Hogsberg
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Simon Hogsberg
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Simon Hogsberg
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Simon Hogsberg
woman with sunglasses and dog
Ok, well, did you see the blind guy that walked that way? I looked at him, and I was thinking: Hmmm… That would be an interesting way to get away with a crime - to just walk away with a walking-blind-stick and, like, let the cops swarm around you, and no one would ever think it was you. Not because I want to commit a crime, but I was, like, hmmm, if I ever did want to commit a crime that would be a cool way to get away with it. I don’t do crimes, but nah, I was just thinking about this in general. But it would be a splendid idea, but… I don’t know. I was thinking about looting or something like that – maybe, like, robbing someone and then walking away like you’re a blind guy, having, like, one of those retractable walking sticks in your pant pocket and just going on your merry way with a bag full of cash. bearded man stretching his leg
So… I was trying to think… I left my bicycle over in the Westside of downtown, and I was trying to think how I could walk to my bicycle so that I could also run into a Cliff-bar, which is a nutritional bar… Peanut-butter Cliff-bar, which is all for my breakfast. I needed to walk into an Ice coffee and a Cliff-bar. But my… my leg is very stiff, and I’m not sure why. I want to find the quickest route to my bicycle that would also intersect the Cliff-bar and the coffee. And my leg is stiff… yes. I think it might be from sexual activity… I’m not quite sure… I – I am pretty sure.
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TIMOTHY SAC CENTI
Timothy Sacenti
www.timothysaccenti.com
Candy Magazine
01/   08
Timothy Sacenti
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Timothy Sacenti
O
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N THE TOP FLOOR OF AN APARTMENT BLOCK IN AN INFAMOUS AREA OF THE EAST VILLAGE, NEW YORK CITY, TIMOTHY SACCENTI IS MAKING TEA. SITTING AT HIS WINDOW, OVERLOOKING THE PARK, HE IS ANALYSING THE SMALLEST DETAIL. HE STARES INTO A SPACE COVERED WITH ENDLESS REAMS OF A4 PAPER, NOTATIONS, DRAWINGS, DIRECTIONS AND FEELINGS. MAPS AND GUIDES STOPS,STARTS BEGINNING AND ENDINGS. HE GETS OUT OF THE CHAIR AND SHUFFLES SHOELESS TO THE SUGAR, ADDING ONE MORE. A SMALL SMILE COVERS HIS FACE. HE MUMBLES SOMETHING, CHECKING FOR A NUMBER HE WROTE ON HIS WRIST. IT WON’T BE A PROBLEM. ITS ALL COMING TOGETHER, I PROMISE. HIS LAPTOP IS ROASTING HOT ON THE TURKISH CARPET AND SAT ON ITS EDGE LIKE A BOOK ON A SHELF, HUMMING LIKE A MACHINE THAT MOVES A FOOT A MINUTE. BACK AT THE WINDOW THE THOUGHTS COME BACK LIKE A MIRACLE FLASH OF LIGHTNING STRIKE. HIS EYES WIDEN WHEN THE RESULT APPEARS. words by aidan kelly
Timothy Sacenti
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Timothy Sacenti
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THE ROCK 01/   07 ARCHIVE The Rock Archive
www.rockarchive.com
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The Rock Archive
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The Rock Archive
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do you remember the list of the first 30 prints you were going to use at the start of rock archive? it must have been difficult – what was your criteria?
I remember thinking that I would have to go into my own archive to start this thing off as any mistakes had better be with my images rather than anyone else’s. I started by looking through my book ‘The Moment’, which spanned from 19721995 and that gave me at least 40 possible images that included some colour. I then asked a few colleagues for their choices from the book and they emailed over some suggestions. After a short time I decided to keep Edition 30/30/30 to just black and white prints to make it a more cohesive collection. I went beyond ‘The Moment’ for the final 30 to include some of my best work with Oasis which took it into 2000. The main criteria was that it could (mainly) be printed in the darkroom from the original negatives. who have you been most excited to feature or work with, maybe even star-struck by?
Ray Stevenson is a modest man but his work is awesome. Mick Rock is larger than life and a bigger star than many of his subjects. Kate Simon takes brilliant pictures and she’s a brilliant eccentric woman. Gered Mankowitz – respect to Gered – the first one to realize the intrinsic value of his archive. Fernando Aceves – master of the live shot, Don Hunstein – a simply marvelous body of work and another modest sweetheart. Oh and Terry Spencer who died earlier this year – he was a brave gentleman of the highest order. We all mourned his passing. Kevin Westenberg is a technician with a deep soul and it shows in his work. As for Storm Thorgerson, well he is a genius. Come to think of it I am star-struck by many of the rockarchive photographers!
The Rock Archive
after time did the archive inspire you personally to do more and better work?
Yes it has. I’ve learned so much by looking through the cream of rock photography and some of the dross too. Truly great pictures are often buried in the mire of out of focus rubbish, but good editing is one of the major skills of the RA team especially our maestro printer, Stuart Nichols. I have also been inspired by some of the younger photographers. One of the winners of the PopView Awards really inspired me – his name is Kalle Bjorklid and he is from Finland. Look out for his work in the future. do you think you have achieved what you set out to do? is it important to continue and almost document rock music photography for a new generation?
RA has been a battle that I continue to fight because I believe its continuation is important to rock history and to the genre of traditional and modern photography. I continue to bear many scars in my finances just to keep it afloat. Now I really understand what those Magnum founders went through! Sometimes the photographers are terrible, sometimes I feel like I am bashing my head against a wall when it comes to advising youngsters who want to do what the RA photographers did but can’t because that profession doesn’t exist anymore. However when an exhibition goes up or I walk past the RA gallery in Islington at night it all seems worthwhile. what's the future hold for the rockarchive? are there any new photographers that have caught your eye?
(See my answer above) Must go to bed, Knackered... Jillxx interviewed by aidan kelly answers from jill furmanovsky
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The Rock Archive
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PHOTOGRAPHS ARE A MORE MODERN WAY OF REMEMBERING, AND REMEMBERING IS A VERY COMPLICATED PROCESS. AS PAUL BOWLES WRITES IN THE SHELTERING SKY: “HOW MANY MORE TIMES WILL YOU REMEMBER A CERTAIN AFTERNOON OF YOUR CHILDHOOD, SOME AFTERNOON THAT'S SO DEEPLY A PART OF YOUR BEING THAT YOU CAN'T EVEN CONCEIVE OF YOUR LIFE WITHOUT IT? PERHAPS FOUR OR FIVE TIMES MORE? PERHAPS NOT EVEN THAT. BOWLES WAS WRITING ABOUT REMEMBERING IN RELATION TO DEATH, AND THE FACT THAT DEATH IS 'ALWAYS ON THE WAY' HAS A SUBTLE EFFECT ON MEMORY AND NOSTALGIA. THE IDEA IS THAT WE SOMETIMES TAKE FOR GRANTED THE PROCESS OF REMEMBERING BECAUSE THE DAY TO DAY 'BUSINESS' OF LIVING, IN ESSENCE, UNDERMINES WHAT REALLY MATTERS MOST – THE ESSENCE OF SOULFUL EXISTENCE. »
words by siobhán kane
PHO TOGRA PHY,
Photography, Remebering & Marcella
01/ 03
RE MEMBER ING,
Photography, Remebering & Marcella
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Plato was also obsessed by the idea of memory and time, which is explored in Phaedra – what role memory and imagination plays in the appreciation of the beautiful. For him, memory was a 'wax tablet', for Freud 'a mystic writing pad', for St. Augustine 'a storehouse'. While Freud's discipline was firmly rooted in cognitive psychology, even he admitted that there was something a little 'mystic' about the process, it is not without an emotional context, and traditional studies of memory began in the field of philosophy. However, nineteenth and twentieth century research situated it within cognitive psychology, and more recently it has been placed within the context of cognitive neuroscience, which perhaps provides evidence that we are regressing rather than advancing, depending on your own way of 'seeing'. In any case, photography is as much about a way of remembering, as it is seeing. It is evidence of a moment in time; a shared experience between photographer and subject. Régis Debray views photography as a 'technology of memory', as much as painting, writing and sound. And yet, photography is possibly the most powerful metaphor for memory; an evocative shorthand. There are so many explorations of this shorthand, from Giuseppe Tornatore's ‘Cinema Paradiso’, to Deirdre O'Callaghan's extraordinary ‘Hide That Can’ photography project (four years work of capturing the destitute Irish in Arlington House, London), from the artwork for Kate Bush’s 1982 ’The Dreaming’, to the powerhouse of Magnum (founded in 1947), and the modest but powerful political (and otherwise) engaging of Bill Doyle's (often cited as Ireland's Henri CartierBresson) work. In fact, Cartier-Bresson provided an interesting take on the essential spirit of his own photography: Magnum is a community of thought, a shared human quality, a curiosity about what is going on in the world, a respect for what is going on, and a desire to transcribe it visually. »
& MARCE LA
Photography, Remebering & Marcella
Candy Magazine
For cartier-bresson, photography was not simply about providing a visual, factual, statement - it was about an experience. he eschewed the idea of reading about something like the battle of waterloo written by a dispassionate historian; instead elevating something like stendhal’s charterhouse of parma: You're inside the battle, and you live the small, significant details... life isn't made of stories that you cut into slices like an apple pie. There's no standard way of approaching a story. We have to evoke a situation, a truth. This is the poetry of life's reality. The 'small, significant details' and the 'poetry of life's reality' are what makes up the core of Jan Troells' most recent film Eviga Ögonblick (Everlasting Moments) which is not about the power of photography over haute couture or war zones, but a working-class woman's life – Maria Larsson, set in Sweden in the early 1900's. Winning a camera sets her off on a journey that literally impacts her way of seeing and in turn, living photography gives her a kind of emotional freedom, unlocking elements that had been ground down by disappointment and despair over the years. Photography becomes a way of not only understanding the people around her and her environment (taking in politics and true love along the way), but also, and perhaps most importantly, herself – a gift that photography gives her. Again, photography becomes the greatest metaphor for memory, as boxing is perhaps the greatest metaphor for the raw struggle of life. What makes Troell's film even more powerful is that it is borne of real experience (a relative of Troell's wife Agneta Ulstater Troell, whose book the film is based on). In a sense this film pays homage to the most powerful truth of all – that though we can be moved and provoked by iconic images, from advertising to political photojournalism, the most powerful kind of photography is the personal, the kind of 'everlasting moments' that Troell meditates on in his film, and that personal photography goes to the heart of what it is to live and connect in this world.
Whether coming across a picture of an elegant grandfather in an old shoebox, a shoddy snap of laughing with friends at a music festival, embracing your beloved, stroking a horse - these are images that can, in a moment, fill the heart with warmth, and sometimes pain, they can render you lost for words, debilitated. — because the instant memory of it, whether experienced personally or through a more remote kind of memory (for example, hearing stories about a grandparent you never knew) is as fleeting as it is necessary, and so delicate, because as Bowles suggests, the recollection of that memory is not infinite, something we all too often (and ironically) forget. However, evidence of memory and experience is all that really remains, and in turn, the process of remembering about living. This photograph is of my Aunt Marcella, taken sometime in the late seventies, coinciding roughly with when I was born into the world. Little could my Aunt have known then how much she would go on to inspire and influence her niece, how my sense of seeking and expanding my imaginative world is partly because of her, and when cycling up Leeson Street I often think of the little flat she used to keep there, an explosion of elegant dresses. And though she lives back in the West now, an imprint of her experience is still within this city, and within me. This photograph evokes so much; it is both ethereal and very real, she is both a beautiful young woman living in the world, and the woman that would go on to be my inspiring, beloved Aunt - it is an everlasting moment. siobhán kane. dublin
AMANDINE ALE SSAN DRA Amandine Alessandra
www.amandinealessandra.com
Candy Magazine
01/   08
Amandine Alessandra
when did photography become relevant to you as a form of expression? what was the inspiration?
I actually trained as a video/installation artist in Marseilles. I was interested by the experience of perceiving oneself as if someone else, from outside. Freud described it as Das Unheimliche ("The 'Uncanny') when recounting the anecdote of him mistaking his own silhouette for a stranger's in the mirrored door at the end of his train compartment. Bruce Nauman's work has always been a huge source of inspiration. I'm especially thinking of this installation in which the spectator goes through a corridor, being recorded by a video camera on his back, whose picture is projected in front of him on a screen at the end of the corridor. He follows himself as if it was someone else, alienated by a vision of himself he isn't used to. And obviously he can never see his face. It’s the same primitive experience as the one of a monkey mistaking his own reflection for a sibling's. It is also the myth of Narcissus, falling in love with is own image on the water. More and more my video work came to be very long still shots, often about the human figure in the landscape, and it's very naturally that film became photography. would you consider yourself obsessed with other peoples experiences? do they attract you as a measure to your own life?
The series Follow, Strangers, Sleepers and Purposivelessness all depict the Other as a fortress. When gazing at someone for a long time, without making eye-contact, that person remains unaccessible: nothing happens as no communication occurs. It’s the same experience as the one we come across when scrutinising someone in the tube and looking away slightly ashamed when the person suddenly turns back to us, as one becomes the object of the gaze. In my pictures this moment is delayed forever.
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Amandine Alessandra
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Amandine Alessandra
Candy Magazine
Is there a distance between yourself and the rest of the world? are you just an observer or can you change perception? I started the collection Purposivelessness without even being aware of it. A few years ago, as I was sorting out piles and piles of prints, portraits of a dreamy figure in a landscape appeared as a recurrent pattern. I realised that I had been taking that sort of picture for years. As the kind of camera they are shot with varies, I see it more as a collection of moments than as a series. I'm interested in capturing this moment when people escape the space we share physically by de-focusing in the landscape while deep in their thoughts. The landscape is what they look at but not what they think of. The photography almost becomes part of a ‘mise en abîme’ installation: the character photographed is being looked at by the photographer, who is being looked at by an audience. The audience sees what the photographer sees, which is what the model sees. This echo is taken one step further with follow. In 2005, I got selected to show Purposivelessness in a photographic festival in Kaunas, Lithuania. The show includes, as well the photographer I was assisting, Gina Glover. On the way to Kaunas, we travelled through Lithuania, and this is how Gina started what would become her project ‘Objects of Colours: Baltic Coast’, which has since been published into a book. For the needs of the making of this project of hers, we regularly travelled back to Eastern Europe, in Poland, Latvia, Estonia, the former Eastern Germany throughout 4 years. Unbeknownst to Gina, as she was focusing on her subject, I started to use her as my own subject. She never knew anything of it until the project was completed under the form of a book. 'Follow' turned out to be an intimate portrait of the photographer at work, as well as a reflection on the role of the assistant as the artist's shadow, silent and present. Gina's series and mine have now been exhibited together, my work contemplating hers gazing into the landscape. My position as a photographer is definitely the one of an observer's observer.
Amandine Alessandra
Candy Magazine
Amandine Alessandra
where are you and what are you working on now?
I live and work in London as a photographer and graphic designer; I also set up a commercial practice of interior photography – www.interior-photography.net/ The loop/mise en abîme aspect of the project I'm working on at the moment (which is a French obsession, apparently) is what remains from my photographic and video-based practice. My current research is installation-based; it looks at word and image as a couple, one adding to the other. I'm experimenting on how to draw a relationship between a place, a statement, and hand-made typography devised for this very context. The result is a series of photographs. One of these series is based on Thomas Fuller's statement, "A book that is shut is but a block". I thought of this experiment as a tautology: shut books that are therefore just blocks used to talk about the fact that shut books are just blocks, used as a typographic grid. Books are considered for their shape and colour, rather than content. Building up the letters also reminded me very much of typesetting, as every type made of coloured books had to be blocked with white books, just as it is done in letterpress, where large areas of white space are created by wooden blocks called furniture. Body as letter form is an experiment that takes advantage of the fact that a lot of the typographic vocabulary is based on the human body: anatomy, body size, head piece, footers. Same thing for the book: a book has a head, joints, a spine, back and foot. Another series, called ‘Take a seat and say something’, uses a chair as a matrix for an alphabet. Each letter is a meaningless installation if seen on its own, but becomes decipherable when a few of them are put together as words. Objects become readable.
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Amandine Alessandra
how has photography changed you as a person and as an artist?
I can't get bored with a camera. The duller the situation, the better, as one is drawn to things one wouldn't notice or take time to observe and understand in an exciting or obviously photogenic context.   What is more, I find it difficult to remember anything that I didn't take a picture of or didn't consciously record somehow. It's not about the actual printed (or uploaded) photograph, the film, the drawing or the note on the situation; there is no need to see any of it ever again, it's more about the decision one takes when focusing both one's lens and attention onto an event (or non-event) Flickr is, somehow, my brain's back up. interviewed by aidan kelly
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01/ 07 www.neilgavin.com
NEIL GAVIN
Neil Gavin
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EIL GAVIN WAS BORN AND RAISED IN DUBLIN. HE SPENT 4 YEARS WORKING AS AN ASSISTANT TO PERRY OGDEN BEFORE MOVING TO LONDON AND BECOMING A RESPECTED PHOTOGRAPHER IN HIS OWN RIGHT. HIS COMMERCIAL AND EDITORIAL CLIENTS READ LIKE AN ALL TIME 'OOH, I'D LOVE TO WORK FOR THEM ' LIST. NEIL IS A PASSIONATE AND CONSUMATE PROFESSIONAL, WITH AN INNATE UNDERSTANDING OF PEOPLE, AND ON FURTHER INVESTIGATION HE IS, RATHER DISAPPOINTINGLY, A REALLY NICE GUY. interviewed by jp keating
Neil Gavin
given half the chance i would bathe perry ogden daily in personally procured yaks milk to work with him. how and why did you initially approach working for him ? how important is it, do you think, for a photographer to work as an apprentice before breaking out on their own ?
I had seen Perry’s fashion pictures in a number of British magazines at the time and noticed how many of the shoots had been done in Ireland. After some research I found out he lived in Dublin. He was the only photographer I knew of in Ireland who worked internationally. I called his studio a few times and eventually got to meet him and show him some of my work. Soon after, I began working as a 3rd assistant on shoots in Dublin and not long after that I made the jump to first assistant. Nowadays, a lot of photography students consider themselves more as artists and are therefore more inspired by photography theorists rather than other photographers.   It really depends on the type of work you would like to do. To have a career as a fashion, portrait or commercial photographer, I think you must work as an assistant. Apart from learning a lot of the aesthetic and technical aspects involved, you also get to meet a lot of potential future clients. It can be difficult to get a foot in the door of many magazines if you don’t have any contacts...
Candy Magazine
Neil Gavin
Candy Magazine
one of your current projects focuses on irish creative talent in london. is the location of the portraits a collaborative decision or do you let your sitter's personality dictate their surroundings? has anyone ever suggested a set up that makes your heart heavy but you go along with it knowing that its your turn next ?
This is one of the first personal projects I’ve undertaken as a professional photographer. Until recently I had always worked on photographs specific to furthering my portfolio. I wanted to work on a self-generated project not initiated by commercial work. Two years ago, I bought a large format 5x4inch camera after seeing an exhibition photograph by Alec Soth. It was a huge print entitled “Melissa, Canada, Flamingo Inn” from his “Niagara” project. I was really inspired by his 10x8 inch large format portrait work. With my project the goal is to document these people as they become more established in their chosen fields and also to help them promote their work as Irish artists at home in Ireland and Irish arts abroad. I have been photographing these people away from their usual environments. So many subjects today seem over photographed and disposable but the large format camera is more calculated and formal. I don’t want to photograph a painter in his studio holding his brushes. I am trying to make the portraits a collaboration – an agreement. I’m going to continue working on this project with Irish artists in other countries. I don’t think anybody has suggested a set up to me I didn’t like. I think they trust me and go with what I choose. However, this is something that happens frequently when working with clients but you can usually try out their ideas, show them a Polaroid, then try your own idea and find it works better.
Neil Gavin
there seems to be a huge level of intimacy between you and your sitter, it's as if there's a momentary break in conversation, one in which you have led them to a certain point of truth. sometimes they have said something they shouldn't or didn't mean. a split second of vulnerability, shutter opens and closes, and it's there forever. have i read way too far into your work?
It is important to have an understanding of people. To be sensitive and to be aware your subject. I don’t usually like to push my subjects to do anything they’re not comfortable with. As a lot of my portraits are taken in “real-life” situations rather than against a white studio backdrop. I like the photographs to seem as if I’m just capturing a moment from their lives… However, there’s a story I love about Richard Avedon.When he was photographing the Duke and Duchess of Windsor in the 50’s, they had looked “ravaged and sad” until he began to photograph them. Then they put on their “royal faces”. So, disappointed and desperate, he told them his taxi had just run over a dog. He knew what dog lovers they were and he told them this lie to coax a reaction he wanted from them… forgetting the current economic pile of cowen pat that is ireland, if things got better in the future is there anything that could draw you back to dublin
— professionally speaking , or are all sights and sustainability firmly locked on london? There are a lot of great things about Ireland…. Guinness for one. Ireland is a wonderful place for taking photographs. The light can be so beautiful. Unfortunately there aren’t many great outlets for photography in Ireland that I’m aware of. To work as a serious editorial photographer you need to pursue international magazines in London or New York.
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Neil Gavin
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Neil Gavin
digital imaging or indeed digital post processing – is it a blessing or are too many photographers carving a career from sitting in front of a screen instead of taking good photographs first time around ?
There are advantages and disadvantages to digital imaging. I think digital has made photographers lazier. Personally, I rather like working with old fashioned film and concentrating on getting the photograph right first time around. I do, however, shoot digital when asked. More and more commercial clients want digital files. I do very little retouching with my photographs but I do find when shooting digital you end up taking too many photographs and spend much more time sitting in front of a screen editing. Another disadvantage I find with shooting digital, especially in studio when a camera is tethered to a computer, is that suddenly everybody on the shoot becomes an art director. For me, one of the greatest aspects of photography has been the thrill of taking the picture and nervously waiting for the film to come back from the lab…. not for it to be so instantaneous.
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ALEX PRAGER 01/ 08 Alex Prager
A
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LEX PRAGER'S WORLD'S APART IN THE DEPTHS OF WHAT RESEMBLES CALIFORNIA AND THE SURROUNDING DESERTS, BACKYARDS AND HIGHWAYS TO THE BEACH. IT'S EERIE, SAD AND BRIMFUL OF MYSTICAL STORIES THAT END IN KILLINGS. HER WORK SPARKLES WITH GLOSS AND OVER PRODUCTION. THE HEAT OF THESE PARTICULAR WORKS PLAY TRICKS ON THE MIND, YOU THINK YOU SEE HAPPINESS AND CONTENT IN A POST 60’S VALHALLA, BUT IT’S CLAMMY, SWEAT AND NERVES. A NIGHT CASE WITH MAKE UP, HAIRSPRAY, BUBBLE GUM AND A SMITH AND WESSON FOR TROUBLE SHOOTING LATER. AN ESCAPE PLAN AND A PICK UP TRUCK THAT DUMPS YOU BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD. NAIL ON THE HEAD, PRAGER HAS CAPTURED ANGST IN A MESSED UP AMERICA. DIRT – SLEAZY, STICKY AND TEARFUL TO THE END. SIXTY FIVE IN THE SHADE.
www.alexprager.com
interviewed by aidan kelly
Alex Prager
what inspired such a photographic reaction? is it something fashion influenced, or is it how you would like to see the world?
It’s really more of a peek at what’s going on inside my head. from our side of the water can you see that it looks ultra american ? are you portraying a stereotype in an ironic way? what's the objective?
The idea behind this series is that these girls are acting out their lives in a sort of melodramatic, soap opera actress kind of way. Everything they do is very serious and heartfelt, but because it's all a bit overdone, and their makeup and hair is always freshly made, the whole thing has a hint of comedy in it, or at least I think so! Yes, I’m being sort of ironic. It's one way of looking at women. do you think you could make the transition to motion pictures, or is that something you would choose to avoid?
I am curious about that. I haven’t tried anything yet, but it’s definitely something I’ve thought about. is there a autobiographical slant to these works? are they scenes from your life relived? does the work make you happier when completed, providing closure?
The pictures usually come from scenes in real life that I then exaggerate in my head. Yes, if the picture comes out well, then I’m happier when it’s completed. this can't go on forever can it? what's next for you?
I have a new series coming out in December called 'Way Out West'. I’m also working on a little project with my sister, which should come out sometime in early 2010..
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Alex Prager
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Alex Prager
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Alex Prager
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JESPER LIND STRÖM Jesper Lindstrom
www.jesperlindstrom.com
Candy Magazine
01/ 07
Jesper Lindstrom
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Jesper Lindstrom
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Jesper Lindstrom
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Jesper Lindstrom
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www.jpkeating.com
J.P KEATING 01/   07
J.P Keating
O
J.P Keating
VER COFFEE AND CIGARETTES, THE LIST OF DESIRED OBJECTIVES GROWS STEADILY. WITH A DETERMINATION TO GET ON WITH IT, UNDER STRESS OF DOUBT AND UNCONVINCING ASSURANCE THAT THE WORK BEING DONE IS BRILLIANT, IT DOESN’T MATTER. THERE’S SOMETHING MISSING. IT’S TOO DARK, IT’S NOT FUNNY OR EQUALLY SAD ENOUGH, IT’S NOT STRONG IN PLACES THAT IT SHOULD BE,WHAT REALLY IS THE POINT TO ALL THIS? BUT A FLASH OF LIGHT AND COLOUR BRINGS THE SITUATION BACK TO LIFE, HE COMES UPON AN ANGLE, A BLACK AND WHITE RESPONSE TO THE UNANSWERED QUESTION THAT WAS ASKED IN THE FIRST PLACE. SIMPLY WORK THE SUBJECT MATTER INTO A FRAME, BUILD SLOWLY TOWARDS THE TURN, THE LOOK FROM THE HIM OR THE HER. WAIT WITH PATIENCE UNTIL THEY SAY YES WITHOUT SPEAKING AND GET THE SHOT LIKE YOU WERE TAUGHT TO. CAPA SAID “IF THE WORK ISN’T GOOD ENOUGH, YOU’RE NOT CLOSE ENOUGH”. KEATING IS TRYING TO GET CLOSER AND AT THE SAME TIME HOPES TO ANSWER UNANSWERED QUESTIONS HE’S HAD ON HIS MIND FOR QUITE SOME TIME. words by aidan kelly
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J.P Keating
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J.P Keating
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www.dotthe.com/dotthe
VAGNER GRISOSTOMO Vagner Grisostomo
01/   08
Vagner Grisostomo
how long have you been taking photos? what do you think makes your work personal to you?
Well, it has been around seven years ago. I remember once when I was working in a film company as financial assistant. Every morning when we received the newspapers, I always keep one for me and I started to cut off the good photos and put in a small plastic bag to make my collection of photos of "best photos in newspaper". At the same time I was studying journalism and one day I receive a flyer from Fuji Film talking about basics courses. I did it and few months after I started a class of photojournalism in the college. Since then, I've been thinking and working with some photography projects. your work celebrates the ordinary objects and experiences in life. is your work diary or blog inspired by this and do you feel like taking photos everyday?
I'm not sure but think it's a little of both. I've learnt many things about photojournalism and it helped me to focus on things that happen every day. When you work for a newspaper or magazine you have briefs to do, places to go and rules to follow. That's good, that's a the real "class" and you can learn a lot doing it. I work in the same way but I don't make rules and if I do it, I break them minutes after I've done.   Every day when you are walking on the streets you can see thousands of things happening at the same time and there's always something that nobody sees. When I go out (holding a camera or not) I try to pay attention in "small" things that are happening. Then it becomes my "brief " and finally I work on it, taking photos and exploring different point of view. It happens most of time, but it's not every day.
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Vagner Grisostomo
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Vagner Grisostomo
Candy Magazine
people also feature heavily in your work. do you see your work telling a story of life around you?
Yeah. Definitely I do. I always try to tell a story when I taking photos and I get a lot of emails with different conclusion of those. That's brilliant! Everyone can see the same photos and understand a story. Actually, that's the "glamour" of photography. The scene, the action, the happening is captured and it's up to everyone to understand whatever they want to. I have a photographic project called "Wagon #3" that I spent around 10 hours traveling by train from Oslo to Bergen (Norway). Then, I started to take photos and told everyone what people do inside a wagon on a long trip like that. The funny and amazing thing is that nobody saw when I did it. (smile). what are you working on at the moment? how do you think you'll become a better photographer?
At the moment I'm working on two different projects and it has keeping myself busy for a while. The first one is a workshop of photography for Special Olympics athletes. I and another photographer, Denis Keane, started this project last year when they choose photography as a new subject for their activities. It has been a pleasure working with them. All the athletes and staffs got involved and instead of one workshop we did four last year and this year we are doing again end of June. The second one is a brand new photography collective called "ten-thirteen". It's a website directed by myself and Erin Whelan (an amazing photographer) that every month has a different theme. The 10 best submits, with the 13 photos about the theme, will be shown up on the website. It's not a competition, it's a place to introduce new photographers, to learn and share knowledge. – Find out more: http://tenthirrteen.com. Definitely you become a better photographer taking photos, trying new experiences, sharing knowledge and respecting your colleagues, clients and the people who you work with. To be a great photographer is not only to get an amazing scene or something like that. You have to work and think about what I mentioned above. That's what I think and I've done. interviewed by aidan kelly
Candy Magazine
www.aidan−kelly.com
AIDAN KELLY
Aidan Kelly
01/ 10
Aidan Kelly
W
Candy Magazine
HEN I’M GRIPPED WITH FEAR AND DESOLATION, ANGER AND SPITE, TEARS IN MY EYES, I DON’T BUCKLE ANYMORE. I STAND THERE AND TAKE THE FORCE OF THE BLOW. I AM CITY CENTRE. I BLOCK AND PARRY, MOVE ON AND ALONG, WALKING THIS FANTASTIC CITY WITH A SONG DRUMMING IN MY HEAD, MY FATHER SANG. MY MOTHER SANG. MY SISTER LAUGHED AND THE LOVE OF MY LIFE KEEPS SAYING, EVERYTHINGS GOING TO BE ALRIGHT. THE DUBLIN DEAD AND GONE HAS CHANGED ITS CLOTHES AND BELIEFS MANY TIMES, AND PAST IS PAST. NOTHING MATTERS MUCH, BUT THE FUTURE AHEAD. words by aidan kelly
Aidan Kelly
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Aidan Kelly
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Aidan Kelly
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