A couple of weeks ago I participated in an online project called SPARK, which pairs writers with visual artists in order to promote creativity and new ideas.

Pairs are randomly assigned and start by exchanging a piece of work to act as inspiration. Each then responds in their own medium, be it writing, painting, sculpture …or photography, using the inspiration piece in any way they see fit.

The project was both challenging and fun. So much in fact, that I decided to document my experience on a page here. You can read my “inspiration piece”, see the photograph that resulted and find out what I went through to get it.

I’m looking forward to doing this again!

…better late than never, as they say.

Finally here is the new “Picture of the month” for June!

“Constellation No 9″ is part of a new series I am (thinking of) working on, which incorporates text fragments or numbers into the image. The idea is to divorce the characters from any sense of meaning so that they become simply an abstract part of the picture.

The old nail heads remind me of a stellar constellation (hence the title). Fortunately they do not resemble any actual constellation (…and there are not nine of them!). I love the utilitarian effect of the stencil and the additional modern screws that also speak to the effects of age.

Over the next few days I will be adding about 30 new images to the gallery. This will mean additions to nearly every category including curve, shadows, and touch series. I anticipate that some of these images will eventually become new series of their own (two in particular, tentatively called “View Through” and Secret Places”). Keep checking!

Hope you like.

I have always had a secret yearning for the simple life. A time when cameras didn’t always produce the results you expected. The thrill of getting that paper packet back from the chemist’s and seeing which pictures had “come out”.

I have memories (though sadly not the pictures) of taking my first Kodak Instamatic to Windsor Castle and London Zoo at the age of six or seven. What I remember most, however, are not the perfect shots but the happy accidents. Interesting double exposures and pictures taken when I didn’t mean to. (I remember a great picture of a guardsman, tilted at about 30 degrees, taken from waist height, probably as I was fumbling to take the camera out of its case).

Clearly I am not the only person to have these memories. The Russian (or is it Chinese?) “Holga” has been popular with the photo crowd for some time, and the image distorting “Lens Baby” lenses, which can make real life seem like toyland, have been a huge hit.

Now comes another entrant to the lo-fi genre.

Hideki Ohmori’s “Blackbird Fly” is a strange beast almost 15 years in the making. Ohmori started in 1995 with a light-leaking, plastic 35-mm camera he portrayed simply as “a box with a secret inside that converts every view with affection.”

This new model, however, is not a remaking of an old design, but a brand new camera made exclusively for the burgeoning lo-fo market. With a price tag of $125 — kinda steep for a toy.

The idea is to bring back the warmth and unpredictability of the old days, when a photograph was not a faithful representation of reality, but a surprising and quirky take on the world that made us re-think, re-assess and see things in a whole new way.

(From Wired: here.)