so far….

This month my ´Wasted´ project has been shown at the excellent LOOKbetween and Slideluck Potshow events in the U.S. and London respectively. You can see the piece i presented below.

For a full writeup of my perspective on LOOKbetween, please go here

´Wasted´ shown at LOOKbetween and Slideluck Potshow from david bowen on Vimeo.

the projection screen at deep rock farm, virginia

the outlook for LOOKbetween

I´m beginning to think more about the details of book design now.. there is a cover image, 4 differing sequences of the edit and alternative ideas for page layout. A couple of colleagues – excellent writers who have their own books published – are interested in contributing an essay each and initial emails are going out to publishers and photo-bloggers.

The book will also have a couple of stories written by me – breaking up sets of themed photos or chapters. To jog my memory i dug through a bag of old press passes.. and it all began to flood back.. about sex tourists and a lunatic asylum in Estonia.. propositions from butch men in San Fransisco.. the most deranged of party cruses on the Baltic Sea, getting The Fear at Big Chill and missing plane after plane from Barcelona – a difficult city to leave at the best of times.

Press passes, hotel key cards and other junk would be good to use somewhere in the book.. perhaps the photo above could be used on the inside front and rear covers… or individual passes tucked between paragraphs of essays..

it feels good to be getting close to a conclusion on the final book. Hopefully there will be a hard back mock-up and a limited box-set of signed prints ready to sell or distribute to publishers by mid-summer.

firstly – apologies for not posting in a long while.. there has been a great deal of thought and development of ideas since i last posted.. the spaced out gap before the last 100 meters… and those last 100 meters are well in sight now.

all photography for this project has been shot on film, and it was not until 2002 or 2003 when my clients became able to accept digital files. until that time – from 1998 – delivery was either by slide or as 7 by 5 prints.

test contact-sheet - back to basics, leeds

what this means is that at least 4 years worth of the project only exists in negative form, and now that i´m at the stage where my digital archive is relatively organized, edited and stripped down to about 400 photos, it´s time to digitize and look at the rest – the early work.

rather than individually contact print each page of negatives, or negative scan each strip of 6 images, the easiest way seems to be this – taping grease proof paper to the window, taping each page of negatives to the paper and photographing the page, back lit with daylight… above is the first test, which needs refining.

hopefully this will make short work of the 16 overstuffed neg files of pages and as yet un-filed strips bundled together. i´m budgeting a day to photograph the lot and probably two days to label and sort them.

i will post the most interesting contact sheets here.

my home office right now is actually no more than a corner of our baby change room.. i sit at the desktop mac, photoshelter and photographs open to edit live, with beates laptop open on skype to my right… the internet jack is bust so a hairband hooked over the table edge holds it in place.
still..

professionalism is a state of mind and we´re moving in a couple of weeks anyway – firstly to Croatia for 5 weeks where i will be working and onwards.. elsewhere...

the first suggestion was that i wrote lots of single words on a piece of paper and jiggle them around until something settled. what settled was ´world party´ which, without wanting to be disrespectful to them, sounds a little too much like a band from the 80´s who were much adored by those with little interest in music.. (see also ´the lighthouse family´).

¨A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence.
~Leopold Stokowski¨

and so a week or two ago i hit the quotation sites on the web and found some cracking quotes which i could cream a couple of words from.. quotes about music..
i mentioned a couple and that led to David telling me that all of Martin Parr’s book titles are taken straight off the pages of tabloid newspapers.. superb..

sonar in Barcelona 2000

David then clicked on the photo above – hastily titled ´wasted asleep´, before i banged it away to the magazine client in 2000..
wasted.. wasted youth.. my wasted career.. ´Jesus wept – i was wasted last night´.
wasted.
wasted seems like a good name.. trashy.. evocative and provocative.. it´s the number one title for now.. please suggest if you have one better.

layout was also on my need-to-talk about list.
early on in the process David cast doubt on the idea that i need to include day and night photos – thinking the day snaps simply did not fit my style or point.
however, i have wrestled with it and cannot disregard them.
there are some photos i love which will be left out of the book, such as the one below , because they do not fit aesthetically but i have been unable to discount the day ones simply because of the lack of flash.

san francisco NYE 2001

the trick now is going to be in blending them all without using formal chapters.. and i´m excited to say that i think there is a solution.

we chatted about the book needing to hold some of the energy of the events photographed and how to achieve this.. it cannot be as clean and beautifully gentle as Davids ´divided soul´ because my life, the people in the photos and the events themselves were anything but that.
so there will be 4 or 5 ´breaks´ or visual bookmarks to section off the book..
double pages with upwards of 10 or 15 photos scrambled onto them perhaps, (below), as photographed 6 by 4´s laid on a table or perhaps in a cleaner, patchwork style.

they could then be roughly themed upon the full page photos on the following pages of the book..
a visual break between style, content or aesthetic which will enable the use of day photos and also allow the use of photos which are less suitable for full page use.. snaps that are good for telling the story, but which do not warrant a full page..

following the work chat comes the general chat..
burn magazine..
a 1978 copy of national geographic with some of Davids work..
and teaching, photography and the eternal question of WHY we photograph?

sometimes though it is better not to think why and to simply do.. and i´m certainly glad that i did DO for so many years :ø) really enjoying this book right now..

many thanks again for your help and advice David – it is always motivating and downright fun to chat with you..
d

i uploaded 100 photos to the photoshelter account we are editing through.. these were made up of a mixture of photos – some of my fav photos from music events mixed with some personal photos from the travels and some contextual photos – signs, objects and the like, which i thought may end up being used as part of the story i need to tell.

david and anton, the burn magazine guru, sat down together and once i was in-front of the skype camera with an aesthetically pleasing background, (for davids sensibilities:ø), we went through the photos one by one.. talking… questioning.. and working out the best way forward.

in the end a 5 star mark was assigned to the ones to keep and a delete cross to the ones to loose.. the middle ground photos were left unmarked and it is probably from these that i will select to complete the narrative – the fillers… if i need to use them..

from the 100 david selected 28 to keep.. the best outright photos and the benchmark for the future scans. there were 12 to delete and the rest to consider possible.

the deleted ones were mostly of objects and signs – also personal photos which i was considering which would make the book more biographical.. these are in the background now.. and are unlikely to be used.

the reasons for this are twofold – firstly – i have a clear idea of what needs to be achieved with the book. i need a home for my photography past and present.. a home to take me off the cycle of freelancing alone on short hops.. and a book which will move my career up a notch, since i believe that my best work is still ahead of me.
what i need from my first book is my very best work.. the work which i know to be the best and which illustrates the unique view and attitude i have while working.
more personal work will be kept back for a retrospective or at the least a book in the vein of chris steele-perkins excellent echos.

this work may be more of interest once i have established my first book.. within that context.. and perhaps once my work has settled into the new rythem it now requires..
traveling every week on short term commissions has taken it’s toll and i am looking for longer periods away to concentrate on specific areas of interest, without the commercial pressure nor the loneliness of life on the road as a one man band.
towards that end a month long project in the balkens is already being planned for this summer.

the second reason to keep back some of the photos is for the sake of tightness – keeping my vision absolutely clear on this first venture.
serving magazines for more than 10 years has led me to become accustomed to presenting a mixed edit from short weekly commissions – half which i know the magazine want to see and half what i enjoy shooting.
the photos i enjoy shooting are mine and these are the ones the book must contain to serve it’s purpose..
i have been trying to please others with my initial edits for this book – mixing my fav photos with ones i think others would like.. this is not the way to go, and after talking with david i recognize this as a hangover from working within the magazine circus for so long.. a second nature or instinct i can now shake off.

some interesting points
1 – once i had spoken with david live, as we can with this edit process, and realized my shortcomings with this first presentation of 100 snaps i could see through the fog directly to the photos i love the best.. the photos david was looking the closest at.
i mentioned that i thought the ´keeper´ photographs he was seeing would probably come to around 25.. and that was close to the eventualy figure of 28 because i know the photos so well now.. i know the rough mix between my favs and ones i thought were needed / wanted by others.. those invisible mag editors i have learnt to please.

2 – david is a very good mind to work with .. in editing.. in conversation.. there is nothing but respect from him for photographers and to have my work treated with sincerity, (much more than perhaps some magazine editors) was a growing experience. when i first joined road trips after climbing off the commission treadmill i needed that sincerity to get stuck into my archive without the nagging self doubt we all have of our own efforts.

3 – editing live and seeing his choices develop fermented the direction i need to go.. photographically and with respect to my career..
having his respected input was without a doubt the most valuable side effect of the live edit. i know where i need to go and have done for some time.
we all need the opinions of people who have lived a life of photography and that is something i just do not have where i live.. a small town by the sea in norway.
the internet and the live edit – burn now as was road trips before – has provided an incredible outlet for rediscovering my work..

the importance of talking about photography with people who really love photography can not be overstated… even my best friends would have difficulty understanding where i am coming from but editing live with david there is an instant recognition of the lifestyle and the results of that lifestyle.. photography, as it is, being much more than simply pressing the shutter release for most snappers.

the only way to talk with balance about some things is with people who have been through the same process.. and whatever kind of photography you practice there will be a snapper on burn who can relate and help you grow.

after editing and looking back for the past year there have been times i have stalled in the process for weeks on end.. then there have been higher times when everything falls into place..

others comments are so well taken.. they have influenced ideas and formed questions to david in my mind..so please – keep them coming.. good, bad or ugly they will all contribute greatly.

just in the final throws of starting a work-in-progress page for BURN magazine, magnum photos educational facility set up by david harvey.

the idea is two fold for me – firstly i have stalled somewhat on the editing of my music work, mainly due to being overwhelmed by the volume of photographs – so i need the benefit of a deadline and some pressure.
secondly i am really looking forward to talking about the work with respected peers..
the ultimate choice of photographs for the book will of course be mine, and i am not looking for a list of peoples favorites, but i really hope people want to engage with what i am trying to do.. i hope people challenge me philosophically as well as with regards to my aesthetic sensibilities and therefore help me make the best educated edit that i can.

that´s the big idea and i will post here once the work goes live.

after a long wait my negatives have finally arrived in norway, which means i can now get stuck into completing the edit for my book ‘decade’..
that´s not the full story though.
16 over-filled A4 ring-binders hold personal or professional work shot over the past 18 years in a couple of dozen different countries… boxes of uncut 35mm film shot for commercial purposes remain un-filed along with uncounted rolls from gigs, after-parties and other occasions.. and there is a ‘magic-film’ bag with perhaps 30 or 40 rolls of undeveloped 120 and 35mm film, saved over time to the point i cannot remember what’s on them.. stuffed into a plastic bag due to a previous lack of funds to develop them.. god knows what’s there.

the photos go much further back than music work from the past 10 years and i’m looking forward to seeing india and tibetan refugees again, through the eyes of a naive and more than slightly mind-altered 18 year old..
being a new father, now more than ever the periods of my life where i have introduced an element of risk are coming to mind.. and this time with more of an idea of what my parents must have thought; about what i was trying to do and whether it was worth it, about illness and if i’d survive the next natural disaster or bout of dysentery. neither of them really understood my photography and dad died young – when i was 19 and after only a couple of my photographic journeys abroad.. he never saw the ’sense’ which came from my work further down the road, seeing only the tough times and drive towards seemingly nowhere… towards nothing tangible..
mum still wants me to get a proper job.. teaching is the closest i have got to somewhere she understands, and upon hearing about the lecturing i am now doing it’s her belief that i have reached some kind of goal.. a conclusion in her mind which is not in mine.
i think this comes from their own history;
dad – a black-taxi driver in london for decades.. his father was a fireman, killed during the toughest night of bombing during the WW2 blitz of the east-end..
mum’s family clawed up the social ladder with hard work and graft, living just outside london.. little rewarded..
to them both what i was trying to do had no basis in the realities of a life which they had understood to be near impossibly tough.. war babies who were encouraged to eat the fat off the bacon, while i rejected the fat as waste.
where these meandering thoughts lead is here – when i get a book finished, be it about music or the projects from india, there is no question who they must be dedicated to first and foremost.. that is, those who suffered, waiting for phone-calls too infrequent, and tolerating a single-mindedness which they could not understand..
spending their life looking after a small soul with it’s own ideas, needs and ambitions.. just as i am now doing myself.