Another great link found today. Seem to be finding a lot of cool stuff today. I guess not being at work helps. This time it’s a link to an interview with photographer Shinchi Maruyama over at themorningnews.org. Shinchi has been creating some amazing photos of water sculpture as he calls it. Essentially a splash of water frozen with flash. The gallery of images at the top of the article is fantastic.
Here’s a short video clip showing some of his work with water. Shot with a high speed video camera and then slowed down.
Interestingly* he says he used a Phase P45 medium format camera although the EXIF data on the image says a Nikon D3X.
After collecting Liz from Paddington on Friday we headed straight down to the National Portrait Gallery after quickly getting her to pose for a few pics in Trafalgar Square. I’ve been meaning to see the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize this year. Last years was really good and Emma and I even emailed one of the photographers to see how much a print was, turned out it was a little over our budget but never mind. I love portraits and quite how much you can read into someone or the situation they’re in. I find them fascinating and could look at some of them for ages. As usual it was a mixture of headshots, full length, posed, and natural etc, but as usual the standard was very high. Apparently there’s a bit of a joke that the prize is always won by a ginger and this year was no exception. Although it’s a very worthy winner I prefer some of the other shots. One of my favourites was the shot of Charlie Watts, drummer with the Rolling Stones. My other favourite was Merel which seemed to convey such serenity that it felt as though a photographer wasn’t involved at all. The tones and quality of the image are incredible.
It’s incredible to see full size prints like this with such clarity and sharpness as well as the awesome detail in the images. The other favourite part of the exhibition is that it’s only £2 to get in which is a bargain and that they produce a beautiful exhibition catalogue which is only £12 so a good value trip all round really.
Emma and I went over to see Jane (her cousin) and husband Paul yesterday. They’ve got a nice little flat which happens to have a basement, perfect for Paul’s sculpture work. I guess welding kit doesn’t look to great in the living room!
Paul has some great work and I’ve offered to do him a blog and get his work shot and up on Flickr and generally help with some publicity. Would be great to see him getting into some galleries round London – he’s had a few offers already. There were also some amazing bronze works and also a superb cast aluminium one. He’s also got some great ideas about making his work more interactive and getting graffiti artists involved with his pieces.
Last Thursday I went to the UK showing of Objectified at the Curzon in Chelsea. Unfortunately Emma was ill so I went with Neil in the end. Great film about design with some real characters in there.
The questions session with Jonathon Ive at the end was superb though. I don’t think I’ve ever seen quite so many iPhones in one location though!
