PhotoChilli Creative Photography Chat

It's taken until episode 8, but Dave and Mark have finally made it to the pub for a chat about photography! This week we're actually coming to you from inside a bank vault in a former post office-turned pub. There's no particular theme this week, but we meander around a range of issues, from working in colour vs black and white, to upcoming photography exhibitions in London. We also spend a while discussing photographers' G.A.S. - gear acquisition syndrome, i.e. the constant need to upgrade equipment. When do you really need to buy new gear? What new feature will genuinely improve your work or earning potential? Mark is tempted by the technology of the Light L16 camera. Is this £1850 multi-lens compact camera the future of photography? Dave discusses his recent attack of GAS, and the Fujifilm X-T3 that resulted from it, and also admits to a slight camera bag addiction. (Mark's everyday camera backpack the Lowepro Hatchback, and David's latest acquisition in the endless quest for the perfect camera bag: the Crumpler Pearler plus the Peak Design Slide strap.) The V&A museum's new Photography Centre has just opened, and we'll be visiting it very soon. The opening exhibition is  Collecting Photography: From Daguerreotype to Digital, which explores photography as a way of ‘collecting the world’, from the medium’s invention in the 19th century to the present day. The Fashion & Textile Museum was founded by designer Zandra Rhodes. Two photography exhibitions have just opened there that we'll be reviewing shortly: Night and Day - 1930s Fashion and Photographs and Cecil Beaton: Thirty from the 30s. Podcast music credit: Extraordinaire by DJ Quads.

This episode is dedicated to the work of the late British documentary photographer Tish Murtha, whose work can currently be seen at The Photographer's Gallery in London. The Tish Murtha: Works 1976-1991 exhibition covers 6 bodies of work; Newport Pub (1976/78); Elswick Kids (1978); Juvenile Jazz Bands (1979); Youth Unemployment (1980); London by Night (1983) and Elswick Revisited (1987 – 1991). Tish Murtha was a photographer from the north east of England, whose work has only recently started receiving the recognition I think it deserves. Sadly Murtha died in 2013, aged just 56, but her daughter Ella has done a fantastic job of getting her mother's photographic archive out there, including getting two books published through kickstarter. Murtha concentrated on documenting the working class and the marginalised, mainly communities around Newcastle upon Tyne and the North East of England. She wasn't documenting from the outside, she was documenting from the inside, and that's why her photos are so successful. She manages to evoke empathy without becoming sentimental. Apologies to any Geordies if I've been mispronouncing 'Elswick' - I believe it may be a silent W! Do visit Tish Murtha's website, run by her daughter Ella. You can now buy the book of her series Youth Unemployment, or help fund the publication of Elswish Kids via Kickstarter. There's an interesting 5-minute video of the curators talking about the exhibition. You can find some of the photos discussed on our Pinterest page for this episode. PhotoChilli theme music courtesy of DJ Quads.

In this episode David and Mark chat about the Museum of London's current photography exhibition, London Nights. This large exhibition features historic and contemporary images from over 60 photographers, including Bert Hardy, Bill Brandt, Tish Murtha, and contemporary photographers like William Eckersley and Damien Frost. The aim of the exhibition is to: reveal the city after hours: unnerving, beautiful, eerie, energised - sometimes all at once. Step into the night and discover a darker, richer side to the capital. Images range from sinister street scenes, or people partying in the West End in the 60s, to shots of the city from the International Space Station and the image of a tower block used on the cover The Streets' album Original Pirate Material. Some of the photographers and photos we discuss are: Paul Martin's Embankment at Night (1896) Hannes Kilian's shot of Piccadilly (1955) Jim Friedman's Piccadilly Circus (1988) William Eckersley's series Dark City (2011) Thierry Cohen's London 51 degrees 30 minutes 17 seconds N 2015-02-17 LST 10:39 (2015) Nick Turpin's On The Night Bus series Philipp Ebeling's Whitechapel Market, Tower Hamlets (2008-13) Bert Hardy Bill Brandt We actually forgot to discuss one of our favourite images from the exhibition, The Long Wait (2005-6) by Mita Tabrizian from series depicting Iranian migrants. David also talks about the work of Jan Staller and his haunting photos of New York in the 1980s, published in a monograph Frontier New York. As always, wherever possible the photos we discuss can be found on our Pinterest page for this episode. We originally recorded one podcast covering both the main London Nights exhibition, and the smaller, free, Night Visions exhibition, both on at the Museum of London. However, at the editing stage it made sense to split them into two separate podcasts. You may wish to listen to them both, in order, but it's by no means essential and each episode stands up independently. Non-Photography tangents we detour off at 1980s TV: clip of Nerys Hughes as the District Nurse and the fashion of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. London Transport Museum and the London Transport Moquette fabric. Camera gear: Fuji X-T3, their 10-24mm lens and Samyang's fisheye lens. Get involved! We hold regular photo meet-ups in central London, all levels welcome, so come and say hello - see Meetup for details. For more information about us and forthcoming podcasts, follow us on Twitter.

In this episode Mark and David discuss Night Visions (a small exhibition of MA student works based on the main London Nights exhibition), and also learn Mark's exciting news. Unfortunately the Night Visions images don't seem to be online, but if we track some down we'll update our Pinterest page for this podcast. We originally recorded one podcast covering both the main London Nights photography exhibition, and the smaller, free, Night Visions exhibition, both currently on at The Museum of London. However, at the editing stage it seemed to make sense to split them into two separate podcasts. You may wish to listen to them both, in order, but it's by no means essential. You can view some of Mark's work at London Presence at Conway Hall from 4 October 2018. Non-Photography things we mention Le Gavroche, Michel Roux Jr.'s Michelin Two Star restaurant in London (Mark recommends the pigeon livers). The Möbius/Moebius: Here's Orbital's track The Moebius (including original clip from Star Trek). The Möbius strip is a surface with only one side (when embedded in three-dimensional Euclidean space) and only one boundary. Details of the film about Russian Dancer Sergei Polunin. Geoff Marshall's amusing video All Tube Stations Have Fifteen Floors.

The one in which David and Mark go off at a tangent even before the intro music, but manage to return for a lengthy chat about the work of Vivian Maier - and the issues surrounding the discovery and posthumous publication of her photographs. Vivian Maier Vivian Maier (1926 – 2009) was an extremely talented and interesting American street photographer, whose work has only recently come to light. From her Wikipedia page: Maier worked for about forty years as a nanny, mostly in Chicago's North Shore, pursuing photography during her spare time. She took more than 150,000 photographs during her lifetime, primarily of the people and architecture of Chicago, New York City, and Los Angeles, although she also traveled and photographed worldwide. During her lifetime, Maier's photographs were unknown and unpublished; many of her negatives were never printed. A Chicago collector, John Maloof, acquired some of Maier's photos in 2007, while two other Chicago-based collectors, Ron Slattery and Randy Prow, also found some of Maier's prints and negatives in her boxes and suitcases around the same time. Maier's photographs were first published on the Internet in July 2008, by Slattery, but the work received little response. In October 2009, Maloof linked his blog to a selection of Maier's photographs on the image-sharing website Flickr, and the results went viral, with thousands of people expressing interest. Maier's work subsequently attracted critical acclaim, and since then, Maier's photographs have been exhibited around the world. Find Vivian Maier John Maloof turned Miss Maier's work and life, and his discovery of her images, into an Oscar-nominated documentary called Finding Vivian Maier (2013). This is an excellent place to start if you're not familiar with Vivian Maier and her fascinating life. There is also a BBC documentary on the same subject, made the same year, which provides a slightly different take on things. Both are well worth watching. There's also a short talk on Miss Maier by Ira Glass (This American Life) entitled Invisible Made Visible. Self-Portraits The focus of a recent PhotoChilli Meetup in London was self-portraits, and Vivian Maier's work provided some great examples. There are a large number of her self-portraits on the Vivian Maier website. Contact Sheets It's always interesting to look at the contact sheets of photographers, to see how they worked a subject, and to see their ratio of 'keepers'. Many of Vivian Maier's contact strips are shown on her website, and reveal something of a visual diary. Controversy / money always f**** s*** up The story of Vivian Maier and the publication of her work is as controversial as it is fascinating, and throws up some interesting moral dilemmas, which we discuss in the podcast. There are also some (unresolved at the time of recording) legal issues about intellectual proprty and copyright ownership, which are examined in a very interesting article from Artsy.net in 2017, Why the Collectors Who Made Vivian Maier Famous Can’t Cash In on Her Work.   As always, we try to put the photos we discuss on our Pinterest page for this episode. Podcast music credit: Extraordinaire by DJ Quads.

In this episode David and Mark chat about the challenges of photographing Notting Hill Carnival, Europe's biggest street party. Notting Hill Carnival sees over a million people descend on west London over the course of 2 days to celebrate West Indian communities and culture in the UK. There's an amazing array of floats, costumes and Caribbean music, from calypso, dancehall to soca, reggae and dub. This video of last year's carnival might give you a feel for the atmosphere at the event. Magnum photographer Alex Majoli spent time capturing the crowds, performers, and characters behind this year's Notting Hill Carnival - you can find Majoli's photos on the Magnum site. Documentary photographer Andy Hall has photographed Carnival on many occasions and you can find his latest work on his website and a selection from over the years in a Guardian feature from 2017. Notting Hill Carnival archive footage For a bit of background on the Notting Hill Carnival and the West Indian community, there are some cracking archive films around: An 18-minute film from the 1980 carnival. A 29 minute current affairs programme about the planning of the 1976 Carnival and clashes with police. Jemima + Johnny a touching 29 minute film about the friendship between a white boy and a black girl in 1960s Notting Hill. Rare footage from 1973's Carnival. Music at Carnival For more on the music at Carnival, check out: Luminaries from carnival history pick their favourite tracks Don Letts on Carnival's musical evolution Cropover in Barbados David also briefly talks about being asked to document a carnival in the Caribbean - Grand Kadooment, part of the Cropover celebrations in Barbados. You can see some highlights from Grand Kadooment in this video. There's also a British news take on Trinidad Carnival in 1957. Forthcoming talk on migration from the Caribbean On a related note, next month there's an evening of talks and photos exploring the long history of migration to Britain from the Caribbean. It takes place at the Woolwich Centre Library, London, on 2 October - the event is free but you need to book.   As always, we try to put the photos we discuss on our Pinterest page for this episode. Podcast music credit: Extraordinaire by DJ Quads.

In this episode David and Mark discuss a recent photo meet-up which used famous artworks as inspiration, before moving on talk about the work of Hungarian-born photographer André Kertész. As always, the photos and paintings we discuss can be found on our Pinterest page for this episode. The latest PhotoChilli meet-up, hosted in London by Mark, used randomly selected paintings and sculptures as inspiration - including Duchamp's The Fountain and paintings by Gwen John, and Kees van Dongen. Our conversation soon moves on to André Kertész, the Hungarian artist who pioneered photojournalism, influencing Brassaï and Cartier-Bresson. We chat about the the three main stages of his work, in Hungary, Paris and New York, and even touch on philosopher John Locke, 'opportune magic', small accomplishments and German photographer Ilse Bing (to whom we shall return). To learn more about André Kertész, a good starting point is this 1983 BBC Master Photographers film about his life and work. We hold regular photo meet-ups in central London, all levels welcome - see Meetup for details. For more information about us and forthcoming podcasts, visit the PhotoChilli website, or get in touch on Twitter. Music credit: Extraordinaire by the fantastic DJ Quads

In this first episode, Mark and David look back at the recent major exhibition of Dorothea Lange's work at London's Barbican, and briefly discuss Nikon's new mirrorless cameras, whilst sampling a couple of nice beers and working on their microphone technique. We've posted up some of the images we discuss on our Pinterest page for this episode. Dorothea Lange: Politics of Seeing was the first UK exhibition of the pioneering American social documentary photographer Dorothea Lange (1895–1965). It presents Lange as a critical and influential voice in twentieth-century photography, an activist and early environmental campaigner and a founding figure of photojournalism. Although Lange is famous for her evocative portraits of Dust Bowl migrant workers, and the almost era-defining Migrant Mother image (one of 6 taken in 10 minutes), her work encompassed much more. The exhibition, divided into three sections (Great Depression, World War II and Postwar California), also briefly highlighted her early career as an in-demand studio photographer in San Francisco. Lange's images from WWII are just as powerful as those from the depression. Pictures of Japanese-Americans under internment are particularly moving and topical. The Lange exhibition was so large and thought-provoking that perhaps it was almost too ambitious a subject for our first podcast, and we may well return to discuss her work at a later date. Also we didn't have a chance to touch on the accompanying exhibition of contemporary photographer Vanessa Winship, whose work was fantastic. We hold regular photo meet-ups in central London, all levels welcome - see Meetup for details. For more information about us and forthcoming podcasts, visit the PhotoChilli website, or get in touch on Twitter. Music credit: DJ Quads