Photographers Gallery - A School Trip

The Photographers gallery has chosen to work with one of my schools, Parliament Hill. Last week we had a writer who collaborates with the gallery come in and talk to us. We will be working on a project with her alongside the course work for a couple weeks. We haven't been told much on what we're doing so there isn't much I can blog about right now. However, since we are working with her, my photography class with another Year 12 class went to the Photographers Gallery on Wednesday. We saw two exhibitions: Mass Observation: This is Your Photo and Mark Neville's Deeds Not Words. We had a few simple tasks set for us that got us to search for particular photographs around the two exhibitions with written clues to help us. By doing this we got to observe the photos in a lot more detail to see if it fits the clues. I liked this way of looking at photos as you get to notice a lot more about the particular photo than if you were just passing by. After this we went round the gallery again finding three of our favourite photographs and wrote on paper 'What Do You See?' Again this helped understand the picture a lot more as we'd have to look at every little thing we saw and write it down. My favourite photos were all from the same exhibition (which was also my favourite out of the two) called Deeds Not Words. 

''Deeds Not Words is an experimental documentary project and an urgent intervention. For 18 months Mark Neville photographed the town of Corby in Northamptonshire: its people, its culture and the effects of the environmental pollution led to several babies being born with serious birth defects... The photographs present the community as a whole, not simply the families at the centre of the case. They show persisting Scottish identity in the English town, young woman at nightclubs, entrants in a beauty contest, children dressed for the town's Highland games.'' 

My favourite pictures out of the whole exhibition were the sequenced photographs of two boys 
 both born with fingers missing, said to be caused by the toxic waste and contaminated land the mothers would have absorbed in at pregnancy. 

At first glance, these photos were just of a boy who had three fingers, popping a balloon in a dark room. I instantly felt they were very powerful but didn't really understand the purpose of the photos. A woman then came up to me and my friend and began speaking to us about the actual meaning of the photos. She had listened to the photographer, Mark Neville a week before who spoke at the photographers gallery about his exhibition. 

Neville had asked this boy to sit in a dark room, as soon as he popped the balloon the sound triggered the flash to go off taking these three photographs that a human eye would never experience: high speed photography. This mirrored the idea that we cannot see these pollutants acting on people but just see the after effects. Knowing this made the photos even more powerful and being able to understand the images of why Mark photographed it and what it means made me a lot more interested in the whole exhibition. 

More photos from the exhibition: 

After looking at the two exhibitions (I have to say I didn't pay much attention to the Mass Observation) we were asked to take some Street Photography photos. We had to make sure the photos we took linked someway to our favourite photos we wrote about earlier. This could be anything, from taking pictures of something red representing the balloon or a picture of girls representing the images above. 

                             

The pink of the rubbish bags and the bin are meant to represent the femininity of the two pictures of the girls I posted above. The dress links to the dresses they were wearing for their beauty contest. 

The red links to the red balloon photographed by Mark Neville. 

Apart from these photos I did get some more however they don't have any meaning and aren't the best I've done but thought I might as well throw them in there. 

After I got home I was too lazy to do any work so I watched a film instead. MEMONTO!!!!! 

I loved it so much, the whole story line was genius. ''A man, suffering from short-term memory loss, uses notes and tattoos to hunt for the man he thinks killed his wife.''  Christopher Nolan is a truly intelligent and talented man. 

The more and more I watch new films, the more I get inspired to make my own but having to handle school work, social life and my own interests is very time consuming and I seem not to be too good with it. But I have thought of some new ideas for short films which I'll be able to gradually film and edit when I'm out. So hopefully I'll be able to post some more videos soon! 

M x

Here and there

I hate not being able to post regularly anymore but since I'm pretty much either sitting at my desk working or out with my friends, I don't have much time to do anything mildly interesting and cultured. Hopefully once I'm more settled in at school and used to having to work so much, I'll be able to begin posting a lot more than I do now.

Having said all this, I did manage to go out today with one of my friends. She asked me if I'd like to go to Tent London which was recommend by one of her teachers.
Tent London is part of London Design Festival. It's focused to getting hundreds of independent and undiscovered talents noticed. As well as this, Tent London are showing Super Brands London, 40 global design brands in the UK market.  All designers get to show off their incredible work to people like me and you. I saw some pretty cool stuff today which I wish I could own. There were items from wacky chairs and tables to blankets that control your body temperature and something that tells you when your tea is also at the right temperature.

Since it was in Brick Lane (one of my favourite places in London / world) we obviously went to a couple vintage shops but sadly I didn't buy anything apart from some yummy lunch, probably because I was so tired from going to sleep at 5am the night before. (I can hardly keep my eyes open now and will most likely finish writing this post tomorrow)

Again, apologies for the appalling photos, I still can't find my SD card and too lazy to buy a new one. I'm going to have to get it this week because I'm sick of iPhone pictures! 

I'm doing Film Studies for one of my A-Levels and completely loving it at the moment. Of course we watch films but its not as easy as that. At the moment we are learning all about Micro Features, such as lighting, costumes/props, camera shots and angles and so on. It's so perfect for me and the more and more I learn about new films and ways in how they are made, the more I'm thinking of a career in some sort of filming. We just finished Fishtank, a gritty British film about a young 15 year old girl called Mia who begins a strange relationship with her Mothers new boyfriend, Connor. We're studying British films vs Hollywood so through out Fishtank we had to not only do close analysis on the characters but also looked at how this film represents British film. I liked Fishtank however wouldn't put it up there as one of my favourite films, but a good watch anyway. 

We have now started The Last King of Scotland  another British film but haven't finished it so I'll be talking about that one soon once we've reached the end. 

Fishtank 

 

The Last King of Scotland

I also recently watched Shame (in my own time) a film about a New Yorken named Brandon who had a desire and addiction to sex. This all gets disrupted when his disobedient younger sister comes to stay at his unannounced. I really enjoyed this film, something quite different to watch I normally watch but I still recommend it. Especially because its got the beautiful Carey Mulligan in it, and directed by Steve McQueen who has a film out soon called '12 Years a Slave' which looks absolutely incredible.  

and here is the trailer for 12 Years a  Slave:

Now a little bit of Autumn inspiration and pictures, none of my own I can guarantee. 

So bored of my hair again, will probably go back to purple for now... a personal fav!

I'll leave you with a couple songs I love right now. Adios x

 

M x

Latest Edition to the Wardrobe

As tomorrow is the official day of starting school, I thought I might as well make use of this free day and hit up Oxford Street with my mum. Originally just meant to be browsing but ended up spending quite a bit ££££ All needed though as we've got to wear our own clothes everyday now, which obviously means more clothes are needed in the wardrobe!

So here's what I bought... Two items I'd been keeping an eye on, online for quite a while so was super pleased I finally got to own them fo'real. 

Vagabonds, aka love of my life

Jacket from U.O

Dress from U.O

Apologies for the poor quality photos, I had to use my iphone because I couldn't find my SD card for my camera (that needed to be sorted asap since photography classes will probably start tomorrow)

What a boring post this is, but hey... gotta keep blogging 

M x

Reading and the Final End of Summer

Do I even need to explain how great it was?

Last summer nights

Actual summer ended for me on the 6th of September but I've been trying to hold on to it for as long as possible. Next week Monday (tomorrow) is officially 100% ended as every single person I'm friends with have gone back to school. I can't really explain how amazing this summer has been, especially comparing to last year. It's going to be odd going back to such a structured and planned life when this summer has been so unplanned and spontaneous. 

 '' I miss the mornings, waking up beside friends rolling spliffs and smoking them outside on the balcony. I miss the afternoons and late evenings sitting on the grass in the Heath drinking away. I miss meeting up with new people. Having different conversations about different things. I miss walking up the hill to the house where we’d get ready for parties, play drinking games and eventually stumble out drunk getting even more fucked as we approached the party. I miss the parties. Meeting more new people, having more conversations. I miss the journeys home with random people. Stopping off at McDonalds while eating on the bus. I miss the amount of weed we’d have each day. The strain I’d put on myself just to feel that heavenly high. I even miss the disgusting hangovers, at least they were evidence of a good night. I miss the stress for money, how to afford everything but always finding a way. I miss my mum complaining I am never home and the way sleeping in my own room was like sleeping in a new place. I miss the spontaneous decisions we’d make. Even if it was late, it didn’t matter because we had no time to be home, no place to go. I felt so free and open to whatever I wanted. We could do anything. I miss the random boys and the nights at Primrose. I miss how I’d keep meeting the same people at different parties, making friends with them and getting closer. Some never to see again, some now are real friends. There is so much I did, we all did. So much that wont ever happen again. I just really miss it all ''

Not having anything to do for a week got me on top of my film list. I watched quite a few but my favourite of the lot and now one of my favourite films ever was: American History X. I can't begin to explain how much I fell in love with Edward Furlong. It was weird it being set in Venice Beach, LA since that was exactly where I was a couple weeks ago (but obviously not the same era) Anyway, I've been telling literally everyone to watch it so please please, if you read this then go load it on any website ( we all know how to...) 

Before I end this post, I'll leave you with a couple songs that I'm completely obsessed with now. They all seem to be rather sad but that's just the end of summer blues speaking.

Bit of an odd mix but I never stick to one genre. I should do my summer assignments but think I'll pass. 

M x