BYE BYE 81 North 7th street

Anna Gaskell

When I first presented the initial shot for 'I Want to be Just Like You' (consequently unpublished) I was told by my tutors at LCC that the work was exploitative and that it reminded them of the murdered child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey. I was warned not to continue the project. I was also told that it reminded them of the work by photographer Anna Gaskell. I made a point of not looking at too many photographers during my degree for fear of the institution and my peers claiming unoriginality. Unfortunately this is hard to avoid in the art world as most things have been done to some extent, but in an effort to avoid I never looked at Gaskell's work.

I was recently in Washington DC watching TV and a GAP advert came on. Gaskell was sat on a bar stool, discussing the unpredictability of creating and capuring an image, whilst wearing GAP jeans, there was neither sight nor sound of her work in the advert.

Having never seen her work before or after creating my graduate project I was curious to see what was so special about this photographer....

The following images are my favourite,

Gaskell is approaching some of the same themes in her work as I do. I admire the way she makes the highly staged element of her work, organic and less constructed. She isn't afraid to close crop or to accentuate the sexuality of her subjects. There is a sinister, eerie aura which shifts between still and paniced. Alice in Wonderland is obviously a favourite for photographers commenting on childhood and it is in itself a very strange story that hovers somewhere between childhood and adulthood. I applaud Gaskell for creating a very successful series on such a popular story. But I am still now sure why she appears in a GAP Jeans advert, recession maybe?

Once upon a time I carried a mannequin across London.....

Going through my archive I came across this.....

I took these images over three years ago. I was much more aesthetic based, not really knowing why I was making an image in the way I was but knew that I had a fascination with how the fashion industry uses visual codes to create an envy in the viewer. An envy that makes them go out and buy the expensive item or an envy that can never be fulfilled as the price is out of reach. I juxtaposed the image with a title that described the item, its price and something terrible that had happened to the model or someone I knew. The idea was that an envious body image doesn't cure the damage. It is interesting looking back and seeing how my work has changed.

The Hours - Can You See the Light?

Sigur Ros - Stunningly haunting video

"My soul still sings the song we once wrote"
"Still, I let myself flow forward"
"I swim through my mind"
"But I always come back to the same place"

Goodbye Steven Klein

Last week was my final week working for Steven Klein. Its the end of the season, batteries need to be recharged and I am moving nervously back to London to begin my Masters.  Its been an intense time, regularly working 16 hour days with the publications American Vogue, Italian Vogue and W Magazine shooting the likes of Lara Stone, Uma Thurman, Rihanna and Daphne Guiness. I can finally rest and await the published results over the coming months. Joe Lalli, who can only be described as Steven's Creative Director / visionary / man behind the man sent me a beautiful piece of writing as a departure gift..... THE PAST.........

You can literally change the past by altering your perception of it. 

The past has no effect except by its influence on the present. By 
changing the past that exists in your consciousness, you alter its 
connection to the present reality. Time does not exist, it is an 
illusion, so by “going back” in what we call “time” and changing your 
thoughts, you will influence what you are experiencing in the Now. 
Your present reality is literally influenced by your thoughts of the 
past.
We can change our past by altering our memory of it. When we change 
the way we think about what happened, we tap into an alternate past 
timeline where the way we imagine it to be really did happen that way. 
The alternate past timeline leads to certain things that would have 
happened in our alternate present reality. Therefore this reality 
manipulation with consciousness would result in synchronicities 
occurring in the present or near future of our actual timeline, as it 
merges with an alternate one.
By changing the way you perceive the past, you will also change the 
way others perceive the past. Your change in consciousness will also 
result in a change in their consciousness. Your merger of an alternate 
reality will cause a merger in their reality. Something may have 
happened in the past which you perceived in a negative way. But if you 
choose now to perceive what happened in a positive way or to perceive 
what’s positive in it, other people’s perception of it will also be 
changed in the present.
Changing perception of the past is literally changing the past itself, 
together with the memory of it. Reality is held by awareness. One 
thing in memory is associated with another. When you change your 
perception of something about the past, you will change everything 
else that is associated with it that everyone is unaware of. Those 
things that people are unaware of are open for temporal alteration. 
Any kind of medium that records the past will also reflect a change in 
its recording.

Sign this petition

 http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Payinterns/

Yeah the recession has hit everyone but unpaid internships are taking over real jobs and it is now ridiculous - they even want interns for bars, restaurants and the retail environment!