"work" experience

horst a. friedrichs 'im one'

i don't think i could have found a more ideal work placement. my series "dandy" (see earlier post) was initially influenced by the work of horst a. friedrich, who's work "i'm one" (above) i'd seen launched at the new untouchables brighton mod weekender '09.

on the off chance i e-mailed rob bailey, the new untouchables top dog, just to see if i could do some event reportage for their blog as my placement. he said i could cover this year's le beat bespoke and as luck would have it, horst himself would be photographing and was happy to me to work with him.

i'm still baffled. it just goes to show: its not what you know, its who you know. the perks of being mod.

a guide to being twee

GUYS! GUYS! i've just had a great idea!

since dinu li took interest in my little books, i've began to understand why everyone says i should publish my silly little books, but who really is going to buy a book of illustrations about the stupid things i get up to? most of it doesn't even make sense. but for those interested and who know me, i thought i'd start a seperate blog called "being twee: a step by step guide". i've just started a fresh new paperchase book so i'll be updating it almost simultaneously with the actual books of twee. don't hold your breath though. it's quite evident from this blog that my organisation skills are something to be desired.

but anyway, here's the link. it's pretty empty right now. Very, actually. It's pretty much a title and a space, but bare with me! i'll scan my little legs off this weekend and maybe give a brief history of the books. this new book is already off to a good start. it has a floral cover and highlights include: o.a.p. fancy dress, mr t impressions, the midnight beasts and a perverted wanking stripper. enjoy.

dandy

"Look, I don't wanna be the same as everybody else. That's why I'm a Mod, see? I mean, you gotta be somebody, ain't ya, or you might as well jump in the sea and drown."

My fascination with mods is unhealthy. The smartness and expense spent on appearance vs the grey working class backdrop has a romanticism to it. But as with any subculture, it intrigues and baffles me all at the same time. It's a strife for individuality yet you end up being the same as everyone else who wants to be different. A gang of people who don't want to be part of the gang! Irony. I love you.

Still, this doesn't phase my obsession. It's a coping mechanism. A way to escape the surroundings you're apart of which is still an issue and probably why the scene still exists today. I could go on forever about how much I love the mod scene; the scooters, the suits, the constant revivals. But instead I made a series of photographs, suprisingly enough, named "Dandy".

http://newuntouchables.ning.com/

"naked?!" "yes, naked."

i love getting my own way. especially when it involves persuading my twig of a boyfriend to stand outside his house in a field at two in the morning, stark bollock naked at a temperature of around 0 degrees. hypothermia schmypothermia.

this shot is for the dan holdsworth lead project "man made & natural". i was looking at moon light and man's relationship to the landscape and how the moon can change our perception of a place. by day a forest is all airy fairy and magical. by night its the dwellings of derranged killers... well, in our heads anyway. so here i'm trying to communicate the alienation of man to the landscape, taking influence from sci-fi an' all that lark.

close encounters of the dinu kind

what a crazy old project this has been. dinu li comes in as a guest lecturer to run the "global & local" project. i'm a huge fan of his photography work so i was pretty darn excited. although, i did nearly offend him on the first day. it probably wasn't the wisest of moves. he told a story of a project he did and i drew a picture of it in my book. shelley peered over my shoulder, screaming

"AAAAAHAHAHAH LOOK AT THIS PICTURE SHE'S DRAWN OF YOOOOU!!!!"

in the middle of the tutorial. shit. but as luck would have it, he loved it then proceeded to look through the whole of my little book, not really giving a shit about my ideas for the project. i got on with it and came up with the two images above.

my idea was to look at the home as a safe haven. a place you feel that you can escape the rest of the world but infact it's quite the opposite. consumerism invades. even the things that make up the interior of your home are a product of globalization, so i was just trying to communicate a sense of the alien, maybe even that we become zombies. i dunno. it was just a funny idea. i had planned to shoot an image of my dad on a laptop, but he got drunk and fell asleep.

i think dinu really liked the work. he compared the top image of my mum to this early photograph by philip lorca dicorcia and even said my version was more sophisticated than what he had done. wow.

foxtrot uniform charlie kilo

well well well, i've managed to do it again. do you know how hard it is keeping on top of all these soul destroying, networking organisation manifestations? i doubt that even makes grammatical sense.

i've been a busy miss lizzy. what will follow is some little succint chapters of my photographic life to bring you upto speed. maybe even a few little doodles from the infamous books of twee. who knows!? fuck it, let's go all out on this shiz.

happy nosing/stalking.

- twee -

grot britain - ilu 4evzzzzz

i love britain, so much so that when i was supposed to be lapping up european culture or jetting off to the states on holiday, i decided to spend my holiday time here instead. it has nothing to do with the fact that i'm constantly skint. not one bit.

great yarmouth