Caught

Caught
Originally uploaded by Max_Fax

It's the start of summer which, for the small insignificant creatures around us, is time of reawakening and rebirth. Also it's a time when many such little 'uns meet untimely ends. Good news for my 'Windowsill Graveyard' series bad news for the arachnids, insects and other crawlies that creep!

Lazy Saturdays

I'm sitting watching Art Rocks with Gaham Nash talking about his photography and thinking about the job tomorow. I'm shooting a christening in Renfrew, a first for me and my first big job outside of work this year. Although I'm not dreading the actual job I am starting to want a bit more from my photography. Doing these jobs is a good way of funding other projects but in doing them I'm always worried about denying myself days like this. Just sitting doing nothing is a good way of healing the mind. I think that I may give more attention to my own projects next year avoiding these hefty jobs. We'll see though. There might be a D400 round the corner!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

IMI Glasgow School of Art 3D Design Studio Visit

Our institute, the Istitute of Medical Illustrators, held a gathering in the new premises of the Glasgow School of Art 3D Design Studio on the Clyde last night 26/05/2010.  I was amazing to say the least.  We were shown 3D displays of various historical sites on a screen so big that God would've complained about it being too big...if he was there.  Also we got to wa;k through the torso of a man with an odd shaped penis before ending on a trip down the colon. As horrid as it sounds it was quite amusing and interesting getting a 'turd's-eye-view'. Ever wondered where the sweetcorn in the toilet came from? Well now I know. If you can get down and see this place and see how a work place should look...like an Ikea with good views...then do it.



Along with the jaw dropping offices and amazing technology on display Ashley Cowie gave a talk on the Roslyn Chapel and basically destroyed all the myths and nonsense that surround the place. Check his book out if you can.


Pics on Flickr.

Memories

My Final Wish
Originally uploaded by Max_Fax

I'm getting to the stage now where I'm harking back to the 'good old days'. I gave my band What The Blood The Blood Revealed up last year and haven't picked up the bass since. It hasn't really been a problem up until recently when I came to realize that I had abandoned the project I pretty much dedicated my entire playing days to. Unscene was the name I had given to an exhibition I was hoping to put on at the Harbour Arts Centre at some stage. The closest I got was a room of my photos to show along side the photographer Alisdair Devine's exhibition. Sadly this fell through when the plug was pulled on the Low Wattage gigs (more on them later) and the project was relegated to the attic along with my hopes of ever putting it into any format. Now though I might just put it together on Flickr and see what happens after that. So here is one of my favorite images I captured during that mad period. More to come!

Photographers In the Movies

At the moment I am laid up with one less toenail than yesterday.  After months of agony I finally had an ingrown toenail removed at the doctors.  Not very pleasant it has to be said and I am now hobbling about like a gorilla with no rhythm or coordination while I am being reduced to looking out the window, watching Sky+ stuff from months ago and going through photographs.  After a while I was put in mind of James Stewart in Rear Window, except in my case the only crimes I've viewed today are the noisy bin men shouting about nothing and a boy-racer with really shit taste in music driving at 100mph past the window every ten minutes.  However I started thinking about other photographers in films and tried to come up with ten so here they are in no particular order:

1. Rear Window - Hitchcock classic about an injured photographer who bares witness to a possible murder.  Exactly what you'd expect from Hitchcock, jet black comedic touches garnishing a tense thriller. 

2. Blow Up - 60s 'Swinging' London plays background and star of this very very period piece about...a photographer who may or may not have captured a murder on film (a pattern emerging?).  David Hemmings' character is quite obviously a David Baily homage but there's also a wee guest shot of a very young Jimmy Page with the Yardbirds and the 'tennis match' ending will make you soil yourself in confusion but it's all good.

3. Spiderman Trilogy - Peter Parker is Spiderman...and a photographer.  That is all.

4. Full Metal Jacket - Stanley Kuberick walks us through the lives of young G.I.s as they prepare for the front line both as soldiers, and in the case of our lead, as a photojournalist for the Stars and Stripes magazine.  It plays out in two parts, the training at base camp in America before moving to the wars destructive core in Vietnam.  All this and the cast and crew never left England.

5. Kids - Although this doesn't have any photographers in it, it was written and directed by Larry Clark.  Clark's 'Tulsa' book included sex, drugs and gun wounds and just so happened to be a documentation of his life at that time.  The movie revolves around the discovery that a young boy with a prolific sex life has AIDs and his infected ex-girlfriend and friend are trying to find him before he infects the whole world!  Harrowing and bleak but probably the best film on this list if it weren't for...

6. The Public Eye - Joe Pesci excels as a photographer of the Weegee mould.  Developing his plates in the trunk of his car as he scours New York's underworld at night, he is in danger of becoming a victim of one of his subjects.  Noir awsomeness.

7. Harrison's Flowers - An American photographer, believed to have been killed in a bomb blast in Eastern Europe is tracked down by his wife with the help of other photographers.  I thought it was a true story but it turns out it's not.  The most annoying thing about this film is the 'photographers' all seem to have taken their camera lessons from 'Commando' era Arnnie.  Have they not heard of camera-shake?  And a Nikon is not a gun!  I wanted to like this film but it's just not that good.

8. Backbeat - German photographer Astrid Kirchherr and Stuart Sutcliffe's love affair are central to the this telling of the story of the 'Lost Beatle".  It's a great film and Ian Hart is fantastic as the caustic John Lennon. 
9. The Killing Fields - An American photographer goes back to the horrors of Cambodia to find his guide and friend.  Heart breaking but well worth seeing.  This film was on TV the night my little sister was born...just saying.
10. Apocalypse Now - And finlly we finnish on one of the best screen performances by a man and his 35mm.  Dennis Hopper is amazing in this film and if you watch 'Heart of Darkness' it's hard to tell where the character stops a Hopper starts.


Well I'll need to go and do something else as my butt has fell asleep and my eyes have gone square.  Damn it I forgot about Pecker...

My Run

My Run
Originally uploaded by Max_Fax

I thought I'd give running a bash to try and get of my backside and not just sit staring at a computer all day. So, after getting an iPod Touch from Santa I bought the Get Running app
http://splendid-things.co.uk/getrunning/
and within weeks I was runing without going into spasms of pain. I've been doing it for four months now and I've stuck to the same route pretty much from the start. It takes me all over Bourtreehill, Girdle Toll and down into Irvine so I decided to document the route so here we are. My Run