Skip to main content

Peter





Such a strange week this week, hence no blog entries until now. My so called part-time teaching job has taken over my life, which is always frustrating as I try to maintain the balance between creativity and keeping the wolf from the door. However a highlight of the year so far was seeing Peter Fraser talk about his work at Manchester Art Gallery on Thursday. I've loved his photography for 20 or so years and it was inspiration to hear how he engages with the medium and to see more of his work with the added bonus of a live sound track giving some context. I think just about everyone in the audience was cheered on by the fact that he didn't really break through until he was 57! 

One of the things he talked about was the struggle in this country for photography to be taken seriously by the major art institutions, in fact this has really only just happened. He gave as an example his friend Keith Arnatt, who had a successful career whilst he was considered a conceptual artist, but then completely shunned when his work became exclusively photographic. Arnatt is probably my favourite phototographer or certainly the photographer I most admire and feel a kinship with. When I was at Staffordshire University in the early 1990's he was a visiting lecturer for a term. The head of the course was Mike Berry, a fantastic man and great photographer. He knew how much I liked Arnatt's work and so he gave me the job of going to collect him from the car park! I remember being really nervous and in awe of him and then quite surprised that he was pretty normal.

A very strange coincidence happened the day of the Peter Fraser talk, but I'll save that for my next blog entry, I think that's called a teaser...

So a couple of photographs of mine (above) that feel in tune with Mr Fraser and then one from him and Keith Arnatt.



©Peter Fraser from 'Lost for Words'

http://www.peterfraser.net/


©Keith Arnatt from 'Pictures from a Rubbish Tip'

http://www.britishcouncil.org/china-arts-visualarts-bccollection-ka.htm



Labels:

Comments

Unknown said…
Good to hear you are still gainfully employed! Liked your choice of images today. I'm enjoying thd photo opportunities presented by these snowy days so when I find out how to share them I will upload some.
January 22, 2013 at 2:25 PM
Marc said…
Cheers Geoff, glad you approve. We've been cheated out of the snow so yes please share so we can remember what it looks like!
January 22, 2013 at 6:36 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Lovely Pair of Pins

I knew the expression 'pins' referring to legs but had to Google what the Cockney rhyming slang comes from. It looks like 'pins & pegs', but there are some great alternatives like 'bacon & eggs' and 'dolly pegs'. I think I might start trying to incorporate more Cockney into my everyday speak, I do have London roots but they are more South  (Saff)  London than East London, where I think it originates.  Anyway this is all to illustrate a new picture that sits quite neatly with an older picture. So brogues, legs and a sea view from my two main muses. This might be turning into a set...  Oh by the way the top view is Morecambe Bay and the lower image is from The Wirral looking across towards Wales. The North West of England is a beautiful place, with some stylish residents. 
Post a Comment
Read more

Liverpool Periphery

L1 City Centre L2 City Centre L3 City Centre, Everton, Vauxhall L4 Anfield, Kirkdale, Walton L5 Anfield, Everton, Kirkdale, Vauxhall L6 Anfield, City Centre, Everton, Fairfield, Kensington, Tuebrook L7 City Centre, Edge Hill, Fairfield, Kensington L8 City Centre, Dingle Toxteth L9 Aintree, Fazakerley, Orrell Park, Walton L10 Aintree Village, Fazakerley L11 Croxteth, Clubmoor, Gillmoss, Norris Green
Post a Comment
Read more

Hold Your Hair In Deep Devotion

At last after a week of being indoors, I walked into the light! I went solo and had a photography day in Liverpool, just what the doctor ordered, as they say. I'm a bit out of words at the moment and was going to include a Philip Larkin poem, but I've been thinking that Alex Turner is my modern day poet hero and this is my favourite track on AM, tucked away at the end. He's in his twenties and yet the words suggest a time before he was born, filling my head with images and memories. I've included a link to the track if you want to listen to The Arctic Monkey doing their thing whilst taking in my pictures... UPDATE Well since writing the above it has been pointed out to me that the song is actually based on a poem by John Cooper Clarke, which makes sense of the time frame (being written in the early Eighties) and the fact that I responded to the lyrics like a poem. Apparently Alex Turner first heard it read by his English teacher whilst at school. So mayb
Post a Comment
Read more