I remember watching KT Tunstall appear on Later with Jools Holland at the end of last year, and thinking she had a fantastic voice, not to mention musical talent and was someone to look out for in the future. Well, a few months later and I’ve got hold of a copy of her debut Eye to the Telescope, and its certainly a good one, although it doesn’t quite have the electric feel of the raw live performance on Later.
Earlier this evening I stopped off at the ICA to listen to a panel discussion on the subject The End of the Line for the UN?. Naturally the discussion revolved quite strongly on the interplay between the UN and the USA & UK during the recent invasion of Iraq, but also considered past conflicts such as Kosovo, Bosnia, Somalia, even way back to Korea, one of the earliest conflicts in UN history. While there was disagreement on the legality of these conflicts, there was in the end firm agreement that despite initial outward appearances, the UN is not actually redundant in todays world. The conclusion. On the contrary, discounting the admittedly significant blib on the issue of Iraq, the UN is recent years has become much more effective in its role than it was for much of the early years during the cold war. The issue is more one of perception, with people pushing the organization meet ever higher standards in the work it does, and while it is making corresponding improvements there is inevitably always more that can be done. In addition, if one takes a look at the areas where the UN has not been so successful, the reasons for many problems can be attributed to a lack of political will, or conflicting vested interests. For such things you can’t critize the UN itself, but rather it is the duty of the general populace of [democratic] countries to hold their governments accountable to their wishes. A democratic society is not something one can or should take for granted, people must maintain awareness & pressure to keep their governements honest. In summary, far from us witnessing a decline in the UN, we’re merely seeing it evolving & beginning to take on a stronger form in the post-Cold War world.
I’ve picked up a fair few new albums over the past month. After an abrupt change in style with his last album, Sea Change, Beck has returned to making awesome funky music again in the form of Guero. Also recently released is Moby’s new album Hotel, in which he’s managed to evolve past the style that was pervasive in Play and 18 . On the film front I’ve got hold of the DVD of Lars von Trier’s Dogville, which after a second viewing is just as excellant as it was the first time around, although the theatrical set does loose its presence on the small screen. DogVille is aledgedly only the first of three films Lars von Trier is making looking at American society, so I’ll be interested to see how the next two pan out. Finally, just released in the cinema is the german film, The Edukators. It starts off as an, ever so slightly cliched, film about a couple of anti-capitalist activists, but when Jan & Jule get end up kidnapping a business man (after getting caught breaking into his house), it turns into a much deeper film, and more of a thriller. I won’t say anymore about it to avoid spoiling it, but suffice to say its well worth a viewing.
Ever wondered where you’d end up if you starting digging straight down, all the way through the Earth to the other side of the globe? Well as you can see from this map, it turns out that unless you’re in China / Chile you’d probably end up in the Ocean. Oh well, better take my scuba gear with me.
I’ve just finished a short (10 week) course Improve you Photography with Chris Ould, at Central St. Martins. It split into two halves, the first concentraing on the theoretical side of things, basic modes of camera operation, composition, lighting, use of flash, etc, etc – all the usual expected subjects. At the end of each week, we’d have an assignment to do, one set on “form”, another on the subject of “motion”, another still on “lighting”. Finally was one examining people & their surroundings, for which I paid a visit to Columbia Road Flower Market. This assignment led into the second half of the course, working in the darkroom
First off was developing of film from our previous assignment – scans from the results as in the gallary. After that the real focus was on printing, where I was amazed to see just how much of a difference you can make to a photo. Selective cropping, enhanced contrast and very light toning made a significant improvement to this shot of tree branches.
Dodging, which is the technique of obscuring part of the scene/paper during exposure under the enlarger, makes it possible to bring out detail in dark parts of the scene while still giving the rest its normal exposure time. In this picture, the railings in the original were practically pure black, but dodging allowed the full detail to be pulled out.
In toning, previously developed prints are soaked in water and then put throug a bath containing one of many possible colourings. For the course, we had access to a copper tone and brown, almost sepia like tone. Having tried the tones on a handful of different prints you can see which tones suit a particular type of scene best. For example, the flowers below are most effective in brown.
While this shot of the Weather Project, at the Tate Modern, works best in the blue tone, taking on an almost apocalyptic feel.
All in all, the course was a huge success, and I’d definitely recommend anyone with more than a passing interest in photography to give it a try.
