jamesgrassick's photostream  

"...you should reflect on your own selection bearing Jon’s words in mind and then ‘edit-up’ by adding in some of your own images to make a second set. Your images should be the threads that gather the initial collection into a new story, fact or fictional."

I'm not entirely sure this is an added in combination, perhaps page 2 or a reflection?

All of my photos presented here have been, for one reason or another personally transformative (sp?). In some way these and some others that I didn't include all explain my choice in the previous task, Connections.

Coming from a predominately scientific/technical background I am finding elements of the course a little impenetrable; I feel like I'm starting from zero. I do not really have the visual "touchstones" that Jon Levy spoke of in his lecture, not since I was 15 and discovered Storm Thorgerson at any rate. That was indeed a long time ago. The idea of internal inspiration being followed by external (touchstones) and the return to source cycle is something I have been missing out on. I shall do my best to keep a closer eye and be a bit less of an outsider. After all my goal is to make a full time living out of all this so...

Explanations of why each of these photos has been included to follow...

Phonar Creative Workshop Task 1:

Garner a portfolio of 8-10 images from different photographers whose work inspires you.
Choose carefully, as though your edit was going to appear as a spread in a printed magazine,
you may choose to lay them out as such if you wish, with attention to scale, pace and flow etc.

The portfolio must directly address a theme of your choosing – it could be a personal theme
or a topical one, the choice is yours.

- Jon Levy (Publisher of FOTO8 Magazine)

I confess to finding this task quiet difficult. I am not a collector of photography, despite regularly admiring the works of others, I have never really paid much attention to either the who or the why. With a very few exceptions, if anything, it has always been the how that prompted my further attention.

I joined #phonar (photo narrative), again with "how" expectations. Not physical photographic technique as such but perhaps something philosophical. So finding a theme was a bit of a challenge. I could have made life easy for myself by choosing for example "music", I know quite a few photographers in this field as it is one in which I have worked, but where would the learning be in that?

One of the things that intrigues me with #phonar is it's reliance on social networks, especially Twitter. To be honest I had never really seen the point of Twitter. Thanks to the course, I have a reason to tweet, #ff etc and can see already why I might want to continue. At the same time I had a look at Google+ to see what that is all about, I think I "get" G+.

By playing on the Google+ I very quickly discovered 100s of great photographers so I had a pool to draw from for this task (Filckr is great but so big!) . With much head scratching the theme emerged, Connections. Maybe not the most original, profound or pretty but apt. I am learning how to connect.

This task was completed over the course of a 1100km road/sea trip, in a shop, on a ferry, at motorway services and ultimately in my parents spare room. All rights belong to the respective creators. I will be inserting links and asking for permissions later this evening, I'm still on the road...

Johannes kick
“at the busstation...”
from Street No.7 series
(will correct title on main layout when I find a pc man enough)

Dirk Heindoerfer
"The Pigeon Whisperer"
photos from posts

jan H Andersen
"6950"
Cropped emotions

Mikko Lagerstedt
"Paris.."
Scrapbook photos

Brenda Stumph
"ribbondance1"
underwater

Amir Masoudi
"5579"
So what

Atsushi Mori
“PowerLine03”
Love Squid Ink Spaghetti

Binh Danh
“Gary McColloug 20”, 2008
Chlorophyll print on grass and resin

Tommy Ingberg
"Closing Time"
Stranger