Jehad Nga

I’m still waiting for my book to be delivered. It feels like I have been waiting for more than two weeks but I haven’t. 

I did order some postcards. They have come through and I’m quite pleased with them. I used moo.com They can print a different design on the front of each card but not match it with different text on the back of each card. I know other publishers can do it but at the moment this is a low volume production run and I’m trying to keep the cost down by doing it myself.

While I have been in limbo with this project I have been reviewing some of my research. Jehad Nga is a photographer whose work I first saw at Paris Photo in November 2010. His style is often chiaroscuro and I think he does it very well. In his Turkana project he uses shafts of light to highlight the faces and the vibrant colours of the Turkana tribal outfits.

In Pirates, Inc-Somalia he balances different light sources beautifully. Take a look at it here - Jehad Nga.com

Nadiv Kandar

How do we really know where an idea comes from?

I thought the evolution from my flesh coloured alien hands to green ones and then to the cloth doll was inspired by the fact that I was calling the project Alien Body Parts and that I saw the piece of coloured tissue paper lying around. However, over the last week or so I have been looking at a number of photographer’s websites including Nadiv Kandar www.nadavkander.com

My outdoor night-time shots were definitely inspired by his Colour Fields project, but perhaps his work has been playing on my subconscious more than I realised.

Peter Menzel

I've been exploring the idea of documenting family eating habits and I've come across the photojournalist Peter Menzel www.menzelphoto.com . He has done some fantastic projects. I found an article about his book Hungry Planet which documents what a family eats in a week in various places around the world. It includes the cost of the food and some details about the family. His website is extensive. It's quick to load and the video clips didn't buffer. I think I'll be spending a lot more time investigating his work. His images are great and tie into some of the themes that I have explored in the past. Although my projects have been on a MUCH smaller scale.

Matthew Pillsbury

The first image that I saw by Matthew Pillsbury  www.matthewpillsbury.com was a photo of the Mona Lisa which was shown at Paris Photo in 2009. The painting and the museum were static but the crowd had disappeared into what looked like ripples of smoke.

He has also done a series called Screen Lives which is very similar to one of the ideas that I had for my project. 

Nice photographs, nice website. Sadly, I knew somebody would have done this project before... rats.