Free Project/Folio Reviews – 25th November

if you’re based in london or fancy a trip in, i’m helping out Anna and Emily from Contact Editions at their first Portfolio Review night on the 25th November. It should be a cool evening and something that becomes a regular fixture for the London photographers scene.

 

So if you are an student or emerging photographer and you want have a work in progress or portfolio that you would like some advice or critique on, then pop through to the 3 Kings Pub in Clerkenwell for a couple of pints and a chat.

Hidden Treasure No.2

A day late, but here’s my second “Hidden Treasure” free upload. If you missed the first one, I’m giving away one Hi-Res 8×10 scan at the start of every month. The image might be a random outtake from a shoot, or a sneak peek at an image from an ongoing project. It’ll be available for download for the next 3 days.

This month, the image is from an ongoing London based project that I am currently keeping under wraps.

Just a quick disclaimer – the download is only for your personal use – printing up and putting on a wall. Any other usage will class as a breach of copyright.

You can download the image by clicking the flyer above….

“One More Night” print available to purchase..

 

I’ve got a print up for sale on ebay from my “One More Night” series.

This image was recently featured on the front cover of the fine art photography magazine DayFour, and will also be featured in an exhibition at the printspace in December of this year.

Place your bids here….

Interview on The Photo Coterie.

There’s a short interview with me up at “The Photo Coterie” – its a concise little feature that was a pleasure to be involved in. You can see it here…

The Photo Coterie has been set up by two young photographers based in the USA – Nathan Ward and Taylor Paige Reynolds. I’d recommend checking out their work as well.

 

Hidden Treasure No.1

click image to download Hidden Treasure No.1

From today, I’ll be releasing a new image on the 1st of every month (or as close as my schedule allows!). Each image will be available for free as a hi-res download, suitable for making your own 10×8 print.

The image could be a random photograph taken during day to day shooting, or it could be an exclusive preview from an ongoing series; What I can guarantee is that each “Hidden Treasure” will be entering the public domain for the first time…

I’ll be keeping each download link active for 3 days!

Edit: The download image is now closed, thanks to all those who showed interest – watch out for next months freebie.

GUP Magazine feature my work – but don’t let me know

I got an email from a friend the other day with the picture below attached to it:

It’s a photograph of a spread from the most recent issue of GUP Magazine. There’s an image from my “One More Night” series featured on the bottom left hand side, with a short note about the work and a link to my website. Its a nice feature, and I’m in amongst some great photographers; and I really like GUP magazine as well.

So whats the problem? I guess it just bothers me when my work gets published without anyone from the publication contacting me to ask permission or let me know. I don’t know if this was just an oversight by the magazine, or whether it is standard practise, but there’s a number of reasons why I like to know when I’m featured in this kind of publication… here’s a little list…

1. I like to know when a photography magazine wants to feature my work, because its cool and I like being featured.

2. Although I make a living from shooting commercially, its the features like this that actually mean something. So its always nice when the magazine or blog touches base with me before going ahead and just running a feature.

3. When someone runs my work, I like to shout about it a little bit, and return the favour to the magazine or blog by promoting their site and linking back in kind. So it’s mutually beneficial, right?

4. I can ensure that they get the best possible file to make sure that the print reproduction is top notch; I don’t know where GUP got my image from, but I am presuming they just ripped a 72dpi version of my website….

It’s not about the money – I would never charge for usage for this kind of magazine (although there are plenty of titles out there who I would demand payment from in this situation) as I approve of their ethos and am grateful for the exposure – I guess its just the principle and the courtesy involved. I’d be interested to hear others thoughts on this…

In the meantime, in spite of this episode I’d recomend GUP magazine to anyone who likes to look at interesting photography. Heck, you might even find that you’ve been featured!

BJP Project Assistance Award – Progress Report

Since being awarded the BJP/Nikon Project Assistance Award earlier this year, I have made 3 visits to Spain with one more planned before I present work at the BJP’s “Vision” event here in London on the 27th November. I returned from my most recent trip about a week ago – I made new work in Granada, Sevilla, Murcia and along sections of the Andalucian coast.

I’ve not developed the film from this trip yet, but as I have become more involved in the project, I have felt a shift in the emphasis of the work and in the way the project is evolving. Some of my aims and intentions have become less defined – and yet I think that ultimately this is a good thing. I discussed this with some of my fellow contributors at Insig.ht – Michael David Murphy summed things up succintly:

It sounds like you’re finding a good place between old & new work;  It’s always about right to not know exactly what you’re doing, I’d say…

The older work, that formed the basis of my pitch to the BJP when applying for the funding, still has resonance – yet it was made up exclusively of photographs describing the collapse of the construction industry in Spain. As I have spent more time in the country, I’ve found myself photographing more on impulse and emotion; I’m attracted to scenes and more subtle details that perhaps describe my experiences of Spain in a more abstract yet more personal way. “The Crisis” is a phenomenon that is gripping Spain, and it extends beyond just the failure of the construction industry;

With this in mind I have been revisiting photographs that I took more on impulse on my visits to Spain in May and July. Originally I considered them as being “outtakes” – photographs that I took along the way that weren’t necessarily relevant to the more specific “Brick Business” project. The 50 rolls of undeveloped film from my most recent visit will reflect a shift towards this more organic, unplanned approach to photographing Spain. The next step is to bring together a broad edit of the images and see how they sit alongside the older work from 2007.

I’m trying to be open about the process involved in pursuing this body of work; I’ve been moving towards a more free-form method of photographing over the last couple of years – I was conscious that my work was becoming too predictable. Its still a constant battle to avoid covering old ground – trying not to shoot repeat images, attempting to find the subtle photographs while bypassing the glaringly obvious. Hopefully this will result in a more stimulating and engaging project.

Here’s a couple of photographs from my trip to Catalunya back in May – photographs that were originally “outtakes” but are now being brought back into the fold for consideration.

Kit for 3 weeks shooting “The Brick Business” in Southern Spain

I’m heading to Spain for 3 weeks tomorrow to continue shooting for my series “The Brick Business”.

This work is continuing thanks to the support of Nikon and The British Journal of Photography. I’ll be presenting new work and talking about the Project Assistance Award at the BJP’s Vision convention on the 27th November.

PDF Portfolios available to download

Ben Roberts - folio cover page

I’ve got two PDF folio’s available to download via my website.

If you’d rather just download them from here, then follow the links below:

Portfolio 1 (also available as a printed folio via my agent LPA)

Portfolio 2 (contains new work not currently featured on my website)

Camille: Of The Minute – By Matt Sundin

bit of a fashion and video fix combined here – found this video by talented New York based photographer Matt Sundin via the See Like Me blog…

more about “Camille: Of The Minute – By Matt Sundin“, posted with vodpod