Simon Marsden: Online exhibition and print sale

I'm delighted to have been pointed to a new online exhibition from the Centre for British Photography of infrared photographs by the legendary Simon Marsden ... subtitled Visions of a Ghost Hunter.

Here it is: britishphotography.org/exhibitions/70-simon-marsden-visions-of-a-ghost-hunter

The exhibition is online starting yesterday (March 26th) and running until April 26th 2024. There are 23 photographs of his characteristic ruins and landscapes, all exploiting the idiosyncratic style of Kodak's much-missed 35mm High Speed Infrared film.

Sadly, the £1500 price tag is too much for me but these are wonderful images and well worth a view.

The show is online because the Centre for British Photography have now closed their gallery in central London as the lease ended early; but this was apparently only ever intended to be a temporary space. Follow their web site for updates.

Barnaby Attwell infrareds in Falmouth exhibition

Having recently discovered Barnaby Atwell's faux-colour infrared shots of Cornish landscapes I was delighted to find that he has some included in a new seasonal exhibition in Falmouth.

The exhibition is called Unfamiliar Territory and is on at the Falmouth Art Gallery until June 1st.

The exhibition press release describes the event ...

Unfamiliar Territory is a stunning new exhibition opening this February at Falmouth Art Gallery that will explore a range of themes linked to the Cornish landscape. It brings together an exciting selection of 20th and 21st century artists who have been inspired by Cornwall’s diverse landscapes to create works that show it in innovative ways and explores how Cornwall’s iconic landscapes have evolved over the years.

The exhibition runs from the 11th February to 1st June 2023 and will feature nationally renowned artists such as: John Tunnard, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Kurt Jackson, Danny Markey, Tom Cross, Patrick Heron, Albert Reuss, Bryan Wynter and more.

... and Barnaby adds that the gallery shop will be selling copies of his excellent book, Welcome to St Decay, as well as prints and postcards.

The web site for the exhibition is at www.falmouthartgallery.com/Exhibitions/2023/1846~Unfamiliar_Territory and Barnaby's blog post about it is at www.barnflakes.com/blog/unfamiliar-territory-press-release-and-private-view.

[Photo courtesy of Barnaby Atwell]

Laurie Klein competition and exhibition

Laurie Klein is the author of Photographing the Female Form with Digital Infrared and co-author of Infrared Photography: Artistic Techniques for Brilliant Images. She is putting together an exhibition of infrared imaging at the Photoplace Gallery in Middlebury, Vermont next month and is running an open competition for inclusion.

Information on this is on her web site and if you would like to submit images there is a fee of $35 for up to five images and then $6 each over that. You can submit any number (electronically) and Laurie will choose ones for the exhibition. It's a blind jury process so she won't know who has submitted what. The deadline for submissions is September 18th.

Unseen book launch in London on Thursday

Ed Thompson's fascinating book, The Unseen, which I recently wrote up, is being launched this week. Unusually, the do is an open house and might provide an opportunity for an infrared get-together ... I certainly plan to go.

The place is the Photographers Gallery Bookshop, 16-18 Ramillies St, London W1F 7LW. You might know this as that street with steps at the end leading down from Oxford Street. Timing is between 1800 and 2000 on Thursday 27th October. Ed says ...

"I will be holding a free raffle and giving away prints, original spreads from the book when it was printed and other cool rare stuff to do with the project."

Coincidentally, last time I went to the Photographers Gallery was to see some of Richard Mosse's infrareds from the Congo ... but in that case the book was unobtainable.

Simon Marsden exhibition in Chelsea (London)

If you are heading down the Kings Road between October 28th and November 4th, I recommend you drop in at number 259. That's the shop and gallery of Green and Stone and they are hosting an exhibition of Simon Marsden's infrared photographs.

Being a Kings Road gallery it's also an opportunity to buy a print from the ever diminishing stock of prints made by Sir Simon himself ... or books (some signed), the 2017 calendar, or cards. (I will admit, sadly, that my wallet tends more towards the latter.) I have to admit that besides the print of Moydrum Castle he kindly loaned to the RPS for inclusion in our Infrared 100 exhibition, I have not seen any of his prints 'in the flesh', and he always saw the printing as a key part of his work. Both composer and player, as Ansel Adams might have said.

Opening hours are 0900 to 1800 weekdays, 0930 to 1800 on Saturday and even 1200 to 1800 on the Sunday. There is also a late night opening on November 2nd until 1930 (maybe see you there?). The Green and Stone shop has been in Chelsea for almost 90 years and started life within the Chenil Gallery (apparently situated between Chelsea Town Hall and the Six Bells pub), whose directors were Augustus John and Bernard Shaw, before moving to the present site opposite Carlyle Square in 1934.

Laurie Klein in London

Laurie Klein, of 'Photographing the Female form with Digital Infrared' fame (and a new book on the way ... see my previous post) will be in London next week to present two talks at the SWPP Convention.

The two talks are:

• Weddings, Portraits, and Life Journey Photography with Digital Infrared - Thursday 21st 1000-1200 [more]
• Finding The Unique Visual Voice - Friday 22nd 1630-1830 [more]

I won't be able to get along but I recommend Laurie's 'Female Form' book and am looking forward to seeing the new one. In any event, how often do you get to hear from someone who studied with Ansel Adams?

October odds and ends

A couple of items for your interest.

Shutterbug published a lovely appreciation of Sir Simon Marsden on October 5th. I also found him very communicative and helpful at the time of the Centenary and really regret not meeting up, especially now I live a lot closer than I did in 2010. This has prompted me so that this year I've decided to desert Ansel Adams and get my 2016 calendar from the Marsden online shop.

Rather oddly, considering the piece dates back to August 2014, New Scientist just tweeted a link to an edition of their 'Last Word' column, which asks 'How far beyond the visible spectrum does a rainbow extend?'. The responses discuss both UV and IR extensions of what we see, and especially how those might be more dominant on other worlds such as Titan. It reminds me of the work of Robert Greenler who, having deduced that there should be an infrared component to a terrestrial rainbow, finally succeeded in photographic a natural one in 1970.

I recently had a visit from Ed Thompson and had a sneak preview of his upcoming book of colour infrared photographs. I'll write more about this when it's published but suffice to say there's lots of red and a delightful conceit in the way the book is packaged. In the meantime if you're in the vicinity of the Rough Print Gallery (14 Bradbury Street, Dalston in London) then images from the Red Forest and The Village portions of his epic Unseen project will be on show. The gallery Tumblr stream tells us that it's part of the White Rabbit Restaurant and the gallery is open 10-5 Wednesday/Thursday and during the restaurant opening hours. Starts 15th October and runs to the 21st.

I think that'll do for the moment.

More on Ed Thompson 'Unseen'

I made it over to Bethnal Green yesterday to see Ed Thompson's 'Unseen' exhibition and, as I expected, found the images fascinating. There are only two days left but I do recommend that you get over to the Four Corners Gallery if you can. Ed very kindly gave me a print, and we chatted. I was impressed that he made such good use of this difficult film stock ... even more so since he found that he didn't need to bracket.

One thing that struck me was the silvery skin tone in the Vein series. I've been trying to figure out what might cause it: the illumination was flash and the images are almost always straight what was recorded on the film. I'll leave you with my favourite out of the Vein shots and a final note that Ed plans a book sometime soon. Details yet to be announced.

Ed Thompson 'Unseen' infrared photos in London

Documentary photographer and lecturer Ed Thompson has started an exhibition of colour infrared photographs at Four Corners Gallery in east London. It's called The Unseen and is a compendium of medium format Aerochrome shots taken for several earlier projects.

The photographs cover landscapes, medical imagery and aerial photography, in some cases echoing the original intended usage for the film, which was better known in its Infrared Ektachrome incarnation.

The exhibition runs until April 18th.

Like Richard Mosse, Ed Thompson's use of medium format Aerochrome film is a dying gasp for the medium. I doubt if there's much stock left now, and although it is possible to mimic the film's effect with a digital camera, the results (at least by me) are nowhere near as dramatic as 'the real thing'.

Snippets

As I was in the West End last week I went over to the new Photographers Gallery just off Oxford Street to have a look at Richard Mosse's extraordinary infrared photographs from the Congo (see the previous post). The good news is they look stunning in the huge prints on show. I was very surprised by just how small the grain in the film is, so I have to assume the aerochrome was actually developed using the 'correct' aerochrome process rather than the E6 most of us used. The bad news is that there are only a handful of the prints on display and I had hoped to see more.

So, I went down to the bookshop in the basement and chatted with the very helpful sales assistant. I had hoped to get a copy of either of the books of Mosse's photos but that was not to be. They are completely sold out, not just at the Gallery but everywhere it seems, and are now selling for high prices.

Despite being disappointed by this (and kicking myself for not buying his Infra book online from Aperture when I could) I got to thinking that this took the book into the realm of photographic collectors items. They may well be the first books of infrared photography to truly get there, and prize-winning photography at that. I know there are a couple of other IR photo books that go for high prices but I think these are in a class of their own.

Changing wavelength, I am getting a little worried that FLIR's inexpensive iPhone add-on thermal camera may be having difficulties. The general consensus in the Apple rumour mill is that the iPhone 6 will be along soon and will have a larger form factor. This means that the FLIR One, as publicised, will be designed to use an obsolescent smart phone body. I still hope that the promise it showed when previewed at CES in January will be realised and it would definitely be a game changer for a wider use of thermal imaging.

Richard Mosse: Börse and London

Great to see that Richard Mosse won the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize for 2014 for the Enclave, colour infrared photographs he took in the Congo and exhibited in the Irish Pavilion at the 2013 Venice Biennale.

His photos are now on show in London, which is close enough that I may at last get to see them. They're at the Photographers Gallery until June 22nd.

All About Imaging: Transactions

All About Imaging: Transactions, according to its agenda, is an interdisciplinary symposium exploring new directions in contemporary imaging from the perspectives of art, science and technology. It takes place at the University of Westminster Harrow campus on May 22nd and 23rd.

I note it here mainly because of a session on day one which includes a presentation on 'Imaging the invisible in medicine' by Professor Francis Ring. Prof Ring is one of the pioneers of thermal imaging, with a special interest in medical applications.

That said, there is much of interest, including the opening of the RPS PRS International Images for Science 2103 exhibition on the 22nd. The full schedule and more information can be found on the university's web site. Members of the Royal Photographic Society are entitled to a discounted registration fee.

Richard Mosse 'The Enclave' exhibition in New York

Following on from his exhibition at the Venice Biennalle, Richard Mosse's colour infrared installation, The Enclave, is on show in New York until March 22nd. The venue is the Jack Shainman Gallery at 513 West 20th Street.

Mosse worked with cinematographer Trevor Tweeten using 16mm aerochrome (basically Color Infrared Ektachrome) to explore the war-torn eastern Congo. The resulting film was transferred to HD video. Here's how the exhibition press release describes the work:

The Enclave comprises six monumental double-sided screens installed in a large darkened chamber creating a physically immersive experience. This disorienting and kaleidoscopic installation is intended to formally parallel eastern Congo’s multifaceted conflict, confounding expectations and forcing the viewer to interact spatially from an array of differing viewpoints. The Enclave is an experiential environment that attempts to reconfigure the dictates of photojournalism and expanded video art.

The gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday, 1000 to 1800.

Richard Mosse at the Venice Biennale

Richard Mosse's latest work in colour infrared, The Enclave, is opening at the Venice Biennale this week and running until November 24th. I've previously noted his work in the Congo with medium format infrared Aerochrome/Ektachrome. This time it's a multiscreen movie, shot on 16mm and shown in an HD transfer. A 240 page book is being published by Aperture to coincide with the event.

I'm curious as to where he got the 16mm film stock but perhaps it's the Super-16 made for the Wristcutters project but never used.

The venue is the Irish Pavillion, Fondaco Marcello, San Marco 3415 (Calle dei Garzoni), 30124 Venezia which is near the Traghetto San Tomà. Sadly my May culture has been provided by the rebooted Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and I won't be in Venice. Richard is representing Ireland at the Biennale and there is more on the Ireland at Venice web site.

Infrared on Red

I've noted before the suitability of the Red movie camera for shooting near infrared footage and the suitability of infrared for shooting clouds and a superb example has now been brought to my attention.



This is the work of Glen Ryan and James van der Moezel and as Glen writes,

"... is only a very short section of a much larger project - in scope, duration and resolution (4K) - that I am currently working on with emerging cloud wrangler James van der Moezel."

He promises a six hour uncut version soon.

The Karst formations are near Wee Jasper in New South Wales and the video was part of a recent exhibition called Karst County held at the Belconnen Arts Centre in the Australian Capital Territory (Canberra). Here Glen Ryan's photos and video were exhibited alongside Phil Ryan's acrylic paintings.

The infrared video was shot with a Red camera using 'Nikon glass' and an R72 filter (presumably the Hoya of that ilk).

Watch the video at full HD resolution if you can ... preferably in a darkened room.

Richard Mosse in Liverpool

Richard Mosse's colour infrared images from the Democratic Republic of Congo are currently on show at the Open Eye Gallery on Liverpool waterfront. It runs until June 10th 2012.

There's also an interesting interview with Richard by Phil Coomes in his Viewfinder blog on the BBC web site.

Richard Mosse exhibition and book

One of the more popular posts in this blog was the one last May discussing Richard Mosse's medium-format colour infrared reportage shots. The extra resolution brought to what is basically the discontinued infrared Ektachrome by moving from 35mm to larger formats is extraordinary. (I omitted to ask Richard whether he processed the film AR5 or E6 since Kodak admitted there would be a significant difference in saturation.)

If you're in New York you have a chance to see an exhibition of the photos from this project of Richard's, called Infra, at the Aperture Gallery at 547 W. 27th St. (On the 4th floor.) More information here.

Those of us who can't get to W27th Street can make do with the book, published by Aperture with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

The legendary Abe Frajndlich, no slouch when it comes to infrared himself (one of his infrared photos was in the Infrared 100 exhibition), tells me he found the prints on show 'stunning' when he visited an earlier incarnation of this exhibition. As I've said before, good colour film infrared photography is a rare animal, and Richard is a great exponent of this. You should also check out his web site and that of the guy who provides him with his film stock, Dean Bennici who has an amazing collection of colour infrareds on his web site.

Although this time it's not infrared I should also point you at Abe Frajndlich's latest book, which is the culmination of a long-running project to photograph photographers. Check out this from the New York Times and don't forget to click on the article link at the lower right.

More swords and ploughshares

Chris Lavers' Swords into Ploughshares exhibition, looking at the transfer of military technology into civilian life, and including thermal imaging, is running now until March 30th in the Naval Library at Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, Devon.

Two chances to meet Simon Marsden

I guess you're familiar with Simon Marsden's atmospheric (if not downright spooky) infrared photographs of ruins and the like. I've recently mentioned his new book on vampires and there are two chances to get a signed copy and meet the man coming up before the New Year.

The first is at the Walcot Gate, off Walcot Street, Bath, Somerset between Tuesday 29th November and Saturday 3rd December 2011 (11am - 5pm). Like the book, the exhibition is called Vampires - The Twilight World and Simon will be on hand throughout the run to answer questions and sign copies.

A little more formal is a talk called Christmas Spirits, at Stubton Hall, near Newark, Nottinghamshire on Saturday 10th December 2011 from 6.30 pm to midnight. It says here ...

Come and listen to internationally famous photographer, author and ghost hunter Sir Simon Marsden talk about his upbringing in haunted houses that so influenced his career. Illustrated with photographic slides he goes on to describe how he created his singular style and the techniques he uses. But most of all share some of the extraordinary adventures he has experienced when travelling in the UK and in foreign lands in search of the undead, which have sometimes been truly frightening.

Here's hoping his stock of infrared film holds up.

Nature in a different light

More innovative thermal imaging from Chris Lavers. His Nature in a different light exhibition is at Paignton Library and Information Centre in Devon until December 6th (not Sundays).

The exhibition combines striking thermal images of endangered species coupled with beautiful conventional photographs of the animals. It is the work of Dr Chris Lavers from Plymouth University, Jean and Ray Wiltshire (regular photographers at Paignton Zoo), and Paignton Zoo’s Dr Amy Plowman, and is funded by the Institute of Physics and the British Science Association Bristol and Bath Branch.