Eleanor Jane

Alternative Press zine anthology

Hello! I've been working away in Oxford this week in a hotel with a super bad wifi connection so have quite a bit to catch up on. While I was gone my copy of the Alternative Press zine anthology 'Publish You' arrived. The book is a collection of excerpts from the current small press scene in the UK and I was very lucky to be included out of the masses of artists, writers and illustrators that were considered. It launched at Housemans in London the other week which I regrettably missed and have been  beside myself with excitement waiting for my copy to arrive ever since.

Dazed & Confused Digital mentioned my pictures of my USA trek as a highlight of the book (thank you!) but I have to say my favourite pages by miles & miles were Gemma Correll's illustrations of a similar trip she had taken. I'm so in awe of illustrators, perhaps because it's something I don't have the talent for myself. I love quirky line drawings and a silly sense of humour and most of the prints I have framed at home are illustrative. I forgot to photograph Gemma's page and can't link to any of her fabulous pictures online as they're all protected by those transparent spaceball gifs. But trust me when I say her work is wonderfully addictive and check out her website. The cat pictures are especially good but then I would say that... ;)

Oh and finally the winner of my prize draw for a copy of Girl Photographer 4 is....

Sarah P (aka Rai Cupcakeface!). Congratulations!
I'll be posting your zine out this afternoon so it should be with you soon.

Toodley-pip!

PHOTOMARATHON - the results!

I'm a bit late with this but a few weekends back the PHOTOMARATHON exhibition went up at the Old Library in Cardiff and my friend Andrew and I went down to finally check out our pictures. If you missed my post about it back in June, Photomarathon is an awesome photography competition/endurance test!  We showed up at the Millennium Centre bright & early in the morning, along with over four hundred other people, where we collected a 12 exposure roll of film, an entry card, a wristband and a free bus & train pass for the day. The idea is to shoot 12 pictures in 12 hours, with 4 topics being released every 4 hours. 

Topics from Left to Right:

ROW 1

1: My Entry Number/Colourful.
C drove me back home to Newport for the first four topics so I shot this one in my bathroom. I bought some of that tri-coloured, stripey, Aquafresh toothpaste and wrote my entry number on the bathroom mirror which is surrounded by all kinds of colourful bathroom bits. Then I popped on my clown mask (!) and did a sinister, blurry wave in the background!

2: Contained.
I put the plug in the sink and chopped away at my fringe, shooting the wispy little hairs contained within the bowl.

3: Roll With It.
Tongue roll!

4: Chip.
C & I liberated a frozen chip from the freezers at Sainsburys on the way home and I photographed it on the garden wall, held up high in the air by a little plastic King Kong monkey! This picture won the public vote and will be exhibited with the other topic winners in Bridgend.

ROW 2

5: Age
Oh this topic made me groan, so City & Guilds photography course! C dropped me at the station and I caught the train back to Cardiff to meet up with Andrew. Since he was peckish I got him to buy a sad looking burger which we then mushed up a little, put it on a grimey street corner and stuck those alphabet birthday candles in the top that read 'YOU'RE OLD'. It looked manky but we managed to avoid getting it dirty so he ate it for lunch afterwards! This picture was nominated by the judges as a potential topic winner.

6: Crunch
The four hour struggle to think of something to photograph for Crunch was frustrating to say the least. Andrew and I wandered the length of Cardiff City Centre multiple times looking for an empty snail shell to stand on but found nothing besides expensive 'serving shells' in a few delis. Eventually I took a photo of my empty purse and although it sucked, at least the colours were nice and the sense of relief was wonderful!

7: Black & White.
I attempted to replicate a picture of mine from my Soul Catch Fire series but had a bit of a cock up with the camera so it didn't really work. Failing on that Crunch image really messed me up!

8: Social Network
C turned up to meet us for the final few topics so I made him and Andrew wear clown masks, blew up a few balloons, stood them in front of a carousel and shot some kind of social networking for clowns image that probably only made sense in my brain. But it was amusing :)

ROW 3

9: Spillage.
We were in the Bay so went for chips at Harry Ramsdens where I nabbed some tartar sauce, smeared it on my shoe and scattered chips everywhere to attract a seagull. I waited for one to come into shot and BAM! A fake spillage of seagull poo. At this point I was starting to question whether Photomarathon was having an adverse effect on my sense of humour...

10: Missing.
Even more so when I bought a pint of milk from Sainsburys and drew a 'MISSING' ad on the side for a 'Small Rat Boy. REWARD: nil.' Poor rat boy.

11: Dressed To Impress.
Ummm. I had this idea of buying some awful lacy underwear and some boxer shorts and socks from Primark and hanging them from a bush in the park. But by 7pm all the shops were closed and I had to improvise...

12: Winner.
We played Pooh Sticks in the park and I attempted to shoot the winning stick drifting out the side of the river bridge. It didn't look great but by this point we were all tired, lacking enthusiasm and the light was poor. So it sucks a bit but it felt ever so satisfying to hear the shutter close for the final time.

Despite suffering from cranky photo fatigue towards the end of the day, overall it was loads of fun. If you get the chance to attend a Photomarathon in your own city you really should whether you're a photographer or not. Even though I found a few of the topics a little mundane and struggled at times the creative challenge really tests your originality. Every single picture taken on the day was exhibited, even the failures, and it was really interesting to see the different interpretations of the topics.

Stories of the Eye

Vice Magazine - oh so often vile, disgusting and arrogant, effectively terrifying would be contributors from submitting content for fear of being unduly mocked for failing to be hip enough (or for being so excessively hip that they are instantly stripped of, err, hipness... goodness knows where the imaginary style borderline begins and ends but it appears a fine one to toe where Vice are concerned) - have teamed up with Olympus to stage a special photography project with aims of exhibiting our work alongside the hidden creative talents of four female cultural 'icons'. This project celebrates the 50th birthday of the design of the classic Olympus PEN and marks the release of it's successor, the almost too cute to be true Olympus E-P1 (and I say this as a Nikon girl through & through!). But, dare we enter?!

Stories of the Eye features work from CSS singer Lovefoxx, T4 presenter Miquita Oliver and the impossibly lithe and beautiful models du jour, Daisy Lowe & Alice Dellal all of whom will document their lives through the eye of the new Olympus EP-1. The chosen themes include 'eyeTravel', 'eyeStyle', 'eyeLondon' and the rather loosely defined 'eyeDoWhatILike'.
 
Browse the photos online as well as entering your own pictures to be judged by the girls themselves. Each winner will be awarded a brand new Olympus PEN worth £699 and the opportunity to exhibit their photos next to Lovefoxxx, Daisy, Alice and Miquita at the Stories of the Eye exhibition - the launch of which will no doubt be Shoreditchtastic as you mingle with industry insiders, press and special guests but hey! A free party is a free party and who can bemoan that?! 

Watch Lovefoxxx speak about the competition from her current location in Tokyo.

Check out the camera though - it's adorable! Based on the 1959 design of the Olympus PEN (a camera designed to change the face of photography with the simple idea of being as easy to use and carry as, ooh, a pen!) it promises to offer the best of both worlds; a high end compact design with D-SLR performance. And I'm not even sceptical about this! Sure, pretty much all compact digital cameras these days are easily portable and virtually idiot proof but their major let down is that ultmately they're all rubbish! Functionality is poor and for someone used to the relative ease and creative control of an SLR,they are a frustrating, clunky, pain in the bottom!

The Olympus PEN offers interchangeable lenses, 12.3 megapixels, RAW shooting, full manual settings including manual focus, bulb setting, exposure bracketing and all kinds of dorky features. The only hmpf from me is that it doesn't appear to have a viewfinder... but I'd be interested to have a play around with it all the same! More information on the Olympus website with technical specifications here. 

So, what do you reckon... will you enter?

Girl Photographer 4

Hello! I have so much to blog about and update on the site that I just don't know where to begin. I'm sat at my desk at home trying to make some sort of order out of recent events, eating 19p blackberries and drinking peppermint tea using water I boiled up in a milk pan. My poor old kettle met an unfortunate demise a few nights ago - death by tea party! It just couldn't cope with my friends and their excessive appetite for hot beverages and I'm having far too much fun playing at doing things the old fashioned way to replace it just yet.

Thank you to everyone who popped along to the Book Arts Fayre on Saturday. We had a steady flow of visitors for most of the day and plenty of entertainment on the balcony upstairs. As usual though I mostly enjoyed sitting behind my stall nattering to people and straightening out my new zines because I'm a bit of a dork like that! I finished Girl Photographer 4 early that same morning after a last minute dash to the copy shop and a frantic stapling/smoothie drinking/mental fit on the living room floor. I'm impressed with it considering it took a fraction of the time I usually spend zineing, perhaps proving that working under pressure isn't so bad after all?

This issue is full colour, quarter sized and 24 pages long - a mite smaller than usual since I made it as part of a 24 hour zine challenge to myself. Girl Photographer 4 features a story about  being an extremely un-corporate person attempting the early morning London commute into the heart  of Canary Wharf, reasons why I like living alone, a pretty in depth interview I recently gave about my photography and zines, extracts from my 'Soul Catch Fire' project, a recipe, useless Japanese phrases I've learned and lovely bright happy pictures taken over the past few months. You can order a copy at my etsy shop if you like!

Pssst... treats ;)

Ffotogallery Book Arts Fayre

This week I've been busy busy busy like a kamikaze photo mentalist! There's a lot of news to catch up on but until then, come and say hello at Ffotogallery's summer book arts fayre tomorrow. After an early morning dash to the printers I shall hopefully be bringing along copies of my new Girl Photographer zine (number four already!) and of course there'll be the usual tea, coffee, cake and biscuits for all. 

Have a bash at badge making, listen to a selection of readings, an acoustic set and a talk from artist Joe Magee about his current exhibition and Ffotogallery’s newest publication, Humming Paradise.

Also featuring works by Time Travel Opportunists, InterCity MainLine, Cardboard Press, G39, Nigel Peake, Maura Hazelden, Attack!!!, George Cullen and me of course :)

Entry to the Book Arts Fayre is absolutely free! Check out the website, call (029) 2070 8870 or email the lovely Helen at helen@ffotogallery.org for more information.

NP'S NEXT TOP MODEL

A few weeks ago I was asked to help judge VOICE magazine's 2009 Next Top Model competition, this year sponsored by Burlesque - a super hip South Wales salon chain. The number of entrants was incredible and after a morning spent crawling round the salon's top floor on our hands and knees rearranging the submission shots, the editor, two stylists and myself had narrowed down hundreds of entries to just six finalists. The day after my birthday we all piled into my studio for a professional hair and make-up session and a photoshoot to create their shots for the next stage - the reader's votes.

I'm so excited because the magazine has just been released and voting has begun. Check out the spread below if you're out of the mag's distribution area. You can cast your vote online here and results will be announced in October. The ultimate winner will become the face of Burlesque and will receive six months of free hair styling, GHD & Goldwell goodies and a portfolio shoot with me!

 

Looks pretty good! Here are the uncropped images;

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you to Stuart, Dave and the rest of the Burlesque team for the hair styling, Sophie for the make-up and Rachel for coming down so early in the morning to assist me and making sure everyone was well watered and full of cookies!