'What do artists do all day?' - Tom Wood

Tom Wood's style of photography is mainly street and documentary. He is based mainly in Liverpool and Merseyside. He has returned to Mayo, Ireland where he grew up though out his life

His earlier black and white street photography appeals to me however I have never really liked colour street photography, I feel colour doesn't work for this style of photography. 

He built up a reputation in the area with the locals and the children who used to refer to him as 'photie man'. He explains in this documentary that having a relationship with his subjects or a link to them in some way helped him photography them. I agree with that in some way, as he can tell their story through his photographs and get the subjects image across to the viewer, however being detached from the subject can also be a good thing as you can use the subject to convey any message that you would like regardless of what the subject in the photograph is like. 

A few things he said during the documentary stuck in my mind. One of them was 'the older I got, the more pictures I took, the easier it got' and I think that is a really important statement to make about street photography. Some people don't feel comfortable photographing strangers and just going out with their cameras as they're afraid of what people might say to them or if they'll get strange looks. and as he says, it gets easier the more you do it as it just becomes the norm for you to go out with your camera and you don't notice people looking at you as much. 

Another thing that stood out to me was that he said he 'didn't want to be anybody' which I think is a really interesting comment. He started doing photography because he had a passion for it and because he wanted to create images for himself, no other reason.  Another thing that sort of backs this point up is that he explains how he never completed a project, he'd work on something until he wanted to work on something else, which again shows it is more of a hobby to him, something he enjoys doing rather than doing it to try and make money and make his name heard.

Baltic Museum: Daniel Buren

Catch as catch can: works in situ

Daniel Buren's work was displayed over two levels, the image above was from one of his exhibitions.

This exhibition was one I really enjoyed looking at. I revisited this exhibition about 5 times in one day. I thought it was really interesting how they used the coloured glass panels on the building roof as part of their work. The reason I revisited it so many times was because throughout the day as the sun was moving the coloured lights were moving across the room too and I wanted to see how it looked when the lights reflected off the different mirrors as shown in the image below when I returned later on in the day.

On the level below he also had another exhibition from his Electric Light series from 2011. I enjoyed this work too but not as much as the one on the level above. This exhibition included fibre optic fabrics with different colours and shapes hanging from the walls. The piece below was made up of 5 small squares in different colours following the same form.

The piece below was another of his work from the Electric light series. This was one of my favourite from this series as it didn't follow the same layout as the others. All the other displays were in squares  where as this one was a series of rectangles. I also loved how symmetrical this piece was.

Aaron Guy

Aaron Guy is a photographer who is associated with the North East Photography Network, and works at the North of England Institute of Mining. When we got told that he was giving a talk about his work I decided to look into what he has been working on. I'll be honest, when I first looked at his work I didn't really understand or relate to it in the slightest. I thought the images were nothing spectacular, and I didn't think I would like the talk I was going to attend and it could quite possibly be a day wasted. Once we got to the hall we would be having the talk in we took our seats and I got out my notebook to write anything down if I found it interesting or like it would be helpful to my work. 

As I said earlier I didn't really find his work interesting or anything special, however when he started talking about his work I understood why he was taking the images he did in the way he did. The project we looked at of his was one called 'Working, Void' and all his work started to make sense to me and I actually really enjoyed him talking about his thought process throughout the project.

The work he was showing us was about where he grew up and how mining was a large part of his upbringing as his father worked there and once he grew up his friends from school started to work there. He spent around 4 years working on this project so he got to know the people he worked with which I thought was an important part of his project because he included some portrait shots and I think when taking portraits that are trying to show who the person is it's a good idea to know the person yourself. 

The way he chose to print his final project is what stayed with me the most. He chose to print his images on newspaper. He said how it fits with this project, as he is taking images of workers, the stereotypical associations are newspapers, dirt, and mess. I thought this was a really interesting way of presenting his work as it brings it all together rather than just displaying them in a book. 

'The Ethics of Street Photography' response

I feel like this article is something I neither agree with or disagree with. I understand what the writer is trying to say how some people wish not to be photographed however I feel like that is the whole point of street photography. I feel like street photography should provoke a bit of a response from people, whether its people looking at the image or the people in the image. 

I know there is an issue of asking permission and consent from the people in the fame but that would just mean you don't catch the scene as its happening and once people are aware of you having a camera and that they are going to be in a photo they tend to act differently, whether they smile, try to get more into the centre, or even something as simple as their posture. It will change the outcome of the photo you originally saw. 

For me street photography is about coincidence, being in the right place at the right time and seeing things in a way only a photographer would be able to see. Finding interesting things in your everyday life, and if you have to ask every persons permission, you lose that.

I feel like in street photography there should be a certain level of ethics, if I was out taking photographs and someone thought it was a problem and asked me to delete the photograph, I'd try to explain to them my project and why I thought the photograph was so important to take. Just be polite and try and explain it from your point of view and I think they would probably not care if they were in your image.

Polly Morgan - 'What do artists do all day?'

I found Polly Morgan's work very interesting as it is something I have never looked into before. I never thought I would find taxidermy something that would interest me and something I would like to spend time looking at. However I found her work to be really  insightful and its a new thing to look at as inspiration to potential future projects.

She explained how she portrays her current or past states of emotion through her work which I think all artists do in some way, whether it's through the objects they use, colour scheme, or lighting. 

In the documentary she spoke about how she likes balance and juxtaposition in her work. She uses death to symbolise life which I think is a really interesting concept, and she doesn't put taxidermy in the same context as it is used to being seen, she takes the animal out of the environment its used to being seen in and puts it into a place or object that relates to the animal but in a very unconventional way. 

I think she is very professional in the way she works as she connects to people through her work, she gets animals found sent to her by people who support her work which is involving the audience. And she works with a photographer so she can reach an audience that she might not have reached otherwise. Another way of her being seen as professional is that she doesn't seem to be affected by using dead animals as a part of her work, she said in the documentary that she just saw them as just another material to use.