Schnabel's vision

I watched one of the most amazing films I have truly ever seen today, directed by Julian Schnabel, which earnt him the Best Director at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. The film I am talking about is The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

This film is empowering, captivating, heart breaking and visually incredible, every photographer should see it. From the very first opening sequence right through to the very last minute, I felt in another world. The cinematography is astounding; each frame is a highly composed still, flowing beautifully into another. Each shot is perfectly placed, tender, as we witness a death through the living. The dappled light, the soft words of a man locked inside his body is incredibly portrayed through this sensitive, factual tale of the French memoir made by Jean-Dominique Bauby.

I strongly recommend this film to everyone, especially photographers as it shows you another way of seeing. This film has in turn inspired me to look at the world in a new light, one where you are not lost in pity but embrace what you have, an imagination, a never ending dictionary of imagery where you can write your own tales.

The Family and the Land

Finally, Sally Mann exhibits in a one-women show at The Photographers’ Gallery, which opens on Friday 18th June until September 19th 2010. Unbelievably this is her first UK Solo show- what have we been doing!

The show is, The Family and the Land, and will be a selection of her most powerful, thought provoking series linked back to the title. I am so excited about seeing these works, especially her most recent series, What Remains made between 2000 and 2004 that deals with our attitudes surrounding death and our own morality.

Image, Untitled WR Pa 59, 2001, from the series What Remains © Sally Mann, Courtesy Gagosian Gallery.

Where's the Photography?

Newspeak: British Art Now is the new exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery displaying works that are representative of the best of contemporary British Art. For me, this is where it has failed, where was all the Photography?

As I wondered through the maze of rooms filled with Burberry handbags, Versace face lifts and champagne giggles I soon realised that Photography hadn’t been offered a place in this exhibition. Apart from one room, which was filled with, what appeared to be magazine cuttings and photocopies, actual photographs, were all but lost behind the mass of paint and installation. What dawned on me was how separated the Art world is from the Photography world.

As I walked around the exhibition, from one painting to another, to another (positioned rather lower, I guess they work to a child’s eye level) I felt a real sense of sadness and agitation. How can you represent, present a true survey of British contemporary art in 2010 when you leave out a medium?

I feel it is important to look back at the Sensation exhibition in 1997 as photography played a more prominent role with artists like Gillian Wearing, Richard Billingham and Sam Taylor-Wood all exhibiting photography. How can it be that thirteen years have passed and photography is becoming more accepted as an art, but yet it still doesn’t have its place among the paintings?

I hope the time comes where both worlds meet and not run parallel to one another, but where photography is really understood, appreciated and exhibited as a form of contemporary art. 

Web Picture of the Day

On the 2nd June, two of my Photomontages where featured on the Troika Editions blog, Troikatalk as “Web picture of the Day.” They were featuring the best of the rest of the UK Winners from the Magenta Award 2010 and I was the first!

See what they choose at http://www.troikaeditions.co.uk/troikatalk

Contact

It seems like my new series of work, “The Photograph as Contemporary Art” is getting noticed. First the Magenta Award and now is has been featured on the Contact Editions blog, posted 1st June 2010. 

www.contactcollective.blogspot.com 

Check out this blog to see my work and other exciting photographers, from Anne Hardy to Andre Cepeda. This blog also provides links to a great selection of other photography blogs and magazines worth looking at, not forgetting their editions company too. 

Flash Forward 2010

The Magenta Foundation has announced the final list of winners for the Flash Forward - Emerging Photographers 2010 and I am one of the winning artists in the UK! My project titled “The Photograph as Contemporary Art” has been selected and will feature in a publication and hopefully appear in an exhibition in Canada.

Have a look at their website to find out more about the other winners from Canada, USA, UK and about the company.

http://www.magentafoundation.org/

New Editions

I have completed some new photomontages and above from the top left are, 

"Photomontage XX", "Photomontage XIX",  Photomontage XXI", 

"Photomontage XVIII" and "Photomontage XXII."  All pieces copyright Melinda Gibson 2010.

Dedication

I would like to dedicate this entire body of work, "The Photograph as Contemporary Art" to my dearest friend who passed away on Wednesday 21st April 2010, I love you and will never forget you, thank you for always believing in me.

Déjà vu

This weekend I took a trip down to Southend on Sea, like so many others, as the English Summer had arrived!  As my partner and I parked up our Royal Enfield with the other Motorbikes, what became immediately apparent was the sense of déjà vu. As we looked around the seafront, at the fish and chip shops, the penny arcades and the slow burning skins I realised what is was. Martin Parr!

Everything we looked at resembled a photograph like that of Martin Parr’s. From the fish and chip containers left on the beach, to the crying children, to tea and cakes left by pensioners, it was as if we were viewing an exhibition rather than a place. What amazed me and still does, is that places like this prove the power of photography.

As more and more images are taken, published, exhibited and viewed on the web, our environment becomes an ever-developing collage of imagery. Our memories are based upon images rather than experiences. Once we visit those places, we are unable to see past what our memory recalls, those published pictures. What also becomes apparent is the inability to take a new picture, one where you aren’t just producing another Martin Parr.  

Above picture copyright Melinda Gibson 2010.

The Digital Gauge

I found this article in the Guardian today and it is perfect research material for my new project. Jonathan Jones talks about our digital library and the constraints and benefits brought about through this new technology,

“What's more worrying is the lack of correlation between the immense online archive of art and the even more immense reality. Because so many works can be found online, there's a danger of forgetting how many cannot (not to mention the inadequacy of a picture on your screen compared with the real thing).”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2010/apr/12/google-gauge-great-art

More Textual Additions

Above are some more finalised Photomontages, from the series "The Photograph as Contemporary Art". I am still creating, so I will post some of the new photomontages this week, so watch this space.

All works copyright Melinda Gibson 2009-2010.

Abigail Reynolds

The above image is titled, “Piccadilly Circus 1951 / 1973, 2008”and is by the artist Abigail Reynolds who is represented by Seventeen Gallery. She has a new body of work showing at Seventeen, which opens on Wednesday 7th April 2010.

I really love Reynolds works as she uses vintage bookplates and creates these wonderfully three dimensional photographic collages that are beautifully put together. The work plays with the idea of the photographic object ensuring that the audience has feel pleasure when viewing, as the perspectives change when looking at the pieces.

The cuts, slices and folds in the plates, for me, resemble a flock of birds flying up through Piccadilly Circus, or a mass of insects burrowing under the page. I think they are fantastic and I will definitely be at the opening to see the work.

Work above copyright Abigail Reynolds.

http://www.abigailreynolds.com/