F@$%^&g NORMAL!!!
I spent yesterday with a couple of young offenders, aged 15 and 17, trying to teach them a bit about photography.
I was working through the Trinity centre, as I did when I was teaching the NEETS a few months ago. I didn’t have long enough with the lads to really teach them much, just to introduce them to what photography has to offer.
We decided to take a trip up to the Banksy exhibition in Bristol City museum. It is a great exhibition btw…transforms the dull and lifeless museum into something other. If you can, go take a look…but beware the queues are up to 3 and a half hours long…..!! I managed to get in past the queues due to my slippery personality 
I will be working with another set of young offenders tomorrow, and a fair few more in weeks to come. It’s tough, but rewarding.
Upon seeing this shot for the first time, the author shouted out “That’s f*$%^&g NORMAL!!” very loudly; much to the chagrin of the dusty exhibitions officer who was festering in the corner. I didn’t think much of it, until the lads’ probation officer told me that is the highest compliment a lad his age could pay. Apparently I am also ‘normal’, as is my ancient amazon…which wasn’t until the lads realised I had a rather large sound system hidden in there somewhere…
David White
NECKLESS
Neckless, Leicester.
I’ve just been up into the archive (read loft) to have a look for a pic which I will post in a while. When rummaging around I came across¬†a favourite pic of mine, and one I had forgotten about..and one that reinforces the old snappers rule that you should have a camera on you at all times.
In this case it was an old Nikon F2 with a 35mm f2 lens wedged on the front. I was on my lunch break from working as a staffer at the Leicester Muckrake (oops..sorry..Mercury…) As usual with that camera I had to guess the exposure as there was no meter, but that was no problem because I had used the same film in all my cameras for donkeys years..tri-x, at 400asa.
I only wrote all that about kit because I know lots of you are obsessed with cameras…has anyone ever asked a journo what pen they use?¬† Anyway…I digress…This old dear was rummaging about for something in her shopping bag. Her head seemed¬†to disappear…it was there, honest…and no, there is no photoshoppery…hadn’t been invented, and I’ve got the bleedin’ neg if you don’t believe me…After I first printed the pic I realised she was outside a jewellers, so the neckless / necklace title it was.
Hope it makes you smile, ’tis a hard thing to do with a still image.
STUPID FASCISTS
That is not you, dear reader. It is the subjects in this pic.
They were all at a BNP demonstration somewhere in Leicester, in the late 1980′s. I was working as a snapper for the Leicester Mercury, and had been sent to cover their meeting. That was quite a hairy job, in lots of ways. The back half of the hall was full of anti-Nazis (Yeah!), whilst the front was full of the BNP members.
I think the fascists managed to scrape together about 6 brain cells between them, apart that is from John Tyndall,their leader, who unfortunately was quite intelligent, and who managed to stir the morons up into a right frenzy.
Ten minutes after this, it all kicked off…chairs came flying over from the back, coppers started piling in..When the police were distracted, Tyndall slid up to me like the snake he was and elbowed me as hard as he could in the bollocks, making sure no one else saw, the sneaky git.
I don’t mind saying that it bloody hurt.
He didn’t like having his picture taken. I don’t blame him..he was an ugly sod, with an uglier soul. I had a Metz hammerhead flashgun on my Nikon F3 at the time, the photographic equivalent of a steel girder with electronics, (mmmmm…cameras….), and I SO wanted to smack that outfit back into his poisonous frame. I didn’t ‘cos I would have lost my job, and I liked it…Instead I decided to make them look like the morons they are by getting pics like this one in the ‘paper..
INNOCENCE
Innocence is a powerful meditation by David White about the former child soldiers of Sri Lanka.
(click on the image to open the photofilm, then click again to start the short feature)
OUT OF THE BOX
Click on the image to open the video and then click again to watch OUT OF THE BOX:
In 2008 duckrabbit was commissioned to make a piece about Riverford, the Uk’s biggest veg box grower.
Benjamin first met Guy Watson, owner of Riverford, back when he was producing documentaries for Radio 4. Guy is the dream person to interview because he’s passionate, eloquent and quite frequently controversial.
All the photos and audio for this piece were recorded in one day, which shows duckrabbit’s ability to work fast without compromising quality.
Howlett on Brunel
Howlett on Brunel
tells the story of duckrabbit founder David White’s inspiring project to photograph Brunel’s legacy (the hard way) by recreating the same camera that was famously used to photograph Brunel by the young photographer Robert Howlett in 1857.
Both David and the slideshow were featured on the Today programme and the BBC website.
You can read a lot more about the amazing Robert Howlett here on Graham Harrison’s wonderful website Photo Histories.
This is the seldom told story of Robert Howlett, the photographic pioneer with the modern eye who in his short life came to understand what a powerful effect the still image can have on the public imagination.”