Professor Eyeball and friends

I've spent the last couple of days slowly scanning some of my son's drawings from when he was younger (a job I've been meaning to do for quite some time). In the back of my mind I've been trying to think what to do today for this project (I'm more than aware that I'm turning into the rabbit from Wonderland and struggling to catch up with myself sometimes).

And then I realised the answer was literally staring me in the face, Why not base this week's instalment on his artwork?

After a quick trip to the local pound store to get an assortment of weapons, I headed upstairs. It's a beautiful day today so I though 'to heck with it' and opened the curtains wide to let the daylight in.
Then I began my imaginary battles with Professor Eyeball and his villainous friends...


Dark Dino

Fencer

Dark Knight

Robo Square

Robot Guard

Jaw-O-Saurus

Saw Bot

Jammy Dodger's Aunt

Professor Eyeball

The Strangeness of Self

Massive apologies for the gap in posts. I'm not sure what happened there. A one week respite that over ran by a little. Nevermind, it gave me a chance to catch up on some important DIY and continue getting the house a little more finished. I've now learnt how to make a sideboard, a kitchen unit, bathroom storage and a tooth!

In the gap between posts I heard back from another competition over at LensCulture. Taking on board the constructive advice offered to me from their last comp I gathered together some self portraits (most of which were taken for my Leica Monochrom Mondays Project and presented 'The Strangeness of Self' as a my entry for their portrait competition. I thought I'd share the pictures entered and the accompanying write up about my entry as it was very positive and I was pleased as punch to receive such nice remarks.



The Strangeness of Self

Review given (identity of reviewer is kept anonymous) 

Clayton, I find your investigations fantastic. 

I really enjoy how you are so freely exploring notions of the self. 

So far because I do not see that many photographs I can honestly tell you that all of your images are powerful and evocative. Some images do remind me of surrealism, specially 05 to Frida Kahlo and 04 to Rene Magritte somehow, but also to contemporary artist Duane Michals. I see you as developing your own unique voice within the frame of fine art photography, however there is a history of this type of photography that I suggest that you become fully familiar with. The tonality of your shots is so rich, good job using the blacks. I wonder if the stories that are alluded under each image will be included in the image, perhaps as borders or handwritten text, I wonder how important it is for the viewer to know the origin of these images, since you added them but do not mention it in your statement. Image 01, is personally one of my favorite in the series, I see a lot of play, humor but also an in-depth analysis and a disposition towards deconstruction, which I feel occupies many of your images and it is also at the core of the “strangeness of self”. 

I really hope you keep developing this work and keep participating in portfolio reviews and competitions once you have the work thoroughly finished. I see so much potential and so many avenues yet to explore.

I have added some links to support you in your photographic journey, 
Thank you for your submission and I wish you good luck in your endeavors 
Keep shooting

And for today's post I thought it only fitting that I continue with the theme of surreal portraits. 

Objectivity

I entered five competitions at the end of last year and now all the results have come in. I managed to get winning positions or honourable mentions in three of them. The two where I came nowhere were both competitions for a series of work rather than single images.

I thought the pictures worked well as a set and that they were connected well. With the Lensculture Exposures Award they kindly gave submissions a brief portfolio review. Mine came through last week and was more in depth than I had imagined it would be. The reviewer gave me some good advice which I intend to follow, pointing out how and why some of the pictures worked better together than others. At first I thought 'how can you criticise my baby?' but then I looked at my entries through their eyes and thought they were absolutely right. Why hadn't I seen what they saw? I guess because we tend to judge and criticise our own work and don't always get or take the opportunity for it to be looked at through another's eyes. We approach it through a personal standpoint and lose some of our objectivity.

This project will be a year old in July and in the back of my mind I'm trying to work out what to do with it. A book? An exhibition? More competitions? Having had a second opinion halfway through I'm now starting to contemplate the project as a mass or series of pictures rather than individual attempts each Monday. Some of the work will stay as is, others may get re-treated to bring them together a little more than they already are.

It is never an easy task to seek criticism, but a worthwhile exercise if it is constructive advice.



I have been informed that the Leica is due back to me this week so I can start working on new ideas soon. In the meantime, one more from my mini series about the life of Mr Jones...



Mr Jones was starting to feel nervous and a little hot under the collar. Maybe buying the Fifty Shades box set For Mrs Jones' birthday hadn't been such a wise idea after all.


Copyright: Clayton Bastiani

Let's Dance

It's been a busy half term and plans are afoot for taking lots of pictures over the next few days so I think I'll be keeping busy for a while longer.

In the meantime the camera's still away in Germany so a chance to play some more with my pseudonym Mr Jones...


Mrs Jones loved to dance and was surprisingly light on her feet

Copyright: Clayton Bastiani
 

 

Mr and Mrs Jones always looked forward to Date Night

You may remember that I recently entered a nude self portrait into a photographic competition. Well, the results are in... I only went and got Silver in the Men Nude category. (As well as a First in the Academic Nude category and Second place overall in the competition)!!

Please visit www.photoshootawards.com to see the winning entries and this year's catalogue. A superb collection of nude photography.


I like entering competitions. It can be scary to put your work out there in front of professionals from related industries, but I don't think the fear should put you off. Sometimes your work gets nowhere - maybe it just wasn't suitable for that particular competition. Sometimes your pictures get noticed and put into the finalists selection or even better, given placements above being short-listed. It's a very good feeling knowing that someone else liked your work and thought it worthy to put forward as a nominee or finalist.

We often work in isolation (unless we're acting as part of a team), for the past year I've been working in the cupboard under the stairs. When I was at college we had peers and tutors to help critique our work, but then we had to get used to assessing our own performance. This is good up to a certain point and if you're doing something you love then you must find a way to keep doing it (within legal restrictions of course), but by entering a competition you get the chance to ask "How am I doing? Am I any good?" or "Hey, here's some crazy stuff I've been working on and I want a second opinion."

We're never going to agree wholly with the jurors' choices, Some competitions are simply not for me and I know (after failed attempts to prove this otherwise) that my work will fail in some and succeed in others.

If you buy a book of a photographer's work it will often have a bio at the back and competitions are a decent way to legitimise our work and start creating a bio of our own.

Every now and then you might even get a first or a second place. (Or win something awesome like the Leica M Monochrom this blog is based around).

Here I am working in a small town on a small island in a small cupboard under the stairs and every now and again I catch myself having a little smile at some of the results on my competition bio.




Anyways, back to self portraits... I think I've found a comfortable way of being in front of the camera. More Negative Space Man than Invisible Man, it's time for another outing with Mr Jones whilst the Leica is off in Germany for a service.

As it was Valentine's Day last weekend I thought it only right that we saw the romantic side of Mr Jones today...



Mr and Mrs Jones always looked forward to Date Night

Copyright: Clayton Bastiani

Mr Jones

Last Tuesday I had the pleasure of joining some of the 2015 BPOTY judges, members of Black + White Photography Magazine and Vicki Painting (This year's winner) for a questions and answers session at The PrintSpace in London. The room was full of interested people asking us questions on the process of judging and choosing competition winners, as well as our opinions on various photography related topics. A daunting but valuable experience (to myself and hopefully the audience).

Black and White Photography Magazine and The PrintSpace are currently hosting a competition to win a solo show in the PrintSpace building. This is an incredible prize. Please check the following web address if you'd like to find out more.

www.bwpshowcase.com

There was nothing Mr Jones liked more than to sit in his favourite chair and read a good book.

Copyright: Clayton Bastiani

Facing the Mirror

I've used this project as an opportunity to try my hand the other side of the camera. Apart from problems relating to focus and composition there's also the issue of having to face what you look like. Although I'm working on my six pack with my new year's resolution to get fitter I know full well that I'm not classically handsome and I don't find it easy looking at pictures of myself in much the same way as I find it difficult hearing my voice on answer phones.

Last week I worked on a nude self portrait and sent it into a competition. I've submitted nudes before to various photography competitions, but that's fine, they're not me, I can look at and relate to the picture with a certain amount of distance as it's not my body on display. Now there's one of me - a middle aged, slightly over weight and out of shape man confronting himself and coming to accept his imperfections about to be considered in a competition. A frightening thought, though strangely liberating.

I feel it's good for me to attempt self portraits from time to time as it means I have to lower my guard a little and not take myself too seriously. Maybe, at this rate, you might even catch me on a dance floor and not giving two hoots about what people think of my dancing! Who knows?

Sometimes we scare ourselves

I took a few sequences when I worked with Rachelle Summers recently and hopefully over the Christmas period I'll catch up with myself.

Everything I'm doing at the moment seems to be about learning and I've noticed that although everything was constant between the two sets of images there are differences in the tones of Rachelle sitting, so I present this GIF as a work in progress. Hopefully I can work out what went wrong and I'll have learnt something new to take into future goes.




Rachelle Scares Herself

Copyright: Clayton Bastiani
Model: Rachelle Summers

The Argument

I had a wonderful shoot with the model Rachelle Summers last week and had the foresight to take a series of pics that I could work on over the Mondays running up to the Christmas break.

I'm thoroughly enjoying making pictures with very simple camera trickery techniques. In keeping with this interest we worked on a series of double exposures that would work both as individual still shots and sequential GIFs.

It can get a little complicated at times, splitting the film into two, counting each step on the first so that it matches the second. Your mind can get lost in trying to work out the logistics on some of the more complicated attempts, but I think we managed to get there in the end and I'm looking forward to bringing the remaining work together over the next weeks and seeing the final pieces.



The Argument

Copyright: Clayton Bastiani

Model: Rachelle Summers

Metropolis

Ever in the search of something new to try I thought I'd attach my Macro lens and a 1.5 converter to the Monochrom today and try a bit more shooting blind.

A few problems presented themselves fairly early on in the process. Shooting blind is hard. Shooting blind incredibly close up is even harder.

I did however learn that a bag of liquorice all sorts makes a good bean bag support for the Monochrom.


Although the results weren't perfect 'as is', many of the pictures had graphic white reflections from the table lamp I'd been using and these intrigued me. Pushing blacks, whites, and playing with contrast I imported them into Photoshop and layered them onto a black background.

A bit of flipping, turning and manipulating later and abstract themes of chaotic cities started to emerge. Patterns of lights made me imagine sky rises, smog, rain and speeding cars. And thus, the Metropolis cityscapes began to take shape and although I was feeling a bit 'Meh' to begin with, once the pictures had spoken to me and I had found my inspiration and direction I ended up rather liking the experimental results.


Metropolis - Futurescapes

Copyright: Clayton Bastiani

The Soul Departs

On Friday I attended the award evening for this year's BPOTY competition. It was an honour to be included in the judging process and although my social awkwardness kicks in amongst large crowds I thoroughly enjoyed the private view. Congratulations to all the winners this year. Very well deserved.



And before you know it, we're back to Monday. (This year is going frighteningly fast).



It's good to make mistakes, so long as you learn from them. This morning I made loads of them and by having to go back and correct them I learnt lots. I'm rather enjoying making GIFs and hopefully will continue to make them. They're relatively simple, fun, and offer a way of working in sequential imagery, allowing you to convey a passage of a story.

I don't always set out to make ghostly pieces, but when playing with double exposures the paranormal becomes an excellent subject to work with.


The Soul Departs

Copyright: Clayton Bastiani

The War

I initially had a light hearted idea in mind for today, but when I was going through items to photograph I came across my collection of measuring instruments. I looked at the calipers over and over again thinking they resembled soldiers with guns and in light of last weekend's events and the general inability for our species to co-exist in peace and harmony I thought I'd drag out the lightbox and make a picture about war instead.


Influences: Loosely inspired by the work of John Heartfield.



The War

Copyright: Clayton Bastiani

The Magician - Part Two

So you get these ideas in your head and you think 'you know what? I think I'll try that next Monday'.
And then you start to try and make your idea, only your initial idea won't work and you need to try a few things before it starts to come together. Then it's on your computer and again you're not quite sure how to do it so you go forwards and backwards all afternoon working out the logistics. And the clock keeps ticking 'cos your Mum's coming round for tea and you've got to get this finished by the end of today as it's a Monday project, right? and all work needs to be finished and submitted by midnight.

You also realise by mid afternoon that you don't like cutting out hula hoops! Why did you choose a hula hoop? Crazy fool. Must put aside some time to practise cutting circles.



So anyway.

A thick strip of wood, a brave model and some guesswork at where she was once that bit was sorted and as if by magic you have...





The Magician - Part Two


Copyright: Clayton Bastiani
Model: Tigerbelle

When at first you don't succeed...

I spent this morning with tiny torches strapped to me fingers, practising at light drawing and continuing from last week's attempts. Although my methods worked I just wasn't very keen on the results. It's very frustrating when this happens but it's par for the course.

Not wanting to finish today empty handed I picked a couple of the better shots and played with them, pushing buttons and sliders to see how they would affect the picture.

It's quite hard to let go completely - you're constantly fighting all the voices in your head telling you that a photograph needs to be this or that. It's quite therapeutic though and comes highly recommended :)



Influences:

The experimental work of Brassai (Transmutations) which I saw in Germany about twenty years ago and had a huge impact on my photography at the time.





Transmuted Finger Lights

Copyright: Clayton Bastiani

Never enough time

I could have done with more time today, but there's lots to do and it's got little to do with photography.

Copyright: Clayton Bastiani



The pointing finger

The frustration of too little time

Green Badgers and the Headless Man

When I was a child I belonged to the local cub scout group and as part of our activities we went camping a lot. In those times before we fell asleep we would either play space battles on the inside of the tent with our torches or frighten ourselves with ghost stories - the most popular of which were tales of the giant Green Badger (I kid you not), and the Headless Man (who seemed to only haunt the toilet block making us scare for our lives if we needed the loo in the middle of the night).






Influences:

Apart from watching R.W.Paul's 'The Motorist' I've made a little list of films and clips to look through over the next weeks:

A Page of Madness
The Cabinet of Dr Caligari
The Seventh Seal
and Nosferatu







The Headless Man

Whack-A-Mole

Ghostly Capers

The Crash

Disa-Rea-Ppearing Act

Box-Portation