‘Car Park: under cover’ an exhibition by Astrid Schulz

The award winning series ‘Car Park: under cover’ is going to be part of
Photomonth, the UK's largest photography festival. The exhibition coincides with the ‘United Nations Climate Conference’ in Copenhagen, 7-18 December 2009.

Astrid Schulz had a very special experience on New Year’s Eve 2006. A sudden change of weather turned her journey upside down, but also lead to the mesmerizing images in her ‘Car Park’ series. Her images remind us of the unpredictability of life. There is an underlining message about the threat of recent climate changes and how little we know about protecting ourselves. Many people are not fully conscious about the meaning of our environmental problems, but in some countries drastic changes have already altered peoples lives often in tragic ways. The images in ‘Car Park’ are a silent reminder to think about the way we take our comfortable lives for granted, but nothing lasts forever…

Astrid Schulz will be present at the gallery during weekends from 12 to 4pm. She is also going to have a talk about the images (Wed 16 Dec, 7-9pm) and is discussing the problems of ‘photographing whiteness’ during a workshop on 6th Dec, 2-5pm (ticket price £5, for booking information please get in touch with Viewfinder Gallery).

Dates: 26 November – 20 December 2009

Venue: Viewfinder Photography Gallery
Linear House, Peyton Place,
Greenwich, London SE10 8RS

Opening event: Friday, 27 November, 6.30pm - 8.30pm

Further information about the images can be seen at ‘Featured Gallery’ on London Photographic Association website.

Viewing times and information about the gallery: www.viewfinder.org.uk

Astrid Schulz Photography home page: www.astridschulz.com

LPA Photography Competition Results

Love and Pain and Beauty
"We all carry around so much pain in our hearts. Love and pain and beauty. They all seem to go together like one little tidy confusing package. It's a messy business, life. It's hard to figure - full of surprises. Some good.

Some bad".

'Henry Bromel', Northern Exposure, The Big Kiss, 1991

Benedite Topuz: Paris, France
Series category, Gold - Interview

Natalie Tkachuk: Hemel Hempstead, United Kingdom
Series category, Silver - Interview

Rene Roalf Jensen: Viborg, Denmark
Series category, Bronze - Interview

Boris Austin: Beijing / London, United Kingdom
Single image, Gold - Interview

Guido Torres: Mexico City, Mexico
Single image, Silver - Interview

Richard Ansett: London, United Kingdom
Single image, Bronze - Interview

Image photograph and design by Guido Torres

Fuck committees

I was looking through a file yesterday where I keep interesting articles, It's my attempt at trying to keep tabs on the the huge amount of information that I come across on a daily basis. I found this article on an American website (I assume) dated June 1998 and written by a chap called Tabor Kaman of New York, clearly my system is not working quite as it should. Given this was written Eleven years ago it is still, sadly, very relevant.


Fuck committees

(I believe in lunatics)
It's about the struggle between individuals with jagged passion in their work and today's faceless corporate committees, 
which claim to understand the needs of the mass audience, and are removing the idiosyncrasies, polishing the jags, creating 
a thought-free, passion-free, cultural mush that will not be hated nor loved by anyone. By now, virtually all media, architecture, product and graphic design have been freed from ideas, individual passion, and have been relegated to a role of corporate servitude, carrying out corporate strategies and increasing stock prices. Creative people are now working for the bottom line.

Magazine editors have lost their editorial independence, and work for committees of publishers (who work for committees of advertisers). TV scripts are vetted by producers, advertisers, lawyers, research specialists, layers and layers of paid executives who determine whether the scripts are dumb enough to amuse what they call the 'lowest common denominator’. Film studios put films in front of focus groups to determine whether an ending will please target audiences. All cars look the same. Architectural decisions are made by accountants. Ads are stupid.
Theater is dead.
Corporations have become the sole arbiters of cultural ideas and taste in America.

Our culture is corporate culture.
Culture used to be the opposite of commerce, not a fast track to 'content'-derived riches. Not so long ago captains of industry (no angels in the way they acquired wealth) thought that part of their responsibility was to use there millions to support culture. Carnegie built libraries; Rockefeller built art museums, Ford created his global foundation. What do we now get from our billionaires? Gates? Or Eisner? Or Redstone? Sales pitches. Junk mail. Meanwhile, creative people have their work reduced to 'content' or 'intellectual property'. Magazines and films become 'delivery systems' for product messages.

But to be fair, the above is only 99 percent true.
I offer a modest solution: Find the cracks in the wall. There are a very few lunatic entrepreneurs who will understand that culture and design are not about fatter wallets, but about creating a future. They will understand that wealth is means, not an end. Under other circumstances they may have turned out to be like you, creative lunatics. Believe me, they're there and when you find them, treat them well and use their money to change the world.
Tabor Kaman New York June 1998

Points of View Exhibition At The British Library

Points of View
Capturing the 19th century in photographs 30 October 2009 – 7 March 2010

Points of View brings together, for the first time, a selection of photographs from the British Library’s unique collections, examining the development of the medium and its influence, from its invention and early years up to the growth of a popular amateur market in the early 20th century.

For more information visit www.bl.uk/whatson/exhibitions