Aug 10 2009

Birmingham’s People

Category: Birmingham,Nadav Kander,Our Vision,Photospace,photographers,photography — Liz Garlinge @ 16:09

Lots of people have asked us about our plans for Artsfest so we thought it was high time we documented them.  It’s going to be a great weekend – and we hope that you’ll come along and be part of it.

CONCEPT – what’s it about?

Inspired by the likes of Richard Avedon’s The Family (a series of 69 photos taken of ‘the establishment’ in the US in 1976) and Obama’s People (a series of portraits by Nadav Kandler currently showing in Birmingham), we wanted to take a look at Birmingham’s people and how they see each other. We plan to take a series of portraits over the course of the Artsfest weekend involving the sitters in portraits of their fellow citizens.

HOW?

The good folks at Artsfest have given us some prime locations for setting up our portrait studio and for displaying our prints.  We will have a marquee just off Victoria Square where we will be making the portraits, and some room in Paradise Forum to display portraits – like with Flashswap, we’ll be creating a Photospace over the weekend.

Calumet have kindly agreed to support us during the weekend, so we’ll be using some of their professional kit, and together with our small team of talented photographers we’ll be inviting people enjoying Artsfest to come in, have their portraits taken and talk to us about themselves and photography.

We’d also like the subjects of our photos to take part in the creative process – by doing some art direction of the next subject in line.

ART DIRECTION – sounds complex?

Here’s an example of how it’ll work.  Say Liz comes in to have her portrait taken.  Once she’s had her image taken, she’ll be invited to suggest how she may like Matt (who is next in line) to pose. (She may ask him to smile, to frown, to stand or slouch, to display the object he bought earlier from Artsfest. She’s limited only by her imagination (and the laws of decency!))  The photographer will take a few frames, and then Liz will get to choose which one she would like to exhibit.

EXHIBIT, you say?

Yes – we’ll be having our photos processed in batches, then our creative curators will be hanging them in Paradise Forum so we create a Photospace for Birmingham for the duration of the festival.

We’re also planning a major exhibition at The Drum later in the year – so after the event we’ll be selecting, printing and framing the portraits, then devising an exhibition.  We’ll be displaying some of the interviews too, as part of the exhibition.

INTERVIEWS?

Didn’t I mention the interviews?  Oh dear.  We’re hoping to interview subjects during the day, making short video clips and some short audio interviews for later transcription.

HOW CAN I HELP?

Are you a organisation who could sponsor us?  We have one sponsor already, but we need more.  Could you offer us free or discounted photo printing?  Could you help us with promotional materials? – as ever, we’ll be trying to raise understanding of our aims – that is to build a world class venue for photography in Birmingham.  We need badges and postcards and other promo things.

Are you a photographer or a supporter of Photospace (or both!)?

We need creative, committed, hardworking folk who work well as part of a team to help us with the following tasks:

  • Curation of portrait photospace in Paradise Forum
  • Production of images – working with our suppliers to deliver high quality portrait images from digital files
  • Photoshop operators – making our images look as good as they can
  • Interviewing – taking video or making audio interviews of the subjects of the portraits
  • Reception and marketing – meeting and greeting – handing out promo material – discussing photospace- inviting people to sign up to mailing list
  • Orderbook – our subjects may wish to purchase their portraits – this role takes money and records details so we can send portraits out

We need volunteers for the whole weekend.  We’d be grateful if you would commit for one whole day please.

In return we can offer you a great day out, lots of fun, the knowledge that you’re supporting the arts in our great city and a drink (probably!).

GET IN TOUCH

either via the contact pages or to hello@birminghamphotospace.co.uk

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Aug 04 2009

Photospace – looking to the future

Category: Birmingham,Our Vision,Photospace,photographers,photography — Liz Garlinge @ 22:39

Many thanks to everyone who came along to our Birmingham Photospace meeting on Monday 3rd August and gave us such an interesting range of ideas to think about.

For those of you who didn’t manage to make it, we spent some good time talking about our future plans, and got some great advice, suggestions, challenge and support from people that came along.

It was an inspiring and motivating session. We discussed everything from a strategy to deliver a gallery early and at low cost, to how we engage with local groups, develop graduate photographers and gain support (and run some fun events in the process!)

Some of the ideas we discussed:

  • We should focus our efforts on lobbying, connecting and raising funds for the Photospace exhibition/resource space that is our main vision – ‘A beautiful space for excellent, amazing photography’
  • Holding a debate about photography and Birmingham (perhaps in partnership with Rhubarb-Rhubarb?)
  • Speak to Birmingham City Council leaders about inclusion of Photospace in the City of Culture proposals
  • Deliver local projects in partnership with Community Arts organisations (e.g. Multistory) to build awareness and support
  • Work with a regularly-funded arts organisation to digitise their content
  • Take over an empty city centre shop window for Photospace. Display 20 photographs which are self-selected by contributors and which change every week.
  • Start a petition to demonstrate the support for a space for photography in Birmingham
  • Put on more low-cost, low maintenance high-impact events.
  • Concentrate on excellence and high quality in photography (fine art photography) – community photography will follow
  • Lobby the Council to give us the rent/rate-free use of one of the empty properties they own in the Digbeth area to start a gallery
  • Identify a professional fundraiser with the right contacts to work with us.
  • ‘Claim’ bits of the street as a Photospace (posting photographs up in public places)

What do you think of these ideas? Which ones appeal to you?

We’re meeting again next week with a focus on the detailed planning of our Artsfest event – we’d love you to come along and join in the discussion – and especially help out at Artsfest!

Thanks again to everyone who came along – it was a very thought-provoking session and exciting to see how much support there is for a space for photography in Birmingham.

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Apr 29 2009

Birmingham Photospace 2.0

Category: Birmingham,Our Vision,Photospace,photography — Matt Murtagh @ 12:00

city

Welcome to the new website, the result of much hard work from the Birmingham Photospace web team. Its launch marks the start of a new phase in the Photospace campaign. We are in the process of securing significant funding and are planning events that will build on the impact our events have had and the community that they are creating.

Now seems an opportune moment to restate our aims and introduce the team:

What do we want?

Our vision for a Birmingham Photospace has four simple objectives:

1) To show the best in fine art, social and documentary photography in a nationally significant gallery space. A key part of this space would be a vibrant and active digital presence. this space will have high curatorial standards but will also encourage the public to become involved and to contribute.

2) To create a significant regional, national and international resource for photography bringing visitors to Birmingham and adding to the cultural vitality of the West Midlands.

3) To establish a support base for emerging photographers in Birmingham, both amateur and professional, through materials and links with the photographic community.

4)  To engage with the local community, linking local businesses, educational establishments and community groups through the visual language of photography.

The current stage of our campaign is the organisation of a series of awareness raising events. These serve to raise funds and media awareness of the cause but most importantly they display the vibrancy and depth of the photographic community in Birmingham and the need for a dedicated centre to be its bedrock.

These events will encompass many aspects of photographic practice from the bringing to Birmingham of major exhibitions to community led projects such as our highly successful Flashswap event.

Who are we?

We are a dedicated team with diverse talents and backgrounds, united in our love for photography and the metropolis of Birmingham.

Between us we have extensive experience in photographic practice, event and project management, community outreach and education and the use of both digital and traditional media as tools for establishing a coherent grassroots campaign.

More detailed biographies can be found here

How can you help?

We need as many people as possible to get involved in the cause. On our new Supporters page we have listed a number of ways in which you can contribute to our vision.

We are looking for people who can help in any capacity at all; one of our founding principles is that we are open to all.

Also listed are the people who have already donated money or their time towards the cause; we are very grateful to them.

This blog’s future

This blog will serve to keep everyone informed about the events we are organising but it and this site also have a greater purpose. We consider this to be the first stage of our Photospace.

It will continue to be a regularly updated showcase for photography in the West Midlands but will also provide an introduction to the wider photographic world. We will profile some of the giants of photography and also publish articles on the craft with, hopefully, a huge degree of interaction with our audience.

The success of this project depends on the nurturing of a community of photographers and photography enthusiasts. This blog should become the centre of it.

We hope you are as excited as we are.

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