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Recent Productions
Foreword by Charles Wilson
Editor of The Times 1985-1990
The career of a Fleet Street photographer can be made or stalled in an instant…the millisecond it takes for the camera shutter to capture an iconic image that speaks a thousand words or just yet another frame destined to be discarded on the darkroom floor.
A Fleet Street reporter’s job is to find out what’s happened and then build a picture for readers by quoting eye witnesses, giving colourful description and detail…answering the questions who? what? where? why? when? and how? The photographer has either got ‘the picture’…or they haven’t.
As this wonderful diary shows Stephen Markeson demonstrates both areas of expertise and has produced an elegant, fascinating and surprising record of his career in pictures.
Whether it's wider access to graphic design software, the intensification of fan culture on social media, or even IKEA's cheap frames, alternative film art has never been more popular. Fans pay homage to their favourite movies by creating unique posters, title cards or logos that highlight what attracts them to a particular film or filmmaker. By honing in on a specific idea or concept from the film, fan-made posters are as much works of art as works of appreciation; if you know, you know. There are some superb examples of 'alternative movie posters' (AMPs) to be found online, with websites such as AlternativeMoviePosters.com and PosterSpy.com offering a home for film art from talented designers and artists across the world.
Flowers, thistles, weeds and dead insects are arranged with a consummate artistic skill to provide a single portrait.
There is something historic and ancestral about them, like Old Masters but giving birth to an exciting new form. Birth, death, structure, chaos, fragility, and the stunning intricacies and beauty of a single dead and curled up petal. They evoke instant emotion; resonant, melancholy and exciting; this is an artist with something new to offer. Utterly original, each page is like a beautiful song on an inspired album that tenderly reminds us of the fragility, pain and beauty of the eternal wheel of life and death.
Doon Mackichan
Manchester based music photographers Karen McBride and Shari Denson presented a one-night exhibition and book launch in Manchester’s city centre on 22nd February at the Projekts MCR Skateboard park beneath Manchester’s Mancunian Way. Both women are known for their often grainy, atmospheric black and white images of well known bands as well as lesser known local talent. A Very Insecure Exhibition displayed work dating back to the beginning of the millennium, such as Elbow, I am Kloot, Editors, James Brown, Interpol, Ian Brown, Morrissey, Scissor Sisters, Al Green, amongst other works. The book was a special double-cover edition produced by UKGiclee and published by Art Circus Books. Available from UKGiclee.co.uk.
This then, is the unique story of a group of friends who came together through the energy of the rave and then proceeded to tear up the rulebook. A band who came from the safe environment of a huge and vibrant youth movement and gradually threw off the shackles of expectation before emerging alone, standing proud with a sound and style which would influence musicians from all genres, artists, film makers, advertising people… the list is endless.
Like the greatest rock & roll bands The Prodigy exist as a group of one.
They have no peers, they are unparalleled.
The Book of the Exhibition at the Poolhaus Gallery in Hamburg
The first season, Deluge, is a collection of tranquil monochrome drawings using red pencil. Most of these are drawn to a small scale and they are printed in the book at actual size. The drawings are set in neo-classical landscapes and they never quite tell the entire story, but should instead be considered as a frame or still image from a bigger story to be imagined or created by the viewer.
Season two, Holy Ground, is a collection of small oil paintings, building on the theme of animals in neo-classical landscapes and partial story telling but now introducing an extra element of mystery in some of the paintings by only showing a fragment of an entire painting. This was influenced by seeing remnants of images found in ancient remains in Greece and Italy which create a puzzle for historians to reimagine the complete original picture and the story being depicted.
Season three, Luciferase, builds on the Deluge theme, but now uses black pencil drawings to present the animals in a night-time setting using curious natural light sources to provide illumination. The monochrome images and lighting are sometimes used to create the illusion that the drawings represents a sculpture rather than living animals.
Mercury-shortlisted musician, former Public Image Limited bassist, punk rebel and genuine geezer, Jah Wobble spills all in his autobiography. This is Jah Wobble’s frank and entertaining insider view of the beginning of punk rock and life in the music business. Celebrated ups - PiL’s Metal Box and Wobbles 90s hit with Sinead O’Connor - are balanced with major downs - chronic alcoholism and marital breakdown. And if you ever wondered how Wobble got his name, the answer is here, alongside his refreshingly disrespectful opinions of the great and the good.
Post-punk bass behemoth and for London Tube driver bares all… It’s a colourful read, full of the sort of old school music business shenanigans you hope don’t go on anymore…
And Wobble can write… Very entertaining
Johnny Davis Q
The ultimate punk and post-punk raconteur
Independent on Sunday
Based in Sussex, Julian paints the landscape, coastline and urban areas in a style often described as 'contemporary realism'. He studied illustration and printmaking at the Eastbourne College of Art for 4 years (under the tuition of printmaker Robert Tavener) before embarking on a career in graphic design and illustration. Since 2004, when he had 2 paintings purchased by the House of Lords to complement an existing collection of period travel paintings, he has been painting and exhibiting in the UK and throughout Europe. He has been accepted 3 times to exhibit work in the Royal Academy Summer exhibition. In 2009 Julian worked on a project entitled ‘Sussex 365, A Year in the Life’ which comprised 365 Sussex paintings. He was invited to show this work during the 2010 Glyndebourne Tour and then returned the following year, creating a a painting every day throughout the Glyndebourne season which were then exhibited in the Stalls Gallery. He has returned each summer since then, continuing the ‘daily painting’ tradition and this book features a number of his favourite paintings made during that time.
What a beautiful book! I love the combination of poems and illustrations, and the whole thing is immaculately produced. I enjoyed the mix of humour, observation and reflection: the poems are so varied. I had to smile at 'Senior Citizen's Prayer'. Other poems were touching: 'Through the looking glass' and 'Bones in a box', for example. The illustrations are colourful, stylish, witty. All in all a wonderful book, with proceeds of sale going to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), a most deserving cause.
In Search of an Author is a collection of fluidly drawn vignettes reflecting on the nature of belief and the stories we tell ourselves. Artist Lex Thomas examines unexplained natural phenomena such as the supernatural and paranormal as well as magic, cults and UFO religions. The title acknowledges the playwright Pirandello, credited with breaking through the 'fourth wall' with his creation of Mirror Theatre.
A double lung transplant during the summer of 2014 was the inspiration for this book which brings together some of my most treasured memories in a collection of wildlife and landscape photography intended to capture the essence of what makes life so precious. As my own life neared expiry due to respiratory failure following 47 years of damage caused by cystic fibrosis, I returned to painting to reflect on what I would miss most and to celebrate subjects and scenes which are great for the soul and which reminded me of what we all have around us that we should be grateful for. After a successful transplant, my painting continues and my photography resumed. Beavering away from my man cave nestled at the end of my garden in rural north Shropshire, surrounded by woodland and its evocative sights, sounds and smells, I have been inspired by the natural world to give something back, in the shape of this fundraising book, for the gift of organ donation so selflessly offered to me.