Project: Inspiration

I've been thinking about this one for a while, and today I got started on it, putting a very specific list together of people I want to shoot.

In a nutshell, I want to do a book/exhibition/whatever of people that have followed their dreams and achieved something special, recognisable, tangible. Any combination of perseverance, talent, skill, sheer good luck or passion is great, but the purpose behind it is to make people realise that goals can be achieved.

Granted, it's not that simple in life. I'll never play football again (which is fine because I suck at it), but I also won't ever be a drummer in a Pipe Band again either. Bigger personal blow for me, because in the last twenty or so years I've won at the Worlds twice, and picked up places in every major competition in Scotland. That took a great deal of passion, effort and commitment to get there. I want to be able to photograph people who've reached their goals, achieved their dream.

I want to do this to show others that you can. 

People like me, stuck with a physical disability, people with anxiety issues, illnesses, a myriad of obstables and stumbling blocks in their path, perceived to be so big that the dream becomes too far away to grasp. 

I want to show people that you can.

For me, it's about showing people that just because I have a disability doesn't mean that I can't be a damn good portrait photographer. For the viewers of the images, be it online, in an exhibition or in a book, I want them to see that they can reach their dreams too. I want other people with disabilities to see that perhaps the walls that confine them aren't as big as they think, that the world we live in sometimes has opportunities in abundance.

Biting off more than I can chew? Only one way to find out, and it ain't by saying 'I can't'.

Craig

Cyberdog Fashion for Underground Nation

Spotlight: Christopher Voelker

So I stumble across this guys work today, Christopher Voelker, an LA based photographer and I immediately recognised many of his images. After further investigation I was totally blown away.
See for yourself:
http://www.voelkerstudio.com/

He's shot Mick Fleetwood, Rhianna, Beyonce, Christine Applegate and hundreds more in a career spanning over 20 years. What's even more remarkable is that he's been quadraplegic and in a wheelchair since he was 16 years old.

In the last twenty years he's been a real ground-breaker. The first disabled photographer to shoot posters for the major motion-picture studios, countless magazine covers, and an active participant in promoting the rights of the disabled. He's lost jobs when people have found out he's in a wheelchair, and it hasn't put him off one bit. As far as he's concerned the images are what matters, and everyday is a new day.

Inspirational man. Amazing photographer.

Old Images, New Edits Part 2

In descending order, Cat Rennie, Erica Von Stein & Jenny Clewlow.

Old Images, New Edits Part 1

I shot these images about 18 months ago, in Glasgow. Chrissie and I had been through shooting with Erica, and we'd returned from a wet, damp and derelict Glasgow Zoo to Erica's place for a cuppa, broke out the lights and had some fun.
This particular set I shot 26 images, in probably 90 seconds. This here is a random sampling of 6 of them. Really wasn't stuck for choice. One of the many reasons I love shooting with Chrissie Red.

Craig

Inspiration

So a few nights back I'm trawling the net looking for something.... I just didn't quite know what. And no, it wasn't porn. Leave a comment with a smiley if that's what popped into your head!

My photography has been bothering me for a couple of months now, more to do with style, direction and ethics. What kind of photographs do I want to produce? 

Realising it's a hobby means I don't have to be as versatile, don't have to have as many different shots, styles and techniques in my bag, so I can start settling into a style - what I want to do. So I started surfing for portrait photographers and reading a little about them. The focus wasn't on the images, which I guess is unusual for a photographer looking at other photographers websites, but about their motivations, what interested and inspired them.

Then I found this website of this guy called Billy Kidd. He works out of NYC and he done a series of shots of a model that had no skin retouching done on it. All the blemishes, scars, pimples and freckles were there, and he'd stated that those features he'd left in were what made her unique. 

That really made sense to me! Really spoke to me. That's what I want to do!!!

I've seen so many photographers and models agonizing over skin retouching in photoshop, minor features that because they aren't removed are considered defects in the technically perfect post-production image. Everything from shadows, catchlights, the shadow from an ankle bone on the foot (I'm not kidding)... all are considered flaws in a technically unacceptable photograph, according to the rules, current trends and fashions at the time. 

Those rules, trends and fashions are created by photographers and models on internet forums and message boards, influenced by a very small number of people in a bizarre incestuous self-appreciating circle-jerk online society, where acceptance is striven for by emulation. 

Well, it was fun learning it, but I'm not interested in striving for someone elses definition of perfection, when their opinion doesn't really matter that much to me anyway.

Likewise I don't want to spend a day photographing someone, for me or someone else to re-touch them into oblivion so they can get slapped into a magazine and look like a clone of the last model who wore that product in the last issue. 
I'd much rather create something with character. 
With emotion.
With a connection.

So anyway, coming back from my mini-rant there..... something clicked. I know I want to shoot mono, high-key, high-contrast portraits. I want to utilise shadow. I want to use whatever lighting takes my fancy, and I want to produce images that I am happy with. That's what I want the core of my photography to be about.

I'm not ruling out funky motion-blur shots, januty-angled fashion images, gracious and beautiful art-nudes. I'll probably shoot all of that too. 

The core of it though - that's where I want to be, so that's what I'm going to do. Or at least, that's the plan, the inspiration.

Craig

I Miss My Blog

 So I used to have one of these. I shut it down a few months ago.
Can't really remember why.
Anyway, I find I miss my blog a little bit.

The simplicity of casually updating your thoughts, your images, of being able to vent and blurt your ideas out as you feel them, editing and clarifying your thoughts. It's cathartic, enjoyable. And so to the point...

It's taken me a long time to accept that photography isn't something I'm going to be able to do as a full-time professional. 

*pause*

That was strangely difficult to type.... bizarre. 

Anyway, it's true. Due to my back problems, I find myself unable to commit to taking a booking. If I can't take bookings, then how am I ever going to be able to do weddings, commercial or portrait work and guarantee I'll be there, fighting fit, raring to go? Bottom line is that I can't. So photography is going to have to be a hobby, until some bright spark figures out how to repair my back.

Now, this is a pretty depressing note to start a photography blog off with, but I figure start off with the facts, make it bleak and then it can only get better. So here's where the blog re-starts I guess.

Thanks for reading this. The first post of many. On with the images.

Craig