April in Enniskillen

Pardon the radio silence over the past month, but I am currently living and working in an area devoid of phone signal and internet capabilities.  Not that this is a bad thing, it means that my fishing and table tennis skills are improving steadily, but it means that I am falling behind in blog updates and current affairs (I will have recommit to buying newspapers).  Although I have been photographing daily for work (and pleasure) there are not too many that I can release, but I will make an effort to post more often.  I'll be in Enniskillen for another month so I should really bring my medium format cameras to the country and spend the evenings and weekends by the loughs.

The news in short: I am currently working on a period drama (oil lamps are better than candles, fact).  Offshore has been submitted to the Belfast Photo Festival.  I am very excited about my copy of Selgado's Genesis arriving (I wish I had a spare £2000 for the 'sumo' edition).


More coming soon, but here are a few images to keep this space ticking over.

-PM

Feb is for Fun

An update.

[Stacked Bottles, iPhone, 29/1/13]

 [Dog driving a car on the Ormeau Road, iPhone, 2/2/13]

I love February.  It has so many fun facets in such a short space of time!  Between my birthday and St. Valentine's Day, as well as the usual troupe of family dates, it is a brief month of occasions.  It is also the first real month of the New Year, the month where resolutions have faded and work (in terms of film) has started back.  And a time for travelling too (Berlin at the end of the month).

 [Me, pictured at home in the Glens of Antrim, on NYE 2013, Polaroid]

Well, my Christmas and first half of January was jam-packed with Offshore (now available to purchase here), so I only really had a break at the end of January.  And that was spent learning to drive.  It was a great week or so of repetition and routine: early breakfast, early lesson, reading and lunch, later lesson, evening and sleep (repeat until test).

[Self portrait on the morning of my driving test, Polaroid, 31/1/13] 

[Illustration by Hannah upon the news that I could officially drive]

So February is set to be a fun one.  The one regret that I have at the start of the year is not getting to London to see the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize 2012 (see here) at the NPG.  It was one of the most enriching experiences of last year to see hundreds of people jostling elbow-to-elbow around a gallery to engage with one hundred portraits.  I shall have to make do with the paperback this year and make a more committed effort next year.  

[Winner of the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize 2012: Jordi Ruiz Cirera for Margarita Teichroeb]

On the upside, film production work has started up again and that means there might be more work in the pipeline.  I have been taking the opportunity to catch up on films and film writing (I've a new blog that I should use more), visiting the gym, shamelessly promoting Offshore to local art-zines and international photography magazines, contacting photo festivals in relation to Offshore, and planning future projects.  More on those as they happen (like the day of food photography tomorrow).  

[Sticky Life Notes 2013, 14/1/13]

-PM

Opening of OUT|TUO

Installation.

Opening.

[photo credit: Jordan Hutchings, Catalyst Arts, 17/01/13]

-PM

Offshore (book design complete!)

With days to the OUT | TUO show opening at Catalyst Arts I can happily say that I have finished the design process of the Offshore photobook.  Naturally this will not printed or shipped in time for the opening, but they will arrive before the exhibition closes and before February's Late Night Art.

Now, back to waiting on my prints and then the install.

-PM

Offshore: Rathlin

Some news!
New project. New exhibition. New book.
The group exhibition, entitled O U T | T U O, will open on the 17th of January at Catalyst Arts, Belfast.

[Rathlin seascape, July 2010]

Offshore

Rathlin Island, situated on the northeast coast of County Antrim, has long been an entrancing personal interest and thus became the subject for this project.  It is surrounded by some of the most treacherous waters in Ireland, existing as a flux point for three seas, and with a diverse range of ecosystems it is home to creatures both rare and hardy.  Much like the island of Shakespeare’s The Tempest this magical place is saturated in secrets and stories, over the years Rathlin Island has been home to the King of Scotland and was where the Vikings first landed on their conquest of Ireland.  In the last century the population has been in decline, yet earlier this year a large housing development was completed with the intention of restoring and reinvigorating the island.  As an island under a state of change this was the optimum window to visit and document Rathlin.

Offshore is a photographic essay based on a personal journey to Rathlin Island, where both the journey and the destination are framed through mono no aware - the poetry of the everyday.  The Japanese aesthetic philosophy of mono no aware, in the simplest definition, celebrates the transience of all things and the beauty of their passing.  This is very common in Japanese literature and poetry, where seasonal imagery (kigo), banal actions and simple gestures become immortalised.  As such, a haiku can also be seen as a snapshot.

-PM