I decided to take some time this morning before my first session to check out the tiny park which is very close to my flat. The park is basically a large rectangle of grass, as a non-city dweller I would not consider it to be a "real park", but a number of Londoners could be found relaxing and walking dogs around this small green space, within the fencing the atmosphere was completely different to being outside the fencing. Somehow this green space has a calm and relaxing effect on the people who choose to step inside of it, the distraction of commuters rushing about outside fades away and for a moment nature is your main focus. I might spend a little bit more time in this park and watch life unfold within it.
So after my moment of relaxation and pondering within the park I rushed off so I could see a talk by the amazing photographer Christine Donnier-Valentin. She is a photographer who produces beautiful portraits and impacting commissions as well as some wonderful personal documentary work. Christine talked about how she became a photographer, the work which she produces and her experiences over the years, after the talk I was able to spend a little bit of time with her. I highly recommend you view her work:
After the talk I was walking towards Liverpool street station and I passed through this street, it was an interesting street where there was a clash of the Artistic Brick Lane culture and the High Flying City Workers culture. One site of the street was full of modern glass filled architecture, whereas the other side consisted of traditional brick architecture; it was quite interesting watching how these two sub-cultures co-existed.
I have spent the past month eagerly waiting for my opportunity to visit Simon Robert's Let This Be A Sign exhibition at the Swiss Cottage Gallery. I had a couple of hours spare so I shot straight across London to view the exhibition, I was not disappointed! Upon entering the Swiss Cottage Central Library (the building which houses the gallery) I was greeted by a room full of placards and shop closure signs, I believe that this was an installation linked to the exhibition. The whole exhibition was brilliant and I shall produce a separate blog post reviewing it, so watch out!
After the exhibition I shot over to the UK headquarters of Google for a session with Jonty Sharples on User Experience. During the session we were set the task to create a new product to pay overseas and to replace the use of a card within payment, throughout the afternoon we developed the prototypes to produce a final prototype for the product. It was a really great session and even as a photographer I could draw so much useful information out of it.
After my time at Google a friend from Graduate Academy, Amelie, and I decided to go to St.Pancras Station and Kings Cross Station to check out the London Festival of Photography exhibitions. I couldn't resist showing Amile my favourite sculpture of all time which is "The Meeting Place" by Paul Day, I love how he creates such beautiful depth within a shallow area, if you are ever in St.Pancras station check it out!
The St.Pancras London Festival of Photography exhibition was brilliant, it features many of my favourite photographers including Liz Hingley, Simon Roberts and Peter Dench... I am definitely going to try and go back on Friday to absorb even more beauty from the photographs on show before it gets taken down. I found it interesting how people who were passing by either ignored, glanced at, or became absorbed by the exhibition, from observing this I am starting to believe that an exhibition in a public space such as this can be more impacting than hiding an exhibition within the walls of a gallery. If you want to use your photographs to make a statement then let the mass see your statement instead of hiding it away for a few to see.
A wonderful exhibition of street photography could also be found outside Kings Cross Station, I found the photographs from this exhibitions very interesting, some were full of humour and others addressed serious situations.
If you are around the London area I definitely suggest visiting all three exhibitions over the next week before they get taken down!
This scene of people picnicking outside of Kings Cross Station greeted me as I left the Street Photography exhibition, I couldn't resist grabbing my camera so I could create this photograph.
#gradacad
