The Savoy, an empty town, and a little bit about the Ian Parry Award Ceremony with Don McCullin. 4th October.

It seems like I am in London a lot at the moment, I've been in London the past two Tuesdays and will probably be back in London for a week at the end of the month! There's a big contrast between the hustle and bustle of city life, and the empty streets of my local town at 6pm.. I'm not quite sure what I prefer. 

I also met this little dog today when I was wandering to my local shop:

Why was I in London last Tuesday? I was at the Savoy, there was a conference there for a Canadian company and I was the photographer for the event. It was a great conference set within an absolutely beautiful building, it was such a pleasure to capture the day and to work within such an iconic hotel.

I said I'd update you properly about the Ian Parry Scholarship award ceremony a couple of weeks ago, I have put together this very short video of the night.. I didn't take much footage as I spent most of the time talking to other photographers and admiring the work of the winners. One photographers I did get to talk to was Don McCullin, it was amazing to meet him as I have been incredibly inspired by his work. Don seemed to be very supportive of new talent as he gave me a whole load of advice, he urged me to not settle for photographing the easy things, but to get out on the streets and capture the things that happen. So I am currently looking for a project which will get me doing those things, sadly life in my rather empty town makes it quite hard at the moment!!

Ian Parry Scholarship Award Ceremony 2012. from Ruth Jones on Vimeo.

Horse Walkers, Spitting Signs, and London. 25th September.

Here are a couple of photos I took today, nowhere near the amount of photos that I have taken today.. but I need to go through them and do something with them tomorrow! For those of you who don't know, I have been in London today as I attended the awards ceremony for the Ian Parry Scholarship, it was an amazing evening which included me having a little chat with Don McCullin, which was such an honour! I will write a little more about it tomorrow when I have time to write a decent blog.

Don McCullin Shaped by War exhibition and London underground portraits. 9th February.

I went to London today with a group of photographers, we went to see the Don McCullin and Ori Gersht exhibitions. I took a few tube-based portraits of my colleagues as an idea for a future piece of work, I find the symmetry of underground station walkways interesting. 

The Don McCullin exhibition was amazing, it's currently at the Imperial War Museum and I highly recommend it. I found myself  connect to the subjects in the photographs when I looking at the exhibition, McCullin's work perfectly captures the emotions and moments which a war environment contains. The prints in the exhibition were all hand printed, the dodging and burning of each photograph carefully done to produce the perfect print. The exhibition finished with his latest work, some of which are his landscapes, I personally see his landscape work as the peace he is finding after being so involved in war environments, his landscapes still contain hints of conflict and drama, displayed through how he captures and prints them. I find McCullin's work inspiring and insightful, he is a photographer who has left a great legacy for photographers like my to look up to.