This is the photography blog of clickclickjim, Jim Stephenson Architectural Photographer. Please head to my website at www.clickclickjim.com if you’d like to see my work.

Last year Brighton photographer Matt Martin came and did a miniclick photography talk for us. In addition to his work, a lot of people I chatted to afterward were really impressed with how industrious he is, publishing his own zines and zines to promote others, doing his own work and curating the showcase blog we are lucky. There seems to be a real enthusiasm amongst a lot of young photographers these days to get involved in lots of projects and schemes, and if the scheme doesn’t already exist, they just set it up themselves. It’s pretty inspiring and Matt is doing some great stuff on all fronts at the moment.

His latest project is The Photocopy Club – a regular lo-fi, open exhibition in Brighton and London. Definitely worth checking out – as anyone who has listened to me rant a little bit over a beer or two, I’m all for getting “photography off the internet and get printed matter back into the hands of the public”. Here’s some info and an image stolen from The Photocopy Club’s website…

“The photocopy club is a new monthly exhibition Based in Brighton and London. This monthly exhibition will feature Photocopied/xerox photography from photographers around the world. What we are hoping to achieve with this project is to get photography off the Internet and get printed matter back in the the hands of the public. Photocopying is the one cheapest way to get photography printed. Basically we want the show to be like a giant zine that everyone can take a page from. After the first 6 shows a book will be made of all the photography from the 6 exhibitions – Allphotocopies will be for sale for as little as £2- £5 depending on size and the money made will go towards the making of the book”.

“Submissions – The Photocopy Club are calling out for your submissions. SIZE – A4 or as big as you can! Please post your photocopy/xerox prints to –

THEPHOTOCOPYCLUB, UNIT D-E LEVEL 2 SOUTH, NEW ENGLAND STREET, BRIGHTON, E SUSSEX, BN1 4GH, UK.

DEADLINE FOR FIRST SHOW IS NOVEMBER 20TH 2011.

All photocopies must be signed and dated by the photographer. If you follow wearelucky.tumblr.com you will know what we like. Please e-mail: thephotocopyclub@gmail.com for more info”.

So there you go, one more reason why Brighton is such a bloody great place to be. Check out The Photography Club’s website for more info.

This is the photography blog of clickclickjim, Jim Stephenson Architectural Photographer. Please head to my website at www.clickclickjim.com if you’d like to see my work.

This is the photography blog of clickclickjim, Jim Stephenson Architectural Photographer. Please head to my website at www.clickclickjim.com if you’d like to see my work.

Brighton Festival is England’s largest multi-art form festival. Previously, it’s been guest curated by Anish Kapoor and Brian Eno. This year Aung San Suu Kyi has curated it (from afar, of course). It completely dominates the  city for the month of May and it’s bloody great. It’s at this time of year that I tend to get my most interesting commissions. Last year I spent a couple of months with promenade theatre company, dreamthinkspeak photographing their hugely successful Chekov adaptation, Before I Sleep (you can see some of the images here). This year, I ended up knee-deep in a pool of stagnant water in pitch black whilst drunk tramps fought behind me. Here’s a couple of photos of some of the work I’ve photographed…

First up, Kutlug Ataman’s video installation in the Old Municipal Market. This was the premiere of his new work, “Mayhem”, a multi-screen installation commissioned by the festival.

The festival has a history of re-appropriating some of the few disused spaces in the city and the old market worked really well with this piece. Having that much space around the screens ended up being integral to how the piece was viewed. It never would have worked in a smaller space. It’s almost worth leaving the market empty for this kind of thing.

Just time for a quick shot that I believe has gone to press today of Coco Sato’s beautiful origami lotus flowers we floated on a pool at St Ann’s Wells Gardens. Coco was commissioned to lead the creation of over 2,000 lotus flowers, one to represent each of the political prisoners in Burma (including Aung San Suu Kyi, who is sill under house arrest). These flowers are to be taken to Queens Park on Sunday, 29th May for the Freedom Picnic, so head down if you’re in the area!

This is the photography blog of clickclickjim, Jim Stephenson Architectural Photographer. Please head to my website at www.clickclickjim.com if you’d like to see my work.

This is the photography blog of clickclickjim, Jim Stephenson Architectural Photographer. Please head to my website at www.clickclickjim.com if you’d like to see my work.

Photographer, friend and all-round good egg, Kevin Meredith (aka Lomokev) has just realised his new book, published by Rotovision in the UK and someone else whose name I can’t remember in the US. It’s called “Toy Cameras” in the UK and “Plastic Fantastic” in the US and is an excellent compendium of all the different lo-fi cameras out there today. If anyone is in a position to write a book on this subject, it’s Kev as he’s made a name from his incredible lomography work. The book features both lomo and alternative cameras – you can see a good stop-motion flick through it on his blog, here.

The book is out now in the UK and Kev is selling copies himself at the same price as Amazon (inc. shipping) and it’ll be out in the US come May.

This is the photography blog of clickclickjim, Jim Stephenson Architectural Photographer. Please head to my website at www.clickclickjim.com if you’d like to see my work.

This is the photography blog of clickclickjim, Jim Stephenson Architectural Photographer. Please head to my website at www.clickclickjim.com if you’d like to see my work.

Brighton photographer Matt Martin is our next speaker at the Miniclick photography talks, and he’ll be presenting his work and cracking self-published ‘zines for us on 1st March at Add the Colour. You can read about the talks elsewhere on my blog here, but if you need your fix of Matt’s great work before then, get over to The Other Space, 296a Camberwell New Road, London, SE5 0RP on Thursday 10th Feb (this Thursday!) where he’ll be exhibiting his series “Eat Well, Stay Fit and Die Anyway”. I’ve seen it and it’s ace, I’d highly recommend it.

In more Brighton photography news, Garage Studios are shipping American-based Photographer, Noah Kalina (that’s his image below) over here to present a talk on 18th Feb hosted by Ben Roberts. There will also be a series of workshops. Noah’s work is very highly regarded and it should be a unique opportunity to hear him talk in this country and do a workshop with him. You can read more about it all on Garage’s blog. I’ll be at the talk, so give me a shout if you’re going down there…

A couple of months ago Tristan Sharps, of dreamthinkspeak (who created “Before I Sleep” for Brighton Festival back in May) gave me a backstage tour of the Brighton Dome. It was a pretty fascinating peek into the areas you wouldn’t normally see – we even got a bit of a look at the entrance to the much-fabled tunnels which The Prince Regent had built when he was resident at the Royal Pavilion so he could easily get from his palace, to the theatre. I shall continue to keep asking if I can get into those spaces! In the meantime, Tristan introduced me to Rebecca Fidler with a view to me photographing her work with Audioactive.

Audioactive is a not-for profit voluntary community organisation that provides training in the production of contemporary popular music for children and young people. In 2009 they commissioned “Bonfire Night”, which was written by professional poet, Dizraeli. This year the project has been built upon, the cast a crew extended and Brighton Dome and Young Offending Services have got involved. A series of workshops on lyric writing, rapping, acting, music production and art and design were put on and the result is an exciting theatre peice that addresses a number of issues facing young people today, including guns and violence, teenage pregnancy and being a Dad, facing responsibilities, politics and war, media perception of young people, how police deal with young people and more. As a whole, the project has aimed to build confidence and self esteem amongst the people who have taken part in it, although from the series of portraits I took of the cast, you’d never have guessed they lacked confidence! Naturals in front of the camera. They were taken as part of my aim to do one free shoot a month for a charitable organisation or artist based in Brighton – a bit of a break from my architectural photography work!

This is the photography blog of clickclickjim, Jim Stephenson Architectural Photographer. As always, plenty o’ pics on my website.

This week I went down to the Rodhus Gallery on Hollingdean Road to check out the exciting noises being made about the former electrical factory in Brighton. Owner Richard Ainsworth is in the process of turning the huge space into a series of artist and designers studios, a gallery, showroom, design library and office spaces. His plan is pretty ambitious and it’s great to hear someone in the city setting something like this up. I went down to photograph the space. These are some shots from the first shoot, all of the same downstairs space. I’ll be returning next week to photograph upstairs and some of the other rooms.

This a project I’m quite excited about and I’m really looking forward to seeing the space full. Whilst down there I got the chance to catch up with Brighton furniture designer, Sean Dare, who will be using some of the space. Check out his website for some great work.

Check out the Rodhus website for more info.

This is the photography blog of clickclickjim, Jim Stephenson Architectural Photographer. As always, plenty o’ pics on my website.

The SCDF is proud to present the fourth in a series of talks for 2010 aimed at the design and art community in Brighton. BrightClick II will take place at The Basement, 24 Kensington Street, Brighton BN1 4AJ on Wednesday 6 October 2010 at 6.30pm (doors open at 6.00pm) and features photographers Simon Roberts and Lisa Barnard.

The evening is part of the Brighton Photo Fringe – one of Europe’s largest (and best…) photography festivals, that runs from 2nd October through until 14th November. If you’re in Brighton, pick up a copy of the brochure (featuring Lisa’s image of Maggie Thatcher on the cover), or if you’re out of town, check out the website for more info.

The talk we’ve organised is the second photography one we’ve done and I’m really pleased that both Simon and Lisa agreed to take part. They’re both exhibiting as part of the Fringe as well, and these talks will provide an excellent opportunity to hear the dialogue and stories behind the images. Here’s a bit of info from both of them…

Earlier this year the House of Commons selected British photographer Simon Roberts as the nation’s official Election Artist, commissioned by the Speaker’s Advisory Committee on Works of Art to document the campaign activity in the run up to the 2010 General Election. The artwork was Simon’s own interpretation and record of the General Election, based on special access to the election campaigns. His photographs have recently been launched at an exhibition in the House of Commons, along with an extensive gallery of photographs that Simon collected from the general public. Simon will discuss his approach to the commission in the context of his wider artistic practice and present a selection of his own photographs alongside those of the public.

You can see some of the images from Simon’s Election Project here.

Lisa will be discussing her latest project ‘32 Smiths Square’  and the wider context of this work within her practice. Of particular importance to her are the theories of post marxist philosophers, and photography’s limitations in revolutionizing both aesthetically and politically.

You can see more of Lisa’s work, and more of the £2 Smiths Square project, on her website here.

The event is sponsored by Colourstream, Brighton’s premiere photographic laboratory.

Both photographers are local to Brighton, but or known internationally. Their work is incredible, and I’ve been following both of them for a while now. It’s going to be a great night! Tickets are £5 for SCDF members, £7 for non-members and £3 for students. You can buy them online, here, or you can buy them on the door. The bar at The Basement will be open before and after the talks, so bring your wallet!

Hope to see you down there!

One of the reasons I really wanted to set up a blog to run alongside clickclickjim, was to show people that we actually do a lot more than Architecture and Interiors Photography. Although this is where my first love lies, I like to push the company a bit and try other things out. It was in this adventurous spirit that I’ve ended up shooting backstage on opening night for the last two annual pantomimes that Brian Ralfe has put on. Brian is a bit of a celebrity round these parts and I was lucky enough to live in the same block of flats as him for a few years before I moved in with Kirst a few months ago.

His panto’s are eagerly awaited. They are as camp as Christmas with more innuendo crammed into them than the entire Carry-On back catalogue. I have to admit, the shows aren’t really my kind of cup of tea, but I have had a blast photographing them backstage and the cast and crew are a great bunch of people. Most of these images are from 2010’s Peter Pansy, but a couple are from last year’s Sinderfella.

Not exactly just another day at the office!

This is the photography blog of clickclickjim, Jim Stephenson Architectural Photographer. As always, plenty o’ pics on my website.

I sit on the steering committee of the South Coast Design Forum’s Brighton branch. We meet once a month to discuss the state of the design industry in Brighton (“pretty healthy” is the general prognosis) and to organise events in the area. Then we head to the pub to meet up with South Coast Design Forum members in the area for a bit of networking and general catching up. This year we’re putting on a series of talks. The first was BrightType, an evening of talks on Typography featuring Bruno Maag, of Dalton Maag and David Rutter.

Typography is not something I know a great deal about, but I do know it’s terribly important. The talks were really enjoyable. I think all of the 100 or so people there went away having learnt something, or at the very least, a bit more inspired. I also grabbed a few pics of Bruno talking.

This is the photography blog of clickclickjim, Jim Stephenson Architectural Photographer. As always, plenty o’ pics on my website.

I’ve posted about Kirst’s Handmade fairs before. She puts them on every couple of months to showcase Brighton’s best artists, designers, print makers, jewelry designers, fashion designers etc etc. She puts a helluva lot of work into them, but it’s always a really good day and gives artists a chance to show off their work without having to pay through the nose for a stall. These fairs have no developed into a full-time shop on St. James’ Street which she is sitting in right now, as I type. It’s well worth a visit, some amazing work in there at the moment (check out the print rack, in particular).

Anyways, I’m usually on hand to help out at the fairs and take some snaps. Here some from the February event.

This is the photography blog of clickclickjim, Jim Stephenson Architectural Photographer. As always, plenty o’ pics on my website.