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.

I’ve not seen this yet; I’ve just ordered the DVD from the website. I’ll post a review once it’s arrived, but I just wanted to do a quick post about it now as I’m pretty excited. From the press release (images are from the press pack and are not mine)…

“Utopia London (dir. Tom Cordell) is a brand new feature length documentary that explores London’s recent architectural history. The film observes the method and practise of the Modernist architects who rebuilt London after World War Two. It shows how they revolutionised life in the city in the wake of destruction from war and the poor living conditions inherited from the Industrial Revolution. This film is their story. Utopia London travels through the recent history of the city where the film maker grew up. He finds the architects who designed it and reunites them with the buildings they created. These young idealists were once united around a vision of using science and art to create a city of equal citizens. Their architecture fused William Morris with urban high-rise; ancient parkland with concrete. Utopia London examines the, social and political agendas of the time in which the city was rebuilt. The story goes on to explore how the meaning of these transformative buildings has been radically manipulated over subsequent decades. Inspired by the optimism of the past it poses the question; where do we go from here and now?”.

You can read more about the film, and watch the trailer, on the website and blog.

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.

Following from Inspiration 001, a selection of images from lots of different artists I’ve mainly grabbed from ffffound’s iphone app when I’ve been on the train going from place to place. Sorry there’s no credits, but if you’d like to know more about an image visit fffound and trawl through their amazing galleries.

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

Last night it was the last of the MiniClick photography talks for 2010. It was also the last of the first season of talks we’ve put on, featuring some of Brighton’s finest photographers including Alex Bamford, Kris Mitchell, Ruby-May Allcock and Jean-Luc Brouard. The initial plan was to do these four and see if people are interested in them. If they were, then we’d put on four more.

Well, since we had good turnouts for all four, I’m really pleased to announce the next four speakers we’ve got lined up. I’m over the moon with them; all very talented and representing some really varied work which demonstrates what a versatile medium photography is and the depth of the talent pool in Brighton.

So, without further chit-chat, ladies and gentlemen, your next four speakers….

James Withey – 11th January

James is originally from Dorset but has spent the past 15 years living in Glasgow and is a new Brighton resident. His work, predominantly in black and white encourages the viewer to look at everyday objects and corners that are beautiful in unexpected ways. James will be talking about his current project which explores human emotions through light and shadow and will be looking back at his earlier work that informed the project. You can see more of James’ work on his website, or on his flickr page.

Erika Szostak – 1st February

Erika will be presenting her talk “The Symbiosis of Photography & Text: Using Text to Enrich Your Photographic Practice”. Cartier-Bresson called photography the most literary of the visual arts, yet between writing & photography lies a tension. As photographers, it can be tempting to think our job ends with creating an image, with its title & description if not afterthoughts, then of lesser importance. We all know the cliché about the worth of a photograph in words. The flipside to that is Susan Sontag’s assertion that “There can be no evidence… of an event until the event has been named & characterized” & “A photograph… cannot make a dent in public opinion unless there is an appropriate context…” It is through using text to provide name, characterization & context that we make our images accessible & relevant to a greater audience. *Attendees should bring pen, paper & a photograph, (print or digital). You can see more of Erika’s work on her website.

Matt Martin – 1st March

A graduate of Lens Based Media at Exeter College, Matt has since thrown himself into the world of photography with a passion and dedication to producing work that has seen him establish 5 self published zines and his first book “Hello Misfits”. Matt also started the website “Wearelucky” which focuses on spreading the work of young photographers and last year was ranked in the top 10 photography blogs on Dazed Digital. His work has also been published in Journal Magazine, Time Out, HUH magazine, Tiny Vices and many more. Now a fully-fledged inhabitant of Brighton, he works as a photographer for Spindle Magazine, and assists at Garage Studios. His talk will take in some of his early work and how he started “Wearelucky”. He’ll show a collection of photographic ‘zines and talk about the work of young photographers who were making ‘zines that inspired him at the time and the DIY aesthetic to his work. He’ll cover some photographers that have inspired him and discuss his trip across America, showing work from the 3 months he spent there. Finally, he’ll look at his “The Young Ones” project and the direction his work is going since moving to Brighton and having his solo show as part of the recent Photo Fringe in the city. You can see more of his work on his website.

Adam Bronkhorst – 5th April

Adam specialises in taking photographs of people. His photography has been exhibited in solo exhibitions as well as group shows and has been published in magazines, newspapers and books around the world. He has a long and prestigious client list and a love of film cameras (and has far too many in his collection). He never leaves the house with out at least two cameras on him, and his wife wishes that the fridge wasn’t filled up with film. Adam also teaches photography training workshops and specialised 1-2-1 training and he’ll be talking about his range of work, the work that informs it and the context it’s placed in. You can see more of Adam’s work on his website.

That is a pretty varied bunch of very talented folk! Drop me an email (jim@clickclickjim.com) if you’d like me to email you updates nearer the time of the talks and I hope to see you for all four of them! If you’d like to do a talk yourself, or know someone who might, please drop me a line as well. You can see the poster for this series of talks over ‘ere.

Entrance is free, just turn up on the night at Add The Colour (Add the Colour, 64-65 North Road, Brighton, BN1 1YD). Each talk begins at 7pm, and it’d be great to see as many people as possible down there! Add Colour might even have coffee and cake on the go so bring some change as those cakes are damn good…

I think it’s time, a week after seeing the film, that I write a post about Chrisotpher Nolan’s Inception. I believe it has now passed into internet law that every who writes a blog must do a post relating to this film, either slagging it off or talking about how amazing it was. For the record, I thought it was amazing.

I was really looking forward to seeing it and it didn’t let me down at all. Any film where the starring role is Architecture itself, deliberately put in the spotlight alongside performances (very good performances) from DiCaprio, Page and Gorden-Levitt, gets me a bit excited inside. I wrote in a previous post about dreamthinkspeak’s play “Before I Sleep” (where architecture plays a central role) that more films should be casting building and urban space higher up the bill and long may it continue. Nolan seems particularly good at this, designing buildings and city-scapes as intrinsic backdrops, or stars, of his films.

I also was impressed that this wasn’t a screenplay adapted from a book, a remake of a 70’s film or the prequel to a previous Nolan film. The fact that I was surprised by this reflects a sad state of complete unoriginality in Hollywood these days, partciuarly for films released around this time of year.

That said, it messes with your head and becomes increasingly difficult to follow. So, just enjoy the ride and then once you’re out of the cinema and have passed the phase of questioning whether or not everything around you is a dream, refresh your memory with this excellent infographic by Dehahs on devianatart.

Lovely stuff.

I’ve been interested to see how the Architectural press and blogs react to the film. As always, Geoff Manaugh got the jump on us with his preview article on the film on BLDGBLOG, which got me all excited about it in the first place. BD (Building Design) wrote a quite disappointing review of it last week, that seems to miss the point a bit (and miss the purpose of the architectural student character, Ariadne), and further the general feeling that architects might occasionally be guilty of taking themselves a bit too seriously perhaps? Read the review and then take a look at the comments.

Anyways, not so much a review, but some link to items about the film undertaken by people with more talent that I for writing reviews and producing infographics. If they’d asked for a photographer on set, I’m sure I could have slipped nicely into that role (especially if I got to nab a few of Joseph Gorden-Levitt’s very dapper suits).

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

A selection of images from lots of different artists I’ve mainly grabbed from ffffound’s iphone app when I’ve been on the train going from place to place. Sorry there’s no credits, but if you’d like to know more about an images visit fffound and trawl through their amazing galleries.

Inspiring us at clickclickjim