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.

For the upcoming Festival of Architecture, Norwich and Norfolk (FANNXI) I spent a few days in the countryside photographing the post-war and mid-century housing by architects Tayler & Green. Working almost exclusively in one area of Norfolk and Suffolk, the work of T&G is often criminally overlooked (largely because they didn’t do a great deal of work in London). The housing they built in the 50’s and 60’s is extremely regionally distinctive, in that nothing else in the area looks like it, and it bucked the popular European Modernism trend at the time. It was a pleasure to photograph the work and the short talk that architect Matt Wood gave for residents of one of the estates at Davy Place. As well as forming part of my ongoing personal project, documenting this era of housing all over the country (see posts on Span and Rowley Way), these images will be used throughout the festival and by Professor Alan Powers for a lecture he will be giving on the architects.

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.

Earlier this week, fellow photographer Ian Rudgewick-Brown and I decided to take a day off and have a peek around the 2012 London Olympic Park, just to make sure everything is coming along nicely before they potentially take several hundred quid out of my account for all the tickets I applied for.

I’ve been to a lot of building sites in my time and I have to say this one is looking pretty good, still with a year to go. Hopkin’s Veledrome is done, Wilkinson Eyre’s Basketball Arena is looking good, the Village is coming along, Populous’ Stadium looks ace with the black seating and white steel and Zaha Hadid’s Aquatics Centre will be great as soon as they take out the cheeseblocks. For the first time, I was genuinely excited about Anish Kapoor’s ArcelorMittal Orbit Sculpture as well. Like the Shard, Londoners should try getting used to the skyline now as it is going to be huge.

On the way back we swung by Stanton William’s Hackney Marshes Centre as well, which is one of my favourite London projects from the last few years.

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.

This might not be the most exciting news, but I’m pretty chuffed about it. I’ve just changed all my branding and stationery. It’s now a bit more in line with each other (instead of being a bit of a mish-mash of previous bits and bobs) and fits my website and blog a bit better. New letterheads, invoices and compliment slips PLUS some new foil-blocked business cards and composite CD mailer mounts for when I post discs of images. Here’s some images…

Props to Mark Ferguson from the excellent Very Own Studio for giving me a few ideas on printing techniques, Richard Peters for prepping the cards to print and Ian Stopford from IST Printing for printing the cards.

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. As always, plenty o’ pics on my website.

Once a month I try and do one free photoshoot for someone working within the creative industries in Brighton. Sometimes it’s a theatre company, sometimes an artist and sometimes some musicians. I do this for a number of reasons, but what I really like about it is that it gives me the chance to work with some great people I wouldn’t normally work with, plus it pushes me outside of my comfort zone a bit. Back in March, musician Simon James from The Simonsound gave me a call and asked if I could swing by their studio and take some images to advertise their new album.

The Simonsound (which is comprised of Simon James and Matt Ford) make amazing music. A sort of retro electronic sound that makes me think of 60’s and 70’s BBC Sci-fi theme tunes. I’ll copy and paste a description from their Myspace page…

“Words can be no substitute for the aural experience, but if you will have words, the duo’s first album offers an intriguing variety of sounds, including what the duo describe as ’50s and ’60s-inspired space music, mood music for film and TV, haunting vocal tracks, and switched-on cover versions of classics realised on the Moog synthesiser.”

Their studio (which, by the way, is haunted), was a former BBC recording centre in Brighton and is filled with a whole load of vintage recording bits and bobs. A fascinating place and we had fun playing around with some shots.

For my troubles, Simon dropped round a copy of the new album, which I can confirm is ace. I love it and it’s been a firm fixture on my record player. Check out their website for more info, and (as always) more pictures on my website.

Brighton is becoming (or has been for a while) a bit of a hotbed for photography talent. You can view this one of two ways if you are a professional photographer, surrounded by a large number extremely talented other photographers – for some, it’s a negative thing, more competition and less work to go round. For other, it’s an unbelievably positive thing, working in a city full of people to bounce  ideas off, collaborate with, work alongside and be inspired by.

I love it. I love seeing local photographers featured in magazines and on the web. The graduate show from Brighton Uni is a highlight of the year. With this in mind clickclickjim have been organising a series of free, monthly photography talks, hosted by Add The Colour coffee shop.

There’s a strong photographic community in Brighton and a number of different groups meet regularly to chat and socialise. What we thought was missing was an evening that was actually focused on images, rather than equipment, technology, business stuff or critiques. The idea is for the nights to be an informal presentation of their work by a local photographer, often one who we may not have had the chance to hear speak about heir work before. Afterward people can hangout in a relaxed atmosphere, and chat about what they’ve just seen, about photography in general, or about whatever they like.

Our first season of talks starts in September and runs through to December. Here’s who we have lined up so far (click their names to head over to their own websites)…

Alex Bamford – Tuesday, 14th September

Working as an art director in some of London’s foremost advertising agencies, Alex (aka the big bambooly) has spent the last 25 years creating images for major brands. More recently he’s been heading into the night to create images for his own amusement. He’s exhibited his excellent moonlighting series in Brighton, one reviewer (from the Argus) saying, “Alex Bamford’s photographs make familiar landscapes alien. Streaks of coloured light balls roll tumbleweed-like across seafronts and “fight” in forgotten corners. Against natural backdrops devoid of human presence, there’s a sense of otherworldliness, that the viewer is privy to something fleeting and magical”. Alex will be chatting about his moonlighting series, with a whole load of beautiful images to accompany it.

Kris Mitchell – Tuesday, 5th October

Coming from the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Canada, and now calling Brighton home for the last 5 years, Kris has been fortunate enough to have become entrenched in the vibrant photographic community that thrives here. Fascinated by the stories that all people have to tell, portraiture has become a fast favourite style of photography,  wanting to pay back the people who inspired him to explore photography on a deeper level than simply “pushing the button”, a “52 Week Self Portrait” project  along with a series of “Paying It Forward” Portrait projects were undertaken in 2010. Along with the self portraits, the lighting diagrams and contact sheets were posted to show the effort, thought and consideration that went into each image, often showing the evolution from the initial thought to the final frame all in an effort to “Pay It Forward” and inspire other photographers to think more about what they’re trying to achieve with their pictures. Kris will be presenting some of these portraits, alongside his lighting diagrams and methodology behind the images.

Ruby-May Allcock – Tuesday, 2nd November

Ruby-May has recently concluded her A-level in photography in Brighton and plans to study fashion photography at university. Ruby has shot headline acts at major venues and festivals in the UK, including Glastonbury. She also works as a photographer for a Brighton listings magazine.

Jean-Luc Brouard – Tuesday, 7th December

Originally from the island of Guernsey, Jean-Luc now lives and works in Brighton, where he divides his time between commercial commissions and personal photographic projects. A fascination with the nocturnal world is apparent in the majority of his work; this fascination materialises in both his personal projects & commissioned work. Fiercely independent he enjoys working in a number of different fields & revels in the variety & freedom that ensues from his refusal to be tied down to one particular genre of photography. He has spent a number of years documenting youth cultures and music scenes & producing images for artists, the music industry & press. Although something of a night owl he also produces work for more commercial clients during daylight in the areas of portraiture, product & food photography. In his personal projects his fascination with the nocturnal world is also matched by an interest in landscapes. Previous bodies of work have dealt with subject matter such as; twilight landscapes of northern Finland during midwinter and midsummer, seascapes featuring distant vessels, World War two coastal fortifications in the Channel Islands and open air crime scenes. He has been short listed as one of the final 15 photographers for British Journal of Photography’s International Photography Award, The Centre Santa Fe open & also for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2009. In 2010 he won 2^nd place in one of the Prix de la Photographie Paris categories. He has previously exhibited in a number of group and solo shows.

Entrance is free, just turn up on the night at Add The Colour (Add the Colour, 64-65 North Road, Brighton, BN1 1YD). They’ll each kick-off at 6:30pm, 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…

A friend of mine has an incredible collection of figurines that he was about to put into storage. To commemorate, I popped round with my camera and did a few snaps of some of them before they get hidden away in a cupboard forever….

These two were probably our favourites. Maurice Sendak’s classic children’s story, “Where the Wild Things Are” has some great characters.

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

I try very hard to do one personal project a month. I love photographing architecture, but I think you have to push yourself a bit from time to time so I choose my personal projects by putting myself in situations I would not normally be in. I suppose I try to get out of my comfort zone, both in the situations I’m in, and in the subject matter I’m photographing.

Warhammer games and fantasy role-playing was never something I was into when I was younger (or older, for that matter). It’s always been incredibly mysterious and I’ve never quite understood how it works. Although I have been curious. When I was growing up around Kings Lynn, there was a shop where I would occasionally spend my pocket money on games for my Sega Master System. In the back room there was a table with tiny models of post-apocalyptic cities on. It was, frankly, a mystery what they were doing in there. I overheard talk of orchs and warlocks and dice.

I had walked past Wargames Heaven a couple of times since it opened in Brighton and was struck by how the games room looked so much like a photography studio. It was incredibly brightly lit and sterile. Very white. I’m not sure if this was deliberate or not, but the sterile setting seemed the perfect match for the tables laid out in the room. The tables had the same post-apocalyptic scenes on, some had Italian Renaissance villages as well. So, amidst this white, sterile architecture are these green tables covered in complete fantasy worlds. Talk of orchs and warlocks continued.

The staff couldn’t have been more helpful, a real bunch of good guys, and offered me some lessons if I want to go back sometime. More images on clickclickjim.