I’ve been lucky enough to be commissioned to photograph on the Olympic Site a couple of times in the last few months, concentrating on Allies & Morrison’s Press Centre Buildings. This has been really interesting, to see how the site has developed over time and we’ve been able to have a bit of a look at the other buildings on site on the long, long walk back to the entrance / exit gates on the way out. Hopkin’s Velodrome is as elegant in real-life as it is in it’s photos, Populus’ Main Stadium is far more impressive than I expected from the vis work and Zaha Hadid’s Aquatic Centre looked stunning before those additional cheeseblock seats where wheeled in (which, we should all remember, are to be removed).

I went over there yesterday for the Diving World Cup and took my trusty Lumix GF1 with me so I could take a few snaps. It’s a bit odd to be photographing architecture on such a small camera, with no tilt-shift lenses or tripod, but quite liberating. Here’s a few examples…

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 more of my work.

Last week, Conran & Partners commissioned me to head over to the Design Museum to document the exhibition they have on at the moment marking the life and work of Terence Conran. From the Design Museum’s website… “The Design Museum marks Sir Terence Conran’s 80th birthday with a major exhibition that explores his unique impact on contemporary life in Britain. Through his own design work, and also through his entrepreneurial flair, Conran has transformed the British way of life. The Way We Live Now explores Conran’s impact and legacy, whilst also showing his design approach and inspirations. The exhibition traces his career from post-war austerity through to the new sensibility of the Festival of Britain in the 1950s, the birth of the Independent Group and the Pop Culture of the 1960s, to the design boom of the 1980s and on to the present day”

There’s still a bit of time left to see the exhibition as it runs through until 12th April. For all the info click here. Happy (slightly belated) birthday, Sir Conran!

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 more of my work.

Photobook Show B is the second exhibition of photobooks that William and Kevin have organised, with the first being in Brighton and catching a fair bit of attention. The London show promises to be equally as good and we’re partnering with them to bring you an afternoon panel discussion on photography books on Sunday 4th March. The panel will consist of some top folk in photo publishing, including…

Photographer and Self-Publisher, Ewen Spencer

“Ewen studied under the tutorage of British Photographer Paul Reas and Mark Power and the School of Art and Design at the University of Brighton. He graduated in 1997 and quickly became known for his groundbreaking editorial during the late 90’s for The Face & Sleazenation magazine. He immediately spoke to an audience interested in subcultures, multiculturalism, music, graphic art, photography, fashion and primarily youth culture.

In 2001 Ewen embarked upon a project simply called Teenagers documenting British adolescents as they come to terms with socialising, dating and sex. His signature flash style became synonymous with a close aspect to his subjects. What separated him from other social-documentarians is the feeling you get from the occurs that he knows and likes his subjects, that they trust him enough to allow him entry and that he has an understanding of what’s going on without being embedded in the scenes himself.

The Teenagers project was shown at the Exposure photo festival in Hereford, UK in 2001, as part of “Jam London – Tokyo” showing at both the Barbican in London and the Tokyo Opera House Gallery and was also exhibited at the Rencontre d’Arles in 2004, curated by Martin Parr, where it was shortlisted for the project assistance award.

Not surprisingly, in 2002 Martin Parr tipped Ewen as the most promising newcomer of that year. Commercial clients started calling and he began working with bands, producing cover art and behind the scenes tour material for The Streets & The White Stripes. There’s many reasons why Ewen continues to be a sought after photographer for clients. He’s quick, precise, spontaneous, collaborative, with a great eye for what’s current, on trend and in line with brand objectives. Over the last 2 years he’s produced work for Puma, Sony, Nike, Addidas, Boxfresh, T mobile, Vodaphone and Lastminute.com.

Ewen has continued to pursue his interest in teen culture and in 2005 completed a series of images taking a look at a group of teenagers involved in London’s “Grime” Scene. The project has come to fruition through the publishing of a book and a touring exhibition called “Open Mic.” Works from Open Mic are now included in the Courtauld institute of Arts, Musee d’Elysee in Lausanne and many private collections throughout Europe. The book Open Mic was awarded a yellow pencil certificate by the D&AD in 2005 for Photographic publishing.

The book “Open Mic” remains one of the best examples of Ewen’s work to date and led to him being awarded a commission by Massive Attack in 2010 to produce a short film concerning ideas around cultural pluralism and gangs in Britain”.

You can see more of Ewen’s work on his website.

Lecturer, Writer, Curator and Founder of Self Publish Be Happy, Bruno Ceschel

“Bruno Ceschel is a lecturer in Photography at Camberwell College of Arts, London, a writer and curator. He is also the founder of Self Publish, Be Happy (selfpublishbehappy.com), an organization aim to promote and study self-published photobooks. Self Publish, Be Happy since 2010 has organized events at The Photographers’ Gallery, ICA and Whitechapel Gallery in London, OffPrint in Paris and at Flash Forward Festival in Toronto and Boston and its library/exhibition toured various photography festivals in the Summer 2011. SP,BH has publish its first book titled SPBN – Self Publish, Be Naughty in October 2011.

Previously Ceschel worked on the 2008 edition of the Brighton Photo Biennial, as book editor at Chris Boot Ltd, and was associate and creative editor at Colors magazine. He has curated exhibitions at Fashion Space Gallery in London and MiCamera in Milan”.

Check out the Self Publish Be Happy website.

Founder and Director of Here, Harry Hardie

“Here is a company that publishes, exhibits, teaches and supports photography.

Harry has been working with photography for 10 years, starting as the assistant to the director of photography at The Times, London, then as the photo editor for The Times Luxx Magazine.

After The Times Harry worked as director of HOST Gallery, London, before founding Here, an company that publishes, exhibits, teaches, and supports photography.

Harry is also a lecturer in photography at University College Falmouth, UK, and an independent curator.”

Head over to the Here website.

Graphic Designer, Art Director and Founder of oodee, Damien Poulain

“Damien Poulain is a french graphic designer and art director who has lived and worked in Germany, Spain and Italy before settling in East London where he founded his practice in 2003.

Specializing in print-based projects including books, small-run publications and visual communication, Damien Poulain also creates posters and other communication imagery for art galleries, fashion designers and music labels. Ongoing projects include design for sketch gallery, hand-crafted set design for brands, illustrations and installation. His work is versatile and recognised internationally.

In 2011, he has set up a publishing house named oodee, publishing photography books from established to young and raw talents. With oodee, he won recognition by newspapers and magazine like TIME magazine and The Guardian who included some of his books in the best photography books of the year 2011″.

You can see some of Damien’s work on his website, and make sure to visit oodee’s site to.

That’s a pretty bleedin’ fantastic lineup! Ewen, Bruno, Harry and Damien will be picking out some highlights from the exhibition and discussing the ins and outs of contemporary photobooks.

The exhibition runs from March 2nd to March 4th and this panel discussion will be held on the Sunday (4th March), kicking off at 1pm. Entry is free to all, so pop down early and grab a seat!

Ground Floor Left, Enterprise House, Tudor Grove, Hackney, London, E9 7QL

On Sunday March 4th, Miniclick is coming to London to collaborate with Photobook Show B. You can read more about this event by clicking here. Photobook Show A was an exhibition photobooks and other related matter that went down a storm in Brighton in November, so much so that they’ve had to organise a follow up in London, featuring some of the best new and classic photobooks from around the world. The exhibition is going to be help at Ground Floor Left in Hackney and they’ve asked us to curate a related panel discussion on the Sunday afternoon (starting at 1pm). I’m delighted to say that former miniclick speaker, ace photographer and self-publisher extraordinaire, Ewen Spencer will be on the panel, alongside graphic designer and creator of Oodee publishing house Damien Poulain and top publisher, exhibitor and all round nice guy Harry Hardie from HERE. This event will be held at Ground Floor Left and will be free entry.

Fast forward to May 9th and, as part of the Brighton Festival Fringe and in collaboration with the University of Brighton, we’ll be hosting an official Pecha Kucha night at The Old Market in Brighton and Hove. If you’re not familiar with the format, Pecha Kucha derives from the Japanese words for “Chit Chat” and involved a series of short informal talks spread across an evening, with each speaker being restricted to 20 slides and only 20 seconds on each slide. For this night we’re working with the University of Brighton’s Photography and Moving Image courses to feature graduating students talking about their final year projects, influences and processes. Under the tutelage of some outstanding photographers (Pauls Reas, Mark Power, Fergus Heron etc etc) Brighton Uni has been consistently producing outstanding photographers for over 20 years, including previous miniclick speakers Laura Pannack, Ewen Spencer, Murray Ballard and Human Endeavour. This is a great chance to see the stars of the future, working both with stills and video. This event will be at The Old Market auditorium and will be £4/£3

Finally, a huge collaboration with Hungry Eye Magazine and The Duke of York’s Picturehouse sees us taking over the UK’s oldest running cinema for a Brighton Festival Fringe, Sunday screening of Anton Corbijn’s excellent “Control“, with an exclusive Q&A session after with a special guest (who will be announced soon…). This event will be on Sunday May 13th at The Duke of York’s in Brighton. You can read all about it here.

Emma’s work has been widely published and she has received numerous awards and accolades for her beautiful images and films (the last two images above are stills from her short films “Reflection” and “A Single Shared Breath”). It’s well worth spending a bit of time on her website to check everything out – you won’t be disappointed!

Dates and times of this talk will be confirmed before Harry Watts’ talk on March 6th.

Stepping in for March, as part of our programme of free monthly photography talks, is the very talented and very dapper gent Harry Watts. For the past three fours months we’ve been concentrating on photographers that specialise in people, with Peter Dench, Luca Sage, Ewen Spencer and Chris Floyd giving great talks in November, December, January and February respectively. Harry’s work and subject matter brings something completely different to the talks and it promises to be a great evening. Harry will be talking about his own work, his route into photography and also (very interestingly) some of the people he has assisted in the past, including Simon Roberts, Clare Strand and Martin Parr.

The talk will be on Tuesday March 6th at The Old Market in Brighton & Hove. Doors are at 6:30pm and entry, as always, is free!

Here’s some of his work…

“Harry Watts (b. 1987 Winchester, UK) graduated from Brighton University in 2009 with a BA in Editorial Photography. In 2009, Harry was selected by Italian Vogue for a solo exhibition at the Salvatore Ferragamo flagship store in London, and has since exhibited across the UK and internationally. Harry is currently working on the series ILLUSIONS and FINDS, along with this he assists photographer Martin Parr in his London studio”

You can see more of Harry’s work on his website.

Tuesday, November 1st at The Old Market in Brighton & Hove (11a Upper Market St, Hove, East Sussex, BN3 1AS). It will kickoff at around 7:30pm (doors at 6:00pm). Get there early as the seats get snapped up quick! Entry is free, but there is a bar there that stays open after the talk, so bring some cash and support the venue by having a drink or two.

Hope to see you there!

Saturday, 03rd March, 2012 10:30am ’till 5:30pm (ish). £88 for the day (tea and biscuits included…). For booking, please email me at jim@clickclickjim.com

A full day workshop on the how’s and why’s of photographing buildings, inside and out.

After some introductions, the day will start with a brief look at some of the most important architectural photographers throughout history and specifically how they approached their work and what techniques they used to make their images so special.

After this, we’ll go through some basic techniques as well as some handy hints, tips and tricks focusing both on exteriors and interiors. Bringing along your camera will be essential, whether it be a setup worth more than your house, or a simple point-and-shoot, we’ll go through how to get the best out of it as we head out to a location in town and try out some of what we’ve covered so far. If you have a favourite building in Brighton, let me know and I’ll choose one from the list to photograph. Again, we’ll do some interiors and exteriors practical work.

Somewhere around there, we’ll grab some lunch, and once we’ve done photographing it’s back to the venue (which will be in central Brighton) where we’ll go through some post-production trickery that will add the extra edge to your images and finish them off nicely. I’ll show you my typical workflow, and we’ll try and cover a range of common techniques in photoshop. There’ll be a chance now to look through everyone’s images and do some (friendly) critique, highlighting things to think about next time.

Finally, we’ll finish up with some question and answer time, followed by a round of backpatting and congratulating each other on the amazing photos we’ve all taken.

The day will will start at 10:30am and finish around 5:30pm. Please bring along a camera and a tripod (if you have one – if you don’t, let me know and I’ll try and organise a spare for you). A wide-angle lens will prove useful, but is by no means essential. We’ll be indoors for much of the day, but we will be heading out for a bit, so bring some warm and waterproof clothes, just in case. To allow me to help everyone as much as possible, class sizes will be limited to 10 people – I will add an extra date, if needed. If you have any questions at all, drop me a line on jim@clickclickjim.com and I’ll try and answer them. You can check out more of my architectural photography on my website, clickclickjim.

Please note; this course will not be covering the business side of being an architectural photographer (winning clients, running a business, etc etc), unless you ask some pretty specific questions in the Q&A. Jim Stephenson / clickclickjim can accept no responsibility for lost, damaged or stolen equipment before, during, or after the workshop.

Here’s what some previous attendees have said about the workshop…

“I just wanted to say what a fantastic time I had on your architectural photography workshop, it was just the right mix of classroom theory and practical application. I came away with an even greater appreciation for this area of photography and feel really inspired to shoot in a much more informed way in the future. Your workshop is as far as I know unique in the UK, so keep up the good work” Ian Rudgewick Brown

“I would like to thank Jim Stephenson for a well presented architectural photography workshop. The course has given me some useful techniques and new ideas I hope to utilise not only for future architecture shoots in my photography, but also in general going forwards. Thank you.” Ashley Burt

“It was a great day… and I certainly feel inspired to get out and shoot more buildings!” Steve Mileham

“Thanks for a great workshop – learnt loads and a good base from which to stretch my photographer legs!” David Callin

“Control is a 2007 black-and-white biographical film about Joy Division singer Ian Curtis. Matt Greenhalgh wrote the screenplay based on the book Touching from a Distance, written by Curtis’ widow Deborah who co-produced the film. Directed by Anton Corbijn, Control stars Sam Riley as Ian, Samantha Morton as Deborah, and Alexandra Maria Lara as Annik Honoré. It also stars James Anthony Pearson, Joe Anderson, and Harry Treadaway as Joy Division members Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, and Stephen Morris, respectively, as well as Toby Kebbell as band manager Rob Gretton and Craig Parkinson as Factory Records head Tony Wilson.

The film follows Ian Curtis’ life from 1973 to 1980, focusing on his marriage to Deborah, the formation and rise of Joy Division, his struggle with epilepsy, and his extramarital affair with Annik, culminating in his May 1980 suicide. The film’s title comes from the Joy Division song “She’s Lost Control”.

Control premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on 17 May 2007 where it won several awards including the Director’s Fortnight, the CICAE Art & Essai prize for best film, the Regards Jeunes Prize for best first/second directed feature film, and the Europa Cinemas Label prize for best European film in the sidebar. It went on to win five British Independent Film Awards including Best Film, Best Director for Corbijn, Most Promising Newcomer for Riley, and Best Supporting Actor for Kebbell. It was named Best Film at the 2007 Evening Standard British Film Awards, and Greenhalgh was given the Carl Foreman award for outstanding achievement in his first feature film at the 61st British Academy Film Awards.”

The screening will be at 11am on Sunday 13th May at the Duke of York’s Picture House in Preston Circus Brighton.

This event is part of the miniclick talks: Brighton’s free monthly photography talks.

The talk will be on Tuesday February 7th at The Old Market in Brighton & Hove. Doors are at 6:30pm and entry, as always, is free!

Here’s some of his work…

“Chris Floyd is an internationally acknowledged photographer. His work is in the National Portrait Gallery and has also been recognised by the British & American awards for portrait photography, the Taylor Wessing in 2008 & American Photography in 2008 & 2010.

He is also currently working with The Imperial War Museum on a project called ‘The Consequences of Vengeance’, which consists of large format photographs of Dutch launch sites and British impact sites associated with the German V2 rocket, which terrorised London between September 1944 and March 1945.

His commercial work has been published in Wallpaper*, The New Yorker, Guardian Weekend, Esquire & Harpers Bazaar, as well as in advertising campaigns for Agent Provocateur, British Airways, Sony & Toyota.

His most recent project, ‘One Hundred and Forty Characters’, in which he photographed 140 people he follows on Twitter but had never previously met, was inspired by the realisation that he was communicating more frequently and more intimately with people he had befriended on the social networking site than he was with people he had known as real and actual friends for more than 20 years”.

You can see more of Chris’ work on his website.

Tuesday, February 7th at The Old Market in Brighton & Hove (11a Upper Market St, Hove, East Sussex, BN3 1AS). It will kickoff at around 7:30pm (doors at 6:30pm). Get there early as the seats get snapped up quick! Entry is free, but there is a bar there that stays open before and after the talk, so please bring some cash and support the venue by having a drink or two.

I recently posted some work I did in Tokyo at Roppongi Hills for Conran & Partners on my blog. Well, whilst there they also commissioned me to shoot their retail project at Futako Tamagawa (also in Tokyo). This project is the first phase of what will eventually become a very large mixed use scheme and by all accounts has proved to be very popular in the city with architects visiting it quite regularly to check it out. As soon as I arrived, the very polite security guard saw my tripod and camera bag and whisked me off into the depths of the complex to issue me with the press pass I needed for the day. I cannot possibly explain how cold I was when shooting this – Tokyo had gone from being pretty balmy (I shot the Roppongi project in just a t-shirt) to arctic in a few days. That said, cracking project to shoot.

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 more of my work.