Loneliness

Today no words just image...

Baby from the skip.

Things you can find in a skip are amazing. Last weekend Sylwia salvaged this “beautiful baby” from one. (It was quick action: we stopped a car, Sylwia jumped out, grabbed the doll, and off we went).  Judging by face expression it was disturbing for some pedestrians. 

Suzy Q – that's the name we gave her, needs some washing and her hair needs to be done.

 After the make over she will play a part in our next unnamed (yet) project.  We continue to explore narrative photography, so you can expect another story coming soon.

Any given Sunday.

It's like a tradition now that we go to studio on every Sunday. Sometimes I feel like character from Saturday Night Fever who couldn't wait until weekend. 

This time we worked with Sarah-Anne, young model we met trough folio32, who posed for our project Shadows.

We'll need some time to develop all films. It's been a very successful shoot and we managed to use 12 rolls of film. Working on film is challenging and time consuming but we'll update our project website soon.

At the moment not a very typical shot for us, i.e. me at work.

From right: Sarah-Anne, Mamiya RB67 and myself, as you can see, sometimes too short for waist-view finder…  

Edward Hooper on the DART

Today's morning surprised everybody. I wasn't sure if I'm on the French Rivera or still in Dublin.

Below picture I took on the DART going to Greystone which somehow reminded me of Edward Hooper's paintings. 

I don't know because of blue sky or window, both elements so common for him…

Backstage photography – Part 1 – They never met…

Below you can see few pictures from our project Assumptions.  The story is much longer and you can see it on our website.  It’s a crime story inspired by film noir, but some viewers read it as a love story, so I guess it’s up to you.

Scene 1 - Damien gives Magda a fright

Scene 2 - Fight

What’s really interesting about these pictures is the way they’re taken. What I mean is Damien and Magda never met on the set. Due to busy schedules of both of them and Sylwia’s college deadline she had to shoot them on separate nights.  Have a look at the original pictures.

First night:

Damien reaching out... (note: the lights are off)

Damien arguing with Magda's look alike (that's me!)

Second night:

Magda got a fright (note: the lights are on)

Magda fighting with an invisible man

It was challenging but it wasn’t impossible. In situation like this it’s important to have your camera set on a tripod in the same spot and at the same angle in both photo-shoots. The camera display comes in very handy!  You need to make sure that light conditions are similar each time, which wasn’t the case in these photo-shoots and made the post production even trickier. The lights in the building were left on one night and off the other. Rest of the work is up to your Photoshop skills.

Quick thought on London riots ….

I've been used to seeing events like these in London only on a TV screen. They always happened far away from home. When I lived in Poland anything shown on telly seemed distant and somehow just another story, something to watch and forget soon after.

Now we are living in Dublin. We have few friends who moved to London last year and we hope they're all right. Suddenly the riots in London have become more personal and so close….

The things you need to do to become an Irish

1.       Keep different proofs of residence in Ireland for at least 5 years.

2.       Keep records of all your previous addresses for the past 9 years.

3.       Make a note of the total number of your previous marriages.

4.       State if you're ever involved in war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide.

5.       Confirm that you can be considered as a person of good character.

6.       Have 3 Irish people ready to vouch for you.

7.       Be ready to wait at least a year.

After that and few other things you can fully enjoy being Irish…

So now back to filling in the form.

In my shoes…

Our friend's moved to London recently. Surprisingly enough she is not looking for a job, she is getting her masters instead.  She lives in White Chapel, the colourful part of town, “home” of Jack the Ripper. It's like a walk-in film set. But here's what she says really amazed her:

“Whitechapel is buzzing, but it's buzzing with people who don't speak English and who want to sell each other phone cards mostly, it's a little isolating, but I quite like the business of it, even if I am a complete outsider. “

So that's exactly how I felt when I came to Dublin 7 years ago. The city was buzzing with language which I couldn't understand. I thought I had some English before coming to Ireland and it was my understanding that the official language was English on the island. But I had to revise my assumptions, both of them, when I got on the first Dublin bus and had my first conversation whit a bus driver. I can't remember the bus number now but it was going to Tallaght. It let me realise I couldn't speak or understand the language at all!

For a quite some time Dublin for me was a place filled in with this strange buzzing.  Fortunately nobody tries to sell me any phone cards, well, not any more…