Sunday 28 September 2014

Designed to Deceive

It's well worth trying to call into Wadham College, Oxford this week if you can, to catch the small, simply-curated but rewarding exhibition they're hosting as part of the Photography Oxford Festival. The show closes on 5th October.



Amongst the fairly well-known examples (Hitler, Stalin, and their 'disappearing' political enemies) there's some fascinating unfamiliar territory, exploring other interpretations of deception and ambiguity, as well as a little light relief from images associated with dictatorship and war.







Tuesday 16 September 2014

Gaming Architecture

OK, another gaming post - I know a lot of you are obsessed with Minecraft. I've never played it, but it's received a lot of press this week, following Microsoft's £1.5billion purchase of the game.



This article from the BBC highlights some of the astonishingly complex 'architecture' players of the game have been developing and building - lots more examples linked from their article.

You can find a more interactive image of the Cathedral build here. 

Gaming Photojournalism

A fascinating article in Time magazine this week, to coincide with the re-release of 'The Last of Us' for PS4.



Time Magazine hired war correspondent/photojournalist Ashley Gilbertson to 'embed' himself into the game, and trial its new photography feature, allowing gamers to document images during gameplay.

He offers some fascinating insight into the role of the photographer in conflict zones, 'shooting' film or digital images, and the difficult ideas surrounding the taking of 'beautiful' images of horrific events. It resonated heavily with the James Nachtwey documentary I've discussed on this blog before, 'War Photographer' - highly recommended viewing if you're interested in a deeper consideration of the ethical issues at hand.



Sunday 14 September 2014

Oxford Photography Festival

An exciting new event for Oxford's cultural calendar arrives this month - the inaugural Photography Festival. There's a wide range of exhibitions and talks taking place across the city.

I really like the look of Finnish fine art photographer Susanna Majuri's show at the Story Museum; dreamlike fairytale narratives, richly layered - but somehow avoiding sentimentality.



All the information you might need can be found here.