Street Style montage portraits hit the streets again

Been super busy lately and have not posted here for a month. Lots to write about and not much time to write about it. Since last posting here I went to Phoot camp 2010, gave a talk at Google, visited Twitter and Photo Jojo HQ’s and what seems like a tonne of other stuff! But I am long overdue a blog post about my trend spotting as I have had two sets of portraits published in the Brighton Source magazine. While I am on the subject of my street style pics I am having a exhibition as part of the Brighton Photo fringe of my trend spotting pics which will take place at Behind Reto on Vine Street. Keep checking my blog, twitter or join my mailing list (right hand column) to get all the latest details for that and another show I am putting on over the festival.

Below is the August issue’s selection which include one of Irate (guy on left) who was the 1st person I ever shot in a montage style. Also worth checking out in that issue is the cover article about the Tesco / Starbucks / Big business take over of Brighton and how we should stop it. Well worth a read.

Below are the shots from the September issue which you can pick up from all the usually independent (not Tesco) outlets. Also worth checking out in this issue is the round up of all some of the great fry ups you can get in Brighton.

One question I get asked a lot is how do I take these. To me its pretty obvious as I’ve not changed how I have done it since the 1st time I shot one. Luckily I wrote an article in my new book about how to shoot your own montage portraits. You can download that chapter as a PDF here. If you want to get the other 51 chapters you can find out how here.

How time flies, I should have submitted my latest batch of montage portraits today! (Hopefully I won’t get fired by the editor of The Source!)

Published in National Geographic

I have had work published in magazines all over the world but this one is quite a coup for me. In the July (current) edition of National Geographic I have a picture published on page 36 with an article about the dangers of crossing the road in the US. National Geographic is well known for the high standard of photography so it was quite nice to get a photo shot on a Lomo LCA in there! National Geographic first contacted me in February of this year about the using the image. I don’t get excited about this type of thing until it actually happens and, because of the birth of Matilda, I actually completely forgot about it!

Look out for it, it’s in the issue with a skull on the front. Funny thing is I was not even going to upload the image to flickr! I was at home wondering what to post to Flickr when my wife suggested the cross walk image, I didn’t think there was anything particularly special about it. Must be something special about it as Lisa Båtsvik-Miller the designer of my new book used it on the UK front cover.

Montage portraits one year on

It was only a year ago that I took my first montage portrait of Irate (of Modu Designs) at Red Mutha’s fashion fair. At the time I was going take Irate’s portrait I wanted to record all the details of his fabulous threads. I very rarely shot photos in a portrait orientation and if I had shot him in landscape I would lost all the details when the photo was blown up. Then I remembered seeing an Austrian Photographer at the Lomo World Congress in 2003 taking a montage with his Lomo LCA and I thought it would be perfect for this situation. For the record I can’t remember the Austrians name but I am pretty sure he was the designer of the Super Sampler.

Left: Irate from June 2009, Middle + Right: Irate one year on

After putting together the 1st one I did not think much of it. In October 2009 I went to Phoot camp in California and shot portraits of the attendees using the montage technique. Once I was back home I slowly uploaded them to Flickr where they got very positive feed back from the Flickr masses. Shooting in this style was something I was going to continue.

Flickr links: Left Jen Giese, Middle Dan Busta, Right Mona Brooks

Then in December 2009 I discussed doing the trend spotting for the 1st issue of Brighton Source Magazine of 2010 using the technique as a one-off with the editor and chief The James Kendel. It turned out the Source liked what I did for them and I enjoyed doing it so much that it’s now turned into a permanent feature. I am now 6 issues in and going strong! I had only shot 3 sets of portraits for Source when Photo Pro Magazine approached me to write something about what I was doing for Source. I am really enjoying it as I am getting to meet so many people I might not of met otherwise.

Flickr links: Left Lee, Middle Ruby, Right Maria

In May my wife Rockcake and Partially Obscured hand an open house together. For the show I wanted to shoot something new so I decided to shoot the people who make Brighton the special place it is using the montage style rather than hanging some pre-shot work. I Shot people ranging from paramedics to cabaret performers to fashion designers. I arranged and shot 14 portraits in the month before the show, all with the added complication of a 4 week old baby at home! The show went down really well and I have already accepted commissions to shot family portraits in the style.

Left Nick Baird (paramedic), Middle Betty Swollocks, Right Ophelia Fancy girls
(These links are to there individual web site as i have not posted them to flickr yet)

It’s One year on from when shot my frist montage portrait of Irate and I have a little mental to do list of things to do with my montage portraits. I am going to producing a Blurb book of the best of the 1st years portraits as there are qute a lot to choose from. There are 67 on Flickr and 200+ on my computer. Some have not been put together, some are waiting go into Source and there is all the stuff from my Brighton project which I have simply not got round to posting to Flickr yet! I am also going to start a Tumbler blog just for the montage’s and I am having a custom theme being built watch this space.

What made me write this post was hanging out with Irate at another one of Red Mutha’s fashion fairs 2 weeks back. Seeing as he was the one that started it all I gave him a framed version of the 1st one. I think he was happy with it! (sorry about the crappy iPhone photo)

Color photo competition judged by Andy Ketch and me

Andy Keetch of Wired Sussex and I are judging a photographic competition for Silicon Beach Training. The theme of the competition is pretty simple: Color. That’s it. Interpret it how you will. You can see the submissions so far if you check out the competition’s Flickr group. For details on how to enter the competition and the terms and conditions, head over to Silicon Beach’s competition page on their site. The top prize is a two-day Freelance Photojournalism Course taught by Andrew Hasson in Brighton UK worth £245! While I am on the subject of photography courses I do run my own course called Hot Shots and currently have 3 up and coming dates.

If you need a little inspiration check out the above montage (Click on individual images to open a Flickr page). Also it’s worth checking out my Colors I See collection on Flickr and my Strong Colors Flickr set.

The competition closing date is Friday 16th July 5pm BST so get snapping / uploading!

Open house exhibition in May

During the month of May I will be exhibiting  at an open house exhibition as part of the brighton festival with my wife Rockcakes; and Partially Obscured. Rockcakes will showing her jewellery and Partially Obscured AKA Su Wilson is a glass maker. I will be showing work that has never been seen before on flickr or anywhere else, so make sure you keep a May weekend day clear to come check it out! The show will be in deepest darkest Kemp Town (Brighton).

Our open house will be open every weekend in May:

May 1st, 2nd, 8th, 9th, 15th, 16th, 22nd, 23rd, 29th and 30th from 11am to 6pm.

The show is at :
Flat 8, 72 St George’s Road (opposite the news agent in the new looking building)
Brighton, BN2 1EF
Google map of location

Print up for sale at charity auction

A 50cm x 33cm print of my London Cycling image will be auctioned off at the Brighton Twestival tonight (25th March 2010) to raise money for Concern World Wide, a charity dedicated to fighting poverty world wide. Twestival is world wide event where Twitter users met up to socialize and raise money for good causes. If you are not attending fear not as you can also bid online. I don’t mean to blow my own trumpet but last time a print of London Cycling was auctioned off for charity it went for $1000. That said it was in room with a few dot come millionaires before the credit crunch but here’s hopping that the Brighton massive can try and beat that! The iPhone is in the image to give you a sense of the size of the image.

Check the brightwest web site to see the other items up for auction.

While I am on the subject of twitter you can follow here @lomokev.

Brighton street style in March’s Brighton Source

My trend spotting for Brighton Source magazine continues, the March edition is out now. You can pick up The Brighton Source for free at most cafes and pubs in Brighton. This is now going to be a regular thing with Source, I have already submitted my shots for the April edition so I now have a huge back log of montage images to up load to my montage portrait flickr set.

I also have two of my montages portraits (matthew montage and erinisfunky montage) on display at the Iydea cafe at 17 Kensington Gardens, Brighton until the 30th April. The ones on display are not just straight print outs from Photoshop but are made from real 6” by 4” prints go and check them out.

Am also planing a joint exhibition for the Brighton open house festival witch will be open every weekend of May. I will be showing some un scene montage portraits. For more info on that watch my my blog, twitter or join my my mailing list by mailing info@lomokev.com asking to added.

Help the people of Haiti by purchasing Onè Respe from Mag Cloud

Do you want to help the people of Haiti without inflating Simon Cowell’s ego even bigger than it already is? Then you could purchase Onè Respe. It’s a photography magazine curated by photographer Lane Hartwell.

Lane stated putting a magazine together the day the quake struck. She contacted photographers who had shot in Haiti and got them to donate images of everyday Haitian life before the disaster. The result is a beautiful portrait of Haiti before it was devastated. Within 24 hours of Lane starting the project this magazine was on sale on Mag Cloud for $12. The full $12 will go to American Red Cross International Response Fund for Haiti relief because Hewlett Packard (Mag Cloud’s parent company) is paying for all the printing costs. It’s like you donating $12 dollars and getting a free photography magazine out of it. Mag Cloud is a print on demand service that allows anyone to design then start selling a magazine.

I know this post might seem a bit late but Haiti is still in a bit of a massive pickle and is going need an ongoing load of dough to put it back together again.