do I have any original photos? and do I really look like Harry Styles? ......in which I discover Google reverse image search

 While doing my morning research in bed today I came across the photography of Alessandro Calabrese.

He has created a body of work using Google Reverse Image Search, creating  'an image of photographs' that is constructed using his own work along with images found using his work within the reverse image search tool.

I can't explain it well in words. I recommend that you take a peek at an interview with him that explains the process fully.

 Now I had never heard of reverse image search before today, and as I am currently having a minor existential cricis about where I go with my photography from here, I decided to have a play, to see whether I was creating any vaguely original work.

I started with a photo of myself, taken a year or two ago... as I was interested to see if I have a doppelganger.

I am looking super happy, as it was taken on the occasion of giving up my regular job to allow more time for travel and photography.

(OH please note this photo is already 'out there', so I am not giving up any deep secrets....)


Image reverse search tells me that I look like these people.....

Harry Styles.....

Help.

Alan Rickman....

it could be worse.......




Not too convincing so far...


Next up, the navigation tower at Dungeness

dungeness

Again, nothing vaguely similar, and certainly nothing from Dungeness.

towers

Then the red hut at Rye harbour; surely there must be millions of those...

it seems that my multiple exposure has tricked the search engine fairly well

legs and holiday houses....

Add caption

So lets try a regular photo of the red hut

red hut, rye harbour

 interesting....

hay bales and cornfields...

not the red hut rye harbour

I am not convinced.

How about an iconic architectural image from Canberra

Canberra architecture

it seems that shape is more important than colour

not Canberra architecture

and finally that slowly moving water in the Abisko river

Abisko revisited

Waves and surf come up.

not the Abisko river

So it seems that all of my work is totally unique......

........if you believe Google Reverse Image Search

..........which I don't.



I also came across these words from Chang Chao-Tang this morning.

'Photography is not for the satisfaction of others. Neither is it some kind of responsibility or mission. It is a means to fill a personal void'.



And to quote Amy Tan on the 'what is my work about?' subject

"what is it about? If you look too hard it will only be about 'the about''

In other words, don't worry about why or how or who for;

 Just keep taking the pictures.

you can take a horse to water.............

border detail at Sussex Prairie Garden

This weekend has been a prime example of how making images has to come from the good feelings that lie within.

On Saturday I made my first, long anticipated visit to the  Sussex Prairie Garden. As one who is addicted to grass, this was something I had been looking forward to for months. It is a truly beautiful garden created with passion by Paul and Pauline McBride, and inspired by the work of Piet Oudolf.

Piet is a well known Dutch garden designer, and some beautiful images of his style can be seen here. Paul and Pauline have created their own garden over six acres in the 'naturalistic' style that Piet champions.

Mostly the colours are very subtle, but there were occasional splashes of bright colour hiding amongst the swathes of grass and herbaceous perennials. One of the lovely things about the garden are the wood chip paths encouraging visitors to stray deep into the plantings of the wide beds.

What a shame then, that our visit was on a scorching hot, blue sky day, when the light was harsh and the heat was challenging.

bison on the prairie

I took some photos, but I know that I can do better. I will return when the conditions are more conducive to capturing the softness of the planting, when the light is lower in the sky, and the grasses are turning to silver and gold from their current shades of green.

poppies

So different from the mood that caught me later  the following day; a day when half of the world came to Camber Sands to enjoy the beach. After they had all gone home I took myself down to Rye Harbour for a stroll, where a welcome breeze broke the heat, and I set myself a little project of seeing how many different views I could make of the golf clubhouse in the distance, across the dunes. Golfers have money.............maybe they would spend some of it on my images?

rye golf club from rye harbour

Maybe not; I don't think they would appreciate my take on their clubhouse, but by experimenting I got into that zone ..........the one that was missing at the Prairie Gardens............

An old railway carriage at Rye harbour

new tarmac caught my eye

At high tide the fishing boats went off to sea

gone fishing

And the red hut popped up wherever I went

down low amongst the wild flowers

shooting the breeze

Two hours passed in blissful oblivion to the rest of the world, and I returned home with my spirits lifted by the sheer pleasure of having being out making images.

multiple exposure photography and how to improve your commercial representation as an artist

red hut, rye harbour, green sky © Caroline Fraser 2013

I went to a seminar last week about how to improve my commercial profile. It was enlightening and useful.................. but.............

ever since I have been feeling somewhat overwhelmed.

THERE IS SO MUCH TO DO

SO MUCH TO DO THAT I DON'T KNOW WHERE TO START

Should I visit galleries and talk nicely to gallery owners?

Galleries apparently look for 

● solo exhibitions

● publications ( including brochures, art books)

● critical writing e.g. reviews in magazine, newspapers. 

● biennials and festivals; consider satellites eg Edinburgh Art festival, Whitstable

biennial

● awards

● being in significant collections.

Well that's me out then.

My only claim to fame is having one of my images in the bedroom of the US ambassador's residence in Tokyo.

And the other day one of my images made it onto Canadian TV ( but they forgot to mention my name)

So I have to work hard at getting accepted in biennials..........expensive and likely to lead to a sense of failure if you don't remember that acceptance is for the chosen and fairly random few. You need a tough skin and healthy bank account to cope with regular rejections.

I should visit art fairs and find out which galleries I need to visit.

I shouldn't visit art fairs and talk to gallery owners there............. on pain of death should that be a strategy............

Read  what not to do at an art fair   for a serious and amusing guide to what NOT to do..........at art fairs.

I should join various websites such as Axis and re-title to raise my profile. Now both of these are by application, and for Axis I probably need to do an MSc before I will be accepted.............. so that's at least another £10,000 and 2 years of hard labour...............

So I have done nothing.

And concentrated on making sure I earn some money doing my day job after I have retired from my current day job. By applying for work in New Zealand and the Hebrides, which seem so much more appealing than suburban south east London.

Meanwhile I have continued to work on my current passion for multiple exposure photography in the hope that I will create something different and fun.


All of the images below were taken at Camber Sands and Rye harbour (after George Clooney had gone back home)

multiple exposure using camera rotation for a totally wacky effect

multiple exposure using horizontal movement for repetition

triple exposure of a girl in the dunes

5 in camera exposures of Dungeness from Camber Sands

What I enjoy about this one is the bird flying across the picture.

red hut, rye harbour, pink sunset

For this one, which is one of my favourites, I have superimposed the red hut at Rye harbour onto the sunset over the nature reserve at Rye harbour, turning it pink.


All of these images are experimental, and are fun to make.

Which is what keeps me sane when faced with the fact that increasing my commercial representation is unlikely to come to fruition in the immediate future!