Guernsey Photography Festival 2012!!

After posting a few days ago about the Photomarathon, it got me thinking about what other events have been planned as part of this years Guernsey's Photography Festival.  

I looked online at guernseyphotographyfestival and saw that there are many things happening from the 24th of May until the 22nd of June.
This got me interested as I will soon be returning home from Uni for the summer and could possibly attend some of these.
I saw that there were 7 major photographers involved with the festival this year - Mark Power, Klavdij Sluban, Bruno Boudjelal, Ricardo Cases, Anastasia Taylor-Lind, Kiana Hayeri and Ivor Prickett.
I took a quick look at each one of their works and was most intrigued by the work of Anastasia Taylor-Lind..

''Anastasia Taylor-Lind is an English/Swedish documentary photographer who is a member of VII photo agency.  She is based in London and works for clients such as GEO Germany, The Telegraph Magazine, The Observer Magazine, The Sunday Times Magazine, Marie Claire, ELLE France, Newsweek, Time magazine and The New York Times.  Her work has been exhibited internationally, in spaces such as The Saatchi Gallery, The Frontline Club, and The National Portrait Gallery in London, Fovea Exhibitions in New York and Pikto Gallery in Toronto.  She has received a number of photography awards, from a diverse range of organisations including a FNAC grant for photojournalism, which was presented at the Visa Pour L'Image photojournalism festival in 2011, a Canon Young Photographer award in 2010 and the Royal Photographic Society Joan Wakelin Bursary in 2009.  In 2011 Anastasia was selected to participate in the World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclss.  She has degrees from the university of Wales Newport and the London College of Communication.''

I discovered that she is giving a talk on the 26th of May at our local Performing Arts Centre, I will be home by this time so have booked a ticket to attend her lecture.
Her work that she is presenting is titled 'Siberian Supermodels.'
This is a series of work taken in Siberia tries to depict the 'real' people behind the models seen in fashion magazines these days, investigating the values behind the sculpted idealized body.
She travelled around this remote area, visiting hotels and gyms where her talent scouts would hold castings for wannabe models.  She came across many females as well as children who want to escape from this Siberian landscape with the intention of fulfilling their lifelong dream of becoming a worldwide supermodel.

Some of the most beautiful women have come from Siberia and this is what drove her to visit there, looking into how they bring up girls to become the perfect model.
During her time out there Taylor-Lind discovered that they run schools for children from the age of 5, teaching them how to stand, walk and pose in certain ways as well as learning to diet, dress and apply make up correctly.

More can be read about this particular project on her website www.anastasiataylorlind.com.

Fashion Photography is something which has always interested me and I really look forward to hearing from Anastasia Taylor-Lind herself in a few weeks!

Guernsey Photomarathon 2012

Today I received an email inviting me to an event at home called the 'Photomarathon', organized as part of the Guernsey Photography Festival, which happens every year.
It is being held on Saturday the 5th of May so unfortunately I can't take part as I am still at Uni in Southampton now.  This is a huge shame as last year I entered it and managed to get second place.
So, what exactly is the photomarathon?
When I signed up for this last year, along with my family, we didn't expect the day to be as manic as it actually was, but I have to say it is definitely a competition with a difference!
You are given 6 hours to take 12 photographs on 12 different topics.  This sounds easy... but trust me, its not!
The first twist is that you are only allowed to take one image on each theme, meaning no digital cameras!  Instead, they provide you with a disposable camera with just 12 shots.  We also had the choice to use a 35mm film with only 12 exposures if we had our own camera but I picked to use the disposable point-and-shoot as felt colour could be beneficial!
To complicate things further, you aren't given all the subjects at the morning registration.. instead only the first 4 are revealed.  You then have two hours to go and shoot these (in order) and then return to get the next 4 and then finally, another 2 hours later, the last 4 can be collected.
It was a great family day out and even though we all entered it, my mum, dad and brother, we decided to participate individually.  Even though 2 hours to take 4 photographs sounds like a while, when you have 4 people wanting to visit different locations around the island we soon ran out of time!
If you want to read more about this specific competition then here is the link to the photomarathon page.
Photomarathon 2011..
Ok, so I thought I would tell you a little bit about the topics from last year and show you a few shots that I took.

Topics
1 - Identity
2 - You Can't Live Without It
3 - Freedom
4 - Larger Than Life
5 - Confused
6 - There's No Place Like Home
7 - Favourite Thing
8 - Never Judge A Book By Its Cover
9 - Missing
10 - Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder
11 - Movement
12 - Unique

#3 Freedom
Children on the beach letting go of helium balloons.

#4 Larger Than Life
Worm alongside a tape measure (My favourite image)

#5 Confused
My dad dressed as a female.

#6 There's No Place Like Home
An abandoned building.

#7 My Favourite Thing
My brother.

#8 Never Judge A Book By Its Cover
My 7 year old cousin wearing old persons mask.

#9 Missing
My mums old doll without any legs.

These are a selection of the images which I took on the day, you can also see the rest of mine and other finalists online here - photomarathon winning photographs.

After everyone's films were processed the events group exhibited each print in a small town gallery.  Also as part of winning second prize I received a free photographic workshop with Jean-Christophe Godet (professional photographer and festival director).
Obviously my photographs weren't the best quality and I found it difficult not having the luxury of changing camera settings as I am used to.  But overall it was such a fun day, seeing what ideas my family came up with and it was a great bonding session for us.  I would love to take part again one year.  Good luck to all contestants in 2012!!