Incline Press

I'm lucky to have guidance on putting a book together which matches the research potential of Chetham's Library in the Oldham based Incline Press. I went to meet Graham Moss, the founder of the press yesterday, another time warp. Seems I shall probably be having a round binding so that the book will open flat and double spreads can be put in as inserts to avoid the problems of having two halves on an image misregistered. Also can get a title page beautifully handset. Yet to decide quite how the cover will be, but I know that I'm getting great advice as you can see if you check out the output of the press: some examples above and more information, including how to buy the books, at absurdly low prices for their beauty on the website.

Is there a ghost in my house?

Slightly off topic but a long standing personal interest. The upper half of a man's body manifesting in my front room! The magic of sunlight..

A Shepherd's Calendar

Visited Chetham’s Library last week to look at some of their collection for two reasons. Firstly to look at sun symbols, but also to get design inspiration. I’d like to have a (subtle) reference to the early Renaissance going on in the design to echo the concepts going on in the photographs. As I write this I realise that it is the first time I’ve articulated this particular understanding of the project- early renaissance being the point where superstition hit reason…. Anyway I don’t want to produce a school history project to recreate the Magna Carta, all burnt page edges and staining with coffee: rather to take some influences like binding, type and proportion in to a modern design. I’m lucky that I’ve some great resources nearby for researching this sort of thing in Chetham’s Library and the John Ryland’s Library, both of which have superb collections. Visiting Chetham’s library is an adventure in itself; you go through a small door (Alice in Wonderland, Being John Malkovich) and go back in time. It is a place where the act of consulting a book is made beautiful. The images here are details from a ‘Shepherd’s Calendar’ (late 15^th C) - a misleading name for a stunningly complicated book charting solar and lunar cycles and eclipses. This astronomy is then linked to astrology, in a manner abhorrent to our modern scientific understanding. It is a beautiful object but the funny thing is it seems like a really really good school history project, the sort that the kid who was amazing at drawing would do!

Pieter Ten Hoopen

images © Pieter Ten Hoopen

Pieter Ten Hoopen's photography is massively atmospheric, due to his use of movement and colour. He was a winner in the World Press Photo Awards last year for his story on Kitezh 'the invisible city'. He talks about the project on the World Press website, explaining how in missing the exact time that the legendary city is supposed to rise up from the lake now standing in its place he focused instead on the neighbouring town of Vadimirskoe, also invisible in its dearth of employment and high rate of alcohol abuse. He is represented by Agence Vu which showcases a great selection of his work.

On Demand publishing

In a quandary about the best way to go about producing this book. There are so may things that can go wrong between scanning a negative and holding the book in your hands. My issue with on-line publishing is the lack of control and the lack of physicality to the process. But with self-publishing I'm not sure of the best way to actually get the photos on the paper- I worry about precise registration. Conscientious has a good collection of experiences about these issues to learn from.

The Grateful Dead

I'd like to go to Egypt to shoot but it's looking unlikely as it isn't vital to the book. So here's the Grateful Dead and The Merry Pranksters grooving at the pyramids in 78.

Sun Dog

How have I never heard of sun dogs before? Or to give them their correct name parhelions? It like when I realised that there were no adverts on the BBC at the age of twenty. Both images courtesy of wiki media commons, the second a seventeenth century copy of the Vädersolstavlan depiciting the optical phenomenon over Stockholm.

Prayers

Hans-Christian Schink

Another proponent of the black sun (see Chris McCaw, Harlan Erskine, Ansel Adams). But presumably an originator, and winner of the inaugural REAL photo award, some more information on Mrs Deane and read in the BJP last week. The photography is stunning, I love the role of the light in exaggerating the graphic of the composition. It is so difficult to avoid covering the same ground as other people- something that used to torment me as a mannered art undergraduate. As I get older I begin to think does it matter. Each of the contemporary photographers who I'm aware of has used this motif in a visually and conceptually different way: each has been successful.

Saint-Sulpice Tripych

Image © thismediathing.com

A pleasant surprise at Saint Sulpice was the LED triptych installed by artists Jim Campbell and Benjamin Bergery, working under the name 'thismediathing'. The LED installation gives a very low light working in harmony with the church interior and the imagery relates to Biblical themes, filtered through through the reinterpretation of Renaissance representation. The faces are blurred and the content ambiguous, yet contextualised through the location. The dim light of the LEDs and the church interior emphasising the remote reverence of the work. Churches make fine galleries, as I suppose was one of their original functions... Saint Sulpice itself also housing some stunning painting by Delacroix.

Catholic Sun Worship Devil YouTube Frenzy

I find the Catholic Church's absorption of pagan beliefs and symbolism interesting, but some people are a bit more paranoid about it, or even that it is evidence that the devil won the battle between good and evil and Christianity is a trick to get us all to worship the Sun- sadly I can't locate this particular entry to the youetube canon so I'm posting a more reasoned argument...

On Sungazing

Saint Sulpice

Back from France and in a scanning marathon. Its initially depressing to see the photos and then gets better... but apart from a few instant standout shots my opinions can shift quite a lot on what will or will not be included. At the church of Saint Sulpice in Paris for the Equinox, as detailed in the occult conspiracy blockbuster the Da Vinci code (see the second picture) the church has a gnomon (see the first picture) and is in effect a giant sundial. On the equinox the sun is channeled through a hole and hits a marker on a brass line set into the floor of the church. The circumstances of the installation of the gnomon are explained without reference to CERN or mad monks in J.L. Heilbron's 'The Sun in the Church: Cathedrals as Solar Observatories.' which details how the Catholic Church came to convert four cathedrals into solar observatories during the 17th and 18th centuries, despite the church's reactionary response to scientific advances.

Due to a slight error, still a sore point, I have no picture of the light hitting the marker. It was a gloriously sunny day too! These photography missions I have been taking for my book all revolve around a chance moment of light; at Stonehenge the sun rising over the heel stone, being able to see the eclipse in Siberia after days on a train. This reflects for me the chance nature of the photograph itself- the search for the decisive moment, but through the process and looking at the resulting photos I'm getting to understand that it is about what lies around getting to that moment of chance too. The Catholic Church, and indeed all spiritual belief systems that I am aware of, make use of light, as symbol, and as atmosphere. The calendar is intrinsically linked to the sun of course, and this made its movements of vital importance to the Catholic Church, seeking to define its year of worship. The failure to get the money shot, which given the placement of the line after the church's construction, would not have been terribly interesting visually, gave me a chance to think more about how the church used light to instill reverence and glory into its rituals. Devices such as stained glass, rose windows, and candles result in this controlled cinematography of worship. The final photograph I've posted here was taken in one of the side chapels that line the church, and it was like a pool of 17th century light had been fixed in time. Also its interesting to think ultimately the church is a giant camera obscura..