Photography
Fine Art, Documentary and Travel Photography
I got my first camera on my seventh birthday. I was so fascinated by cameras that I opened the back of it so I could see the little pictures on the film. The film was ruined of course, but my passion sparked.
I started with film and am skilled in the darkroom with 'straight' and experimental printing. Having been lucky enough to have access to digital equipment, like scanners since the early 1990's, I became extremely skilled with Silicon Graphic's Digital Darkroom and the then fledgeling Adobe Photoshop software (I had the first version, which came on one floppy disk!). Whilst I am technically highly skilled with Film and Digital (including LEAF system), my main camera of choice is currently a cameraphone. Nothing beats the sheer spontaneity and mobility of such a device, and my cameraphone has become one of the most important artistic tools I use.
With my broad interests of art, music, food, fashion, travel, documentary, sport, architecture and all things mechanical, I have achieved a wide spanning portfolio. or, put another way, I like to be flapping my wings and not stuck in a pigeonhole.
.jpg "touch me, move me")
.jpg "touch me, move me")
This is a travel project. All over the world there are signs that are well meaning, but feature bad form, or grammar, or are simply 'wrong' in some way. This is a seriously big and long term project. I have spent several years photographing these signs, such as the one for an ice cream parlour that also cheerfully sells rifle ammo in Kentucky, or 'Free donkey shit', taken on the side of New Zealand's State Highway 3. The project is more a kind of visual stamp collecting than 'art' photography, although I keep the agenda to make the photographs as visually interesting as possible. This kind of photography for me, is an empathic reaction to cheap digital, and mobile phone cameras, which make this and some of my other projects physically possible to produce.
This project is a crossover from the trigger happy style of the wrong way project into a more artistic realm. The images are mainly shot on a mobile phone (albeit the phone was chosen for its photographic merits and not its ability to annoy people with stupid ringtones). The images are close up and abstracted into shapes and patterns. The context of the original environment more often than not, stripped out of the shot. The result is an image which is recognisable, but puzzling, but ultimately (hopefully) aesthetically interesting.
Some people think that Pylons are evil. Some people think that they are an eyesore. I , however, am fond of pylons. I first became interested in them whilst attempting to draw pictures in the country side. Being from the city, I found myself unable to draw all the 'wobbly' shapes of the English rural environment. I am used to bricks, mortar, hard edges and straight lines. It was the presence of the mighty pylons and their associated bouncing cables that allowed me to 'break up' the landscape and make any sense out of it at all.
All of of this lead me to discover some very aesthetically pleasing pylons, which I started to photograph.
Pylons of the World
If you too like pylons, then why not join the Pylon Appreciation Society?
I spent an intense four days with this enlightened and spiritual performing arts school in West London. I shot mainly on Black & White, using my own special fast film process and the natural light in the building, so as not to be intrusive and to capture the essence of movement in the incredible classes taught there.
Documentary shoot for the well known charity
These are 360° 'spherical' photographs. The image is completely immersive. The images can contain links, as well as sounds…
You can navigate with the arrow keys and + and - to zoom in and out!
I photographed launch parties and events for this well known restaurant chain.
Shot mainly in high speed black & white film, the photos give an atmospheric look to the hard work that goes into a theatre production.
I documented, from beginning to end, a production by this youth theatre. My close involvement meant I also got invited to design the program, and some of the backdrops for the show.
I was commissioned to take photographs of tower blocks in my own manor. I love the area and showing the aesthetically charming side of such seemingly brutal looking buildings was a perfect project for me. I spent an afternoon with the very cool Tony Belton, an ex MP for the area. Whilst extremely knowleadgeable on the area, he never did tell me why Battersea has a Yuri Gagarin house, however.
I only mention them as I applied for a photography degree there, in 1996 and they refused me as the said my digital work was 'not photography'. I understand there are still no digital cameras in Derbyshire for this very reason. In fact, everyone on the photography degree there are taught on Kodak Brownies to this day.
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© mm8 www.artballs.co.uk Nathan Jones