The next stage
Preparing for publication and exhibition will come early in the new year and specs for these will be published in February. There will be two more monthly meetings in January and February and possibly March.

Editing Workshops
The last two workshops in the ‘Editing your personal project’ series will take place in The Gallery at Linear House in Greenwich on 28th January and 25th February.

Presentations at the December meeting included:
Anita Strasser is climbing Royal Hill and making herself known to the shopkeepers, involving herself more with the motion of the shops in comparison with her Deptford High Street work.

Brenden Delaney has been working in Brixton and has created a fine portfolio. He feels, however, that it lacks both focus and points of departure so may narrow his focus towards Brixton Village commodification.

Eamonn Power‘s work focuses upon a small Lambeth neighbourhood and was prompted by the road death of a cyclist. The project emerging draws on emotion, utilising simple devices of street furniture, signage, road fabric, the heavy undertow of threat and the weight of absence.

Astrid Baerndal continues within a newly-established Buddhist community in south London, using metaphor for the spiritual focus of the members’ practice. The trust between photographer and the community is apparent.

Peter Luck returned with images from the point in Aldgate at which he had arrived at the November meetup. There were worrying signs of impressionistic early-morning haze intruding into one or two images but we’re sure this is simply a pre-Christmas excess.

Angela Inglis presented a series on the new Unison building on Euston Road at the entrance to Somers Town where her project is based. The building incorporates the restored Victorian Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital.

Keith Ellis returned with the street signs of Deptford to which he is currently adding a comprehensive written history. He has sufficient material to make a serious contribution to Deptford local history.

Margaret Mann was unable to be present but forwarded images from her personal project; A small selection illustrating a distinctive approach to her restaurant & food-creative subjects.

For more about the project see www.londonvillagesproject.org.uk,
the image pool on flickr, or contact organiser John Levett

A summary of the London Villages Project was given to LIP on 12th Nov:

The Project began on March 1st 2011 and will run until February 29th 2012. Sign up closed six months in, on 31st August. Membership was open to all LIP members with 212 signing up to participate, though many are not fully active in terms of creating a personal project. Organiser John Levett is currently surveying members to determine who are actively involved in project building and intend to participate in any proposed end of project activities.

LVP had two focus meetings (in March and June) to discuss issues, content & direction. Monthly meetings have been held and their content reflects the spirit of LIP’s satellite group formats and has kept members in touch with the development of personal projects, as well as dealing with issues surrounding the matter of public photography. Participants have also received feedback and evaluation on their portfolios and have been offered the opportunity to take part in workshops entitled ‘Editing your personal project’. Two dates in the new year have been added for the workshop: Saturday 28th January & Saturday 25th February.

Proposals for final presentations of the Project include locally-curated exhibitions and a travelling exhibition. A print-on-demand publication will be produced.

Presentations at the November meeting included:

Eugene McConville has been shooting the dog-walkers of north London, the shadow play of the city and arrived at Crouch End to focus on The Broadway.
Angelika Berndt has persisted at the Barbican, looking at entrances and exits as well as the common boundaries of the complex.
Lucilla Nitto has taken the route from Westbourne Park, shot the undergrowth of skateboard parks, football pitches, market stalls, organic garden plots, horse riding academies and Trellick Tower.
Sara Massaglia continues to scavenge around Tottenham for its historical remnants, photographing the frontages of former railway parades once the preserve of coal merchants, taxi ranks & caffs.
Chris Ennis has been making panoramics in Ponders End.
Peter Luck’s work from the east end looks at demolitions.

For more about the project see www.londonvillagesproject.org.uk

Corin had the inaugural opening of her portrait studio on 26th November. Saturday Studio is a collaboration between photographer and sitter with the aim of creating memorable portraits. It is free to participate and prints are made available for purchase a few days after the shoot. The Studio is open on the second to last Saturday of every month and each open day will approach portraiture in a new way. Dress up, dress down, come along as you are or bring your own props.

Open from 11am – 17.30 (monthly on second to last Saturday)
The Studio in the Palace
20 Haynes Lane
Crystal Palace
London SE19 3AT

More information at saturday-studio.blogspot.com

The workshop entitled ‘Editing your personal project’ took place this month and lot of ground was covered regarding the formal aspects of editing, the nature of the LVP, discussion of individual projects and issues that might be addressed in this final third of the Project.

At the monthly meeting the following participants presented work:

Sophie Preston presented her first excursion through Sidcup, her work illustrating historical layers of the built fabric, gentrification and high street commercial turbulance.
Angelika Berndt brought her latest work from the Barbican which showed a burgeoning confidence in representing both interior images and the purposes of the multiple spaces of the complex including from the position of private residents.
Lucilla Nitto has been working close by the Westway from Portobello Road market, along the canal from Westbourne Park towards Ladbroke Grove taking in carnival & the multiplying uses of the space beneath the flyover.
Sara Masaglia showed work in Tottenham featuring the multiple layers and uses both of commercial and private properties and their repurposing.
Mo Greig has been working with vulnerable residents in Kings Cross whom are susceptible to physical or emotional attack or harm. Her work illustrated the communality and self-support of these residents.

Over the next few weeks the organisers of LVP intend to gain a clearer view of how each personal project is going and how many members will be involved in the post-Project activity.

More about the project at www.londonvillagesproject.org.uk

Congratulations to LIP member Trevor Crone whose photographic print of Elizabeth Roberts, editor of Black and White Photography, has been accepted in the permanent collection of The National Portrait Gallery. This is the second print by Trevor which has been acquired by NPG for their collection of photography. The photograph was taken 2010 using an 8″x10″ view camera, and the print is a gelatine silver chloride contact print.

Trevor says, “This is the first representation of Liz in the NPG collection, Liz has done so much to promote black and white photography and in promoting young and emerging talent and it is a delight that the NPG have recognised her hard work in this field.”

Keith Ellis presented an extended view of a new project on the indicative nature of street names of Deptford and its periphery.
Angela Inglis is working in Somers Town where she is intimately connected to community groups and has begun to refine and narrow her focus.
Brenden Delaney outlined the basis for his personal project to be located within Bermondsey from London and Tower bridges and bounded by The Borough to the south.
Martin Hanna has begun his personal project at the Olympic site where he is documenting not only the continuing refinement of the site but public engagement with the construction.
John Levett outlined an aspiration to connect the 1947 murder of Alec de Antiquis, the literary milieu of Julian Maclaren-Ross and Tambimuttu, the art confusions of Wyndham Lewis and Nina Hamnett and the materiality of North Soho aka Fitzrovia. Fat chance!

LVP is running Autumn workshops to provide LVP members with a suggested workflow for editing a large collection of images into an identifiable collection that holds together in terms of reference to the idea of ‘village’, reflects the photographer’s internal deliberations, satisfies the ideas that have guided the work and presents a coherent representation of intentionality — a
standalone project.

More about the project at www.londonvillagesproject.org.uk

Congratulations to LIP member Lidia Kowalewicz who is one of just 60 photographers from over 2500 entrants, selected to exhibit in the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2011.

A portrait from Lidia’s ongoing series Beauty Pageants will be on show at National Portrait Gallery from 10th November to 12th February, 2012. For her project Lidia photographs children participating in beauty pageants, who she says are expected to fit western ideals and so face extreme pressure to be successful, “receiving a sense of their own self worth through the validation of beauty pageant judges applying adult beauty criteria.”

Lidia was born in late 80′s in Poland and recently achieved first in Photography and Digital Imaging at the University of West London.

We’ve got a flickr site for upload of Project work-in-progress, in response to members and ensuring a greater degree of feedback. Some members of the LVP from Lewisham are beginning to plan a local exhibition and any initiative for other local exhibitions will get as much support as we can give.

Keith Ellis presented for the first time his exploratory work in Deptford.
Anne-Marie Glasheen continues work within the condemned prefabs close to her home in Catford, focussing on the intimacies of the ‘internal’.
Jennifer Roberts was another member showing first-time work, from Surrey Quays, portraying her neigbourhood through its built composition.
Angela Inglis‘s work in Somers Town continues to gather pace, currently working with the proliferation of community groups in that territory.
Lesley Brew is documenting the interaction between the 2012 construction on, and the local population’s use of, Woolwich Common.
Astrid Baerndal continues to document the early days of her Buddhist community in Camberwell, working on portraiture of the fraternity.
Jonathan Goldberg introduced ‘Transition Towns’, involving a movement that aims to inspire and support communities in the transition from oil dependency to relocalised economies responding to climate change.

We’re six months into the Project & we’ve got six months to go. Onward!

LIP member Stefanie Reichelt has had her book Three Wheels a Zen Garden in London shortlisted for the People’s Choice Award of Blurb’s annual Photography Book Now competition. Each year the competition celebrates the most creative, innovative, and finest self-published photography books – and the people behind them.

Up to 200 books per category have been selected for People’s Choice voting, which ends August 30th. Category winners each receive a $1,500 prize. To view all the books shortlisted for the 2011 People’s Choice Award see this link. Stefanie’s book is in the Travel category.

Congratulations to Carole Evans whose image of Ceridwen from her retro girls project was featured on the front cover of the Independent on Sunday’s The New Review, 14th August.

A print of the photograph is currently on show until 21st September as part of the 50′s, Fashion and Emerging Feminism exhibition at Collyer Bristow Gallery. Viewing is during office hours only, at 4 Bedford Row, London WC1R 4TF.