Les Rencontres d’Arles is the highlight of the international photography calendar: last year festival attendees were estimated at 84000, including prominent international collectors, curators, gallerists, artists, publishers and photographers.

Last year LIP memebers exhibiting included Graeme Webb, Sabine Thoele, Camilla Broadbent, Catlin Harrison, Anthony Carr and John Spiller, alongside award winning photographers such as Ed Kashi, Marco di Lauro, Carlo Bevilaqua, Manuel Cosentino, Kate Peters and Mirjana Vrabaski.

Theme: “An Eye for an Ear”
Deadline: 10th May 2012

Exhibition Dates:
2 Jul-23 Sep 2012 Arles, France
Jan-Feb 2013 Penang, Malaysia

See www.photographyopensalon.com for further details.

LIP Member Ingrid Newton has work from her series ‘Strange Country’ featured in an Square Magazine, is a bilingual quarterly dedicated to the square format and publishes some really interesting photography. It is well worth a look – in the past they have featured work by Roger Ballen, Stephen Gill and Helen Sear amongst others. Click here to view the full issue online.

Earlier this month the World Photography Organisation announced their shortlist for the 2012 Sony World Photography Awards, which aim to celebrate the best in photography from around the world, from emerging photographers and established masters alike. The 2012 competition drew more than 112,000 entries from 171 countries.

Three LIP members have had their work shortlisted:

Martina Geccelli‘s series on ‘Furniture’ is shortlisted for the Fine Art, Still Life category; Lidia Kowalewicz is shortlisted in the Youth Award, Portrait category with her image “Miss Junior Cwmbran Gwent 2010″; Rui Nunes‘ image entitled ‘Scallops’ made the Open Shortlist in the Architecture category


Rui Nunes

Shortlisted photographers will have their work shown as part of a major exhibition at Somerset House in London, to coincide with the award ceremony in April 2012.

The WPO Awards ceremony take place 26th April, alongside the month-long World Photo London festival of photographic events. Opening at Somerset House the weekend of 27-30th April, events will include portfolio reviews, workshops, symposiums and the Sony World Photography Awards winners’ exhibitions, which will run through to 20th May.

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

In 2012 LIP will celebrate 25 years since its founding in 1987! If you feel you want to get more involved in the organisation of our activities, we are always seeking support from members, whether or not you wish to join the committee.

Currently we have three committee positions open: Chairman, Publicity Officer and Webmaster. To express interest in a position or to offer support in a specific area, just contact a member of the committee with some background details about yourself and why you think you would be suitable for a certain role. Members can be co-opted onto the committee and will formally stand for election at the AGM in November 2012.

Happy New Year, and all the best to our members for 2012!

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

Yoke Matze is running a photographic workshop in Marrakech from 18-23 March 2012 for four participants. The workshop is an excellent opportunity to make new work in a creative and exotic environment. March is good month to travel to Marrakech with a comfortable average temperature of about 72 degrees.

Yoke is a founder member of LIP and has been running workshops for LIP and other organisations across the UK for the last 14 years. Yoke is a practising photographer and teacher. She founded YM Photography courses London in 1997. Her work has been exhibited in UK and abroad and you can find Yoke’s work in major photographic collections in the UK and The Netherlands.

For further details see Yoke’s website

The Winter 2011 HOME issue of fLIP magazine launched on 14th November with a night of slideshows and good times! Thanks to all LIP members who joined us for a great social and for supporting all the excellent work on show by our contributors.

The issue is now available in bookshops and to purchase online, full details are on the issue home page.

We are also in the process of introducing online features on the theme of HOME, so keep checking the magazine section for more additions!

For those interested in contributing work to the first issue in 2012, the theme is INCOGNITO, deadline is 31 Jan 2012, and submission guidelines are online.

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