Trip to London - part 9 - Brick Lane

I managed to plan a last minute shoot on the sunday of my trip, with a model called Amy. I'd said I wanted an interesting location, a bit run down with a lot of culture, so she suggested Brick Lane. I actually had a few other places to visit on Brick Lane, so the location was ideal for me.

We had such a laugh, she was dressed crazy, and was up for anything, such as laying in a skip of rubbish. I can't tell you more, as I shot on slide film, and I'm still waiting to have enough money to get the films processed.

After the shoot I went to the Sunday Upmarket. It had some cool little stalls, but none interesting to have stuck in my mind. The food there all looked really nice, but I was eating on a budget (it would have cost about £3.50 - £4.00 to eat there), and I wasn't too hungry. So I went into one of the Asian food shops down the road and got the most delicious samosa I'd ever eaten. It was spinach and cheese!! Then for dessert I went to an Asian sweet shop and bought a couple of sweets (a square one and a round one).

Walking back up Brick Lane I saw an amazing busker, guitar player and singer Lewis Floyd Henry. I heard him sing a couple of Nirvana songs, which he had the perfect voice for. There was also a crazy lady dancing all over the floor. She was clearly tripping on something.

Brick Lane is full of street sellers on Sundays. The pavements are lined with blankets covered in second hand clothing and hand-crafted items. I saw someone selling actual lego men earrings which I thought were pretty cool!

While I was at Brick Lane I went to see the Miss Van exhibition at the Stolen Space Gallery. I like Miss Van's work. She has a very distinct style, and her female characters are always full of attitude:


I will definitely be visiting Brick Lane next time I am in London!!

I'm in Yeah Magazine!!

I just wanted you all to know that Yeah Magazine have published some of my work!! I've not seen the magazine yet as it only came out yesterday.

Check out their blog post on me!

The magazine is available to buy online. If you're in Brighton you can find it in 'Resident' or if you're in Southsea you can find it in Bored.

The theme of the issue is Urban, so I thought it'd be a great opportunity to make the most of gRaFFiti sTudiO

I'm not sure which images have been used, but here are my favourite from the shoot:

Trip to London - part 8 - Covent Garden

Sorry about the big break in blogs. I've hardly had any internet access recently, due to working the last 6 days in a row, and the signal problems in the evenings.

So, back to my London trip. I visited 2 shops in Covent Garden on the saturday evening. The first was Charles Fox. They have a large selection of "media make-up". Products designed for theatre and film, as well as some tailored towards photography and HD. They have a large selection of Kryolan and Ben Nye, and they even stock Illamasqua. A lot of the products are more suited to stage or special fx, which I'm not into, but I do like professional brands such as Kryolan and Ben Nye for their good quality make-up and large range of colours at low prices due to their lack of gimmicks and their plain packaging. Illamasqua is actually made by Kryolan. It isn't "repackaged Kryolan" as I keep reading online. If you look at the actual products, each brand has its own textures and colours. But the quality of the product is very similar.

I just bought Ben Nye's Liquiset, a waterproof mixing medium for myself. I already have another mixing medium in my kit by Graftobian, buy I wanted some for personal use, mainly for my eyebrows.
I also bought some mattifying oil blotting paper things for myself, as I hate just applying powder to an oily face. I'd rather remove the oil first, then powder if necessary.


The other shop I went to was Neal's Yard Remedies. I loved this shop. I'd never been to a NYR shop before, and I'm really fussy about the skincare I use. So fussy that at the moment my skin-care consists of home-made products, using only jojoba oil, shea butter, witch hazel, and a few essential oils. Neal's Yard sell mostly products made from natural ingredients, and they also sell ingredients and books for making your own. They also sell a variety of teas and and things to take internally.
All I bought was some Arnica Salve for my achy shoulder, but I did see a lot of things I know I can buy from their Manchester store...

Trip to London - part 7 - National Portrait Gallery

So I decided to break up my day of shopping with a visit to the National Portrait Gallery. I kept seeing advertisements for it, and really wanted to see the Gay Icons exhibition, but thought I'd look around all the galleries in order.

The galleries run in chronological order, starting with The Tudors, running all the way up to the present day.

Obviously most of the earlier portraits were large, framed oil paintings. They were very realistic looking, and sitters were made to look wealthy and powerful. It was amazing just how much detail had gone into them. When seeing a few in one room together, usually none stood out as they were all very similar, yet if I saw one of the paintings alone in a house, I think I would be in awe.

The first painting that stood out to me was an anamorphic portrait of Edward VI by William Scrots:

When viewed through the hole on the right hand side, the picture is perfectly in proportion. It would look really odd on your wall, and the concept is very much a novelty, while also showing of the skills of the painter.

While walking through the galleries, I noticed that in the 18th Century, the portraits started showing more character. They still displayed wealth and status, but you could see that person also had emotions and feelings. Poses and expressions were less stiff. As a people photographer, it's good to study the portraits of history, because these were the photographs of these eras. And as a make-up artist, it's great to see a face so close up, with every detail painted, and every contour mapped out on the face. It makes you realise the details in a face.

I found Gallery 17 interesting. It was called, 'Royalty, Celebrity and Scandal', and next to the portraits were the stories of affairs and illegitimate children. I particularly liked the stories of Emma, Lady Hamilton, and Dorothea Jordan. Emma, Lady Hamilton lead a very interesting life, something only the celebrities of today could dream of. Dorothea Jordon was a "pretty, witty and intelligent" actress who had at least 10 illegitimate children to the king!

Dorothea Jordan:


Emma, Lady Hamilton:


Moving into the 20th Century, there was a lot more differences between the different portraits. Artists were allowed more artistic freedom, and different styles emerged. They also documented the fashions of the 20th Century. Dame Anna Neagle by McClelland Barclay had a very 1940s feel with the hair, make-up and styling:


One of the special exhibitions was Twiggy, A Life in Photographs. I would recommend this to anyone interested in fashion photography. I know you can find them all over the internet, but not in so much detail, and every photograph had a short, personal, narrative by Twiggy.

Unfortunately, as it was now getting quite late, they had sold out of tickets to see Gay Icons. I hadn't anticipated spending so long going round the other galleries.

I would love to go back here before the end of January to see Beatles to Bowie: The 60s Exposed

Trip to London - part 6 - Lomography store

I've been into Lomography a while, and I suppose I have mixed feelings about how popular it's becoming. I don't like seeing Urban Outfitters charging £15 for the same 3 rolls of film that you can get for £10 direct from Lomography.com. I've had a Holga (with instant back) for a couple of years now, and I got the new Diana Mini as soon as it came out.

I was actually supposed to be going to a Diana Mini workshop at the new Lomography store, but got my times mixed up (hectic London does this to you) and missed it. I still visited the store though...

It's a lot smaller than I expected, and it was quite busy. It was hard to properly look at anything, and you had to wait to ask a question. The staff did have a good product knowledge, considering they're the only Lomography store in the UK, but one that I spoke to seemed to have a limited knowledge of what worked with what. For example, I was looking at the Coloursplash Flash (which has a standard hotshoe plug), but was telling me it fits on the [insert forgotten detail here] camera, instead of asking me if I already have a camera that I plan to use with it, and if my camera didn't have a hotshoe mount (my Mini Diana doesn't) she could have showed me an adapter for it. The other people working there did seem to have better knowledge of these things though.

I was impressed with the wall of photos, but the thing I was most impressed with was the quieter area at the back of the store and about half a floor below ground level. Here they had a large selection of Lomography books and some comfy chairs. While I don't think I would buy any of the books due to the large about of images you can browse in the gallery on lomography.com, it just seemed good to know they're there and you could use them as a reference library if you lived in London.

I didn't pay much attention to the prices, as I presumed they would be the same as the prices on lomography.com, but after looking at the website now, I know I did not spend £6.16 on the Diana Flash hotshoe adapter that I bought.

Trip to London - part 5 - Selfridges

So, more shopping...

Selfridges
I have to say, I prefer the two Northern Selfridges to the London one. While statistically London's customer service is probably better, when we're comparing the data from 'Customer Viewpoints' (mystery shops), I found the service too full on. This is where I find the whole idea of mystery shoppers a bit flawed. They are never just browsing, they're shopping for something, yet surely the people browsing are just as important, as the customer service could be the one that influences whether that person will buy something or walk away empty handed. I felt uncomfortable because I didn't have an idea of what I was looking for, I just wanted to casually browse and look at and play with the make-up samples. The only way I could avoid being pestered, was to avoid eye-contact with the staff, which I think is rude, so I ended up leaving the beauty hall earlier than I'd hoped.

I had a look at the Pandamonium exhibition. I kind of expected more than just a corner of a small department called the Wonder Room. It deserved a better space, I was a bit put off with it being next to overpriced trendy items for the rich kids that want to be down with the cool kids.

I really wanted to see what the Icecreamists was like, but it didn't seem very inviting. There was a sign for it, and some stairs leading down into darkness, but at the top of the stairs was the menu and prices. The prices were high, but not ridiculous and no higher than I expected. But I felt that walking down the stairs would mean I was committing myself to buying something, and I didn't want to commit to spending £20 on ice-cream, so I didn't bother. I know I could have gone for a cheaper option, but even at the cheapest prices, I'd want something even better than Ben and Jerry's.

So, my conclusion about Selfridges... What happened to Gordon Selfridges vision of a department store where you could browse, where it didn't matter if you were buying anything or not, where everyone was welcome?

Trip to London - part 4 - Dover Street Market

I love this shop!!

So many gorgeous clothes ranging from the expensive but slightly affordable, going up to the way-out-of-my-budget range. These are some of the collections/items that I really liked:

Phi - Black, black, black! Tight but structured, lots of panelling and zips, with a few textures going on, including fur, leather and knit. The collection reminded me of Queen Michelle.

Rodarte - Patchwork of handknitted fabrics, I don't need to say any more!

Tao - There was something about the structure of the ruffles and puffs in a black and white gingham skirt they had.

Marios Schwab - The digital prints on sequins created a beautiful texture/pattern. It was as if the sequins had been laid out, overlapping each other, printed on, and then sewn on the pieces, but they had rotated or moved. If you look here, you can get the gist of what I mean.

Undercover - I nearly screamed with shock when I touched a jacket that looked like a chunky wooley knit, because it was actually soft, fine polyester, printed to look like a chunky knit. Even though I'd already just been fooled by a silk skirt of theirs with the same print. I liked the idea of this, because the fabrics looked like one texture, but would move on the body in an unexpected way.

Comme des Garcons - What stood out to me more than the big blanket jackets were the items that consistered of something tight and navy, lot of sheer, nude fabric layered over it. It was like an ironic mixture of formal and structured with lingerie on the outside.

Christopher Kane - Oooh, sheer panel dresses, perfect for layering, especially with the Phi items I mentioned earlier.

Comme des Garcons perfumes - I've always liked Comme des Garcon perfumes, in particular Series 7 (Sweet) and Series 5 (Sherbet). I'm not usually a fan of sweet perfumes, but usyally they're sweet in a girly, floral way. DSM had Nomad Tea (Series 7), which is sweet, but fresh and woody too. They had all the Series 5 scents, my favourite being Rhubarb, which is sweet, sour, woody and refreshing. It's one you have to smell to understand!

Hopefully one day I'll be able to wear clothes (and scents) like these!!