It’s been a busy week with the new work going out, no complaints, I have had blog posts/ email conversations and even competition requests. But one request from a great blog that I noticed a few months back called Experientell got me hard at work last night writing. Noting itself as a ‘bi-lingual platform for commercial and cultural experiences’ who could turn down the change to be interviewed by the Creative Director and Editor Lars Laemmerzahl, not me.!

So head along to the blog and get reading to find more out about STORE and me.

The wonderful and great man that is David Chandler sent me an email late last week letting me know that, he had asked to nominate two photographers for a competition being run in Bologna in Italy. I read on to find that I was one of the lucky ones and he would like to nominate STORE.

The award is called La Fotografia S’Industria, and the theme is ‘Industry, Society and Territory’ David thought STORE would be very appropriate, so now I must wait to see what the jury have to say. Thank you to David for putting my work forward.

STORE is the second part of the ILLUSIONS series. Where STUDIO explored the contrivance of the fashion shoot in photographic studios, STORE highlights the construction of consumer ideals in fashion retail spaces.

The series depicts the objects during the construction of a fashion store facade. The creation of this other world is frozen in time; unveiling its instruments of artifice and altering the viewer’s perception of the space.

ILLUSIONS is a series of works exploring how objects construct and alter the spaces they inhabit. Each series within ILLUSIONS isolates the tools used to create artificial spaces: photography studio sets; fashion store displays; cinemas.

The works document the seemingly banal objects behind the creation of glamorous, alternate worlds; spaces presenting attainable fantasy and perpetuating consumerist ideals. Rarely noted as individual entities, these things are instead absorbed into the constructed reality of the space
they help shape.

Through isolation of the objects from these contexts, the artifice of the ‘stage’ is revealed. Outside of their role in the conception of colourful worlds the tools themselves are revealed for detailed scrutiny. These mediums of artifice become sculptural forms in their own right.

Exciting news! I have had my website updated, The guys for Birch have overhauled the whole site. There are some new and wonderful things on there, like new work and new ways of keeping an eye on what I’m working on currently. When you visit the site you’ll see an image come in to view, this image will be from new work that I’m shooting right now. This image can linked as a RSS link so if you use Google Reader then pop my site in there.

More great news! STUDIO and FINDS have been placed in to the Booklet Press library. Its good to know that the work will be seen more in Japan. So go along to their site here and have a look around.

Great news! PiY (Publish it Yourself) have requested a copy of FINDS and STUDIO for there library. PiY organise and put on exhibitions of self-published photo books. Created and run by Laurence Vecten the next show with be at the Maison d’art Bernard Anthonioz, in Nogent sur Marne on the 9th to the 11th September 2011. More can be found here.

After two FINDS drops in London there has been a great response so far and looks of talk over Twitter too. I am just now planning the third drop, which will be outside the Hotshoe Gallery tonight while the private view of Mishka Henner‘s new work ‘No Man’s Land’ starts. The Gallery is on Saffron Hill so get down there around 6pm to catch a wonderful show and pick up a copy of FINDS.

Above and below are the two shots (taken on my iphone) of the first two drops.

Over the month of July I will be bringing FINDS newspapers to London, leaving them in several locations waiting for you to find them.

I will release a photo and the location once I have dropped them off. There is only a small number of the papers left so this is your chance to grab a copy before they are all gone.

Follow me on Twitter @harrywatts to hear first on the locations of the papers.

The wonderful portrait photographer Luca Sage has reviewed my book STUDIO on his blog.

LINK

Thank Luca.

Just got an email from Indie Photobook Library’s founder Larissa Leclair saying that my book STUDIO and newspaper FINDS have been added to the Library.

You can find the direct links to the posts here:

STUDIO: (link)

FINDS: (link)

Thank you Larissa.