aCoolDryPlace Photography

The Oxford Brookes Nurses‘ Graduation Ball 2010 was at the Oxford Thames Four Pillars hotel, in Sandford-on-Thames, near Oxford. The hotel itself is very attractive, and is in a beautiful location on the river.

The ball was much like the Oxilp ball at the Randolph, in that unlike college balls, its more of a sit down meal followed by a disco. At the Oxilp ball there was a large bar area which had space for us to set up in, and after talking to the ball organiser, Sarah, it seemed that this ball would be the same. Foolishly I didn’t visit the venue. The bar area off the main event room had space for us, but there was the bar, a door to the kitchen, a door outside which was a fire exit, and a passage way through to another event room. Unfortunately that meant there was nowhere for the studio to be set up.

After a quick chat to Sarah, and to the hotel staff, it was decided that a few of the tables for the sit down meal would be rearranged, and the studio could be set up in the main room. We didn’t leave it all to the hotel staff, but pitched in to help. Although that pushed us for time a little, we were all set up with time to spare.

Prior to the meal it had been arranged that we would do a group photo for all of the nurses who would be graduating (hopefully – they weren’t getting there results till the Monday after the ball). A little more negotiation with the hotel, and we decided to do this photo in the hotel reception, which was a lovely large room. After a little more furniture rearrangement, all was set up.

We had a bit of a break after that, as there was the sit down meal for all the attendees of the ball. Once that finished, we got down to studio photography for the rest of the evening. Most of the nurses had been reasonably well “watered” during the meal, so the photos were quite entertaining.

The Jam Factory were contacted by a TV production company (KMFilms) making a program for Channel 4, and in turn they contacted us, wanting to feature the exhibition and some of the artists in their show. We ( a few of the exhibition artists and myself ) were told that the show was going to be “a bit like the One Show” and there would be an arts feature.

The presenter had bright white fluffy hair, a luminous patterned shirt, and pink trousers. During the interviews, he didn’t withhold from making things up. And appeared to have breakdowns which required pills. His name was “Brian Bedonde”.

Alas, what was pitched to us as a serious art slot in a major program was in fact a pilot for a video version of Fonejacker. Needless to say none of those invovled in the exhbition were prepared to sign releases, and we have explicitly withdrawn any consent for the footage of us to be featured. Feeling slightly miffed to have wasted the time.

I’ve got a picture up in an exhibition in Oxford, starting in a few days time. The “press release” details are:

Made In Oxford

Photographic Exhibition by the Oxford Flickr Group
3rd – 31st October 2009 – free entry
(Opening night for press/exhibitors only 2nd October)
The Jam Factory, Holly Bush Row, Oxford, OX1 1HU (near main railway station)

The exhibition is the brainchild of a group of 30 local photographers who live, work and study in the Oxford area, most of whom had only met online before we decided to arrange this exhibition.

We’re here before term starts and we’re here when the tourists have jetted back to their own cities. And whilst it’s an outstandingly beautiful city to live in, it can get awfully boring photographing the Dreaming Spires again and again. So what we’ve set out to do is try and show you our Oxford instead. Every exhibitor has attached a little explanation to their photograph – what it is, why they took it. All the photos are geo-tagged and marked on the exhibition map so you can find out where we took them if you feel like exploring the city yourself.

Garrett Coakley, one of the organizers, said “It’s been an exciting challenge setting up an exhibition when most of the exhibitors have only ever communicated online – it just goes to show that when you have a internet-based community of like-minded individuals you can translate that into a real-world event. We’re looking forward to organising more events like this in the future.”

If you’re visiting Oxford and fancy taking away a slightly more interesting souvenir than the usual set of cheesy postcards and an Oxford University T-shirt then take a card, visit the website link , and purchase yourself a gorgeous shiny new book with all the exhibition photographs in. You can also purchase prints and books at the venue.

Pretty fun stuff. Do go and take a look if you get a chance (like if you happen to be in Oxford for a dedication service…)

I’m generally making the prints I sell at exhibitions as limited editions, but at the moment, that’s pretty much the only way I will sell them. So in the next few weeks (ok, that will probably mean months) I’ll add a new section to my website to make them more widely available – while still being very exclusive.

Brit and Chris got married at St Aloysius church in Oxford. This church has one of the most beautiful interiors in Oxford, and a Priest who was reasonably relaxed about photography during the service. The ceremony was followed by a reception at Somerville college. While the college isn’t completely unattractive, they did have a few achitectural disasters there in the 60’s which crept into the background of a few of the candid photos. The wedding breakfast itself was in the college hall, while the disco afterwards was in a marquee within the college groups.

The interior of St Aloysius

The day went very smoothly, and on time. Brit had everything planned amazingly well and is one of the most relax, yet organised, brides whose wedding I’ve had the privilege of photographing. At this wedding I also had the privilege of accompanying the mother-of-the-bride in the Rolls-Royce from where the Brit was getting ready (The Randolph Hotel, Oxford) to the church, not something the photographer would normally expect. The speeches were very entertaining, particularly the beginnings of a Manga comic about the groom that the best-man had commissioned. The remainder of the comic was going to be completed based on tales collated from the guests. A very novel and fun wedding gift.

I’m working on a community art project at the moment called the Oxford Photographic Grid. The aim is to photograph Oxford in a systematic way rather than focusing only on the tourist attractions. The basic idea is that a grid is overlaid on a map of Oxford, and then a single photo is taken at each node location on that grid. If you’re interested in finding out about this project, please visit the project website.

We are currently looking for Oxford-based photographers (both amateur and professional) to take part. If that’s you, please sign up on the project website.

Thanks to Matt Durber for creating the banner & logos for this project.