Week 11

I discovered Pieter Hugo's Hyena Men in an exhibition in 2008 called Street and studio: an urban history of photography in the Tate Modern. I've never researched him before but his name came up in a lecture a few days ago so I thought it was about time. He is a South African born and raised photographer who has worked all over Africa, notably in Rwanda and Nigeria. Hugo's Hyena Men series was centered around a group of 'itinerant minstrels and performers who used animals to entertain the crowd and sell traditional medicines.' Hugo spent 8 days traveling with them which, in my view, is nowhere near enough time to get under the skin of your subject. The images seem to lack any sense of emotion or empathy. His best series 'Nollywood' benefits from the extra time spent on the project, whereas his series 'Rwanda 2004: vestiges of a genocide' is shocking and an embarrassment for a professional photographer to put something like that on their website. http://www.pieterhugo.com/

Week 10

OK, I'm not really sure if this counts as a photo highlight because it hasn't happened yet. Basically I'm travelling East Africa next summer to do some photography and this week I bought my ticket! I was looking through my beloved Dan Eldon book and decided just to do it. The plan so far is London - Addis Ababa - Mombassa - Kilimanjaro - Kigali - Kampala - Jinja - Nakuru - Turkana - Nakuru - Nairobi - Dadaab - Mombassa - Zanzibar - Dar es Salaam - Addis Ababa - Rome - London. Can't wait to get back to Nakuru to see everyone again. It's going to be a good summer!

Week 9

This week I went to an amazing talk by photographer Chris Floyd. I despised him slightly because the only reason he got into photography was because he likes music and girls, and he has managed to make a great career out of it. I warmed to him very quickly though because he was clearly passionate about what he's doing and he's really funny! I used to want to be a music photographer myself, but decided against it because the music industry doesn't have any money anymore. Chris used to live the dream, being paid to tour with bands and take photo's, but this would never happen anymore. I was clearly born too late! He has done some documentary stuff in the past, like stories on the Arizona/ Mexico boarder and The 2004 American election which I found very interesting and would probably rather do than the music. Recently he has been doing mostly portraiture work, which is excellent, but I would like to see him do some more documentary in the future.

Week 8

As I'm sure everyone is aware, the African cup of Nations is again upon us. In 2006 I was lucky enough to be in Egypt for the final (which they won) and could not believe the level of support. It was a little odd being a 15 year old white girl and being crammed into a 3x3ft shop with eight Arabs to watch penalties on an 8 inch TV screen, but everyone get's so caught up in it. We're known for our hoolaganism when it comes to football support, but it's a little different in Africa, as I'm sure you'll see from the photo's.

Week 7

On Friday night I was invited to the opening of the Africa Awakes photography exhibition in Poole. Africa Awakens is a series of exhibitions that started in August 2008 by Italian photographer Manuel Scrima. It is supporting the work of two non-government organisations (NGO's): ICROSS - International community for the relief of starvation and suffering, and NWI - New world international. I was very impressed with Manuel's photography and got to talk to him for a while about what I've been trying to do in East Africa. I nearly cried at one point when I recognised some of the children in a photograph of Nakuru, where I spent 2 months last summer. Hopefully I will be meeting up with him or some of his team next summer in Kenya. There might even be room for me in their car for a trip to Turkana! It was so refreshing to meet someone who is successfully managing to do exactly what I want to do. He can't do it as a full time job, because it doesn't pay the bills, but he is saving peoples lives through photography. If you would like to read more about ICROSS or NWI or make a donation, you can check out their websites http://www.icrossinternational.org/ http://www.nwikeny.com/ or the Africa Awakes website http://www.africa-awakes.com/.

Week 6

Wedding photography. What do you think? Sell out? I'm not sure anymore. I guess because I'm doing a commercial photography degree I've always aimed a bit higher, but is it really that bad? I mean, at least £1000 for a day's work, very little pre and post production and free cake sounds pretty good to me! My sister got married a couple of weeks ago and I've just seen the photos, which I have to say, I am very impressed with. I was expecting pretty boring, traditional photo's but the photographer has been very creative and produced some interesting, contemporary images. I probably wouldn't have thought to use a fish-eye for a wedding, for example. Morally, I'm still not sure where I lie though.

Week 5

SNOW!! On Tuesday morning I woke up to see the whole town covered in a beautiful white blanket. I've spent most of the week trying to snowboard on a body board, being told off be the chiropractor, trying again and not leaving much time for work or photography. I did, however, take a short break from crippling myself to hike up to the top of the Quantocks (part of my Kilimanjaro training). The view's there were unbelievable. Unfortunately my camera was broken so I only had my dad's 6mp Olympus which I've never used before and found very tricky through gloves in -25 degree c winds. I did manage to get some nice shots of the pony's digging for food in the end, though I'm not sure if they were worth getting hypothermia for...