Victorian Soldiers

Victorian Soldiers

New Adventures

New Adventures, a band I did some photos for earlier this year (the ones in the forest at the start of the Day section on my main site) have put a new version of their website online. Go to www.newadventures.co.uk

They've got some really good new songs up on their myspace (www.myspace.com/newadventures), my favourites are Nostalgia and A Sad Song to Protect you from the Rain (which is also available as a free mp3 download on their site.)

blog mention

I've been ill for the last couple of days, but something thats really cheered me up is being featured on the creative blog Ektopia. (www.ektopia.co.uk) Its an amazing place to find brilliant artwork, photographs and ideas when you need inspiring, Since I first started following it I've bookmarked so many of the featured websites its ridiculous. Give this guy a magazine to edit!

Glenn

Drowned World

I have a new set of images up on my main site now (www.jamesmidwinter.com) called The Drowned World. It was an off the cuff shoot in Stoke Newington and features my friend Osmo Puupera. I'd just read The Drowned World by J.G Ballard, and wanted to capture some of the intensely hot humid atmosphere the book has. I think I'm going to gradually extend this set, because they are some of the only images I've shot recently that I'm not sick of after about two days! The images below are a few of the shots that didnt make it into the main set.

If you're interested in seeing some photos that Osmo and I did last year together go to noblondeboys.blogspot.com. Osmo's personal site is www.puupera.com

Sue's Retirement Do

Sue's Retirement 2

I'm not sure what world famous, multi-multi-multi millionaire NBA basketball star Kevin Garnett would think of a likeness of his head sitting in the corner of my mums back garden. I made this when I was about 16 for my Art GCSE, and its quite nice that my Mum has kept it all these years. It makes her garden look quite bohemian I think.

Ok, so heres the last of the big images that didn't make it into the final cut of my book. I may turn this image into another set of pix though, because I actually really like it, it just didnt fit coherently into the book.

These two images are both from a series in the book that shows the life of a character played by Nicole. The first one didnt quite fit the feeling of all the other images. It was there to show her leaving the city to go out into the countryside.

The second was from the final series in the book. The series shows the gradual deterioration of a single landscape over hundreds of years. This was the first image, showing Nicoles character starting a new life away from the city. The image just didnt look right even though I had done a lot of work on it, so I decided to clip it out for the sake of my sanity. It was holding up the whole book, so I'm glad I did it. If anyone has any specific ideas on why it looks wrong, I would love to know, I have lost all objectivity on it!!!

On saturday night, as I was drunkenly going home on the bus with Nicole, I went to throw a bit of rubbish on the floor of the bus. Being as this is quite despicable behaviour, I made sure to have a glance behind me to check if there was anyone sitting behind us. There was no one there, so I dropped the litter, and then glanced at the security monitor that was in front of us. Like something out of a horror film, there was suddenly a stocky strange old lady standing behind us -



It took a couple of seconds to realise that the person with the long hair in the foreground wasnt me, but that I was actually the strange old lady. Piss head.

So to celebrate the long overdue finish of a project that has really ground me down, I'm going to be posting up more of the images I slaved away on for months, only to decide in the last few days before publishing them, that they didnt work, and had to be cut.

Some of them don't work because what I've tried to do was too ambitious, and was to much effort to comp together flawlessly, some didnt sit well with the other photos in the book, and some were just shit.

Today i'm adding another shot of an abandoned building, and a scene of some ne'er do wells in the future society i've tried to depict.

Just to remind you, the full book is available at

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/846009

I have finally finished the book I've been working on, its available in the Blurb bookstore, and if you're interested you can buy it by going to the following address -

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/846009

You can preview the first few pages and choose between buying a soft cover version, or a hardcover version. The book will be available at cost price (£10.95 for the soft cover, 19.95 for the hard cover i think) until the 14th of September, so you guys, my friends and family arent lining my pockets, but after that the price will be increased a little to pay for the promotional copies i'm going to be sending to people. So get in there quick yeah?

I will be putting some of the images up on my website later (www.jamesmidwinter.com,) but not all of them, so buying the book is the only way to get the full set!

Anyway, i havent worked out how to describe the book yet, its probably science fiction photography, but that sounds terrible. Its a post-apocalyptic vision of the future, but that sound horrible too. If someone could describe it as Ken Loach crossed with Ridley Scott, on acid, so I can pompously quote them, i'd be grateful. Once you've read it, If you have a less vomit inducing description, please, please let me know!

I would love to buy you all a copy, especially everyone who is featured in the book, and all those who helped me, but I would be penniless!

James Midwinter

more drop outs

I'm about to put out my book, so im doing last minute edits on whats staying in, and whats getting cut out. Usually its hard to make these kind of decisions, but iv got to the stage now where I hate pretty much everything in there, so im hacking it to bits quite merrily!