Next from our favourite artists and photographers from this year’s University of Portsmouth Summer Show (read our full review of the show HERE) is photographer Sophie Lambourne.
Sophie’s key work in the exhibition was a series of insightful & questioning documentary photography entitled ‘Christopher’:
“This project is looking into autism and in particular the special interests that the majority of people with autism have. Focusing on one person’s interests in particular by photographing just the subject and the objects that are of importance to him. I focused on a train collection that belongs to Christopher, a young man with severe autism. One of the most important things to him is his collection of Thomas the Tank Engine merchandise, and in particular his collection of trains.
Within this project I wanted to present the importance of this by photographing the trains and also get across the precision that is visible with the layout of each and every train as a way to demonstrate that, within autism there is an incredibly strong need for order and routine.”
Over the next couple of weeks we will be highlighting some of our favourite artists and photographers from this year’s University of Portsmouth Summer Show (read our full review of the show HERE), starting with photographer Elaine de Vries.
Elaine is a final year graduate and part of her work was a striking, colourful triptych entitled 7591 Miles. These abstract images depict a dreamlike, flashback of memory of woodland and childhood, a clash of movement, colour and nature. In the photographer’s own words:
“This project is about Abstract Expressionism – using abstract art to portray an emotion. It looks at movement and the juxtaposition between beauty and confusion, which relates to aspects of my life”.
On Saturday we held our Southsea in an Instant photography walk for instant photography using cameras and film by Polaroid, Impossible Project, etc. The sun came out just as we wandered around the Camber and along Southsea prom before making it up to Little Johnny Russells for an instant exhibition of the photos. It was a great walk, lots to photograph including Southsea landmarks like Clarence Pier, Southsea Castle, South Parade Pier, etc. all in the sunshine.
Sadly it was a very small group but we are considering running it again later in the summer and also a walk for analogue photography and an InstaWalk too, details on those very soon.
A big thank you to When We Were Cows, Little Johnny Russells and Impossible Project.
Strong Island & local artist When We Were Cows present ‘Southsea in an Instant’ an instant photography afternoon walk where anyone with a camera that uses Polaroid, Impossible Project or Fuji instant film are welcome to get involved. We will be exploring Southsea seafront from 1pm on 18th May with our instant photography cameras, starting off at The Bridge Tavern Pub at The Camber in Old Portsmouth. We’ll then make our way to The Hot Walls and then along the Millenium walk and then the Prom to South Parade Pier.
From the pier we’ll make our way to Albert Road and we’ll then be holding an instant, pop-up exhibition with the photos taken during the walk in Little Johnny Russells from 5pm to 7pm. We’ll then put the photos up on our upcoming exhibitions archive section of the Strong Island website soon after.
If you want to get involved simply pop along to The Bridge Tavern from around 12:30 to 1pm, the more the merrier and all that. Look forward to seeing you there!
Nocturne is the 3rd and latest photographic exhibition by Philip Woolway ARPS to be hosted at Le Café Parisien, Portsmouth. Nocturne features over 20 images capturing night skies, the magic of the stars and bright city lights as they introduce us to a new view of the world we thought we knew.
The exhibition is testimony to late night treks around cities, along beaches, through railway yards and across country fields in search of captivating subjects; where thermal clothing became as an important piece of equipment as the camera itself. From steam trains to windmills and skyscrapers to bandstands, the Nocturne exhibition at Le Café Parisien displays an intriguing array of imagery and techniques.
The preview night is 17th May (till 27th June) from 6pm at Le Café Parisien, 1-13 Lord Montgomery Way, City Centre, Portsmouth PO1 2AH.
Local photographer and long exposure specialist Andrew Whyte published his photography of Alton Towers’ brand new, record breaking ride The Smiler today. Andrew was specially chosen to produce imagery for the press for the new ride, which features 14 loops, a world first in roller-coasters.
Andrew captured the ride in a unique way, with all the ambient lighting switched off by Alton Towers and the cars of the roller-coaster lit up with LED lights, both above and below, which allowed for every twist, turn and loop to be caught in a light painting first and showcasing the techniques in a way that is sure to capture a national audience’s attention.
You can read all about the process on Andrew’s blog HERE and see some other images from the shoot and below is the light painting final image:
(Photo by Andrew Whyte, copyright and all rights reserved).
Lauren Whatling is a final year Photography student at the University of Portsmouth and recently posted up on her blog some atmospheric, thought provoking imagery, a collection of self developed, large format photos of her grandparent’s garden. You can see a small selection of these photos below but be sure to check Lauren’s blog for the story behind them and also see more of her work:
Strong Island & local artist When We Were Cows present ‘Southsea in an Instant’ an instant photography afternoon walk where anyone with a camera that uses Polaroid, Impossible Project or Fuji instant film are welcome to get involved. We will be exploring Southsea seafront from 1pm on 18th May with our instant photography cameras, starting off at The Bridge Tavern Pub at The Camber in Old Portsmouth. We’ll then make our way to The Hot Walls and then along the Millenium walk and then the Prom to South Parade Pier.
From the pier we’ll make our way to Albert Road and we’ll then be holding an instant, pop-up exhibition with the photos taken during the walk in Little Johnny Russells from 5pm to 7pm. We’ll then put the photos up on our upcoming exhibitions archive section of the Strong Island website soon after.
If you want to get involved simply pop along to The Bridge Tavern from around 12:30 to 1pm, the more the merrier and all that. Look forward to seeing you there!
The Skullduggery Exhibition at the Gold Room is work by artists Andotherstuff and When We Were Cows and runs until 26th April. The photos below are by Alex Woods.
Lithuanian and Portsmouth based photographer Dainius Sciuka has a wonderful project called ‘Pompey – Portsmouth People’ featuring some well known characters including Steven Roger Courtnell of Pie & Vinyl and Nick, the owner of Nick’s Body Piercing shop on Albert Road. The project is part of his BA Photography course at The University of Portsmouth.
Also check out his full portfolio and Tumblr blog.
This year we have changed the way we are compiling our 2014 calendar. Instead we are inviting entries of all themes all year round.
We will dedicate at least two of the months for images taken on Instagram. If you’ve taken a photo that you’d like to submit for consideration you just need add the hashtag #SIC2014.
We will still primarily be accepting submissions via email calendar@strong-island.co.uk.
This year the calendars will be available from mid November from the Strong Island online store and Southsea Gallery. I’d also ask that you keep 14th November free from 7pm, we’ll announce why in late July.
This year we will again be supporting the Alzheimer’s Society as well as another local charity which we will be announcing very very soon!
Strong Island & Strong Island Recordings are very proud to present our 2nd year at one of the premier new music festivals, Southsea Fest and we are also very proud to be the first stage announcing this year too. We follow up from last year’s ‘Drunken Sailor’ event where queues of one in one out were formed within the opening 15 minutes of the stage starting and where our infamous stage was known for sweat dripping from the walls and ceiling while rabid mosh pits brewed…all in the early afternoon.
This year we have upgraded venues to just across the road with the upstairs of the Southsea Social Club where we have a few new ideas planned for the day while ensuring the same chaos and vibe from our label parties resume. To celebrate what will be Strong Island Recordings’ 1st birthday we like to think we have pushed the boat out this year with a heavy line up ranging from grunge, surf punk, noise pop to space math rock.
So we are really stoked to present the following who will be playing our 1st drunken, messy birthday bash:
Arrows of Love
The Black Tambourines
Slowcoaches
The Physics House Band
PLaylounge
Yoofs
Tyrannosaurus Dead
Battery Hens
Cycle Schmeichel
Ricky Fitts
Perch
You’re All Smiling But We’ll All Turn Into Demons
A Spotify playlist of some of the acts can be listened to HERE.
We are stoked, as always, to be working once again with local artist My Dog Sighs on what is set to be one of the largest mural paintings in the city.
Rick from Head Hairdressing on Albert Road conceived the idea of having the courtyard to the rear of the local barbers transformed in to a permanent giant art piece. From precision multilayered stencils, through bubble gum cutsie to surreal illustrative mayhem, My Dog Sighs has hand picked his favourite artists from across the country to produce the ultimate street art dreamscape courtyard.
Head Jam will run all day so feel free to pop along, take a look, have a chat, hang out, meet the artists and enjoy the atmosphere. There will be music on all day, a BBQ turning over in the background if you want to stick a burger on (not supplied), and please feel free to bring along a beer too. Everyone is welcome, so bring the kids so they can see some of the countries finest street artists working together in this unique environment.
As you are probably well aware from reading the news recently, the Portsmouth Supporters Trust succeeded in their bid to take control of Portsmouth FC making it the biggest community owned club in the UK. It is a long and hard fought victory by the fans that have endured years of bad fortune, bad news and bad performances and a couple of the SI crew have seen most of them! PST’s aim is to bring about responsible, democratic representation at Portsmouth Football Club and so help promote the highest standards of transparent governance, accountability and embed Portsmouth FC deeper into its community through greater communication and co-operation with its fans.
We contacted the PST back in November last year to put forward our idea of doing a Strong Island PFC edition T-shirt to raise money towards buying a share in the club. The PST warmly welcomed the idea and we are pleased to say we are now putting our plan into action.
Strong Island is keen to get behind the trust as are many others. We’re going to pledge £5 of every limited edition SI X PFC tee sold towards Strong Island buying a share of the football club, therefore financially helping PFC in it’s aim to become stable again and continue to be a hugely important aspect of the city.
The design itself is a re-imagining of the common elements from the iconic Portsmouth FC logo from the 1980s and the Strong Island logo, with two swords in place, each dated with the club’s FA Cup wins. The Strong Island Clothing Co. items are normally hand screened in East London but for this particular tee they are produced literally just down the road from Fratton Park and will be at a special price of £15 (plus P&P).
No matter if you are passionate about football or not, we hope this tee is a way of showing support for a club that is now a beacon to the rest of the country for a city and a community that strives to work together for the better.
To pre-order the t-shirt click on the link below. Tees will be back from the printers soon and we hope to have orders in the post by the end of the month, if not sooner.
We are very proud to announce The Creating Balance Project, a new, collaborative project between Anglepoise, Strong Island & the University of Portsmouth to celebrate a design classic and local creativity in Portsmouth. The project aims to showcase the working studios and disciplines of artists and designers across the island and connect them to local photographers to capture, document and collaborate.
Anglepoise lamps have been given to each of the 10 participating artists/designers and the 10 photographers involved have used the lamps to light the photographs, give a sense of place and document the artist, where they work & how they create. During the collaboration sessions University of Portsmouth BSc TV and Broadcast students Massimo Marzullo and Jonas Jakunas have been documenting the project, producing short films for each collaboration.
Later this summer key images from each photographer will be printed and displayed with the films, lamps, photos and more in an exhibition in Portsmouth and one in London (TBA).
The collaborations are:
Andrew Whyte & Peter Clutterbuck
Matt Sills & Lorna Apps-Woodland
Paul Gonella & Tristan Savage
Russell Squires & Farkfk
Josh Knill & I Love Dust
Thor Haley & William Pounds
Rob Luckins & Roo + Barry Abrook
Cotton Candy & Neal Layton + Sadie Tierney
Matt Saxey & Deer Park Alpha
My Dog Sighs & Jack Daly
The project is progressing over the next couple of months and already two films are finished and many collaborations complete. Below are the completed collaboration films and we will be posting updates on The Creating Balance Project regularly here on Strong Island. To keep up to date with the project also please check the Creating Balance website where you can see loads of photos from behind the scenes of the collaborations.
It’s been a while (apologies) but the Strong Island Clothing Co. spring 2013 capsule drop is now available and online in the Strong Island Shop Ahoy store! The drop includes some brand new Branded tee colourways, a new grey crew (highest quality, carefully selected and sourced) and a collection of accessories including new beanies, our seriously high quality Branded iPhone cases (4 & 5) from Etch and our hand crafted, leather coin pouch collaboration with Raw & Auburn.
To kick this capsule drop off right we visited the home of Portsmouth’s Eberhardt signwriters and neon sign specialists. Eberhardt are a true creative business gem of the city with a very long history and still produce hand crafted, carefully designed neon signs, a rare and special craft these days. Check the photos below and the behind the scenes edit too to see more. Photography principally by Jack Daly.
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