Fake French

The zine symposium went really well. Sold lots of zines and spent all the proceeds on cake!

I have some Ted Leo zines left (limited edition of 50)

If you want to help fund my cake eating habit please find zines and prints for sale here

www.owenrichards.bigcartel.com

Postage to the US maybe a little extra than stated, get in touch with me directly if you are interested.
owen@owenrichards.co.uk

This time last year I went to the LZS and said to myself, next year I want a stall. Well guess what! My friend Seb and I have a stall and we will be selling zines, prints and other papery goods. I am in the processing of making a couple of photo zines documenting my European Tour exploits last year among other things. If you are in London I really do suggest you come down. There is a heap of other stalls and distros, talks and events going on. Its going to be F.U.N.

This year the symposium will held at The Rag Factory just off Brick Lane this Sunday (27th).

Last night Tom and I went to the opening of Steve Gullick’s new exhibition at Rough Trade East. At the time I was falling in love with photography I had a poster of one his shots of At the Drive In on my bedroom wall.

His pictures made me realise that you could take exciting photos of live bands. The style is of the grunge era, contrasty, grainy, stark and real. Its not about perfect compositions and super sharp images, that’s not what most music is about. I guess that’s why I get frustrated with a lot of modern digital live photography, its all so clean and tidy. When I see a clean and tidy image, I think of a sound that’s clean and tight, a live performance is rarely like that and is why live music is exciting because of its changeable nature. Gullick can also take a damn fine portrait too.

While I was drinking the free beer I met up with Matt Williams, a great photographer and all round great guy. He used to assist Steve Gullick a few years back.

Matt is a dedicated to the art of film photography, he has dabbled in digital but has gone back to what he knows and loves. Recently he has noticed a niche gap in the market has reopened, black and white film processing. Whilst is has become uneconomical for large film labs, Matt is doing it on a small DIY scale by processing the film carefully by hand. He is probably better than most machines, he has been doing it for fifteen years.

Here is the plug - Hampshire Darkroom
He also does hand printing and cross processed colour film by hand. All at very reasonable prices.

I have put up a couple of shots that were not used in the Dan Sartain feature that can be seen in this months Plan B. I will post up some tear sheets very soon.

Plus if you like our Dan’s artwork and his music then this is the ultimate combination. In the words of the man himself.

AN EMERGENCY’S NEW ALBUM ‘Wrecked Angles’ is going to be released on heavyweight, clear vinyl which will be STRICTLY limited to 100 copies via Faux Discx / Smalltown America. 15 tracks of pure art-rock-noise-dance-riffathon-workout! Please pre-order one to help fund this project!

Each sleeve is made from an A2 lithograph print folded around a heavyweight, clear vinyl LP and inserted in a plastic sleeve. Only 100 will be made and they will all be hand-numbered. You’ll also be able to download the record in MP3 format once you’ve got your vinyl.

You can pre-order it HERE

I have had lots of things published recently. You can check out some of them on my site.

Including Matana Roberts for The Guardian.

Also it keeping thoroughly inbred I have some images of Dan’s new band Tropics up on Drowned in Sound.

First gig, first shots: DiS catches Tropics in London

Along with some all new promo pics of them looking all bearded and sexy. hell yeah!

Back in December I was lucky enough to fly out to Birmingham……..Alabama! (I never get tired of that joke) to photograph Dan Sartain for a feature that can be seen in this months Plan B magazine. I will be posting up some more shots and words very soon.

I am starting a project on people who live their lives in the spirit of DIY ethics. This stems from my education in the DIY Punk Rock scene in Exeter but has spread to something beyond just music. Its an excuse to photograph my friends, to document them living their lives in the way they want to, whether that be writing zines, making art, playing in bands or just living their life in pursuit of their dreams. This is the kind of project with no end in sight and could evolve into any number of outcomes.

This weekend I was in Brighton hanging out with my good friend Rich Phoenix who drums in countless bands and is an great artist and cook to boot! He and
his house mate Luke not only just play in bands, they record their musical projects in their dining room, they design the artwork, cut and paste the cases together and release them on their own label. To me these guys epitomised DIY ethics, they are creating things and having fun whilst doing it.

This is picture of Rich outside his studio that he shares with four other artists.

Since moving to London just over a year ago I have been fortunate to meet some bloody nice people. One of them being Pat Graham, a photographer who also run the 96 Gillespie gallery in Finsbury Park. Pat is a ‘graduate’ of the Positive Force house in Washington DC where he forged friendships and photographed people that have gone on to be in all the bands that you have ever loved, from Bikini Kill and Fugazi to Modest Mouse and Tortoise.

Bikini Kill

Fugazi

Pat recently released a book entitled ‘Silent Pictures‘, I strongly recommend you buy one, not only for all the amazing pictures, but you will look damn cool too!

Pat currently is on tour with Modest Mouse and keeping a photo blog of his adventures.

Les Savy Fav rock my relatively small and unimportant world. They were kind enough to let me take pictures of them last week at the Old Blue Last and the Scala.

A photo of Tim ‘bear of a man’ Harrington at the Old Blue Last

The Scala show ended in pandemonium with most of the audience joining the band on stage for a little dance. See video below.

I love this band. so much.

Sorry I don’t mean to hog the blog but I am. People that know me, know that I like to talk…a lot.

The short list for the 2008 Deutsche Borse Photography Prize has been announced, but more relevant to this blog is that one of the judges this year is my old photography professor from Exeter, Jem Southam. Although this is kind of corny to say he really did influence the way I approach my photography, maybe not in style but definitely in perspective. He is a shy and modest person but was persuaded to give a talk on his life and photography to me and my classmates in my first year. He pretty much broke down when he was describing the time he won an award that enabled him to photograph for a living and support his family. It was very moving and had an effect on me, although I didn’t realise at the time.

An image from his most recent book ‘The Painter’s Pool’

I went to see the Ian Curtis/Joy Division film, Control last night.

Its amazingly shot by Anton Corbijn and makes me want to photograph in XP2 forever!

The imagery is heavily influenced by the pictures of Kevin Cummins. This is one of my favourite ‘band promo’ shots. I love the fact that the band are merely incidental within the picture.

Cummins has a limited edition new book - Juvenes out soon. If anyone has a spare £200 feel free to buy me a copy!