Ghostcards ….. and new workshop details

Ghostcards is at Walter Henry’s Bookshop in Bideford, Devon, part of Bideford Bay Creatives ‘Culture Show’, throughout September and October 2011.

Throughout Dave Green?s art practice, presentation has been very important. Mounting has always been clean off-white, museum grade, archival, double thick board cut with a neat 45 degree aperture. Frames which used to be hand made, out of high quality hardwood, are now generally shop bought but made of solid oak. There?s an old adage that if you use the right materials to present your work they complement and do not distract from the image. This new body of work however is a big departure from the norm.

The ?Ghostcards?, a label coined by Mercer University professor of history Dr Erik Klingelhofer on seeing this work, are multi-layered artworks where not only the image but the frame and mounting reflect a fluid state of both past and present. This work is no longer a two dimensional picture which can be reproduced at infinitum, it has three dimensions when we include the often, oak Victorian frame with guilt inset, and one could argue that they have a fourth dimension as a sense of physically looking back through time is also evident in all of the work.

This work originated two years ago through a commission from Beaford Arts to make a new piece of work from an image in the Beaford Old Archive. This piece was ?Still on the Beach, Appledore?. A month later another image was added ?Greenwarren House?, this time made as part of a photographic residential at Beaford Arts which is based in Greenwarren House. These two images already show elements common through Dave?s other work, stitching photographic frames together to produce a combination print, time exposure, painting with light and added a new one, the work of another photographer responsible for the inspiration for the new image and for the original ?ghost? image held within it.

June 2011 saw more images realised as part of the Bideford/Manteo Postcard Exchange shown at the Burton Art Gallery. Beaford Arts again generously helped with the free use of some of their Old Archive images. The current show is the first to use the antique frames Dave has been collecting over the past year. Ilfracombe Harbour epitomises the use of the Victorian frame as this particular frame held the original black and white image which inspired this piece.

Free pdf download to accompany Ghostcards: www.davegreenphoto.co.uk/ghostcards.pdf

For larger images go to: www.bbcdevon.org It may take a while to load!

Photographic Workshops in Devon, Autumn 2011

Introduction to digital photography 10am – 5pm – ?50

A practical days workshop learning to gain control over your camera, shutter speeds, aperture, ISO, flash etc, setting it up for optimum quality under any given lighting, and making better pictures through composition.

Tuesday 27th September in Bideford

Saturday 1st October in Barnstaple

Thursday 6th October in Exeter

Tuesday 11th October in Torrington

Saturday 15th October in Tavistock

Tuesday 25th October in Bideford

Friday 28th October in Exeter

Thursday 17th November in South Molton

Saturday 19th November in Bideford

Photographing your own Artwork ? 10am ? 5pm – ?50

There has been a lot of demand for this workshop on ?Photographing your artwork’ over the summer. I have a wealth of knowledge and experience of photographing 2D artwork, jewellery and ceramics and I?m willing to pass this on to artists eager to improve their own image making camera skills. Although this workshop is for a small group (max 5) I also offer it on a 1:1 basis for ? a day for the same price.

Saturday 29th October in Bideford

Tuesday 22nd November in Bideford … more dates to follow!

Painting with LightAn evening workshop celebrating the dark nights of the Winter. You’ll learn how to make ‘long exposure’ photographs using coloured lights, flames, sparklers and hand-held flash.

Thursday November 10th Northam Burrows 6pm-9.30pm – ?25 ? more to follow!

Special: Intro to Digital/Painting with LightAn afternoon into evening workshop celebrating the dark nights of the Winter. A practical workshop learning to gain control over your camera, shutter speeds, aperture, ISO, flash etc, setting it up for optimum quality under any given lighting, and making better pictures through composition. This is combined with photographing under low light where you’ll learn how to make ‘long exposure’ photographs using coloured lights, flames, sparklers and hand-held flash.

Saturday December 10th at Westward Ho! 2pm-9pm – ?50

Introduction to PhotoshopParticipants will need to be computer literate i.e. use a computer on regular basis and understand the basic controls. Small group (max 4).

Thursday 3rd November, 10am ? 5pm – ?50

Workshop gift vouchers are always available for that special present and with this in mind I’ll be offering some workshops after Christmas for those people with new cameras so that they’ll get to know them better!

More workshops will be added later, please let me know by email if there?s a photographic workshop you would like that I don?t offer at the moment and if there?s a location that I don?t offer.

2010 Photographic Workshops

When I started leading photographic workshops last year I thought it would just be a summertime thing that tourists to North Devon might enjoy, boosting their photographic skills and knowledge whilst on holiday. I hadn?t anticipated just how many local people wanted photographic instruction or that I would have already had two successful workshops this year; with two more ?painting with light? type courses in my calendar:

Tuesday March 16th 5.00pm-9.00pm at Spacex Gallery in Exeter

On Saturday 27th March 6.30pm on Westward Ho! Beach

I have been a fan of night photographers for some years now, inspired by Troy Paiva, William Lesch, Mark Klett and the Nocturnes ?fellowship? often based in the desert regions of the USA. Theirs is often a purist image, black or dark blue skies, moon and star trails, old abandoned ghost towns, romantic idyllic places to get away from the heat of the day to. Here in England a clear sky without light pollution is rare, weather is unpredictable and the winter night is cold.

Over the last couple of years I have also been fascinated with the experience of being out at night, far away from the lights. Walking without a torch, on invisible footpaths, sometimes your guide being a slight gap in overhead trees, dark grey as opposed to black, which you use for direction. Your spatial awareness vastly diminished and relying of the rods in your eyes to see a world in monotone.

Photographing at night can be like painting on a blank canvas, adding light, colour, texture and form to a desaturated scene. The whole process is very photographic. Where there is no light we can open a shutter for ever without a single photon of exposure. As soon as we strike a match we have an exposure. Making an image from light is such fun.