Cale Glendening captures India's holy men in 'Beyond'

Whilst looking at Vimeo's Staff Picks a while back I added a ton of new films to my 'to watch' list, then promptly got busy and forgot to watch them. This week I watched 'Beyond', a documentary shot by Cale Glendening featuring amazing photographer Joey L and his assistant Ryan as they travel India to shoot 'Holy Men'. The film is so beautiful, and it's fascinating seeing a more 'behind-the-scenes' approach in contrast to Joey's stunning, polished stills (see the 'Holy Men' series here) and it also serves as a great insight into the experience of travelling and the lifestyle that the holy men have adopted. A truly amazing film.

CUB MAGAZINE STYLE SHOOT: BEHIND THE SCENES

A few of my 'behind the scenes' shots for CUB, Queen Mary's arts & culture magazine (where I'm coming to the end of my stint as photography editor) on the last shoot of the academic year. It's a really great little magazine and I've really enjoyed my time working on it. We were lucky enough to grab clothes from ASOS and Motel for this shoot and the models Rosie and Fenn looked incredible - despite it being sunny, it was absolutely freezing (hence the coat cover in the second image!)

The latest issue will be online soon and will feature the final images from this shoot by the wonderful Lloyd Ramos. You can read all of the previous issues from this year online here. 

Shaun Tan 'The Lost Thing'

All screenshots taken from the film of Shaun Tan's 'The Lost Thing'

One of the modules I'm taking this semester has some of the best reading material I've come across in my degree so far. 'Text, Art & Performance' is a little more interdisciplinary than some of the other modules (which appeals to my distracted brain) and despite missing a lot of it due to illness I've found the material really interesting and for a change, I'm looking forward to catching up. Last week's subject was Shaun Tan's illustrated book 'The Lost Thing', alongside the animated short film based on it and his essay on illustration within literature. It's an interesting take on the idea of images in literature, something that was previously quite commonplace but has now been relegated to children's books or specialist interests like graphic novels. It's something that I explored during my extended project during my Foundation and during my A level, and will most likely form part of my dissertation now too, if I can get it to fit. 

'The Lost Thing' is sad, funny and sweet, and despite the fact that the narrative is a fairly common one, I found it really magical. Some of my screenshots from the film helped me see more little details I'd missed the first time round, too - particularly signage which is quite easily missed at the pace it's shown at. Little perspectives on consumerist culture and the constant striving for new and more, but the stagnation and lack of individuality that this sometimes leads us to. I'd recommend a watch if you can get hold of a copy (trailer here) - aside from Tan's beautiful storytelling and Tim Minchin's narration, the rest of the team did a fantastic job in animating the story (the sound design is particularly special. The bells of the 'thing' are wonderful). Also, if you watch the film, keep an eye out for some of the book titles. Tan actually produced my favourite, 'What Miscellaneous Abnormality is that?'.

DOWNTIME AT THE V&A MUSEUM

Embroidery in the Morris Gallery | reflections in the gardens | mosaic artwork in the stairwell to the British Galleries | walls in the cafe | cafe ceilings

Just a few photographs from my 50mm (it's really getting some use, despite the AA batteries draining my already lacking budget) when I went to the V&A last week at some point. (I'm there so much I can barely remember when I'm not there). There's never a shortage of beautiful things to photograph at the museum, I'm always spoilt for choice. We've got some really exciting projects going at CreateVoice, the youth board at the V&A, and I'm really excited for what's in store.