Lucy Ridges Photography.

Crab and Cava

2012-01-29T19:31:00.000Z

Birdwatcher

2012-01-17T14:58:00.000Z

Jody from Model Mayhem

2011-11-14T00:22:00.000Z

Model Mayhem can be tricky. It's a free website where models, photographers and make up artists can meet each other and use each others services to benefit one another (normally for no money).

Now because no money is exchanged and it's just a favour for a favour, there is nothing to stop either of you just not showing up on the day.

After a string of about 5 models not showing up and /or pulling out at the last minute all in the space of one week, I was almost ready to throw the towel in on Model Mayhem.

Well thank heavens I didn't!

Because the next model I was to shoot was Jody. She was brilliant. Here she is.

Mid week playtime.

2011-06-13T18:00:00.001+01:00

A few shots from Wednesday's photoshoot with the lovely Sofie. With thanks to ME on make up.

Where has the sun gone?

2011-06-13T12:57:00.002+01:00

It's been a busy month, has May. We've had musicians, jewelery designers, models and fellow photographers gracing the floors of the new studio. I've won an award, and been on the radio.

The month began with the finishing touches of the space and getting the studio up and running. We began shooting with Maverick Models very own Sarah Carr, someone I have worked with before. We shot a set of Jewelery from a soon to be graduated MMU student, Loraine Otoo. Some really beautiful pieces, and of course modeled well by Sarah.

With thanks to a new member of my team. Alysia Booth on make up! A love girl and very talented with the brushes.

Below are a few excerpts from the first band shoot of the month. Not only did we shoot in my space, we took over an as yet unused space in the studio as the boys liked the look of the pipes.

All these were shot on my Mamiya RB67, with Ilford XP2 film.

May also marked my first ever radio appearance. I was invited on air to talk about my work on Chorlton FM, a branch from the Chorlton Arts festival, where I also had a piece of work up.

The award!
In May I was lucky enough to be selected for an Investment award given out by the uni I graduated from a few years back. I got through to the second round and was invited down for a Dragons Den type experience. And I got the money! Wahey! This helped to fund the equipment in the studio. I'll post a more detailed blog about the studio soon.

So thanks to the University of Central Lancashire for that!

The photographs I did for Joel Nicholson of Butcher the Bar music were chosen for the inside sleeve on the album and also the poster. The album is released this month and as superb!

Why blogs are good for artists.

2011-04-26T01:17:00.000+01:00

Blogs are good.

I mean, I hate writing them. (getting more used to it) but I do think the act of writing them is invaluable for artists. The reason I dislike writing them is the age old 'who cares what I'm rattling on about' thing. But as an artist, you are rattling on about something all the time. It's what you do. I talk. I talk about myself and the world and my thoughts and my fantasy of flying that gets me to sleep at night, and my stream of subconscious. All this is said only through the language of photography.

As an artist you are forever opening your diary to the world. Not in a direct way, but in a way certainly. Without words you are showing the world your view on the world, how you see it, and what is important to you.

When you create, and subsequently show your work, you are only showing what you deem important enough to show people. By that I don't mean 'the image you like best' and therefor show people. I mean, the whole scene that you have set up in front of the lens and then created is one you have deemed important enough show people. Important enough, good enough, or interesting enough.

When I create images, I am not socially commenting on anything, I am not telling the world my opinion on anything and I am not aiming to teach people anything. I am simply exploring my thoughts, feelings and emotions and letting people get inside my head a bit.

I don't know what it is inside me that makes me crave and create photographic imagery, what makes me pine for these mini theatrical displays of original nonsensicalities. But I do guess that its fairly normal what I enjoy doing, I'm just acting out another world. A world where anything is possible, a world where I can sculpt gravity. A world that gets me to sleep at night. I imagine something. I make it happen for a 60th of a second. I then record it, remember it, and move on to the next scene.

For me the only place to go is the surreal. The only place I like going photographically is the place that you would have to defeat physics to actually get to.

Back to my original point, I think blogs are great because you have to practice opening up and you have no idea who is going to read them. Maybe no one will. Maybe some people will. It's like printing a page of your diary on a bill board in a small town down a road that you don't think too many people go down.

That's a sweet idea. Might do that one day.

Paint

2011-04-26T00:21:00.000+01:00

I'm tired. I've bought about 9 pots of paint and used them all. Things have been taking ten times longer than I ever thought they would, and costing twenty times more. And its not even finished yet.

But for all of that, its the most exiting place in the world to be stood in, and I'm loving every sweaty, multiple-learning curve second of its creation.

Ladies and gentelemen...

Its nearly done.

(but you cant see 'nearly done' pictures yet. Just 'along the way' ones)

Swing in the trees and let a pigeon tell you a secret.

2011-03-08T10:48:00.001Z

Thanks for a great photoshoot Amy. Top notch.
I tell you - it took a lot longer to train that pigeon that I thought it would! Still, he got it in the end.

These were shot on Canon 5D. Took some on the Mamiya RB67, off to get those developed today!

Its so sunny outside, I hope your all enjoying your day.

Bye!

Dingy, dank, and full of crap. The making of Lucy Ridges Photography studio!

2011-03-05T15:01:00.003Z

Here's the beauty!

This is the first glance of my studio to be. Isn't she wonderful! I felt like I was falling in love when I stood in the middle of it! (I know I know - way over the top - but I'm afraid its true)

I went out to Wilkinsons and spent a fair bit of cash on all the necessary cleaning products and painting products, and as soon as I'm given the go ahead (just waiting on the electrics to get finished) I will crack on with it!

I will be documenting the whole thing via Time Lapse, so you can look forward to a super cool film at the end. I imagine it will take a good 3 weeks or so to set up.

It will be a simple affair. A 2 light set up. White background. A blank canvas to give me all the creative freedom in the whole wide world.

Watch this space for updates!!!

Winter post!

2010-12-08T10:46:00.004Z

Dear all, here is a different type of post. Some nice images from a snowy cold winter. :-)

Monochrome Twigs

2010-12-02T10:33:00.006Z

Hello there again. Nice of you to come back!
Here are as promised - the black and white images of the same shoot as below...

I think I'm easing back into the world of colour photography. I enjoy these type of shots as seen on the post below - slightly unsaturated, not great colour quality. (largely due to my incompetence with the scanner - but i like the results - so wahey!)

A n y w a y.

Twigs

2010-12-02T10:28:00.004Z

Good morning!!

Here are the unedited results from last weeks Photoshoot. Model is Harris, who did a great job! I shot the colour images on Fuju Reala, and the black and whites on Ilford Xp2. Ill post the black and white ones as a separate post because they really need to be seen separately in order to see them at their best.

Bits of Paper.

2010-11-29T17:21:00.006Z

Hello!

Well well well. I haven't written a blog entry for a couple of weeks. Too busy shooting :-)

Been working hard over here, entered 4 photography contests today, and 2 last week.

True to style, I have been throwing things about in a studio and hanging things up with invisible wire for the last few weeks. Have had my head in a brilliant book by the late great William Mortensen, a master of posing the figure. The book goes into so much detail about posing, more detail that you would ever believe is there! Really interesting stuff.

Images in this post are from a photo shoot I did for a campaign to stop teachers wasting paper. I took an empty classroom, (with so many big windows I'm surprised its not being rented out as a daylight studio) 300 or so sheets of A4 paper, a Mamiya RB67, and a mate.

The results are pretty cool, I'm happy with them. I like the idea so much that I plan to use something similar with a Band I will be working with over the coming weeks.

A Mamiya RB67 in one hand and a feather in the other.

2010-11-12T18:13:00.007Z

Studio was all packed out today, so we took to the corridor instead. Jon had introduced me to a sweet spot down the end of the corridor onto the stairs where the sun pours in through the tall, grand, exquisite windows. Who needs a dark studio when you have places like that?

A Mamiya RB67 in one hand and a feather in the other. The instructions to Jon were simple, put this feather on your lips and blow upwards, please.

My affair with color photography didn't last long. A week I'd say at most. Its been nice doing something different, however if its possible, working with colour has made me fall further in love with black and white. Romance isn't dead then.

Autumn leaves in the living room.

2010-11-08T14:48:00.004Z

You've all had it. I've had it. I have it again. Yeah thats the one - creative block.

I'm lost. I'm surrounded by autumn leaves and various cameras in my living room. and suddenly I'm not an artist.

I wouldn't normally mind - I'd just go get on with something else. But I have spent a week making a leaf-filled backdrop, only to find out all the photos I'm shooting in front of it are not working!

I'm cold and tired (tired of finishing the 4th unsuccessful photo shoot) and I have to go to work in 1 hour and a half.

Drinking a coffee and putting the heating on. Maybe that will work?

and Leaves and Hypocrites

2010-10-19T13:09:00.005+01:00

A bit of colour photography here, just to overwrite EVERYTHING I said a couple of blogs ago about colour photography being 'pointless'. Well, here's an exception. The leaf was too beautiful to render in black and white. Gotta love autumn leaves.

Seahorses

2010-10-19T13:02:00.001+01:00

For the sake of creation

2010-10-19T10:28:00.004+01:00

Doing something for no reason.

I can't stress how important I think this is in life. It worries me that students are constantly asked to explain their work. (don't get me wrong, I understand this has to be done at some point, if nothing else to be able to approach art galleries and what-not.)

But too much of this will take artists away from the beauty of creating something for no reason. The best work comes this way. Something illogical, senseless, just for the sake of creation. I don't believe in any way - that beautiful, inspirational art work comes out of 'planning'. You have to run with an idea that arrives uninvited into your head. You have to believe in all the weird shit that comes to you. You have to resist stopping to question what you do. As the more you do that you will lose that little something within you that creates these bizarre and illogical ideas. I believe artwork should be approached and talked about in the same way music seems to be. A musician doesn't pick apart his own work and explain it in great depth, (does he?) the critics do that. Musicians aren't asked to submit a 'Music Statement' to record companies. They send their CD and if its liked then its liked. If it's not it's not.

Is it all the inadequate and sub-standard Art and Photography out there that has created this demand for documentation and statements? Because frankly I hate it. Seeing a beautiful image is enough for me. I don't need words to go with it. Leave words for poems, songs and stories. They work best there! Critique art if you like, by all means talk about it and write about it. But why demand it from the artist? Why can't we just enjoy images for images? Photographs for photographs? Music for Music? Enjoy everything for what it actually is.

2010-10-17T04:57:00.000+01:00

I love it when people don't know why. I absolutely love it. What am I referring to? I mean when people make something (anythin), and there was not pre-concieved 'why' or idea or reason, and therfore whatever it was they came up with totally came from passion, or came from nothing, or came from within. etc.

Clear as day. In white black or grey.

2010-10-14T23:18:00.003+01:00

Managed to nip in the studio for a sly half an hour today to shoot a self portrait. I look well gloomy! Really beginning to notice the difference in (when using digital) shooting colour and then changing to B&W after. I mean to leave this in colour, but I just couldn't bear to. It looked a million times better in black and white.

Whats the point in colour in photography? We see life as colour everyday. Black and white is... real, yet not real. Its life but with a twist. Life with the colour taken out. No mess, nothing getting in the way of the shapes, shadows, and a pure monochromatic tonal range. It's perfect, you can see everything. Nothing to hide behind. Every blemish, every shape, clear as day, in white, black or in one of a million greys. It's surreal. Its different for our eyes because we are not used to seeing things that way. Therefor its exiting. and peculiar. yet kind of ordinary. It's curious. and brilliant. and sexy. I could go on.

laters!

The more you learn, the more you realise how little you know.

2010-10-13T11:59:00.007+01:00

Lighting gets about a million times harder when you actually start learning about it. It seems that before i knew anything, I could create images I was happy with, and now I've really started studying it - I feel more lost than ever. Still, it's most definitely a good sign.
Advanced Portrait Photography by Roger Hicks is a great place to start for anyone interested in looking further into studio lighting for the human face. As Roger states, '90 percent of photography is portraiture when you look at it in its widest sense'

Great quote on Page 6 of the book: Creativity is butterflies in the stomach and a healthy fear on every assignment, and individuality is trying to suit each and every individual subject.

Seeya!

Jupiter

2010-10-08T23:29:00.006+01:00

Not blogged in a couple of weeks, but I'm back now. Been super busy working at the gallery all ours under the sun. 37 EXP exhibition went extremely well! Got some really great feedback on my piece. Went to the gallery tonight to have drinks to celebrate the end of the exhibition.

Jupiter has been out to play recently. If you can see a really really bright star in the sky, in the evenings of Sept/Oct 2010, not far from the moon. Its Jupiter. Your welcome!

Got up early today and went to the studio for an hour or so before starting work at the gallery, and I shot my friend Emma. She was brilliant!! Really great. Been in the studio most days this week experimenting with low key lighting with high contrast. Inspired by the amazing Nick Knight, Fashion photographer. (check him out if you haven't already)

Here are a few of shots from this morning:

Made a decision in this last week to create a book to coincide with my final year of the MA. Not sure of the details, whether I'll self publish or look for a publisher. (looking like the former will be more realistic) but its all very exiting!! The idea of the book will be a book of nonsensical yet beautiful images. Images to dream with.

2010-09-09T17:18:00.001+01:00

Footprints & what is my work about.

2010-09-04T12:17:00.005+01:00

Im SICK of lying about my work. Im sick and tired of it. I'm sure there must be other artistsd out there whi don't have official meaning to thier work and Im going to work hard to try and find it.

There are running themes about my work, sure. Flight, freedom, airborn antics, spontenaiety.

But I really dislike the sentence 'my work is about' because I truly feel, and this is what I love, that my work is categorically not 'about' anything inparticular. and I really like that. If everyone in the world thinks thats wrong and rubbish, then fair enough. I still belive it.

I like the fact that it's about nothing inparticular gives the veiwer the freedom to see in it what they wish.

I must mention - there is a difference here between the words 'about nothing' and 'about nothing inparticular'. The latter has depth. The former doesn't. I am using the latter. I am not saying my work is empty and about nothing. I am saying my work is about nothing inparticular, which in turn means it could be about anything or everything.

I like the open-ness of it. It has a freedom that is reflected in the work itself.

I think my work is 'about' work that has no reasoning.

True, if I see a piece of work, I do like to know a bit 'about' it. So if I was a viewer of my own work, I would probably be annoyed about knowing that it was about 'nothing or everything'.

But, if I see an image that blows my mind, I don't not care what it is about. Fashion photography, no body asks what the photo is about and there is a lot of freedom in that.

My work is about nothing and everything. It encompasses anything you want it to, because I am not telling you what its about. And thats the beauty of it. Without words, all you have is an image. It could be about a million things if you want it to be. Or not.

I'd like to cut out the hoo-ha.

It worries me to say 'my work is this' because whatever you say, you are immediately cutting of a million other possible subjects.

I will ofcourse not be saying, in an arrogant tone, 'its about nothing'. Because thats shit. people need something to hang on to. But my challenge is to learn to discuss my work without delving into a meaning or a subject. I will discuss themes that make thier footprint in all of my work. I will discuss possible ideas that show up with great regularity. I will make the 'nothingness' the meaning.

Blank walls.

2010-09-02T18:27:00.003+01:00

So, for the sake of my MA I'm trying to think about everything I do (as I know at some point I'll have to explain it).

I love working in a studio. But I'm not sure that it's the studio I love, or the clear background.

When it's just a person in a frame, on a clear background, the whole frame is consumed with that one person.

There is nothing else in the image to consider, so the viewer has no choice but to study the person in the portrait. They take more notice of the shadows, the tones, the expression, the shape, what the limbs are doing, what the hair is doing etc, because there is nothing else to consider. Nothing else to get in the way.

The mind loves the unknown. It loves images who's meaning is unknown, since the meaning of the mind itself is unknown. (Rene Magritte)

2010-08-31T12:43:00.003+01:00

The importance of having a clean camera.

2010-08-27T17:57:00.004+01:00

The other day someone was slagging of my camera to my face. He was actually laughing out loud, at me, because my camera is a bit dirty and scuffed.

Now, He may be right. But there's no need to be rude. It's not like I was renting it out to him or trying to sell it. Nor did I poke him on the arm and say 'Hey! what do you think of my camera!'

I felt about 8 years old. It was like I was a little kid being told off for not looking after my things.

Last time I checked, no-one got anywhere by doing things right.

Take the Warnings & Sitting on the Edge of Strange.

2010-08-25T13:43:00.004+01:00

The other day I went to the studio with a few bits and peices. And took some pics. I decided a minute ago that like to create images just sitting on the edge of strange.

Not images that are so insane that people go 'what the hell is that!!!!!!!!' but I just like it when people go '..huh...'.

That'll do for me. Oh and if someone can't work out how a particular image has been made then I like that too. I shoot on film so there's no photoshop funny business going on.

These latest posts are pretty normal though so your probably thinking 'whats she goin' on about, there's no funny business anywhere in sight'

Well I'm working on it okay?. Weird shit coming up.

The thing about sitting on the edge of strange is that its so much more interesting that being right in the middle of it. If something is so out there, so made up, riddled with preposterous situations and irrational, nonsensical nonsense then there is nothing to cling on to. You need a bit of 'normal' to let the peculiar stick out and show off. Its more fun to take the normal out of normal and stretch it into nonsensical mess, than to have an illogical situation right from the start.

Not sure how much sense this is making but ill have a think about it and make it into something with more meaning soon...

Good god theres a rainbow in my room!

2010-08-24T09:19:00.000+01:00

The model is the incredibly talented Sally Anne Chamdal. If I could I would pay her to sit beside me full time so I could photograph her whenever I wanted.

more pictures from the summer

2010-08-23T22:53:00.000+01:00

Today I went looking for a place that didn't exist.

2010-08-23T20:44:00.000+01:00

Quite literally. Salford. Whats the deal with the lack of street signs? There I was with a perfectly good map to a studio I was looking for. But there were no road names to match up with my map. I was just going by the shape of the road that I was on. Useless.

Anyway. Been doing lots of work over the summer! Today I spent 5 hours scanning all my negs in so I can finally put them online.

My subject as usual has been the female body. Girls. Lovely girls. Clothed, not clothed and half clothed. I've been studying the nature of beauty whilst simultaneously questioning the nature of 'normal'. I don't know if there is any direct visual clues with regards to inspiration but I have had my head in a Rene Magritte book all summer.

Having trouble uploading pictures......

2010-06-25T01:47:00.001+01:00

So here I've combined my fascination with Lumen Printing (the bluebells in the background) and people pictures. Its very late, and I have just whipped this up now. I guess I'll decide in the morning whether I like it or not. Good night!

2010-06-25T01:20:00.000+01:00

And non square too. This negative had been sitting in a (damp I think) folder for a while. I peeled it off and out and scanned it in. It had got all dirty and yummy for it.

2010-06-25T01:01:00.000+01:00

The Moon.

Yeah. There are other areas of photography I like to explore. Organic matter, foliage, animals, insects, the sky. But when it really comes down to it. You cant beat a simple black and white, square, picture of a person. Medium format 6x6, Ilford film. A square picture of a person in black and white. Ah. It's all you need really. All I need anyway.