Memory

I sit down for an hour to sort through contact sheets, negatives and prints from the 60s and 70s. The pink folders get filled with negatives, slides and contact sheets and put in boxes; the prints get vaguely sorted and put in plastic bags and then into a plastic (ice-cream) box. I'’ll choose some pics to put on flickr and think about how I can make some stories, and maybe even think about why I keep these photographs; is it about unravelling an enigmatic past, is it about another sense of reality?

2008

During 2008 I’ll be developing this web site, exploring different ways of using photographs in movies, making and selling cards and prints again, and thinking about web 2.0 and everyday life. 

May

I’ve finally set up a little card shop at Another Card Shop. I’m still fiddling around with the way this works, so any feedback will be much appreciated, also you can get a free sample card from there. I have an archive of my photographs at Another Photograph, and my movies are at  Another Movie, and everyday stuff at  Flickr.

Making Movies

Over the last few years I’ve made slideshows linked with a music soundtrack, which I called photomovies. For me these photomovies are like the rough-cut of a film; I make the image-sequences in iPhoto using a simple effect, the cross-dissolve, and a set interval  of time for each photo to appear on the screen, and I add a music track to move things along.

Ambient Movies

The new movies, I’ll call them ‘ambient movies’ for now, will be made using Final Cut Express and maybe Logic Express. With this software  I’ll be able to include many more images in the sequences, often cropping from a single image, to produce a sequence of pictures that, with the ‘music’ software,  will help me explore ways to weave the soundtrack and images into a new form. I’ll be getting help from Apple One-to-One to  support the  learning process, with the aim of making ambient movies that can be viewed on cinema screens, as  podcasts and Apple TV movies, and for downloading through iTunes.

How to use  photography?

After many years of playing with photography I began to ask myself how I could use these photographs I made. I tried selling prints, doing commissions, working as an assistant photographer, and producing photographs for magazines, but none of these ventures felt particularly satisfying. I eventually decided that a period of study on a photography and film course at the Polytechnic of Central London may help me answer this question of how I could use photography. The course was concerned with other people’s photography and the question of how to use and think about my own photography faded away, as did my pleasure in making photographs.

Using Photographs

Since college I have organised and taught on photography, video and slidetape projects; developed books, exhibitions and web sites, and worked with people to help them use photography. Over the last few years I have begun making photographs again. I sometimes teach photography and I sell a few cards or prints, and now, make some movies. I'’m exploring, discovering and still learning about ways to use photography.

Tony Hall, London