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Paul Russell commands building of an indoor beach

Is there anyone now in Brixton who happens to be driving there this evening and also has a spare seat or two? I'm looking into train times, but thought I'd give a go at online hitch-hiking?
 
Fantastic :cool: thank you to Paul fantastic work there - I have my eye on a few prints when money is flowing a bit free-er!!

and of course Robster and Z for organising it all.
icon14.gif


I am quite pissed too :)
 
I had a great time, really happy I managed to make it. It was a real pleasure to finally meet you, Monsieur Russell, and a great honour to be part of the opening night of your overdue solo exhibition. The photos are of course wonderful, I've always been a big fan of your Beside the Sea collection -- so rich in colours and full of quirky human moments.

It's perhaps inevitable that your seaside photos will get compared with those of Martin Parr, but I honestly don't think that does your work justice. You've got a much warmer view of humanity, few hints of cynicism in your pictures mainly just wit and clever observation. And, for me, you'll always win hands down because you only use natural lighting. Parr's love of his flash has always been a problem for me, it makes people look more artificial and further away.

Here's an attempt at some criticism: I'm not fully comfortable with people's backs. I really love your occasional non-candid shots like this recent beauty, Aspiring professors, but the sun burnt man leaves me a bit uneasy. On the other hand, perhaps I'm talking shit, since I just recently took this cynical candid.

It's not easy to pick my favourite from this collection. Your snorkle boy is always good for a chuckle, your Grauniad shot has a great sinister quality, the woman in front of the Amusements has a starkness I really like, woman with glasses and mouth open in front of the colourful and cluttered beach stall is almost my favourite, but the one I most want to buy is Aspiring professors!
 
Three cheers for the gallery

The other great pleasure of the evening, and a totally unexpected one, was Gallery 435. Delphian Sibyl and Robster have done an absolutely fantastic job in creating a piece of the best of Hoxton right smack in the heart of industrial Slough!

Since I arrived at night by cab I didn't get much of a sense of the surroundings, 'twas just dark and quiet. But then there's this great firestation-sized entrance door and a beautifully arranged gallery. Paul's prints are suspended in mid-air with a trained engineer's precision across pulleys on wires weighted with concrete blocks. This both maximized the presentation (lot more prints than I was expecting) and kept the room simple and spacious.

And then there's the beach! Maybe I haven't been to enough galleries, but I've just not seen this kind of effort put into a presentation. The sand is spread out across the middle of the gallery (giving a fun surface for your feet to play with while making pleasant conversation about photography, Slough and beaches) and a handful of beach balls and buckets'n'spade add some colour while suitably cheesy seaside pier music plays in the background.

My strongest impression of the gallery itself, though, was the curators. Delphian Sibyl and Robster were a great pleasure to meet and deserve huge credit for putting their energy, time and money into making something like this happen. I hope the people of Slough (Sloughites? Sloughers?) suitably appreciate Gallery 435. My only regret is not making it up earlier to see Robster's own show, few people can photograph rubbish quite like him!
 
What a lovely thing to say. DS hasn't seen this yet (as she's at the gallery now) but I daresay she'll be really pleased to see this feedback.

You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear though, so we will always defer to the fact that Paul's work is great. BTW, he's got another show off the back of this in February at a far bigger gallery.
 
Hi Alef

It was great that you turned up, especially with all the other things you had going on. Glad you had a good time.

I know you said something a long while ago about you felt uncomfortable about back of head shots cos it seemed like you were "stalking" people.

Actually, the only shots I felt a tiny bit unconfortable with, at least when we were picking shots for the show, were a couple of front of head shots. But the people I spoke to at the exhibition didn't have any problems with those particular pictures at all. So there you go. Who knows.

I've taken the complete seaside compilation page off of my website and left those eight sample pics for the duration of the exhibition, but I see you tracked down the aspiring professors one!

Cheers for the glowing review, sir.


alef said:
It's perhaps inevitable that your seaside photos will get compared with those of Martin Parr, but I honestly don't think that does your work justice. You've got a much warmer view of humanity, few hints of cynicism in your pictures mainly just wit and clever observation. And, for me, you'll always win hands down because you only use natural lighting. Parr's love of his flash has always been a problem for me, it makes people look more artificial and further away.

Here's an attempt at some criticism: I'm not fully comfortable with people's backs. I really love your occasional non-candid shots like this recent beauty, Aspiring professors, but the sun burnt man leaves me a bit uneasy. On the other hand, perhaps I'm talking shit, since I just recently took this cynical candid.

It's not easy to pick my favourite from this collection. Your snorkle boy is always good for a chuckle, your Grauniad shot has a great sinister quality, the woman in front of the Amusements has a starkness I really like, woman with glasses and mouth open in front of the colourful and cluttered beach stall is almost my favourite, but the one I most want to buy is Aspiring professors!
Click to expand...
 
alef said:
The other great pleasure of the evening, and a totally unexpected one, was Gallery 435. Delphian Sibyl and Robster have done an absolutely fantastic job in creating a piece of the best of Hoxton right smack in the heart of industrial Slough!

Since I arrived at night by cab I didn't get much of a sense of the surroundings, 'twas just dark and quiet. But then there's this great firestation-sized entrance door and a beautifully arranged gallery. Paul's prints are suspended in mid-air with a trained engineer's precision across pulleys on wires weighted with concrete blocks. This both maximized the presentation (lot more prints than I was expecting) and kept the room simple and spacious.

And then there's the beach! Maybe I haven't been to enough galleries, but I've just not seen this kind of effort put into a presentation. The sand is spread out across the middle of the gallery (giving a fun surface for your feet to play with while making pleasant conversation about photography, Slough and beaches) and a handful of beach balls and buckets'n'spade add some colour while suitably cheesy seaside pier music plays in the background.

My strongest impression of the gallery itself, though, was the curators. Delphian Sibyl and Robster were a great pleasure to meet and deserve huge credit for putting their energy, time and money into making something like this happen. I hope the people of Slough (Sloughites? Sloughers?) suitably appreciate Gallery 435. My only regret is not making it up earlier to see Robster's own show, few people can photograph rubbish quite like him!
Click to expand...

Awww...just come back from a cold slow day at the gallery and reading this has cheered me up no end.

Papers come out tomorrow though and after my chat to the Observer this morning I'm expecting a busy weekend. Sadly, it's the local, not regional Observer but hey ho.

Having said that, got a CV today from a wannabe curator who'd heard about us from reading the Guardian (national). Don't suppose anybody has seen anything? Totally passed me by, I'm guessing it was only a very small mention but exciting just the same.

Anyway, i digress. My intention in this post was to thank the lovely Alef for his kind words of support and appreciation.:)
 
Hopefully they know this already,

And at the risk of sounding like Gwyneth Paltrow at the Oscars,

But I should say how ** incredibly much ** I appreciate the time, effort -- not to mention money -- that Robster and Delphian Sibyl put into creating the show.

It's a beautiful thing ...

Thanks.

Hopefully Slough will be flocking a bit more than they have today.

I invited a few old friends from London and Oxford, and they all mentioned the last weekend for some reason. Maybe there will be a late surge!



Robster970 said:
What a lovely thing to say. DS hasn't seen this yet (as she's at the gallery now) but I daresay she'll be really pleased to see this feedback.

You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear though, so we will always defer to the fact that Paul's work is great. BTW, he's got another show off the back of this in February at a far bigger gallery.
Click to expand...
 
I've thrown my idea of cycling down out the window... was a bit ambitious really :D But I'll be coming down either this Saturday or next Sunday :cool:
 
Paul Russell said:
Come to think of it, we haven't had a pic of Rob yet:

http://www.paulrussell.info/fullsize/beachball.html

Rob goes for gold. In all his living glory.
Click to expand...

Lovely portrait! Also, in the background it looks like your photo on the wall is glowing -- kind like an advert or picture in an Indian restaurant which is mounted on a lightbox.

If Skim and Xan have the energy then I may drag over on the last weekend, though if they don't make they'll still always be able to enjoy a small fraction of it from home. I'm definitely buying one! Still consulting Skim on the decision, we're down to three...
 
alef said:
Lovely portrait! Also, in the background it looks like your photo on the wall is glowing -- kind like an advert or picture in an Indian restaurant which is mounted on a lightbox.

If Skim and Xan have the energy then I may drag over on the last weekend, though if they don't make they'll still always be able to enjoy a small fraction of it from home. I'm definitely buying one! Still consulting Skim on the decision, we're down to three...
Click to expand...

You're more than welcome to stay with us as I think DS might have said to you.
 
I think Alef has sort of said everything I could have - it was a right laff down there too :cool: :D

Yay which Gallery Paul?? :D

BTW a return visit could be arranged I think :)
 
zenie said:
BTW a return visit could be arranged I think :)
Click to expand...
Let me know when you're thinking of heading down... it's looking like I might go down on the last day (or else one night in the week) :)
 
BiddlyBee said:
Let me know when you're thinking of heading down... it's looking like I might go down on the last day (or else one night in the week) :)
Click to expand...

OK!

What dates are the last weekend. :cool:
 
Just looking at the Met Office site -- the weather's pretty good this weekend.

Don't know if that will help get the good people of Slough out of the house and stuff.
 
Paul Russell said:
Just looking at the Met Office site -- the weather's pretty good this weekend.

Don't know if that will help get the good people of Slough out of the house and stuff.
Click to expand...

it should do - along with the half page with 3 pictures we got in the Slough Express. Not seen it yet but apparently there is a picture of you with the cowboy hat on.
 
Erm, great news!

Robster970 said:
it should do - along with the half page with 3 pictures we got in the Slough Express. Not seen it yet but apparently there is a picture of you with the cowboy hat on.
Click to expand...
 
Robster970 said:
it should do - along with the half page with 3 pictures we got in the Slough Express. Not seen it yet but apparently there is a picture of you with the cowboy hat on.
Click to expand...

You'll have to scan and post it up, especially if there's a comedy cowboy hat involved! Just did an online search and found an earlier story:
http://icberkshire.icnetwork.co.uk/...objectid=17829819&siteid=50102-name_page.html

I just added a Gallery 435 link below the Slough Museum link in the community section of Wikipedia's Slough entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slough#Community

You may want to add your site to some search engine listings to get more hits, such as:
http://www.google.com/Top/Arts/Photography/Art_Galleries/

Although to actually get people in the gallery is probably only going to happen through word of mouth or local press...
 
Or a stupid stunt.

Like Robster sitting in a deckchair in his trunks, knotted hankerchief over his head on Slough roundabout for a couple of days.

I'd do it, but me gout is playing up something terrible.

Actually, I was (sort of) joking a while back about setting up some deckchairs on one of those little bit of beaches next to the Thames in central London.

I was googling it, and it turns out it's already been done:

http://www.urban75.org/london/beach.html

:D


alef said:
Although to actually get people in the gallery is probably only going to happen through word of mouth or local press...
Click to expand...
 
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