It turns out that keeping new photos coming through my whole process as well as dealing with what the rest of life has to throw meant that taking such a structured journey through my work, although informative & interesting (even if only to me) keeps getting put on the back burner.

Recognising this has lead me to look for alternative avenues + I’ve found myself on Tumblr soley because it is so ridiculously easy to get content up there & while it may not seem quite as fully featured as WP at least I’m actually getting the content up now which is a step in the right direction.

For the forseeable future, my updates will be at www.blackxlist.tumblr.com

I want to say a big thank you to everyone who’s taken the time to have a look at my photos + read my rambling on here, it really does mean a lot.

For those of you kind enough to link to me, please update your links.

Thank you once again

Martin

Obviously I was hugely flattered by this, it’s a great magazine & I’m very glad to have even a small part in it.

The new issue of Strongbox is online now & not only is a full page of my work in there which I’m blown away about, but my name’s on the cover as well,

I’m going to be thinking I’m important all day now haha

the new issue is up here http://www.strongboxmagazine.com/issues/vol2iss1.pdf please take the time to click through and look at a great project from some people who’re in it for all the right reasons, and check out everyone else’s work in there too

I’m hoping to have some more work in the next issue of Strongbox as well, more information on that later though

A shortwhile back Nike SB announced the Fluff Bruin SB &  book project (http://www.fluff-sb.com/) and for those of you who’re regular vistors to hypebeast (http://hypebeast.com/2009/12/fluff-magazine-nike-sb-fluff-sb-book-sneakers-exhibition/ )

Focus skatestore http://www.focuspocus.co.uk/ ran a photography comp alongside the release with 2 categories, Skate & Non Skate.

I recently got confirmation from Graham at Focus that I’d got 2nd place in the Non Skate category & got a parcel of Nike SB goodies for it.

Huge thanks to Graham & Focus & Nike SB for everything!

Here’s the page on the Focus Media Division Blog about it   http://focusmediadivision.blogspot.com/2010/03/nike-sb-fluff-book-competition-winners.html

And here’s the shot I entered

Truth be told managing to juggle all the rest of the stuff that’s been going on in my life, with new work and this project to work through my own work from the beginning has been an awkward thing to manage, so what I’m going to do is a rethink & a bit of a relaunch.

I’m no longer going to go through from right back at the beginning of my work.  I will be going back into the archives to post things I’m pleased with or that occur to me to post, so that element won’t be completely lost.

Photography wise I’m going to be focussing more on my more current work, because (at least as far as photography goes)  that’s what I’m mentally focussed on &  I won’t be having to try & keep jumping back and forth so much.

I’m sure that other items such as my effusive take on the Urban Art exhibition in Warrington (& I’m pretty sure you’re due a post about my appreciation for some of  Tony Scott’s work at some point soon) will be included as well & hopefully give a bit more of a rounded feel to the blog.

Thanks to those of you who are still with me out there, Here’s to the future and I hope you continue to enjoy my offerings

I’ve also entered one of my pieces into the next round of the Saatchi Gallery “Showdown” where work is voted on by Visitors to the site

The page for my work is here:

http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/showdown/index.php?showpic=250989

& here’s a gratuitous screenshot

Voting is open from Monday 11th Jan 2010 at 9am GMT, so if you’ve stumbled across this, please click through to the Saatchi site & vote for my piece

Details are available here:

http://http://museum.warrington.gov.uk/exhibitions/

Despite my personal misgivings about some of the promotional literature for the show (essentially the stance that “urban art” has “grown up” from it’s often graf based roots + become an “accessible movement” (& somehow it seems to be viewed as more legitimate because people are now able to purchase it as a commodity), but this isn’t the time or the place to retread those same old discussions.

The fact is there’s an exhibition of this stuff + the opportunity to go and see it in person rather than in magazines or online is a very good thing + similarly the fact that it’s in a regional gallery rather than a few centralised ones + that they’re taking a chance on it + giving people the chance to see the work in person is absolutely great

The exhibition features people like Ron English, David Choe, Swoon, Blek Le Rat + of course the ubiquitous banksy, but the main reason I wanted to visit was the Jose Parla piece that’s there.
I was hoping to pick up his book from the exhibition, but no such luck

I’m a big fan of Jose Parla’s work + it was really good to see some in the flesh (so to speak). If you’re interested, you can check out his work here. www.joseparla.com/

+ for anyone within travelling distance, I definitely reccomend checking out the exhibition while it’s up here

& as ever it’s a case of real life is what happens when you make plans. Between various dramas, 2 blown graphics cards (one of which left me with a huge backlog of new work to get through) family health issues, + general life getting in the way I’ve not got to updating this blog.

I have been busy trying to work through the backlog of new work that I’ve got + if you’re interested to see how that’s going, then please click on the link to my flickr on the right hand side of the page.

New year new start tho + as well as a whole bunch of other goals that I want to make happen, both to do with my photography + otherwise I want to make this trip through my photography more frequent + hopefully catch up with myself so I can be posting new work on here + flickr etc at the same time.

There’s a number of things I’m really excited about photography wise at the moment + while I don’t want to say too much at this point, I’m gonna try to achieve those goals this year. So hopefully you’ll be hearing about some of them soon

Just a couple of notices for the end of this update

Firstly I’ve put a small selection of work up on the Saatchi Gallery site, available for your viewing here

http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/photographers/?inc=details&id=115275

+ Secondly, the lastest issue of Total Tattoo magazine is out now + the cover shot + related article feature my wifey’s make up artistry, + is definitely worth checking out!

There’s been a hell of a lot going on lately & balancing new photography and working through my older work hasn’t always been possible. I’m hoping to get back to updating more regularly asap.

Thanks for your patience

An utterly strange & almost prehistoric feeling place, looking at these photos has made me think that it’s probably well over due another visit