No apologies for this recent blog-silence as shock-horror we took a 2 week holiday in October! A panicked finish to the camper conversion for the new/old Toyota Expedition Truck heralds a return to more time behind the lens whatever the location or weather. A huge thankyou to Alexa’s folks for the use of their yard before we could set off to christen “The Monster” with 2 weeks down the West Coast of Ireland. The landscape and people on the Emerald Isle exceeded their reputation and hopefully the big-bag of 6×7 film will do it justice. Waking up to breakfast on Inch Beach was a highlight and more on these landscapes when the film is scanned. Our new Imacon X-5 was recently profiled with Roof Unit on the Hasselblad News Page.
After only 2 days turnaround I found myself heading up the Amazon Basin with my friends at The Environment Investigation Agency. With legal sensitivity and methods echoing the Madagascar Project we can’t reveal much at this stage. However, I can guarantee a healthy mix of documentation, investigative, GPS points and evidential work to send major shockwaves at Illegal Logging in Peru. The bugs, snakes, swamps, and endless days of trail-clearing in a such a remote and unforgiving landscape was a serious test of the team and equipment but thankfully the only major casuality was a 5d body and my ability to eat oatmeal or crackers ever again.
It’s a pleasure to write this blog in transit from Houston airport after seeing an article profiling my work and methodology on the NYT lens-blog. Thanks to Jim Estrin for his time in Perpignan and on the phone researching the article. I arrive back to London on Monday for a curious commission for National Geographic which serves as the perfect distraction from the bug bites, scrapes and blisters.
Just disembarked from the long train home from Perpignan Photojournalism festival in France. Had a productive and blurry 5 days of drinking, soaking up the exhibitions and importantly spending quality time with Reportage by Getty and discussions with magazine editors. You NEED to see Peter Dench’s fist-biting video diary of the festival courtesy of Hungry-Eye Magazine.
My first job when back was editing the Frontline’s recording of our panel, China’s New Energy Pioneers, for distribution. It has been sliced down to 15 minutes from the original 90 and embedded above. Really happy with how the presentation went and thanks to Jim Footner from Greenpeace for his contributions and questions.
Earlier this month I was asked to be part of the Stand Your Ground event conceived and executed by the London Street Photography Festival team. As an avid photographer of Londonium and sensitive industrial areas I am no stranger to heavy-handed, uninformed security guards getting in the way. 6 shooters attempted to work legally in and around central London with a videographer documenting the encounter. The resulting short film below will be presented at a debate and panel tonight. Just glad security didn’t catch me running around a restricted Rare-Earth mine in Inner Mongolia last year even that camp copper at (12min:00s) couldn’t have saved my bacon..
On the 20th July the Frontline Club will be holding a special networking event for Photographers. The event will serve; to build bridges between the different photography elements, free Chivas and deliver a debate on “Who Gets the Credit?” You can reserve a place HERE.
On the 9th of August I will be presenting my China project to an expert panelist at the Frontline. . I am looking forwards to preparing my research further to what I can guess will be a set of testing questions and experienced journalists. Sadly no free Scotch but I might buy a drink for anyone who comes to Paddington on the night. Tickets can be booked HERE.
In the Picture: China’s New Energy Pioneers with Toby Smith
Photographer Toby Smith recently spent two months in China producing his latest project, China’s New Energy Pioneers.
Covering 11 provinces, his work took him to coal mines, wind farms and hydro-electric plants while capturing the landscapes and people implementing the Communist Party’s latest Five Year Plan.
Announced in March 2011, the new Plan is significant in its attempts to address escalating energy and environmental problems. A cap on coal dependency, ambitious targets for non-fossil fuel energy sources and ad rive towards more renewable sources of energy reflect the Communist Party’s intentions to aim for a cleaner, greener kind of growth.
With new power stations connecting to the grid in the People’s Republic of China at a rate of one per day, how China chooses to fuel its booming economy is one of the most important questions for the world of today, and of the future.
Toby Smith is a contemporary reportage photographer and director of Roof Unit, a collective of photographers based in East London. He specialises in environment and energy matters.
Smith’s feature stills and video work has been published by National Geographic, the Guardian, TIME, the New York Times and the BBC among others.
For the last month I have been working in the new studio on a new platform to display my images and video across a map interface. I hope this helps illustrate the work spatially with advantages over a traditional editorial format. I’m going to keep it under wraps until completed, however it has been great to go through the multimedia content from “The Renewables Project”. I’ve finally uploaded an edited version of the montage video that was screened in Toronto as part of the Nuit Blanche Festival in 2010.