I’m blogging blind by e-mail, I can’t see my own web-site nor any of the news-feeds I’m used to. I suddenly find myself in China, Qian’an in Inner Mongolia to be precise. I am at my second location on a 2 month personal project covering 8 different types of Power Generation Technology; Biomass, Wind, Super-Critical Coal, Hydro, Nuclear, Coal, Natural Gas and finally Solar. After 5 days I am almost lost for words as I plot the narrative seam through what is a complete visual, political, cultural and language shock. So excuse the radio silence until 2011 with what I have a hunch will be a very juicy project.
As part of The Renewables Project shot earlier this year I spent time looking at the Wind Farms across Central Scotland. With thanks to Scottish and Southern and Siemens I had the opportunity to accompany 2 engineers, Jason Smith and Ross Kennedy on routine inspection at Drumderg in Perthshire.
This image was released in Live Magazine this weekend and I will be releasing a larger edit of the narrative later in the year.
As the summit enters its 2nd week the Environmental Investigation Agency (US) and Global Witness have released their finalised report on Investigation Into the Global Trade in Malagasy Precious Woods. It can be downloaded HERE. This document now includes critical evidence showing trade flows to China, Europe and the US as well as the conditions in Madagascar and their solution based recommendations.
The press release has already caused some waves in international media including the front page of BBC.co.uk today. Article by Richard Black is HERE.
It’s been a busy week centered around one of the biggest and most technically challenging shoots I have ever worked on. To celebrate the launch of Sky 3D, Europe’s first 3D TV Channel, we brought to life on Earth a scene from “The Universe” for photography and video. 8 giant helium balloons, painted like the planets and measuring between 6 and 1m in diameter were suspended over Greenwich Park as a crew of balloon engineers wrestled with the controls in a stiff wind. As per usual, I wish to keep the exact technical process a secret, but it took over 12 Pro-Foto heads at maximum power to freeze the movement of the balloons within a long ambient light exposure for the city background.
The images are again destined for the Getty Wire Service so absolutely zero retouching was applied. The final image was the culmination of over 100 hours work by a team of 17. Huge thanks to Will from Cake, Tim Bowditch my assistant , Pam at Orchard and Direct Lighting for a stadium’s worth of lighting kit.
As part of the Brighton Photo Biennial and the group exhibition ‘IN SITE’ I will be giving an Artist’s Talk alongside Wendy Pye and Ellie Davies. The talk is from 6 – 7:30pm on 21st October at Blue Dog Gallery, 20 Gardener Street , Brighton BN1 1UP. I’ve also finally uploaded the Madagascar multimedia piece I showed at LookBetween festival earlier this year, viewable below:
Madagascar – Bois de Rose from Toby Smith on Vimeo.