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.
After a month of graft I’ve thrown my carpenter’s tool back in the attic. 20 desks of solid 7-ply, 200 foot of sanded scaffold boards, 1400 sq-foot of antique pine floor-boards, 4 massive wooden truss beams and 1 studio/event space near Bethnal Green maketh Roof Unit. The original idea spawned and built with Chris Littlewood back in !2006! is reborn in a new space with the old vibe that other photographers are colleagues not competitors, it’s better to work together and together the work get’s better. We have 2 desks left for rental and the studio is also available for hire. The desk depicted is within a nuclear storage area near Sellafield not the one’s we rent in London..
OK, enough with the cheesy metaphors. I’m very glad to be a photographer again and plotting what’s next; firstly some nocturnal and nuclear work in UK before wandering further afield. The current research and planning stage will involve reaching out to potential partner organisations whilst testing the water and potential of the subject matter. I would love to hear from anyone reading this who might want to get involved. You can reach me from the contact page or come on over to Roof Unit.
My project on Scottish Hydroelectricity has gained some great natural momentum in the last month. Firstly, I am extremely proud to see the work featured by National Geographic Online as part of an extended photo feature with additional reporting by Marianne Lavelle. The 14 page feature can be seen HERE. Secondly, I had the privilege of spending a long weekend in Teeside hanging and opening a solo show at Profile Gallery. The exhibition is showing in sunny Saltburn-by-the-Sea until the 21st of May. Finally, the results of the Magenta Awards 2011 have been revealed and I am chuffed to see my name along-side some great friends and photographers, looking forwards to it for the second year running.
