Exhibiton of fractured reality….

June 16th – 20th Manchester Metropolitan university’s all saints campus, 2nd floor studio, Cavendish building.

The work shown will be from the project fractured reality, there will be a private viewing on the 15th of June with free drinks, contact me for more details on that.

MMU degree show…

Univeristy degree show is coming SOON!! at Manchester Metropolitan University, in erm… Manchester! The work will feature photography from me and my whole year group, like 50 or 60 other artists i think, and also will have work from other departments of Art and Design for you to rub your hungry eyeballs over http://degreeshow.mmu.ac.uk/about/ so that’s that done, try and get down on one of the days, the level of work is amazing!!

Also a follow up exhibition will hopefully be coming to Antwerp mansion also in Manchester that will feature my work, but more to come on that one later!

i am also hard at work on a new series of photographs having put the photo-montage work to the side for now, this new work is dealing with our perception of reality and how we engage with it through our lives, i will keep you updated on this work as it builds out

Tuesday 3:42pm, Image © Arron Hansford

Wednesday 11:40am, Image © Arron Hansford

Tuesday 4:30pm, image © Arron Hansford

Tuesday 1:05pm, image © Arron Hansford

Monday 3:40pm, image © Arron Hansford

Quick photo’s required for quick times…

So just a really quick update today guys, as i am incredibly busy these days finishing off all my university work and getting ready for my degree exhibition (details of days when you can see this coming up soon). I recently purchased a Polaroid camera after seeing a book of Polaroids by Andrey Tarkovsky (get this book its beautiful!) The Polaroid camera i got was the Fuji-film instax 210 ( like 60 quid on Ebay or something) and at first i was less than impressed the exposures were shocking and it was a big great bulky black looking thing (definitely looks like a perverts camera) after leaving it in the corner of my room for a while i realized that i still had 30 shots for it left and it costs a lot money (like 15 quid for 20 shots) so i thought “better use it up you know”. I took a walk with it a few mornings ago and POW fell in love with it, i embraced its terrible qualities and i am having a blast with it now, so i suggest if you are thinking of trying some Polaroid work out get one of these camera’s and persevere with it, because it pays off in the end here are some pics i have taken so far… Peace!!

Fuji-film Instax 210, image © Arron Hansford

Fuji-film Instax 210, image © Arron Hansford

Fuji-film Instax 210, image © Arron Hansford

2 New projects….

So its been a while since i updated this blog, due to my internet breaking (Annoying). Anyhow because i have not had the internet and it being the number one cause of procrastination lol, i have started 2 new projects, which is probably not advisable this close to my deadline and Final exhibition for university haha! any way the first project is called “Spaces” and i am taking a stab at creating surrealistic images of rooms inspired by books i am reading, the next project is called “Artefacts” where i am actively looking for old used items to photograph then giving them an important museum archival look to put them in a different light, both projects are in th early stages but i will keep you all updated, for now have a look at the first images

The ship room © Arron Hansford

The Cloud Room © Arron Hansford

Gas Mask © Arron Hansford

Head Torch © Arron Hansford

Work continues…

So we are coming up to my final exhibition at Manchester Metropolitan university, and work is coming along nicely, a little slower than i would like, but the pieces i am making are quite nice, so happy days. Also talk is underway about a second exhibition at Antwerp Mansion in Manchester, i was part of an exhibition there last year and it went very well, so hopefully a new exhibition will come into Fruition! I will keep you all updated on this

"A place for thinking" © Arron Hansford

HDR Imaging…

Lately i have been playing around with an area of digital photography that i have not looked into much, and that is HDR Images, the idea is to create a high definition image (HDR=High Definition Rendering) by combining different exposures of the same image, there is many ways to do this, and lots of different programmes for Mac and PC to help you get the look you want for your HDR images, the software i tend to prefer to use is Photomatix Pro http://www.hdrsoft.com/ theres a free trial version on the website. Photomatix is great for creating  HDR images exactly how you want them, whether you want to preserve realism in your images or go full out to create a strong look of HDR in your images, photoshop does offer a HDR option in FILE > AUTOMATE > MERGE HDR, i found this option kind of lacking though, i preferred the massive options offered by Photomatix Pro.

HDR photography isn’t for everyone, and there has been lots of negativity directed to this particular form of post processing, but i think it can yield nice results for some otherwise boring images that you would discard, so i think everyone should at least play around with this technique and learn to use it properly, heres some HDR Images that i have created

Kitchen at Staveleigh Clinic, Stalybridge, Image © Arron Hansford

Destroyed caravan, Antwerp Mansion, Manchester, Image © Arron Hansford

Heyrod Powerplant, Heyrod, image © Arron Hansford

Images of populace….

I am now working through the middle of my final university driven project, this project is called images of populace and will hopefully discuss the debate surrounding the acceptance of digital manipulation and photomontage as “true photography” the pieces themselves will be exhibited at my final year exhibition at mmu, i will put more details about this up nearer to the time. After the exhibition i will begin to sell limited edition framed prints of the pieces, a book of all the images will also be able to be purchased, again i will put more details of this event up nearer the time, here is a few images from the series as it looks so far

“The soldier that dreams of peace” image © Arron Hansford

“The troubled artist” image © Arron Hansford

“The explorer of thought” image © Arron Hansford

“The caring environmentalist” image © Arron Hansford

A long overdue update…

So its been a while since i put anything onto my blog! i have been very busy, working towards the end of my degree in photography at mmu, the work is coming along well, and all the research stuff is going smoothly, its safe to say that i am in full university mode, and soon  i will post some of the final pieces of my final project on here for you all to have a butchers at. But its not all been hard work and no play, me and my girlfriend managed to get away for 2 weeks to the sunny shores of Cyprus for some R ‘n’ R!! and what an awesome holiday it was, photo opportunities galore and adventures, visit this place heres a a couple of shots from my trip there

Peace!!!

Atlantica golden beach

Paphos Harbour 

Cove at atlantica golden beach

Images of populus…

Images of Populus.

Today the word “Job” is on the end of most peoples tongues during conversation, or the idea of a job is usually on somebody’s mind, finding a job these days has become the main drive for everybody, the job we have or the job we want shapes us, makes us who we are in today’s society, usually one of the first questions asked is “what job do you do?” when greeting somebody.

 The idea that a job is what makes us what we are is absolutely absurd, a job is what we do either because we enjoy it, or merely for financial gain, you are not your job.

 These images are trying to show the absurdity of a world, where people really are their jobs, the artists becomes his easel, the astronomer becomes the planet he is studying, he loses all thought of as himself as a person, the images appear bright pleasant and happy on the surface, but they hold an underlying message and warning of the idea of the loss of oneself through the work you do, and the obsessions you create.

Image, © Arron Hansford

Image, © Arron Hansford

 

Image, © Arron Hansford

 

Image, © Arron Hansford

 

Image, © Arron Hansford

 

Image, © Arron Hansford

 

Image, © Arron Hansford

Things have changed….

So a lot has changed since i last updated my blog, if i remember correctly the last thing that i told you all about was my project “Reverie” which was about dreams, and creating my own dreamscapes, now i have just realised that all that project was, was a build up to an even bigger and much more exciting project which i have now entitled “Populace” the project is aiming to create images of different peoples roles in reality and bring them into a fantasy world. the images are all created by me in photoshop, using found images which i scan or photograph, and my own photographs! For this project i aim to have 10-15 images at the end, which i will print on a photorag paper, frame and then present at my university degree show, here are the first 3 images for the series…

Peace!!

The explorer, image © Arron Hansford 

The Astronomer, image © Arron Hansford

The environmentalist, image © Arron Hansford 

Please feel free to leave your comments and opinions on the work