Still Dancing Exhibition

My dance photography exhibition, Still Dancing opens today, Monday 22nd October at Kidderminster College in Worcestershire. It runs until Dec 21st and will be in the dance and media dept. Today (22/10/12) the college has an open evening from 6-8 pm and I will be there and will give a short talk about the work. How I began shooting dancers and how this work got commissions to shoot staff and principal dancers of Birmingham Royal Ballet.  The Birmingham Post will run a piece on the exhibition this week as well. All are welcome to view the exhibition at the college ; 9am-5pm Mon to Fri and also in the evenings, until 8.30 on Tues-Thurs.  For directions etc contact the college on 01562 512000.

The exhibition can be seen on line on my website       www.richardbattye.com

Jay Phelps Jazz Trumpeter

I love shooting people!  Even better when they are nice AND involved some way in the Creative and Performing arts.  Yesterday was a good day. I worked with Jay on some new portfolio images.
Here's a small selection of the shots we took. I can do this for you..you don't have to play the trumpet.

For more of what Jay does ; http://www.jayphelpsmusic.com/

WHO ?

Sometimes it just happens right in front of the camera..you couldn't make it up!

One of the best things about being a photographer is all the interesting people you meet along the way.

This is George a preacher, who has also just written a book and needed some publicity shots. A really impressive and great guy to meet.

BLP / BRB workshop

Last night I had the pleasure of running a workshop for Birmingham Loves Photographers at the request of Craig Bush who is doing great things in the city for the photography community. We worked in a shop unit in the Mailbox and had the company of Matt and Callie, dancers from Birmingham Royal Ballet who danced for the workshop / tutorial.  I talked about my dance exhibition ; Still Dancing and generally about shooting "movement" and performance. Thanks to the 30 or so people who attended the event and put up with the paint fumes ( the unit was being decorated) The pictures here are a small sample of the 163 I took. I managed in the short time to do 2 lighting set ups and I am happy with the results. I could have lit better with more time and the background / floor etc lets some of the images down a little, but it was about the experience and the event, not so much the finished pictures. It was a nice opportunity for me to talk about my experience of shooting dance and to let people see first hand a "behind the scenes" aspect of a photography shoot of this nature. My thanks to Nigel Cotterill who took shots on the night and these can be seen here

http://gallery.me.com/ncotterill#100358&bgcolor=black&view=grid

Again, my thanks to all who attended and Craig, Jelena, Matt, Callie.

Workshop 30th May Movement

I have been asked by Birmingham Loves Photographers to do a workshop on "Movement".
This will be at the Mailbox, ground floor (level 3) next Weds. I will be talking about some of my dance
(movement) photography and doing a practical demo with a dancer. It's free, all welcome.Follow the link
for details.

http://www.birminghamlovesphotographers.com/archives/1274

Workshop: ‘Photographing Movement’ with Richard Battye 30/5/12 | Birmingham Loves Photographer

www.birminghamlovesphotographers.com

Birmingham Loves Photographers is proud to announce that we are hosting a free tutorial with Birmingham’s own Richard Battye where he will be giving a tutorial on the theme ‘Photographing Movement’. Richard will discuss the various methods he has used in his work shooting dancers, 

http://www.birminghamlovesphotographers.com/archives/1274

The Olympics

So we are getting closer and I am getting involved on a small level. I am starting a 6 week project as of tomorrow called KALABORATE working with Rogueplay Theatre in a school. I will be working alongside Lorna a performance poet and we are getting the kids to write / act / photograph around the themes of the Olympics and the Jamaica 50 yrs celebrations..should be fun and I am looking forward to it.

Here's a picture I took of Jordanne Whiley who is ranked UK Number one in female wheelchair tennis. She's in the Olympics and is favourite for a medal this year. Wishing her all the best!

Landscape and Bodyscape

Two recent pictures, a landscape somewhere in Wales shot on my way back from a job, and one of my bodyscape shots, currently on view in the Barr Street Gallery Open show.

Fine Art show Barr Street Hockley

I have 3 pieces of Fine Art photography at the Birmingham Open show from 21st April-25th MAy at Barr Street Gallery, Hockley Birmingham. Looking forward to the private view on Friday.

This England ..1

So as I am shooting This England ..2. Here are a couple of shots from the first exhibition and a selection of Visitor Comments from 1999.

"Now this is the sort of thing that makes it worth coming to the Custard Factory"

"It has inspired my creativity I thought I had lost..I hope they get the appreciation they deserve

and you the recognition! I love it."

"Wow wow and wow; wicked, great , fantastic. brilliant, Funny"

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.Really good photo's-very inspiring"

These are just a few of the comments from the visitor book at that first show.

It went on to tour for over 3 years to 14 galleries, full page write up in The Guardian, I was the Birmingham Post Saturday interview. It generated about 6 T.V. interviews, many magazine front covers and I went to Los Angeles on the back of it. I also became a Kodak touring lecturer.

To this day I still get references to the exhibition and that is why I am looking at shooting again to dig deep into "underground" England. If there is a person or event out there that I should know about..please let me know! Richard

This England...2

So last Saturday saw me at The Irish Centre Rockabilly All-Dayer. A huge thanks to Colin who let me shoot there. I did my first This England shoot in 12 years and met some great people. It was almost like being in a time warp. I even met the wife of one of the original This England subjects (sadly no longer with us). Hard work but great fun. A small selection of pictures here.

This England..2

Well.. in 1999 I spent the year shooting for This England my first exhibition.

There is fresh interest in this project so I have begun shooting TE 2.

Today I will be shooting a Rockabilly all dayer..watch out for shots to follow on this blog.

Fredau / Marianne shoot

It was with great pleasure I helped a good friend of mine, Marianne, on a shoot in the Lake District the other day. The model was Fredau who was an absolute joy to work with.

Sheikh Zayed

I do work now and again for a sculptor out in the Middle East. I shoot here sadly not there. Although I have shot out in Quatar many years ago. This is Sheikh Zayed. Very celebrated, look him up. A very hard subject to shoot and tests my lighting skills to the limit!

Chloe and Shannon shoot

I have shot before with Chloe and she came back today with a friend for a shoot. Great make up by Jelena my intern. More shots up in a while.

The Master !

I did a talk the other day for the Fotofilia group who came to my studio..I got a rather nice write up on the Blog. Thanks David!! Here's a recent fashion shot I talked about.

http://fotofiliablog.com/2012/02/08/sitting-at-the-feet-of-the-master/

Jacob Kimmie Fashion Shoot

I work for a couple of great fashion designers and shoot collections from time to time.

Just finished working on this collection. The model, Christina was probably the best model I have ever worked with. Effortless and never a bad pose. This collection will appear on the Vogue website in the near future.

Distortions

Something that has always been interesting to me is distortions in photography. I remember my father having a book by Andre Kertesz with distorted human forms photographed in concave / convex mirrors. The sort of "hall of mirrors" you would see at a funfair. I photographed a play yesterday and there was a mirror onstage which I shot into to get this shot. I see another side project coming on here! Apart from cropping the shot there was no trickery involved here.

Talk on Still Dancing Exhibition.18th Jan

Free talk on the dance photography exhibition

Still Dancing on Wed 18th Jan at 7pm.

Old Joint Stock Theatre Temple Row Birmingham. Richard Battye talks about his exhibition and photography life. A freelancer of 21 yrs Richard has a wealth of experience within the industry to draw upon and will give an interesting , informative and sometimes amusing look

at his life as a photographer.

Please arrive at 6.30 for a 7pm start. Work is on display upstairs in the Theatre

corridor and crush bar at The Old Joint Stock Pub by St Philip's cathedral B2 5NY.

After the talk a show of work ; dance and performance that has been shot since the

exhibition launched last year. For more details e mail info@riverstudio.co.uk