Visit the no ego flickr pool to view more photographs from the day, as well as photographs featured in the exhibition!

The ‘no ego’ exhibition opened today at the Bollington Arts Centre, and we had a brilliant crowd heaving in and out of the place! I enjoyed meeting and chatting with people (though I hid behind the bar for much of it, just watching!). One comment in particular sums up the afternoon: “All exhibitions should be like this.” By posting their own ideas about the curated groupings, viewers engage with each photograph in a deeper way than just walking around a gallery in silence ‘observing’ the work. Even those who aren’t the sort couldn’t resist pitching their own idea. The opening was lively, as people connected their own stories and memories to the groups.

Some comments on twitter so far:

Really enjoyed the ‘no ego’ exhibition. Thanks Ladies!

The No Ego Exhibition is special. An interesting concept, well executed. Oh, and the food was smashing.

The walls are already covered with post-it notes of ideas and questions. I took photographs and will share more once my feet have had a rest!

Visitors and artists will get a chance to try their hands at curating, as a new photography exhibition at the Bollington Arts Centre in Macclesfield explores an alternative exhibition concept under the programmatic title “no ego”.

The new concept seeks to overcome the usual ego-filled nature of an exhibition, where artist and gallerist display the “best” pieces. “no ego” is aimed at people who would not normally visit an art photography exhibition – it invites the audience to participate, have their say and be part of the process.

Katherine Elizabeth Lewis, Kate McLean and Ewa James, the three photographers whose work will be on display, will share the results of 12 months of collaboration, demonstrating their own unique approach towards mounting an accessible exhibition.

They have selected and grouped each others work into mini-collections containing just 4 photographs. Viewers are invited to share their own ideas of what links each grouping: a word, a mood, a place. There are no right answers.

Ewa James, who wears a suit doing business in advertising by day and plays with toy cameras by night, says: “No Ego is about letting control go — to allow others decide about your work, in public. At the start I thought it would be all fun but preparation for this exhibition has been constantly about confronting your own ego. It almost feels the exhibition itself is the ‘easy bit’. Now we want to hear what others have got to say.”

Kate McLean, graphic designer and photographer of local (nearly-naked) men adds: “We all have our own identity, it is what makes us. Individuality is important to everyone: attempting to let go of that is both difficult and refreshing, a bit like spring-cleaning really. Please come and see what we have chosen for “no ego”, and add something of your own to it… let’s see where it goes.”

Fighting in-patient falls by day and hand-sewing fleece bunnies by night, Katherine Elizabeth Lewis says: “The ego: thoughtful, evaluative. It is the self in expression, the foundation of meaning, and it frames everything we produce, from the sleepy hello in the morning to each whispered good night. Can we achieve ‘no ego’ alone? Can we do it collectively?”

The exhibition will open for a private viewing with the photographers on 7 March 2010 and then run until 11 April 2010. Entry is free.

Read more on the website: http://noegoexhibition.wordpress.com

For more about the individual photographers see:
http://www.ewajames.com
http://www.katemcleandesign.com
http://www.eastofnorth.com

Bollington Arts Centre
Wellington Road, Bollington, Macclesfield, SK10 5JR

Open Sundays from 2 pm to 4 pm and during other Arts Centre events
Free admission

Still doing work on the website — testing blogging functionality from Flickr! The answer is: it doesn’t work perfectly with my new layout. =) I’m sorry I’ve not had much focus on posting or uploading new photographs, other than these few fun manipulations for the Pop Art White Nancy contest over on www.bollingtonphotos.com, but I’m very busy preparing for the ‘no ego’ photography exhibition with Kate McLean and Ewa James that is opening next weekend on top of all the overtime to prepare for some big events for the job that pays my dinner. Catch me later in March, when I’m catching my breath.

Don’t forget to post your own entries for the Pop Art White Nancy competition before March 1st!!

Recently, we ran a competition on Bollington in Photos website asking people to share their ‘Rainbow of Bollington’. I was delighted with all of the entries, and the other editors agree with me: it was very difficult to vote for just one. The winner will be announced shortly. But I was itching to make another Rainbow, this time not limited to Bollington.

http://www.eastofnorth.com/weblog/2010/02/most-interesting/ http://www.eastofnorth.com/weblog/2010/02/most-interesting/#comments Wed, 03 Feb 2010 07:00:27 +0000 eastofnorth http://www.eastofnorth.com/weblog/?p=388

My “most interesting” shots on Flickr come from a time when Flickr was smaller, quieter, and drew less attention. The people who frequented it were real photography enthusiasts, hobbyists, and even professionals. Agencies contacted me to use my work in their advertisements and on their book covers. I (well, my feet anyway) was featured on the front page.

I participated in groups on technique, themes, and even charity. We raised thousands of dollars for Hurricane Katrina relief.

Camera tossing became a worldwide phenomenon. I made good friends. I found and fell in love with my husband.

My photographs were different back then. Brighter. More colourful. And nearly all with a point & shoot camera.

Now, I don’t participate in groups. I rarely comment. I use Flickr mostly to share my British life with my American family. And participate in the Bollington photography scene, of course.

East of North (the website!) is undergoing some changes to the design and content, so you may find things don’t work quite well or look too pretty! In the evenings, the site will be down altogether. Please be patient.

Meanwhile, I am still working on photographs from Paul & Claire’s wedding as they await their firstborn’s arrival. Ewa James, Kate McLean, and I are finalizing the No Ego show. I’ll post more on that later. =) For now, some (really old) photo manipulations I did. Enjoy, and thanks for your patience and support.

Nearly a year ago, Tom and I were guests at Dino & Christine’s wedding in Pennsylvania, USA. As Dino and Christine both attended Franklin & Marshall College, in Lancaster, PA, many of the guests were alumni/ae, including an old friend, Jessica. It was a lovely traditional wedding, and everyone looked beautiful and happy.

I still can’t believe anything has really changed!

I’m very glad I’m not a wedding photographer, as it looked quite challenging to cover such a big wedding in such a dark room. My own wedding reception was a dinner party, and we asked our friend, Paul, to take ‘a few’ shots. The result was fantastic — we are lucky to have such talented friends. Here is a shot I took at Styal Chapel (can you spy Dino and Christine?):

I am looking forward to (another) Paul & Claire’s wedding in December, which will be a similarly small event. I hope Claire feels as beautiful and happy as I did on my wedding day — and I hope I am able to capture even just a fraction of the adoration and love between Paul and Claire in their resulting photographs!

Photographs below were taken at our wedding by Paul Maddox (or otherwise by me or Tom) and processed by me.

If you’ve browsed my website, you may have noticed the ‘About Me’ page, which describes me physically as “a polo-shirt jean-skirt scarf-covered gadget-happy hippie in hiking boots.” That’s still mostly true. Though I am useless with make-up, rarely think about how I look, and regularly avoid portraits, I’m willing to share this recent photograph Tom took of me here:

Personality-wise, I think you will find most people disagree about who I am, as my interests are so varied. I am artistic and I can create aesthetically pleasing work in a variety of mediums, but advertising and selling my work makes me extremely uncomfortable. I love nature, especially farms, but I have very strong allergies to animals, grasses, molds, and dust. And I can’t ever remember to water my plants.

I do indeed have extremely vivid and perfectly memorable dreams, which often exhaust me, scare me, and otherwise stir up a lot of unwanted emotions. I do not watch traumatic, intense, or scary movies, because I am too sensitive to feeling and living the violent imagery which will most certainly become more fodder for my dreams.

My first birthday party was a clear day, filled with tall, familiar people and one scary dog. I remember toddling around the driveway, my aunt and Gram sitting in folding metal chairs with scratchy nylon weave. I remember bouncing balls and swinging swings. I remember too many things about my past. They often interject themselves into my mind and preoccupy my thoughts, unless I concentrate on a challenging activity — like playing video games, painting, processing a photo, writing, or reading. These interjected memories bring with them a lot of pain and regularly spoil an otherwise happy or benign activity, like going to dinner with friends or washing the dishes. Such is the nature of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

See the vacant, detached expression under the baseball cap on the ambiguously gendered child sitting alone to the right? That’s me.

I was voted Most Dedicated in high school, along with a guy named Larry. Socially, we were both completely unable to form lasting relationships with other people in school. Larry had a low IQ and struggled to learn. I had a high IQ and learned extremely well. We both challenged ourselves in ways that scared others. We were not broken by the constant rejection, by being different or strange. Where failure or fear would stop most people from trying, Larry and I radically did what we both wanted to do, no matter how absurd it seemed to others.

If you have strong feelings about who I am, you can always share them (even anonymously) on my Johari window, which compares how I describe myself to how others describe me. I find the exercise interesting because although people agree with me that I am intelligent, confident, adaptable and independent, others are more likely to describe me primarily as intelligent and loving, and also observant, reflective, trustworthy, or witty.

Some of the things which were not selected as my strengths: accepting, dependable, dignified, modest, organised, powerful, proud, sympathetic. Moreover, no one seems to agree with me that I am able and clever. I do see their point now, but I have to admit, wouldn’t it be fantastic to be every positive attribute under the sun? Then we would Perfect. Untouchable. Unapproachable, even. I would never disappoint you. You would always understand. I would never fail.

And yet, I’m certain that being Perfect would make me feel even more that life wasn’t worth living.

So if we can only be some things, I would rather be who I am — intelligent, loving, and trustworthy — than accepting, dependable and sympathetic. Having empathy and love rather than sympathy means I truly care enough to challenge, change, and improve our lives. Being trustworthy rather than dependable means I am non-threatening, supportive and honest, no matter how many deadlines I miss.

Not everyone can be detail-oriented, and it’s often those with the most empathy who struggle to focus on the logistics. I regularly get carried away in how much I care about others, and I certainly work too hard at hiding how much I care. It is easy for anyone to miss the small details when you are overwhelmed with feeling.

After being bullied and attacked most of my life, I am well practiced at withdrawing myself, my emotions and my interests from others. As a result, I am often accused of being uncaring and unsympathetic by aggressive people who, ironically, are the last people on earth to deserve to know how much I actually do understand and care.

Too much. That’s how much I care. Much more than most deserve.

So much, it takes weeks, even months, to stop grieving. If I let myself watch the news and read the papers, I’d grieve over strangers, too. I’d spend my entire life grieving unless I was able to detach myself and withdraw. As it is, it still consumes me. But I’d rather it consumed me in private than let others know how much they are able to hurt me.

Though my mom named me with this very hope, I will never be president. I won’t be a doctor, a lawyer, or any form of professional. I do not know how to be a daughter, a sister, or a friend. There is a very good chance I am incapable of being a mother. I never even dreamed I would be a wife, but somehow the sweetest, kindest, most uncritical and most loving man and his family were able to recognize and love me. A miracle, really, because I was and continue to be so broken.

I chose this quote from Van Gogh, because I empathise with his struggle to relate to and communicate with others.

“What am I in the eyes of most people, a nonentity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person–somebody who has no position in society and will never have; in short, the lowest of the low. All right, then–even if that were absolutely true, then I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody has in his heart.”
– Vincent Van Gogh

Though Vincent himself had very different reasons than me for his struggles and also, hopefully, a very different end to them, I think he was ultimately able to communicate the beauty amongst his ashes. I myself will keep trying.

I appreciate every single person in my life who lets me just be me. There are so few.

At some point in human history, the entire world wasn’t at your fingertips, much less on Flickr, so most people spent more time discovering the world closer at hand. ‘Closer at hand’ meant nearby communities, locally owned shops, homemade crafts, and, of course, neighbours. When we grow tired of the familiar and the mundane, we vacation to explore new things, inspire the creative spirit within, and experience difference. But doesn’t ‘New’ and ‘Different’ become harder and harder to find as communication, especially visual, becomes more international, more immediate, more mobile?

In July, Tom and I went on holiday to Manchester. As we only live in Bollington, this may seem like a bit of an odd choice for a long weekend. We stayed at the Hilton Deansgate, ate dinner at Gaucho Manchester, had an unimpressive cocktail at Cloud 23 bar, visited the Video Games exhibition at the Urbis, and discovered Castlefield.

In a spare hour after checking out, we took a blind walk away from central Manchester under and through a network of bridges and canals. The outdoor pub chairs were turned upside down on tables, roped off. The canalside ducks were still nestled, half-asleep, on the warming concrete. It was the morning after a big storm, and if people were staring longingly at the sky from the office blocks, we never knew. The streets were empty and quiet, just a block from Deansgate. Hardly the Manchester I thought I knew.

Definitely a Manchester I wanted to know more.