Lady in Red...

I just had to post up this fantastic photograph of Audrey Hepburn by the Photographer Bob Willoughby. As you've probably guessed by now I'm a fan of images that contain striking contrasts, and this is not the first time I've posted a picture where a figure in red is set against a natural, green background (see this post).

This one is part of a set that Willoughby took of Audrey Hepburn and is my favourite due to the pose and composition.

Audrey Hepburn - Bob Willoughby

You're Next....

As part of my bibliophile activities that I talked about in my earlier "War of The Worlds" post, I have just documented the anthology book "The Bedside Book of Horror" edited by Herbert van Thal (yes, he of Pan books of horror fame).
I thought I would post it on here as it reminded me of the imagery that is used in the recent Horror/Home Invasion movie "You're Next" by Adam Wingard.
There's just something about people in animal masks that used out of any specific context can really create a sense of unease, something obviously understood by Mr Wingard and the Artist behind this cover.

Industrial Revolution lies bleeding.....

Just had to stick a post up of this photograph by W. Eugene Smith.

Called "Factory Reflected in River" and taken in 1955 it's just wonderful. There are thousands of pictures that use reflections to create the desired effect (and why not) but this has got to be my favourite. Everything about it is just right, the unusual framing (cutting off the tops of the furthest buildings), the contrasts, the way your eye is drawn around it. To me it's as if someone has started a painting on canvas and the paint has slowly dripped down across the frame.

The War of the Worlds.....again......

I have a great love of books and reading (be it fiction, factual or poetry) and have just started documenting some of the more rare or interesting editions I've picked up over the years and thought I might share a few on here.

I've made no secret of my slight obsession with all things TWOTW, be it books, music, films or whatever else I can find related to this classic story from H.G. Wells. One of the forms this interest takes is that I snap up copies of the book whenever I stumble across them, mainly due to the different covers (of which there are literally hundreds). It's intriguing to see how the different cover artists have interpreted the tripod fighting machines over the years.

Having just photographed a batch of books (including TWOTW editions) I thought that would be a good place to start, so check them out below.

Click on any picture for a larger version.

The Guardian - Review of my Portfolio

"…This is a very well observed set of landscape photos, not in the traditional sense, but all the better for it. The post production is good, the tonality well balanced and the compositions are excellent. It shows a photographer who is acutely aware of what’s around them, and has an ability to think around the obvious.”

The Guardian - Newspaper

Photography...

For those who may be interested I've created a Tumblr Blog to highlight some of my photography, it will mostly be updates from my travels and maybe the occasional "archive" shot. Most of the photographs will have been taken on either my Pentax K5, my trusty go anywhere Panasonic LX3 or even in some cases my iPhone, as they always say, the best camera is the one you have on you at the time.

You can find it here:

markmorb.tumblr.com

Thanks,
Mark

Call me Legion!

It's been a while but I've got a few Vinyl rips planned for uploading over the next few weeks so thanks for your patience.

When I was about 15 I borrowed a record from my local library (yes, libraries used to rent out vinyl in those days) it was a sampler from the Jive Electro label called "Disc Drive" (discogs) and had a great "Tron" style cover. I'd only heard of one of the acts on it, Tangerine Dream, but I liked those so that was good enough for me. Anyway, I loved it and a cassette copy of it was duly created and played to death. I ended up buying all the albums represented on the compilation but my favourite at the time was by Mark Shreeve (wikipedia) and the LP in question was called "Legion" (discogs)

Legion has subsequently been released on CD but back in the day there was a 12" release with three mixes on it (discogs) and as far as I"m aware these have never been released on CD. I don't think either of the first two mixes are as good as the original (and they haven't aged as well) but they're definitely worth checking out. If you haven't heard this track before then I'd suggest listening to the "Satan Mix" first as I'm sure it's just the original LP version with a new name and holds up far better than the other two versions in my opinion.

There is an MP3 rip floating around already but I've gone back to the original vinyl and produced a brand new High Res rip (with an optional MP3 version for those so inclined).

Keep an eye out for some more "Disc Drive" related rips coming soon (I'm talking to you "Willesden Dodgers" fans), I may even do a new rip of the actual compilation LP.

Links are in comments and please let me know your thoughts....

Mark Shreeve - Legion (1985 12" Jive Electro JIVE T 102)

Side A

Legion - Razor Mix

Side B

Legion - Space Mix

Legion - Satan Mix

 

Love....

Love over here
Love over there
Love spread everywhere
But one thing about love
One very important thing...love you should share with everything
So when you see love or feel love
Show your love to your family

Yasmin Daisy

Poem by my beautiful daughter - Yasmin Daisy

Magic Lantern Project - Batch #8

I'll start off with my usual apology for taking so long to get the next batch done but here it is...

Some nice bits and pieces in this batch, there's a couple of biblical slides featuring The Ark and a quite gruesome version of Hell,  and a great one of the Roman Baths in Bath. Along with those you'll also find the usual mix of Architecture, Countryside, Monuments and some nice personal images including a quite remarkable "Sand Artist"

As usual if you can provide any information at all (names, places, stories, anything) regarding these or any other images in this project then please leave a comment or send me a mail.

(Click on the images for a larger version)

St. Georges Hall, Windsor

Unknown - The Ark

Kits Coty House, Kent

Woods near Crouch

Beech Ave, Cuckoo Wood, Farnborough, Kent

Unknown - Hell!

Sand Artist, Hastings (1939)

Doris, Frank and Norman

Unknown

Burton Y.H. Group, Bardon Hill (Feb 8th 1940)

The Roman Baths, Bath

Still there.....

Ultra Slow Audio #1 - Albinoni's Adagio for Strings

I was recently introduced to the phenomena of Ultra Slow Music. This is where a piece of music is drastically slowed down whilst retaining the pitch and texture of the original piece to create something with a unique character of it's own.
Most notably I was impressed by a post on Soundcloud by Birdfeeder where he had slowed down John William's theme to Jurassic Park (listen here). The result is uplifting, emotive and a wonderful piece of music (the original work is fine as well but has a wholly different effect on the listener).
I decided to experiment and soon realised it's not as straight forward as you may think. Many pieces I tried just did not work and it's hard to put your finger on why a lot of the time (although strong rhythmic pieces do not work well). However, when it does work it is extremely rewarding, the results can be breathtaking.
I've found two pieces so far that I think are successful, this post is for the first one, Albinoni's Adagio for Strings.
This is one of my favourite pieces of music and I had a hunch it would suit the Ultra Slow treatment and it most definitely does, IMHO of course. In fact I think the result is stunning (and represents slowing the original piece down by a factor of about 100)
It's best listened to fairly loud, in a relaxed environment and is quite capable of retaining the listener's interest for it's hour long duration (this from a piece that originally lasted 8 minutes).

I've posted the result to Soundcloud and I'd be very interested in your opinions.