Narrative

Fabulous piece in The Guardian today by Paul Schrader discussing narrative and posing the question 'Have videogames and reality TV given us narrative exhaustion?'. For those of you who don't know the name, Schrader is a writer of some of the most iconic films of the 20th century, such as Taxi Driver, American Giggolo and Raging Bull.

Reading it got me to think that the same points are relevant to photography - that the average viewer has seen so much visual material that they already have 'boxes' in their mind to place it into and the value of originality, as well as "Write for formats based on predictability and repetition (soap operas, crime procedurals, superhero cartoons), repackage old plots with new stars and search for that elusive "original" twist that makes an old storyline fresh".

Sound familiar?

The full story can be found here.

Poor Form...

... from me of late when it comes to posting up here.

I've been manically busy at work, am about to move house, and at the current rate, it looks like I won't have a true day off for another three weeks...

On the flip side though, I have finally gotten around to joining the Tate and National Portrait Gallery, so expect the occasional critique of their shows from me...

Car Shots

Some car shots from the other day....

St Paul's

Shot in St Paul's the other night whilst toying with a Fuji S5... For those who are interested the camera reminds me of a digital back in terms of how far you can push colour corrections and exposure....

Don't you just hate it...

..... When Apple Mac's die on you. I think my Powerbook has finally gone to the big laptop bag in the sky.

New Website

www.tomhartford.co.uk/

Off a pier...

On a pier

More Tokyo....

Thoughts on these? Please comment or email me (tom(at)tomhartford(dot)co(dot)uk)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I'm sorry that this has been a long time coming, but here's the first post of 2009... My blog is something that has suffered a lot lately - I've been really busy with work, playing tennis, getting hangover, and having unscheduled trips to A&E caused by Football...

I'm shooting my first test of the year this weekend, as well as finally trying to get my website updated (something I didn't get hcance to do at Christmas, although I did get chance to do my Portfolios, to the delight of Epson and Hanehmuhle shareholders everywhere...).

Anyway, enough of the ramblings, Happy New Year to you all.