creation

Reinvention a term to embrace in strange times /  by Tracey Gibbs

So finally a new blog post! during the last six months on this ride with my fellows in the creative industries, I have swung by my blog and website thinking yep must update that, redo this. All with no result as reading the headline of my last one just felt like mockery, an emerging practitioner stopped in my tracks along with many of my cohort both last year and this year’s graduates struggling to figure out how to survive.

Truth is I didn’t learn a new language, become the fittest in my life, or indeed learn how to bake sourdough bread. I crashed as becoming a member of the excluded group opened up old wounds and anxiety became my everyday companion leaving me incapable of creative thinking or creation. Luckily for me, I have a very generous amazing therapist who continued to see me virtually and not letting me pay, she raised the red flag. I was not in a good place, lets just say that.

Walking became my thing, heading out every morning at around 7 am and just walking, no destination no plan. I began to discover parts of my local Salford that in 20 odd years of living here I had no idea were there, the secret meadow and my thinking oak brought peace and solace, this and some of the most incredible zooms given and hosted by amazing people began to have a healing effect on my mind and creativity and to being brave.

I began to apply for arising opportunities and was lucky to be accepted on one that was and is ultimately the trigger to opening Tracey up to her creativity once more and a path now on for reinvention, the term action learning was new to me and my fellow members of our superset meeting every two weeks until November, we are both exploring and learning who to facilitate our own though the rather brilliant The Hub co-organized by another amazing crisis group The Creative Industries Federation. It is true talking does help and can lead to action, I became braver and applied for a Creative England initiative ‘Ideate Manchester’ with StoryFutures Academy and was accepted onto a two-day intensive Bootcamp in new emerging digital technologies VR/MR/AR WOW! a head and heart-opening two weeks with my oculus headset discovering some of the most beautiful and creative works.

With this and my renewed interest in all things visual I made a little movie in my thinking tree a little share of my passion for Shinrin Yoko the Japanese method of relieving stress by tree bathing, just sit observe and open all your senses to space and sounds that these majestic alive places give us.

And now? working on a project and my first ever Arts Council application, a tad daunting but the people I am meeting and discussing the possibilities of HOYO (more next time ) is making every creative muscle in my body tingle. So why right this today? it is World Mental Health Day and it is ok to not be ok and also not, if you struggle at any time there are people and places out there. Pick up the phone, as this continues the fatigue is real and the mind is an organ like all our others and at times needs to be looked after.

A big shout out to the team of the MIF who stepped in instantly with initially daily drop in’s for artists and freelancers, giving space to just talk, check-in and now a new community of attendees and collaborations have sprung forth. Now weekly you can find details and massive amounts of resources on their website.

So more from Tracey version 4 soon, be gentle, be safe.

Here are some links to some of the best resources for us creative theatre folk and my little film

https://thehubuk.com/

https://www.creativeindustriesfederation.com

https://mindapples.org/

https://www.gm-artisthub.co.uk/

https://mif.co.uk/mif-drop-in-artists-freelance-creatives/

Got me a Gimble /  by Tracey Gibbs

So the first few months post university have been interesting and a tad nerve wracking, trying to find oppourtunites with my new found skill sets. By the way I did manage a 1st which was beyond any of my expectations and I am very proud of myself for that one!

Still, I need to try to keep the newly acquired knowledge alive and well, earn money. So my new daily routine now includes searching amongst Art job websites and contacting directors, theatre companies to connect with and hopefully collaborate.

With all things projection in mind my long-time friend and client, the talented James Roberts superstar hairdresser contacted me to help them get there salon projector working properly and create some content featuring the range of work they do along with the rather fabulous Nataya Beauty who operates from the same premises. To get something to test I created a little movie with our 20 odd years of working together on hair shoots for the salon, including some award-winning images for competitions such as the prestigious L’Oreal Colour Trophy. This was a lovely look back over years of collaborations with exceptional makeup artists and stylists we have here in Manchester and some incredible models, some of whom have not been professionals. Also, a chance for me to have a little nostalgic look at past exploits in the realm of analog photography! (yes we go that far back) along with the film I did for him in my second year where I had begun to use the brilliant Sony A7II at Lipa to create content for my projection designs.

So it was back to the salon to film some more content featuring a new inovative colour product from L’oreal .

I had up to this point only filmed hand held with my go to app Filmic Pro, which produces astounding 4k from my iphone , after revisiting their website and looking through some tutorials I knew I had to get a gimble ! just the ability to operate from the unit and experiment with angles etc was too enticing but on a very tight post university budget where to find one? I love e-bay !! previously to film Phaedra as part of the Love of the Nightingale production at LIPA I had sourced a great bit of kit a Moondog anamorphic lens for a great price, now to the gimble.

https://www.filmicpro.com/

https://moondoglabs.com/

And boom result! got me my very own ZHIYUN SMOOTH 4 for a fraction of the price and in mint condition. So having spent the weekend playing and getting to grips with the controls, I headed back to the salon for a morning of filming.

Had a blast with it and learned lots more about approaching shoots with the iPhone, I am on the lookout for a cheeky second hand Sony but until the right one at the right price comes along this is a good answer to getting the footage I need. Also now waiting on some little bids back on my friend e-bay for a portrait lens addition to my iPhone camera set up.

The results are as I type been projected onto a wall here :)

http://www.jamesrobertshairandbeauty.co.uk/

and on the Instagram account here

https://www.instagram.com/jrhairandbeauty/

discovering a new technique for photo montage for projection /  by Tracey Gibbs

In my second year studying at Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts we had a day working with amongst other things, artist Gavin Mitchell who’s work I found completely brilliant and so interesting. He blends the old and the new with a delicate humour and wryness which turns a multitude of found images into a new fabulous creation. OK you can see I liked it lol so much so I now am the lucky owner of one of his works a present for graduating from the Mr Gibbs.

Find his work here

https://gavinmitchell.net/

So back to the workshop and looking at projection and content creation, we had been asked to bring some imagery to play with , well with a career and study of photography going back a wee while ! I have in fact a huge plan chest filled with remnants of my early days from college through to the last commercial film shoot I did back in the 90’s! So I grabbed some that I thought looked interesting with a thought that some of my cohort may not have access to stuff as living in halls.

He also arrived with a wealth of stuff from old movie’s on film, trailers for films and a massive collection of old slides sourced from car-boots and many a bric a brac find both here in the UK and on his travels. Looking at overlaying them to create images with stories or indeed oddities .

At first I was tentative, as any photographer will tell you the thought of chopping up transparencies is well? just not done ! fact. The first three were combining some footage and stills from Gavin with some images I took for a property developer of the Manchester Tobacco Factory both before and after. Shot on a magic film called polarpan where you actually processed it yourself? I know ! the resulting images were a strong contrasting black and white . Exceptionally fragile and at times not a guaranteed outcome, we were edgy in the 90’s lol

still available to buy (must dig my processor out ) from one of my favourite places full of interesting photographic and video finds

https://www.profilmdirect.co.uk/polaroid-35mm-auto-process--slide-mounter-slide-mounts-polapan-and-polachrome-1521-p.asp

The shots gave me some great graphic windows with which to play with, placing behind them almost giants of humans going about their business.

Series Windows

I was loving this with the possibilities for projection work for bands or theatre work opening up my mind and making me braver, with a gentle nudge from Gavin I did it !

Using some outtakes from one of my earliest test shoots whilst working as a full time assistant at Avalon in Manchester and clips from processing of some really interesting branches in oil from a collaboration with a young artist who’s name along with the model has long been forgotten (research underway) I began to snip the larger medium format images and recreate as 35mm slides!

Girl in the Wood series

So new from old,I am now in the process of multiple layering of images to create new content for projection . Then scanning them in on my Flextight Precision II another part of my transition from analogue to digital as a photographer , yes you could do it in photoshop but how much more fun is it to be hands on and make something.