May 2016

Video capture, Riverbed Stories (c) Mandy Williams, 2015

Earlier this month I found out that my video, Riverbed Stories was shortlisted for the British Women's Art award 2016 alongside work from 12 other artists. The video, produced in 2015, was the conclusion to a project I had worked on for a couple of years and been very absorted by, so to have it acknowledged this way is really nice.

In June I'll be having a solo exhibition, River Stories, Unseen Landscapes, at Gallery 7 - Pie Factory, Margate. There will be colour work from the Riverbeds which has never been shown before, alongside some black and white photographs and video stills, and it will be the first time that images from the Unseen Landscapes series are exhibited. I'm looking forward to spending a week in Margate - seeing friends from the area, visiting exhibitions at the Turner and enjoying time by the sea.

At the end of this month I'll be in a group exhibition, Scenes from the City: Urban Photography, at the Riverside Gallery, Richmond. Twenty two photographers are in the show, which runs from 28 May - 16 July.

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April 2016

At the end of March #Photography Magazine's new issue was published and I have four images from the Frozen series featured. The quarterly online and print magazine is curated by Genea Bailey and Daisy Ware Jarret and features a large selection of interesting photographic work - the current issue can be seen here.

Work from the same series was featured on Fleur & Arbor's photography blog this month as Jasmine and Olivia invited me to write a guest post about the images. A larger selection from the series has also been featured on their platform.

At the end of March the spring issue of the London Independent Photography Magazine, fLIP, was published and I went along to the launch evening with some friends. Here's one of my photographs from the Frame series in the magazine.

I have been photographing a lot the last couple of months, trying out some new ideas. It's been great to be out on location again - will see if these develop into a new project.

Also heard that I have some work going into a group exhibition in London next month which I'm looking forward to - more to follow.

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March 2016

  This month the focus is on publications. In early March I published a book with many of the Frame photographs and video images. I really enjoyed working on it - a preview of the book can be seen here.

Cary Benbow, a contributing writer to Lensculture and F-stop magazine and editor of Wobneb magazine on contemporary photography, recently published a feature on my Riverbed Stories and Unseen Landscapes work. It's really well-written and I'm delighted that he selected my photography for publication. The full article can be seen here.

Also very happy to have had Riverbed Stories featured as a photo essay on KALTBLUT Magazine, a magazine for Art, Fashion, Media, based out of Berlin.  They have a huge readership and it's a different audience for my work. It can be seen here.

Next week, the spring issue of the London Independent Photography Magazine, fLIP, is published and I have a couple of photographs featured from the Frame series, the first time this work has been published in a magazine. Looking forward to seeing it - it's always well produced and this issue's theme Lost/Found should be an interesting one.

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January 2016

Frame video capture (c) Mandy Williams 2016

At the end of December I was in West Sussex shooting more footage for the Frame video. I was able to collect a lot of material which I edited down into a short 3.33 piece. The video has been made to accompany an ongoing series of photographs at the same location. I wanted it to show a progression from figuration to abstraction and from a wide perspective towards a single frame. It's the most abstract work I've done in a while. It can be seen here.

This month Riverbed Stories video will be showing in Brighton, having been selected for Short Circuit's, 'Town and Country' curated experimental film screening.

Also at the end of the month, I shall once again be taking part in Visual Aid's benefit event, Postcards from the Edge, happening this year at Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York.  Last year's work sold, hoping the same will happen this year.

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December 2015

Video capture (c) Mandy Williams 2015

As we come to the end of 2015 I am putting together some ideas for a new video and a separate audio work which I hope to produce early next year. I have started to experiment and am excited by the thought of building up an exhibition around this work.

From Frozen series (c) Mandy Williams 2015

Earlier this month I was approached by photographer/curators Jasmine and Olivia from Fleur and Arbor, to be interviewed for their photography blog and the feature can be seen here.

In mid December I took part in an open house print party with photographer friends Elisabeth Blanchet and Agnes Villette which was a great idea - a full day of interesting conversations, new friendships as well as print sales.

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November 2015

Riverbed Stories video (c) Mandy Williams 2015

Last month I heard that my short video, Riverbed Stories (2015), had qualified to compete at the 22nd International Independent Film Festival PUBLICYSTYKA 2015 in Poland which was exciting. The festival took place in Kędzierzyn – Koźle from 23 - 25 October.

I also found out that Riverbed Stories was going to be part of an exhibition and residency series at Fuse Art Space in Bradford.  '23:57' is programmed in response to the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP21, 2015 and alongside the artists in residence there is environmental photography from Mark Adams, Sean Hovendick and John Wesley Mannion, interactive video work by Nina Yankowitz and Barry Holden and films by David Theobald and myself. '23:57' runs until 19 December.

 

In October the National Open Art exhibition opened at the Royal College of Art. The artists preview event was very busy and it was good to see all the work on display. There were 133 artworks from around 4,000 submitted; I was happy that my work, Before #1, had been selected. The exhibition ended Sunday 1 November.

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October 2015

I was in Bristol on Saturday for the private view of the hugely popular Royal West of England Academy 163rd Open exhibition.  As usual there were a lot of people there to see the work and it was great to meet some of the other artists.  I'm exhibiting three photographs from Riverbed Stories as an Academician candidate having been shortlisted with nine other artists at the start of this year. I had been invited to submit following last year's exhibition. If you're near Bristol, the exhibition opens Sunday 4 October and runs until Sunday 29 November. 

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September 2015

Before #1 (c) Mandy Williams

In August I submitted my photograph, Before #1, to the Open Art Competition and was very happy to find out in early September that it had been selected. The exhibition will be at the Royal College of Art, London, from 21 October to 1 November 2015. Last year's show at Somerset House was really good, so I'm looking forward to seeing this year's work.

Following a self-portrait submission to the Old Girls' Club project, 'This is What a Photographer Looks Like', I was invited to write about my work and photographic journey.  It was published this month, and the self-portrait image will be on display at the end of this month at their next networking event. The Old Girls' Club, started by Kate O’Neill and Alice Widger, is committed to supporting women in photography.

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August 2015

Still image from Riverbed Stories video (c) Mandy Williams

July and early August saw some final edits being made to the Riverbed Stories video and it is now online. If you have 5 minutes please take a look at: https://vimeo.com/artphotofilm/riverbedstories

At the moment I am not sure if it will extend into a three screen version. Having spent so long on the Riverbed Stories project this video may be the place to leave the series. We'll see!

I was really happy that my photo essay on this series was published by Minor Literatures, which has some wonderful contributions from writers and artists. It can be seen here: http://minorliteratures.com/2015/08/13/riverbed-stories/

At the start of the month I’d been invited to take part in a ‘critical discussion’ at the Greenwich Gallery with documentary photographer Mike Seaborne. Following a preparatory visit to the gallery to see the annual group exhibition the event took place on 13 August. There is some strong work in the show which ends 16 August - my personal favourites were work by Martin Jordan and Daniel Keys.

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July 2015

High-Rise (2015) (c) Mandy Williams

I'm having a small summer sale to help fund some autumn production costs. High-Rise (above) and Unseen Landscape #21 (below) are both available, signed, in an edition of 50, and printed on Giclee paper showing a small white border around the photographic image. High-Rise is printed on 8x10" paper, Unseen Landscape #21 is printed on 12 x 12" paper. Sale runs until 31 July. Please email me at prints@mandywilliams.com for prices.

Unseen Landscape #21 (2013) (c) Mandy Williams

You can also follow my work on Instagram @mandywilliamsphotography.

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June 2015

Riverside Stories video 2015 (c) Mandy Williams

This month I have been working on the video for Riverbed Stories and now have a first complete edit for the single channel. Planning to shoot more to create a three screen installation.

Also spent 10 days away in Puglia, Italy - a lovely break in a beautiful part of the country. Lots of photos taken - some can be seen here.

At the start of July I shall be having another summer sale/fundraiser for upcoming Autumn events. More info to follow!

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May 2015

Photo of my work installed at One Stop Photo London (c) Mandy Williams

Our small group exhibition, One Stop Photo London, opened yesterday in Covent Garden. The show has had good advance publicity, being highlighted in Time Out magazine, in Urbanautica, and in L'oeil de la photographie. Running at the same time as Photo London, it is open to the public today, Friday and Saturday.

Unseen Landscape # 15 (c) Mandy Williams

Earlier this month I was pleased to be featured in Paradijsvogels magazine from Amsterdam. The article was about my photographic series, Unseen Landscapes.

Am continuing work on the Riverbed Stories video - currently editing a single channel version and will be editing one for a three channel installation. I shall be looking into venues to show this next year.

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April 2015

Images l-r: (c) Mandy Williams; (c) Emmanuelle Foussat; (c) Ingrid Newton

In May I'll be showing some work from the Before series for One Stop Photo London, a fringe exhibition that takes place at the same time as Photo London (20 - 24 May) in Seven Dials, Covent Garden. The other photographers taking part are Hamid Blad, Elisabeth Blanchet, Etienne Clément, Emmanuelle Foussat, Helio Leon, Ingrid Newton and Agnès Villette. It has been organised in partnership with Balthazart and bealondoner.com. The private view is Wednesday 20 May, 6 - 10pm - all welcome!

This past month I've been shooting more video by the river. I have a lot of footage to look through and edit, but am excited by the potential of this work as a future installation.

Also this month I've been shortlisted for the British Women Artist's Competition 2015 which is great news. The shortlist includes some very interesting sculpture and installation and I'm happy to be included with these artists.

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March 2015

London Independent Photography Magazine Spring 2015

I found out this week that London Independent Photography had made one of my Unseen Landscape images their magazine cover for the Spring 2015 Topography issue which was a lovely surprise. There's some very strong photography throughout this issue and I particularly like the work by Ingrid Newton, Celine Marchbank and Sara Wallach. The magazine's on sale at the Photographers' Gallery, Serpentine Gallery and Whitechapel Gallery as well as other London galleries.

I was pleased to find out that the postcard that I'd submitted to Visual Aids in New York for their annual benefit, Postcards from the Edge, sold to a buyer in New York. This featured another photograph from the Unseen Landscape series.

From Riverbed Stories video 2015 (c) Mandy Williams

I have recently started work on a video to accompany the Riverbed Stories photographs and am feeling excited about its development. I was inspired by some of the video work I saw in Paris last month and am approaching this project from a new perspective.

I shall also be taking part in a group show in London this May, more details to follow.

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February 2015

Riverbed Stories #26 (c) Mandy Williams

Much of January has been spent photographing - working on the Riverbed Stories project as well as continuing to add new images to Unseen Landscapes.

Unseen Landscape #9 (c) Mandy Williams

One of the Unseen Landscapes images was included in the Postcards from the Edge annual benefit for Visual Aids in New York. The submitted postcards were on display at Luhring Augustine and attracted a huge crowd. This photograph is by Kourosh Noorbaksh.

Postcards from the Edge for Visual Aids at Luhring Augustine, New York (c) Kourosh Noorbaksh

I've also been looking at producing a new video project and began shooting for this at the end of January.

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January 2015

Wishing everyone a very happy New Year! 2014 was a really good year and highlights included taking part in the Now Wakes the Sea exhibition in Kinsale, Ireland, exhibiting at Somerset House with the National Open Art Competition, being part of Deptford X and Photomonth and receiving the photography award at the Royal West of England Academy.  Throughout the year I felt very enthusiastic about photography and completely obsessed by different projects.

As the year ended I took part in Here From Now, a landscape photography exhibition at the Camden Image Gallery, which featured international photographers and some really excellent work.

The year also ended with the National Open Art exhibition touring to the Minerva Theatre in Chichester, Sussex. I wasn't able to see the show (which finishes 3 January), but this image taken by NOAC shows my Riverbed Stories photograph next to Rogan Brown's prize-winning work.

Later this month I shall be contributing to Postcards from the Edge, the annual Visual Aids Benefit which is being held at Luhring Augustine in New York.

Looking forward to 2015 and working on new projects.

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December 2014

Preview night at Rich Mix, Shoreditch

Sea(e)scape exhibition in Covent Garden and the Photomonth Photo-Open both finished last week and the RWA Open exhibition ends this weekend - it's been a really busy autumn. There was a great crowd for the preview night of the Photo-Open at Rich Mix in Shoreditch as the show was one of the Top 5 selected First Thursday events. I had six photographs in Imagining the East End and there was some great work by photographers David Hoffmann and Dougie Wallace. Thanks to Maggie and Amy for inviting me to take part.

Later this month the National Open Art exhibition that was at Somerset House moves onto Chichester in Sussex and my work will be shown at the Minerva Theatre until early January. I hope to get down and see the show in its new venue.

Here From Now - photograph (c) Nina Sever

Also this month, I'm happy to be included in Here From Now, a landscape photography exhibition featuring some great photographers from around the world. The exhibition, curated by artist William Esdale, will open on Saturday 13 December at the Camden Image Gallery in London and run until the 19 December. I'm showing a couple of images from Riverbed Stories as well as my self-published book. Knowing some of the other photographers' work I would really recommend people try to see this show.

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November 2014

Riverbed Stories, RWA Bristol

I found out early in October that my photograph Riverbed Stories had been selected for the Royal West of England Academy's 162nd open exhibition and was notified a few days later that it had been awarded the Redcliffe Press photography prize which was great news. I went down to the opening event in Bristol to see the exhibition and collect the award. The RWA is a beautiful space and the exhibition is spread out over several rooms, with moving image a new category this year. The exhibition continues through to 7 December.

Opening preview at RWA Bristol

The RWA open has been lucky for me - it was 2011 when I was last there and won the Printmaking Today prize for original print.

One of the Frame photographs in the Sea(e)scape exhibition, Seven Dials

This month Sea(e)scape exhibition continues at Seven Dials Club in Covent Garden and on 6 November the Photomonth Photo-Open starts at Rich Mix, Shoreditch. The theme is ‘Imagining the East End’ and there are 33 photographers exhibiting. I'm very happy to be a guest artist and looking forward to seeing the work. The exhibition is open daily from 10am to 10pm and runs until 30 November.

October 2014

Riverbed Stories at Creekside Discovery Centre, Deptford X (c) Mandy Williams 2014

September was a busy and interesting month. One of the highlights was visiting Ireland for the first time to attend the Kinsale Arts Festival where I had three photographs in the Now Wakes the Sea exhibition. I enjoyed seeing the other work in the show by artists Collette Egan, Elizabeth Lyne, Joan Sugre, Laura Smith, Luke Sisk, Miriam O’Connor, Rita O’Driscoll and Sean Guinan, as well as visiting separate exhibitions by Kathy Prendegast and Daphne Wright.

Riverbed Stories (c) Mandy Williams; in foreground Installation (c) Luke Sisk in Now Wakes the Sea exhibition

As soon as I was back two other exhibitions were installed - one at Seven Dials in Covent Garden and one at the Creekside Discovery Centre in Deptford for the Deptford X festival.

The Covent Garden exhibition, sea (e) scape, has been organised by Balthazart and features photography by myself and Elisabeth Blanchet. I'm pleased to be showing work from two different series, Frame and Immerse. The show opens 1 October and runs through to the end of November, there will be a private view in early November.

The Deptford X exhibition runs over two weekends, finishing on Sunday 5 October. I'm showing seven large-scale weatherproof prints from Riverbed Stories which have been printed up by Concorde Graphics and installed on the large exterior creekside wall. The Creekside Discovery Centre is the perfect place to show this work - all credit to Festival Director Caz Underwood for her management of this project. There are many different arts activities happening throughout Deptford - pleased to have seen a few of these on the festival launch night, particularly liked work by artists Nicola Rae and Victoria Rance.

Also in late September, the National Open Art exhibition opened at Somerset House, London. I went along to the artists' preview evening which was really enjoyable. 122 works were on show from an original submission of around 3500. Many prizes were awarded during the evening.

Riverbed Stories on display at Somerset House (c) Mandy Williams

As Riverbed Stories has been featured in different exhibitions this Autumn, I thought it would be a good time to self-publish a book of a selection of these images. 23 photographs are included in the publication - a full preview can be seen here.

Finally, I was very happy to be invited to be a guest artist for this year's Photomonth. I'll write more about this next month when the work will be on display in Shoreditch.

September 2014

(c) Mandy Williams 2014

August was an exciting month and I'm grateful for the new opportunities that developed. The next couple of months are going to be busy.

At the start of the month I'd been invited to take part in a 'critical discussion' at the Greenwich Gallery with photographer Elisabeth Blanchet. She and I visited the exhibition by local London Independent Photography members to prepare for the 7 August event and the evening was enjoyable and very welcoming. I'd heard of Elisabeth before because of her fascinating work with the Prefab museum, but it was a pleasure to collaborate with her on this event.

On 20 August I travelled down to Salisbury for the opening for the LOST exhibition and was glad to have seen it. A great concept and interesting work on display. I particularly enjoyed seeing the wax handbags by Henny Burnett + David O'Connor's re-staged Map performance. The show, which includes work by Stephanie Douet, Sonia Martin, Prudence Maltby, Dave King and Matt White is on until 28 September.

At the end of July I had found out my photograph from the Riverbed Stories series had made it through the first round of judging for the National Open Art competition show and I had to deliver the framed print for the 2nd round of judging in late August. It was good to discover the drop-off point in Sussex was very close to somewhere I had wanted to re-visit and photograph (the 12th century church at Hardham) so it turned into a day out with the camera. During the following week I was excited to find out the piece had been selected for the NOAC exhibition. It begins in September at Somerset House, London (runs 26 September - 25 October) and then moves to Chichester in December.

More news will follow later this month about Now Wakes the Sea, the Deptford X Festival and a pop-up two person exhibition in October/November.

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