I got my old hard drive out and looked at old work. Now I am not a writer so, don’t expect me to go shakespeare about this work. The Work I done in 2nd year of University, I must admit, it does not seem a lot has changed, it anything the subject matter I was trying to get into has came more into the spotlight in the last year. Clearly looking at gun control in America, Obama’s fight with it over the last number of years he has been President. Obama with his eyes closed, I think its funny, as he seems to be one of the few with his eyes open in relation to the gun control issue in America at the moment, only so long that the entire Government can look away from the situation and not see the situation for what it is.

This work was developed when I was studying printmaking.It is photography, screen print and photo collage.

I have a lot of work I developed and worked on and then had to stop, as the semester was over or the work got marked, was not a good way to practice and I am glad I held on to all the work, from this half a year I managed to come up with a few series of work looking at Vistas and beautiful landscapes and then looking at world issues and bringing them into the work, developing it, creating a different reality, all of those buzzwords that University loved. I look at it now and enjoy it,  the two portraits came from World Press Photography, 11, the images are not my own, I only use them to create and develop work such as this, background is cavehill in Belfast, this is my image.

December 27th. 

I had been planning this for some time. Choosing the ring and planning the actual engagement in Finn Lough , but the hardest part from keeping the secret from Sarah, as cheesy as it is, she is my best friend and she does know everything about me, the way I say something or smile or look and she is onto me, so I knew this would be tricky.

On the morning of the 27th after a night out with our friends I had suggested we go on a drive, a long drive out somewhere that someone had suggested the night before that Sarah would love, of course Sarah would say yes. She had no idea I had a suitcase already packed and in the boot, cameras all packed and charged and everything in place. 

First off, Sarah HAD to get her Pizza.

We drove up to Finn Lough, which is just past Lusty Beg in Enniskillen, so was a long enough drive for our wee motor. Once we got there I had to say my name to get in the gates, Sarah was questioning this and quickly I had to think on my feet, I said as an extra Christmas present that we would be having a lovely meal here after a nice walk, which she was ecstatic about and no longer questioned anything else, I was beyond stressed and nervous. 

Once getting there I let sarah finish her Pizza, yep a whole pizza and I talked with reception about our room as we were staying over, she had no idea about this, and timing our meal for after the walk, they were fantastic, I asked for candles and blankets and they drove on down ahead of us and laid out for me. 

So everything was set, I got Sarah, got the camera bags, checked the ring was in my shirt pocket, we wrapped up and went on our adventure walk. At this point I was unsure as to where I would ask the question but just went with it, Sarah was taking photos, I was taking photos and in general having a nice time. 

We got to a clearing in front of the water, I knew this was just right, I had said about my 35mm camera I wanted to show with, Sarah was setting up the tripod while I got the other camera from my bag, this camera has a waist viewfinder which meant once it was on the tripod and positioned she would have to look down into it to see what was their to picture, I put the ring inside the viewfinder, got it set and then told Sarah to have a look and see how it was. 

This was it, this was the moment, it all came down to this. Sarah asked if their was something dirty in the lens or where their stars out already or something….. I had to tell her to look a bit closer…. while I was in front of the camera with my camera to capture the moment, she looked up, eye glazed, a cheeky smile and said yes.

We had a lovely night stay at Finn Lough, we got a lovely meal and since have been a complete bubble of happiness and looking forward to our future. A big thank you to Finn Lough for all the help and thank you to Peter from Leo for the beautiful ring.

It was great to get down to the final Loft collective drink and draw. Having only being once before I felt ashamed this was going on in the city of Belfast and I had been down so little, I can only say well done to Loft for putting this on and growing it to the fantastic event that it was. I look forward to seeing it continue and grow on a new path, I got to take some photographs of a great space.

Have a look at the website and facebook linked below.  I leave Deadbeat creative and his write up on the last event.

Loft facebook or Loft website

Deadbeat Creative - Goodbye 99 North Street 

You can check out my instagram here. Malachy

www.brianjohnspencer.com

These shots are from a celebration of new years eve just
past.

Unfortunately
my computer took a little turn for the worst, frustrating as it held up my
uploading the past few weeks but we are back in business now and here are some
of the things I have been working on in the past month.

The
first batch are some of the artwork and interesting characters down at the
whitewash graffiti event at T13 Belfast, take a pop down if you haven’t been,
really cool place indeed!

The
second little batch is a day trip my girlfriend and I took up the north coast,
bit chilly as the evening crept in but the serenity down by the water was
really irresistible. The stillness of the waters just gave this really
beautiful effect of reflection.

This building will no doubt be easily recognisable to many of you, the old
co-op or as so many of us came to know and love it, the Orpheus building. As an
art college graduate I couldn’t miss the deconstruction of our beloved Orpheus.
The whole city has been watching the Ulster redevelopment lately; staff and
students alike feel a real sense of sadness at the decision to not integrate
the old building into the new designs. In the photographs you see the beginning
of the demolition and I intend to follow the deconstruction photographically
right through until the end, who knows, there could be some nice memorial
prints to come in the future.  

Last
night I attended an event for Nor Lisa Fashion. I have always loved the idea
of what goes on backstage before a show or production, behind the scenes when
it has yet to all come together and people are set in their own tasks and
preparations. I recently experienced this same at the Belfast School of Art,
Design and Fashion end of year degree show in the incredible St. Anne’s
cathedral. I knew I’d be keen to replicate the experience of working with such
limited lighting, in this instance the lighting was indeed difficult but I do
enjoy a challenge. Some of the images are of a documentary nature, some have a
stronger light source but all in all I really like the outcomes. The very tight
working space and the alternating paced nature of this type of show is always
unpredictable to photograph, I feel that is part of the intrigue however and I
love some of the moments I have captured as seen below. 

I Was down checking out the work  that was going on with Gurerrilla Shout and DSNT while they set up for Culture Night 2015 and they present ‘Lumen’ - an immersive audio-visual light installation in the Old Exchange and Assembly Rooms at the Four Corners of Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter.

The building is derelict but has beautiful victorian decoration as a backdrop to the visuals. Some stunning work here, it is on from 2 - 10. I was down, taking some images behind the scenes during the setup for the show.

Here are the links to the event  and the pages 

- https://www.facebook.com/events/1467169966924193/

- https://www.facebook.com/guerrillashout

A few days ago I was down with the Northern Ireland Street soccer team at their launch to the Homeless World Cup which is being held this year in Amsterdam. What is the Homeless World Cup? It is of course similar to the Street Child World Cup, working with older people who have been homeless. It is a unique, pioneering social movement which uses football to inspire homeless people to change their own lives. 

They operate through a network of more than 70 National Partners to support football programmes and social enterprise development. They provide a focus for—and celebration of—their year-round activities by organising and delivering an annual, world-class, international football tournament for national teams of homeless men and women that takes place in a different city every year.

This is very similar to the Street Child World Cup which I was involved in last year. This is a fantastic charity and event that gives the issue of homelessness a platform to be discussed by those who have recently been or still are on the Streets. 

I hope in the future to become more involved with this charity, working with them not only via photography but actual development in some small way. I hope to continue my portrait work as this is a body of work I want to grow.

I am going to put the facebook link for the Northern Irish football team, the Republic Of Irelands team and then links for the Homeless World Cup for anyone interested in becoming more involved in any way or just to watch some of the matches live.

Check out some of the photography going on, capturing some beautiful moments.

https://www.facebook.com/Street-Soccer-NI-504292489664000/timeline/

https://www.facebook.com/homelessworldcup?fref=ts

https://www.homelessworldcup.org/

I am not one with words, but the current situation going on with refugees coming to Europe from their war torn countries is horrible. Being brought to camps, owning nothing and in desperate need of help only to be treated with disrespect, cruelty and humiliation. Millions across Europe have came together for collections and to bring aid, aid the Governments are refusing the large numbers. Some images of the work going on so far in Belfast, Northern Ireland by Volunteers.