Bath Fringe Festival

Image (c) Rhys Jones - Unseen Light Postcard Installation May/June 2009

Our MA Part I exhibit is opening in the Walcot Chapel, Bath on Friday 22 May 18.00 - 21.00 and will be running from Saturday 23rd May until Sunday 7th June as part of the 2009 Bath Fringe Festival. I am planning to submit a series of images - static and in motion - which portray a reflection of an unseen and sometimes hidden light in which we exist. The world of reflections, dreams, traces of the present and past and pointers to our future. This is a very different and conscious shift in the style in which I am currently working. The camera is almost being used as part of the storytelling and sitting within an environment rather than as an instrument to depict. What we see when we look at a reflection depends on our mood, the atmosphere around us, whether we are alone or in a crowd, what we are thinking about past, present and future. We can also see when we are in a dream. It is very difficult and complex to read into a mind what is going on when we look at something.

Dimbola Lodge

I am on the Isle of Wight for the next few days staying with relatives. One of the places we always like to visit is the former home of the Victorian pioneer photographer, Julia Margaret Cameron. Dimbola Lodge is located near Freshwater Bay close to the cliffs on the south side of the island where Tennyson used to walk and also close to the site of the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival. There is a permanent exhibit of the festival in Dimbola Lodge museum and a statue of Jimi Hendrix has been placed in the grounds. Well worth a detour from the coastal path or round the island cycle route! 

Edinburgh Fringe Festival

In an act of possible sheer stupidity to think that it can be pulled off, I have got an option on 10 rooms in Edinburgh Metro Youth Hostel in the hope that a Phoenix may arise from the flames in the form of a coherent production for the Edinburgh Fringe by a diverse group of visual artists, poets and musicians not all of whom are currently known to me! But this is the way of the world with this festival....you have to do it first and ask questions later! The rooms are really quite reasonable at £27.50 a night for 4 nights from 17-21 August. If anyone fancies their chances on the fringe then this could be just the springboard you are looking for! Drop me an email rhysjones@ntlworld.com 

Sound Bite 2009

I had a great time at the 2009 Sound Bite Festival at St Donats Castle in the Vale of Glamorgan near Cardiff. I ran two full day photography workshops for Atlantic College students. We exhibited the work produced in the gallery. I took some images of some of the other artists and performers - poets, musicians and dancers - and made some new friends. The festival this year was smaller than the previous festival in 2007. In some ways it was a miracle that it was held at all - St Donats Arts Centre had been on the verge of possible closure and serious curtailment of their programme of events due to loss of Arts Council funding so it was good to see that this festival was able to take place and I was very pleased to be invited to take part.

I'm taking a few days break in the week after Easter - the last few weeks have been extremely pressured for one reason or another so I need to take a few days out to recharge and pick up some long overdue reading and correspondence.

Another year beginning!

April 10th 2009 is the start of another year on this planet for me. We are planning to meet up with my family today - it's not easy to get us all together these days and it's not going to get any easier. This is the first birthday I will have had since my dad passed away so it will have a different feel but I'm sure his presence will be felt by everyone and I'm sure we will all have a great time. Unfortunately the weather is not great today - rain at the moment and more forecast! Talk about raining on my parade! LOL