Phil Fisk - The Grove / London Short Film Festival

We are delighted to announce that Phil Fisk's documentary film "The Grove", made the Official Selection, and will be showing at the London Short Film Festival on 26th January at Curzon Soho.

Short largely during the first couple of years of the Covid pandemic, Phil's film focusses on "an abandoned pub carpark on the A205 in South London, [where] local kids are creating ramps and an assortment of skate park structures, splicing old gas canisters, wooden planks, pallets, bags of cement, rubble, drinks cans, abandoned sofas - anything and everything, to create their own home-grown skatepark - and likewise establish a safe place for themselves, away from the traffic, the pandemic and authority."

More info here and here - and you can read about the full lineup of events here.

And of course you can watch “The Grove” on our website here. It’s a beautiful, contemplative film - and well worth a watch! 🙌

 

Phil Fisk - Mike Skinner

Phil shoots Mike Skinner… the subject of a short film (/rockumentary) he’s been working on since 2019, with the first teasers being released in the new year ⚡️.

Phil describes Mike as a “professional disruptor. Dictator, denier and destructor. The king of trash, prince of darkness, the founder of the Cannibals. The loser of his mind. One of a kind. Master of his own downfall and slave to the rhythm of rock n roll. [and also] My neighbour. 👍”

The film promises to be a captivating journey into Mike’s life. We can’t wait to watch!

 

Frankie Turner - Let Them Eat Cake

We love this pastel-hued cornucopia of confectionary delights, captured as part of a magnificent personal project by Frankie Turner.

Food / drink artfully styled by Kieron George. Props / wardrobe by Vic Twyman 🙌🎂🍾🥂✨

 

Joseph Ford - Denis Meyers / MAUSA Vauban and an Invisible Jumper 🧶

Proof that good things come to those who wait…!

In early 2020, Nina Dodds started knitting this sweater, based on a design street artist Denis Meyers created to match his installation at MAUSA Vauban (Museum of Urban and Street Art).

Joseph was supposed to travel to Alsace to photograph Denis wearing the jumper at the end of March 2020, but Covid had other ideas. The shoot was rescheduled for March 2021 but the pandemic put a halt to that plan too.

Finally, in March 2022 Denis and Joseph got to shoot this stunning portrait for Joseph’s INVISIBLE JUMPERS project.

Can you read the words on the sweater? Scroll down for a closer look! 🔍

 

Joseph Ford - PX3 Awards Fine Art Photographer of the Year 2022

We are thrilled to announce that Joseph Ford is “FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR 2022” at the PX3 AWARDS in Paris - for his INVISIBLE JUMPERS project, created in collaboration with the amazing @ninadoddknits 🧶. Joseph also won a Gold and a Silver award in two other categories!

Such an inspired, imaginative and stunning series of images. The awards are massively well-deserved and we are super delighted for you Joseph 🏆🥇🎖 🙌

 

Phil Fisk - Ramaswami

Part 2 of Phil’s stunning ALLOTMENT series featuring eccentrics found among the vegetable patches… 🌽🥦🥕 📻 🥬🥒🌶

“Ramaswami Krishnan acquired his allotment to save his marriage. Their house was overflowing with electronic equipment that he had saved from the street and car boot sales since the 1980’s. He retired as a physics teacher twenty years ago and started repairing and taking apart early computers. But the small Victorian terrace soon filled up and he was forced to find a shed of some kind, as long as it was “away from the house”…! By chance a family friend offered a share in his allotment and now old technology and horticulture exist side by side. Kris, as he likes to be called, is yet to fully embrace the digging and planting but he is happy in his new home and there is “finally, peace at home.”

Thanks for the wonderful casting Sue Odell, props by the amazing Vic Twyman and awesome job by all the team 👏

 

Phil Fisk - Elena

We’re delighted to share a stunningly beautiful new personal project by Phil Fisk…

“Elena comes to her allotment every day in all weathers. She took over the plot when her son left home and found she had all this time to herself once more. She remembered growing up in Lithuania in the early 1950s and working on the family smallholding. They had pigs and ducks and her father made his own “Namine”, a homemade form of Poitín or moonshine, which was his escape from the hardships and life without a wife and mother. Elena would escape to the woods full of moss and berries that she would collect and dry. She would store these along with feathers, egg shells, seeds and twigs in a jewellery box her mother left. As she grew older, she would create intricate brooches and headdresses and wander the dark forest as someone else, somewhere else. In the quiet, she would dream of leaving and moving west.”

Huge thanks to all the team, not least of all Vic Twyman for the superb prop styling and wardrobe, the incredible Sue Odell for the awesome casting, and of course to model Alex Bruni who brings more than a little magic to these images ✨

Phil Fisk - more Garden Portraits

More of Phil’s beautifully emotive images from his ‘Garden Portraits’ series, captured using carefully controlled natural light in his garden studio featuring neighbours during lockdown.

 

Phil Fisk - The Grove - still lives...

Simple and symbolic portraits of a place…

These still life shots of DIY skate ramps and structures, environment and community, were captured by Phil Fisk at The Grove DIY in South London, the setting for his beautiful AOP 2022 Awards nominated documentary film (see next post).

 

Phil Fisk - The Grove / AOP Awards

During the lockdowns of 2020 (when official skateparks were closed), a group of enterprising skaters found an abandoned car park near the South Circular and established the beginnings of “The Grove”…

Phil Fisk captured the story of the space in this wonderful film, which we are delighted to announce is a finalist in the Documentary Category at this year’s AOP Awards

In an abandoned pub carpark on the A205 in South London, local kids were creating ramps and an assortment of skate park structures, splicing old gas canisters, wooden planks, pallets, bags of cement, rubble, drinks cans, abandoned sofas - anything and everything, to create their own home-grown skatepark - and likewise establish a safe place for themselves, away from the traffic, the pandemic and authority.

Safe… if you discount the odd broken wrist and elbow graze.

Safe… as an outdoor space where anyone with or without a board could hang out.

Initially they were chased away by security guards but soon found support for their endeavours from local residents, councillors and even Dulwich College Estate who own the land.

Phil filmed the steady transformation of the abandoned space, during the days and nights as winter drew in - “trying to capture the atmosphere, tricks (and constructions) as they happened without interfering with the natural flow of the space.”

The film opens with a shot of the sun coming up over a large tree… set against a soundscape of distant traffic, scrapes and clatters, skateboard wheels rolling over concrete and snippets of caught conversation, the resulting film is beautiful, contemplative and ultimately hopeful…

Phil hopes it, “feels something like a compressed day in the life of The Grove in which 6 months feels like 24 hours.”

Although the future is uncertain, it looks as if, for now, The Grove is here to stay…

 

Joseph Ford - L'Art du Fil

Delighted to share this stunning publication featuring images from the "knitted camouflage" collaborative project between Joseph Ford and creative knitter, Nina Dodd.

"L'ART DU FIL" is a sumptuous collection of colourful and richly textured textile art and is available in all good bookshops.

Huge thanks to Marie-Madeleine Massé and @editionsalternatives for featuring the work, and to @ninadoddknits for the amazing creative collaborations, as always 🍉 🧶 💚💛❤️