Nu Rave & Mrs Blak......

Benjamin Wisely - Nu Rave DMT Moment © 2012

Loads to upload and share! Coming real soon a shoot for new label Mrs Blak and a load of nu rave silliness.

Benjamin Wisely - Mrs Blak A/W12 © 2012 

XXXora

Benjamin Wisely - XXXora © 2012

Interpersonal Violence

Research © 2012

2012 This is the YEAR!

FordMotion / Sample - © 2012

Idea's & Development

Still perusing the look.
Here's a few bits from recent shoots. The images with Nadia are part of my ongoing exploration of fuller forms, although this time I loosened up and played a bit.

I don't usually encourage my models to view the images as I'm shooting them. In fact I avoid this, but this time something amazing thing happened... She looked at the monitor and made some incredible judgments about her body. The shapes she disliked, the bits she liked, the stuff she would change. All very critical and precise. Here, I had someone confident enough to share there visual body openly with me but who appeared to be at odds with herself. It was fascinating.


Nadia / Jump © 2011

MutterMuse © 2011


These are the last images from me whilst at Studio Seventeen. I'm closing shop to concentrate on assisting and my own work.

Complexd Magazine - Beauty + Body : Issue 7

Some words and work in a recent publication, Complexd Magazine. An amazing online magazine developed by former LCF student Kered Clement that 'celebrating multicultural women of all shades, shapes and sizes'. It's bloody hard to write what it is i try and achieve with images of naked women but the gist laid out in the article is going in the correct direction.

Princessa / Complexd © 2011


Princessa: Untitled Comp © 2011

National Portrait - Taylor Wessing 2011

Being that time of year again here's my entry for 2011. I'll write about the image if it gets selected.
Mother - Ben Wisely © 2011

Productive.

Some recent product shots. It's not art but I quite enjoy it. These awesome pet bowls from super talent Krallier, Bespoke cabinet makers, who do a line in luxury pet accessories. Part of my return to product photography.






All Images - Studio Seventeen Ltd ©

Recently.

There's a whole lot to write. But it all boils down to a long pause to re-align myself and start fresh. In the meantime I've been assisting the artist and part-time stylist Wendy Ford.

Pregnant + Retouch

Pregnant (Untitled Comp) - Ben Wisely / Studio Seventeen © 2010

This is just a little teaser comp from my new work. When finished this image should be an epic eight by four foot C-type print. As an ever growing part of a series of images from test shoots. The simple set up offers a space to reveal the model / sitter's self awareness and self engagement. The nakedness introduces an additional vector..... I have yet to fully understand.

I have always thought of my photographic process as 'straight'. I don't tend to alter much after the event, post work for me is often spotting a few dust marks and maybe a subtle bit of curves to move the images contrast. Recently though I have started to do a little more retouch work and have found it pleasantly revealing. Below is an image from a friend of mine, Claire Harrison that really exposes the positive power of a little editing. I also found myself cleaning skin and aiming for a 'fashion look' this is in direct contrast to my usual warts and all approach. I'm not sure what it means but with the ease of manipulation I can appreciate how magazine and advertising images become over edited expose's of a cultural ideal.

Autumn - Claire Harrison Photography - © 2010

Not winning, New Work....

I entered, I did not win. But my work will be displayed among fifty other photographers works at this years National Portrait Gallery, Taylor Wessing prize. Not bad for my first ever foray into competitions. You can take a glace at the shortlisted four's work here.

Princessa - Wisely / Studio Seventeen © 2010

This brush with potential interest has spurred me on to create some more work. So compared to my usual glacial pace. I have been pumping it out! Above is a sample of an experiment I'm working on. To be honest I have a few very exciting things in the pipeline.

Create Master Inspire - Yeah, whatever.

Despite the shows dodgy School of Economic Science name, Create Master Inspire! This coming week the The Art Academy will be celebrating it's tenth anniversary at the Menier Gallery. With range of work from current students and it's alumni. Of course this means new work from George Triggs. The new piece had been intended for this years ThreadNeedle sculpture prize but unfortunately due to production issues the deadline was missed.

'Influence' - Wisely / Studio Seventeen © 2010

Influence, is a multi-media interactive time based sculpture. The core sculptural element is a large head suspended in space. Onto which two independent projectors are aimed, one at the rear and one at the front. The front projector plays a thirty minute dvd loop. Of a selection of edited and manipulated video we created using a large fish tank and various dyes, inks and paints in water. The second projector is a real-time computer animation of a fluid simulation that takes a nearby camera as it's source data to create outlines of movement. Combined the two projections give the impression of witnessing a brain scan of some form.... fMRI or CAT scan with the pulsing and flicking. The interactivity is limited but offers you the opportunity to inject your own actions. I find the limited and subtle nature of the interactively a breath of fresh air.

Time-lapse of 'influence' being created. The sculpture required over 200kg of clay!

For me this piece is an obvious development of an earlier work, 'Movements of the mind' but taken to a new level. Movements of the Mind used a single and short dvd loop projected on a fantastic glass head. It's was a peaceful piece with the motion of the starlings in the video. Influence has a more obvious logic and feels more aggressive and thoughtful. This is a baby's head, a baby's mind... and it's exciting and dark and explosive. These are stimuli of the word. Then there is our own input. It's untangle able, intentionally or not your actions are injecting into this mind. Unfortunately I don't have any video but I will.... soon.

'Movements of the Mind' - Clarity Show 2009 - Wisely ©

K.Yolland.Moyse - Pick 'n' Mix

Research for Phase Two of K.Moyse's, Pick 'n' Mix multimedia, multi-everything performance series. Leveraging video projection, live data manipulation and multiple performances in a super intense and mentally dense piece that takes you on a journey through to the very heart of how you think you understand. I suppose I should say what in particular you understand but it's not that easy. The video elements linked are just a small selection of a three hour video that plays off real world war and invasion footage against Hollywood fantasies of war. Eventually the Hollywood video capitulates to the near point of indistinguishably between the 'real' and the fictional. This is just a single element in a cocktail of element across a wide range of disciplines that all work together to take you on this journey.

These images are just a splash of the 3 hours used to refine some of the roots of the performance pieces. They don't really transmit anything of the zeal and excitement of watching real people interacting and the confusion or anticipation of there actions. I'm so excited to see and hopefully be involved in the delivery of Pick 'n' Mix - Phase Two.

All images: Moyse - Pick 'n' Mix - Wisely / Studio Seventeen © 2010

Taylor Wessing

I've never entered for a prize. Although I am competitive. Over the past few weeks I've been exploring an idea for a new series. Not sure if they fully qualify as 'portraits' although elements have what I feel is essential in portraiture. So I am biting the bullet and creating a few prints (a rare treat) and entering the National Portrait Gallery's Taylor Wessing prize.
I have looked through previous winners and entrants to gain a sense of the level of work required. The standard of work is compelling but slightly tiring. So I am more than happy to add my series. By tiring I mean I find it hard to engage with the people being presented to me via this medium.

Pencil - Wisely / Studio Seventeen © 5D/24-70L

I am still developing the series ethos in my mind. I see this as rather long haul as most of what I'm envisioning will require developing a good working relationship with the people I will settle on shooting. It's taken me years of photographing Pencil to extract certain aspects of her and capture them.

This image below is not really part of this work but is a fine example of playing around in the studio with yet another camera change. As much as I love the Mamiya RZ67 I just can't move around with it and get involved. It's great for locked off worked or the sculpture stuff. So finally I caved in and got a Hasselblad H1. Despite being tempted by a Contax 645, I decided to invest in a current system that is modern and flexible. All I can say is 'wow'. It's a pleasure to use, the images are perfect and the digital back integrates perfectly. My only gripe is the shear cost of lenses. As much as I would love the 120mm HC that everyone keeps telling me is awesome there is just no way I'll be able to justify one any time soon. Although I am very keen to try the HTS adapter with some new sculpture work on the horizon. I so miss having movements.

Man - Wisely / Studio Seventeen © H1/132C

Additional note: In the last few hours Flickr have specified my account as 'moderate' - the only recent change, the addition of these two images. Are they moderate. They're not sexual nudity.... am I out of step with taste levels? Or should I take this as an early warning about the fate of my image to come at the judging stage?

Recent Stuff.

Me and the studio have been busy. Had an amazing time shooting some rope bondage with a couple who where visiting the UK for London Festival of Japanese Rope Bondage.

Ligatio Suspension One - Allropestied.com - Studio Seventeen © 132C/RZ67

More images from the shoot can be found at my Flickr. For this shoot I just stood back and let them do there thing. Whilst the lack of direction led to a few missed shots the images we made captured the journey they where on during each scene. Definitely keen to do some more fetish based work. Maybe take the lighting to a an extreme and go a little theatrical.

Freak Show - Concept - 132C/RZ67 - © 2010

This was a rush job for a friends degree. Very loose concept of a Victorian freak show shipping container. Given a little more time each box could have been far more refined and textured with some tasty referentiality . Although I am very happy with how this has worked out. First time I have used continuous lighting with the digital back. Using two 1.2kW Fresnel's for that authentic theater look.

Goodbye Betterlight, Hello Imacon

Having a studio on tap is becoming a real boon. It gives me time to seriously play and explore working processes without time and mess constraints. Over the past month I have made a few big changes to my own personal workflow. I sold the BetterLight. My much loved imaging beast with all it's pixels and fantastic pure RGB data is now gone. The decision to move on was born from a growing frustration at how time consuming it had become to make an image. Whilst perfect for a methodical fine art shot not so fun for something that moves or requires a fluid response. Add to this the ever growing need for continuous lights and my stretched budget for studio strobes. The real challenge for me has been to give up on having in camera movements and the precision that i have become accustomed to. After much fretting I settled on a Mamiya RZ67 ProII with an Imacon/Hasselblad iXpress 132C digital back. And since it's arrived I've not looked back...

Jenny & Cat - 132C/RZ67

The camera is big but not unusably so. Also it's lenses and accessories are super cheap compared to the most current medium format digital systems. And probably my most favorite aspect of the camera is it's close focus ability's thanks to using bellows. The 22Mp Imacon back produces fantastic files, although they look coarse compared to the Betterlight. To get the best from these files I have found it best to use Hasselblads own software, Phocus. I don't know how it does it but the images that come out of this software look spectacular when compared with what i was getting using ACR or Flexlight to process the files. But there is a downside..... even on my MacPro quad core 12gb ram beast it's sluggish and slow. Just browsing feels painful. Editing is pure torment. This is something I must fix asap. There is no way i could pull a real world job off with the current speed of Phocus.

Arms Folded , Bronze Resin - George Triggs - 2010 132C/RZ67

Where have i been.... Studio Seventeen

Months have passed. No posting, no nothing. I have taken a short three month departure from many aspects of my life. To take my purpose of being in London to it's logical conclusion. I have set up a fully featured photography studio! Studio Seventeen is a shared space with a George Triggs, sculpture. My side of the building has a 1300 sq/ft photography studio with a 16ft infinity curve, massive array of lighting, light modifiers etc...
Infinity curve nearing completion
This coming Thursday we finally open!! Of all the construction the infinity curve has proved the most challenging. Getting the curve to be perfectly smooth has taken an inordinate amount of time, effort and money. But the finished product is perfect!
The studio is aimed at people with ideas but not the budget to rent nearly every other studio in London. Most studio's are charging obscene amounts for nothing more than a pretty white room. Often without lights or even basic equipment, well we have it all!
Studio cat - Betterlight - iso800 / f5.6 / 1/80th
Our rates a super competitive and include the use of everything in studio. Bowens flash system, 15kw of continuous film & video lighting, full kitchen.... The list goes on! For a comprehensive overview and our introductory rates check our website or email us at: info@studio-seventeen.co.uk
Of course when the studio is not booked or being used i will be pushing my other new business, Archival Digital. This will focus on my expertise with large format digital imaging, using the Betterlight scanning back.

Dave McKean - Narrative Arcs

Recently shot a few high resolution images for British artist Dave McKean. The images present a common challenge within fine art reproduction. Two of the images are gloss vanished they also have a light amount of impasto. This leads either the use of cross polarization or a delicate light placement. I opted for delicate light placement as this removes the exposure and colour issues introduced by the use of cross-polarization. Also i feel the image retains more of its presence without becoming too sterile. There is always a compromise when translation flat art which is textured into a purely two dimensional plane. These images are taken from Dave Mckean current exhibition at Rye Art Galley called Narrative Arcs.Dave McKean 2009

5D MKII - VX1000 for noughties

The 5D mkII is a real deal changer. The much-coveted depth of field of 35mm is now a hand held possibility. As with all tools within financial reach of mere mortals its awesomeness comes with a few caveats.Of these, the most prominent and much talked about is 'jello-cam’. Rolling Shutter is temporal artifact caused by the way CMOS sensors scan across an image frame. Things move during this time and create a visible distortion. In the case of the 5D this can be quite prominent. But a bit of judicious testing and thinking on a practical level reveals that this problem can be overcome. For the best part this means working at a lower shutter speed than would seem sensible. Anything under 1/80th second has appeared fine. I think a lot of the ghastly wobbly shots online come from the camera being used by people from a stills background, where adjusting temporal sampling, the shutter speed is a totality normal way of manipulating exposure. Accept in the case of the 5D's video mode the higher up the shutter speeds you go the more exaggerated the rolling shutter becomes. This leads to the use of neutral density filters to control the exposure. Obviously you can use the aperture but this leads to silly f-stops that destroy the depth of field and introduce diffraction-induced softness to the image. A more pertinent problem that has no solution is the terrible aliasing, especially on brick walls! This is where creative use of depth of field comes in handy.

In many ways getting decent images out of this camera demands treating it much like a real motion picture camera. Thinking about you shots, planning and testing where you can push it. I have been exploring workflow options. My key focus has been on effects work and grading the 5D's output. I have much to say in this area but i'll save that for a latter post.

Art of England - Plumpwench in print

A good start to a new era. Having just moved back to London to officially go freelance, I'm off to a good start. With five images in Art of England and the front cover! I'm even happier as the images were a rush job completed in a day without a studio.
The images were created for the first solo show of George Triggs sculptures and as entry images for ThreadNeedle 2009. It’s immensely pleasurable to see the ideas for the way the sculpture could be imaged refined to the point where it reaches a magazine front cover. For both Broken Man (the cover image) and Falling (bellow) I took advantage of my view cameras movement to emphasize the viewers positional relationship to the works.
"Falling" - Resin - 2009
"Broken Man" - Clay & Epxoy - 2009