some more access....

After my internship, in mid-Feb, I will be photographing the landfill site and recycling centre in Hempsted, Gloucester. I will have full access to roam around the recycling centre which is good, however it looks like I'll be shown round the landfill site in a car with someone that works there and I can take pics outside the window. It's better than nothing I guess!

I also have permission to go and photograph the workers at Westonbirt Arboretum. I'm not entirely sure what kind of work they do, so I'm planning on heading down on Saturday 5th February to meet some of the staff and find out more.

Environmental Exhibition

I am trying to organize an exhibition with other students who are doing their major projects/bodies of work on environmental issues. I think it would be a good way to get the message across, and it will hopefully make an exciting and interesting exhibition to visit as it will hopefully include all sorts of works like photography, illustration, film etc.

I have just emailed the town council and transition town Cheltenham to see if anyone can help with finding a shop/space to hire in Cheltenham town. I'm not really sure the best way to go about it.

At the moment I haven't got anyone to do the exhibition with (except one illustration student) so I need to ask around soon, I just want to do a bit of research into the costs and dates etc so I have more to tell and see who's seriously interested.

The reason I want to do it in March is so that it can tie in with the Working in the Media brief. This puts a bit of pressure on making sure I have good enough images to show by then.

I HAVE ACCESS!!

"Hi Camille,

Thank you for getting in touch.

We, the entire Infinergy team, will in fact be heading up to Ferndale Wind Farm around mid-Feb to see the turbines being hoisted.  The exact date is yet to be confirmed.  Would this be of greater interest?  As well as the hands-on construction team you would also have, project managers, CEO, MD, communication team and even most likely receptionist!

If you’d like to have a chat about this, please do not hesitate to contact me directly.  My contact details should be marked below.

I hope this is of interest. 

Kind regards,

Kari"

Well, this is perfect. I'm really excited about this. I plan to go to the site where it is being built before and after as well so I can get a contrast. Even if I don't use the images I think it'll be good to cover all grounds. 

This Sunday I plan to go to South Wales and see at least one wind farm that has already been built and to photograph that.

Also, the people at Westonbirt have emailed back and are happy to let me photograph, I think the best way to figure out if there's anything useful there is to go and see for myself, however it will have to wait until next weekend unfortunately, unless I can get there Saturday afternoon. Bit of a pain having to squeeze things into such a small space of time in the week. 

Wind Farms in the UK

Well, the renewableuk website emailed me back. they directed me to some useful links -

Wind Farms Currently under construction

Developers to contact for individual wind farms

Find the nearest wind farm to me

From this image you can clearly see that there is no shortage of wind farms for me to shoot

Wind farms in the areas closer to Cheltenham

With this information I emailed the wind farms that are currently under construction that aren't too far away from Cheltenham. There are two in South Wales.
I got a reply from one of them asking me to call them tomorrow, so I really do hope something comes from this phone call. Keep your fingers crossed!

I really want to photograph the people that put the wind turbines up. I can imagine it's quite a hefty procedure. I plan on photographing in a way that shows the people in their most natural way. I do not want to get them to pose, I want them to get on with what they're doing and for me not to get in the way.

Also, SWEA emailed me saying that a wind farm will be being built near Highnam. I'm am uncertain about the dates yet, but let's hope it's before the deadline. I am waiting on a reply to find out.

Posters

Guardian- Green Patriot Posters

I was browsing the Guardian website and found these. They're clever and funny. I might consider making something similar to promote my exhibition at the end of the year.

Stuart Franklin

 GREECE. Stylida. Windfarm about to be set up. Picture taken in 2007.

FRANCE. Champagne Region. Wind turbines. 2007.

GREECE. Corinth. Motor Oil refinery. Picture taken in 2007.

GREECE. Megalopolis. Power station. Picture taken in 2007.

GREECE. Megalopolis. Open caste lignite mine and excavator. Picture taken in 2007.

MALAYSIA. Kepong Forest Reserve. Crown shyness in the 'kapur' tree (Dryobalanops aromatica), one of the dipterocarps that, as they mature in the forest, develop mutual avoidance. 1997.

RUSSIA. Monchegorsk. Kola Peninsular. Polluted landscape affected by nickel smelter. Picture taken in 2006.

USA. California. Julia "BUTTERFLY" in a 200 foot ancient redwood tree named "Luna". She has lived in the sequoia "Luna" for the past year to protect it from deforestation. 1998.

PHILIPPINES. Manilla. Smokey Mountain, a rubbish dump, children scavenge through the waste for anything that could be recycled. 1988.

 BELARUS. 2000. Woodcutter in Beloiveskaya forest.

 I really like Stuart Franklin's work. I can tell he has covered a wide area of environmental issues over a long period of time world wide. He has photographed landscapes and people, which is what I hope to do with my project. Although he has photographed people, I don't think he has photographed them as intimately and thoroughly as I hope to.
Franklin has photographed a lot of issues from energy, pollution, waste, and deforestation. I want to address at least one of these issues. I'm just having trouble finding the people.
Franklin told me he prefers to photograph on film, and he loves photographing trees and people. I can see a lot of his images are on digital and of landscapes. I think it's near impossible to not shoot landscapes when doing an environmental project. 
He also told me he uses digital as it is easier, quicker, and better in low light conditions. I may have to consider this format when shooting my project. I ideally want to shoot on 35mm and hassleblad black and white. 35mm for the people, and hassleblad for the landscapes. But as time is an issue with me as I can't properly start shooting until after my internship I may have to consider digital as it is a lot faster to process.

renewable energy

Renewable UK

I found this useful website, where it shows all the wind farms in the UK. I have emailed them asking if I could photograph the workers that put them up, there are a few in South Wales that are under construction. If I had the time and money I would just go there and ask myself, however I don't so wouldn't want to risk it being a waste of time.