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#APlaceWeLive. Casting call for photographic exhibition subjects.

To whomever it may concern,

I am searching for people to photograph in London. 

My usual line of work is fashion, but for this new body of work you don't have to be pretty, young or thin.
But don't worry if you are... I might still consider you.
Most importantly I just want interesting and diverse people and the chance to photograph them in the place they live.

Not airbrushed.
Not contrived or overly posed.
Just as you are. Honest.

If you would like to be photographed or would like to suggest somebody to be part of this exhibition please send me your/their details to Info@mattfordstudio.com

The social media pages have only just been launched ( twitter/instagram @APlaceWeLive ) but feel free to start hashtaging #APlaceWeLive in the meantime. 

Thanks

MF 

Additional info

Goal:
To create a solo photography exhibition in 2015 with between 30 and 50 colour and black and white portraits.

Creative parameters:
Subjects must be dressed as themselves and photographed in or around the place they live.

Thought Process:
I'm a 32 year old photographer who has recently moved to London after thinking about it for more time than I care to remember.

I have collected many expectations and deluded ideas about what it is like to live here and how I would fit in.

As i'm new and I haven't compleaty settled in i'm still perplexed with discovering ever nook and cranny of every sub culture in this immense and fast evolving place.

Who lives there, where have they come from? Who can still afford that area? Is that the new cool or the has been place?
If I could learn a little bit from the huge diversity of people who moved here and where born here, can I find out what it really means, collectively, to be a Londoner?

Even though I want to go on a journey to discover about the people of London, I want to discover who I want to become my self. Who I already am and where I belong.

I want the process of this exhibition to challenge my creative brain as well as technical skills in a new and different way.  The process of meeting people and photographing them from a completely objective point of view, if anyone knows my work, is completely alien to me. I want to challenge my self to a new way of thinking about what photography can be used for.

The Shiny New Festival 2014. Returning to The Lantern Theatre this July.

Shiny New Festival poster artwork by Matt Ford. 

It's nearly that time of the year again when some of the Northwest's finest new writers and performers get together at The Lantern Theatre as part of Liverpool's only Fringe Theatre Festival. 

Previous years of the festival have showcased amazing new comedy, such as rising Stand-Up star Alistair Clark and "Comedy Rock Stars" brother act, Jolly Boat. Both shows, which debuted at Shiny New Festival, have gone on to be a resounding success in the world famous Edinburgh Festival with 5-star reviews. 

Image Jolly Boat.

The Shiny New Festival 2014 also promises to return with a brand new selection of cutting edge dramas being announced soon. 

The subject matter in previous years has left audiences enlightened, surprised and even shocked at times, as Shiny New claims not to be scared of taking risks.

Bruise By John Maguire, which debuted in 2012's Shiny New Festival, touched on the controversial and taboo subject of gay domestic violence. The dark drama became a surprise hit receiving a standing ovation on both nights with its moving performance from Anthony Proctor. 

Overall, festival organiser, Peter Mitchell and The Lantern Theatre aim to provide Liverpool a taste of The Edinburgh Festival vibe.

Peter insists that,

            "Fringe is where all good theatre starts. By putting on this festival each year we are making people more aware of shows and writers that they might not of heard of before. We don't always have big names but we don't charge an arm and a leg for our tickets. With the amazing support of our new and loyal audiences and the up and coming stars who perform at the festival, we always manage to put on incredible and unforgettable shows."

The Shiny New Festival 2014 at The Lantern Theatre Blundell Street is on from 14th - 20th July. 

Discounted Multi show passes will be available again this year. 

Links:

Shiny New festival Facebook

Tickets and information: Lantern Theatre

Festival Artwork by Matt Ford Studio.

Blog about the making of the poster

Philip Armstrong Showroom Launch and Designers portrait revealed.

Last thursday I made it back to Liverpool for the launch of Philip Armstrong's new Showroom/ Design studio. 

Tony and Philip, the designers behind the brand, have had quite a year with a record number of dresses being worn at Movie premiers, Award shows and TV spots on both sides of the Atlantic. Their latest A-lister fan is Beyonce. 

Fellow Liverpudlian Abby Clancy even helped the pair get one of their dresses on the front page of the Express during the National Soap Awards in January. 

The one-off floor length red dress, which got favourited by top Elle magazine Editor, is one of many sported by the current Strictly Come Dancing winner. 

The launch event was also the reveal of my Pop Art portrait of the two designers, now hung in the entrance of the showroom. 

The showroom is now open to the public and offers many ready to wear designs as well as catering to their made to measure clients. 

Philip Armstrong.

No 1 
Brunswick business Park
Liverpool

L3 4BL 

My latest collection shoot with them, their first to be stocked in Paris, goes live in a few weeks so check back soon for the highlights of that. 

This image shot by my self is from their Atelier 2014 currently available to view by request. 

Clare Jordan and I at the P.A. Launch.

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Cut and Paste.

I've been musing over lots of cut and paste work lately in antisapation for the forthcoming Richard Hamilton Exhibition at Tate Modern.

This is one of my more successful takes on his work, featuring an outfit from gender blurring designer Jean Paul Gaultier, a giant plaster penis from artist Sarah Lucas and Daniel Radcliffe trying to butch up to the camera. Read into that what you want. 

*Update. Weds 7th May 2014. 

I've been trying to mix up the above (real physical photographs and water colour) with a new graphic digital illustration style with out much success. The styles seem to work better, at the moment, standing alone. The hope is eventually merge the two styles to make this years (my 3rd year designing in a row) Shiny New Festival artwork and then after that who knows. 

The past two posters (below) for Liverpool Fringe Festival have drawn inspiration from my 60s vintage movie posters book and the gloriously trashy cut and paste techniques used on the likes of the God Save the Queen artwork that The Sex Pistols used. We had planned to use this style three years in a row but it's time for something new. 

Here's a look into my sketch pad so far and the new completely digital style I'm trying to develop.

Please leave some comments at the bottom if you have any opinions good or bad. 

"Give it to my Amy - Aha Aha"

"Me - (Matt Ford)."

"Dance off."                                                                                                       "Fashion Illustration #1"

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Liverpool's top photographers exhibit for Charity Auction. Photo for Youth.

Danger Anger Love Passion  By Matt Ford

100cm x 100cm. Mixed reds, acrylic paint and silkscreen print on wood
Exhibition Price £1800 

LTD Edition Prints are available to order online from Matt Ford Studio/dangerangerlovepassion

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‘Photo For Youth’, curated by renowned photographer and artist Viktorija Grigorjevaite, will launch on Thursday 07th November.

Work exhibited will include shots by Rankin and some of Liverpool's favourite photographers like Peter Carr, (myself) Matt Ford, Mark McNulty, Mike McCartney, Amy Faith and Neil Roland...

What follows will be a 2 week exhibition running from 8-11th November with all money raised going directly to Merseyside Youth Association to support their projects in youth work, counselling and mentoring for young people aged 7-25.

Look out for coverage in the next Collective magazine. 

I will be exhibiting 3 pieces:

Danger Anger Love Passion (at the Top).

Bruise in Black. (Edition of 2)

100cm x 100cm. Photography, digital manipulation and silkscreen print on paper. 

Exhibition Price £1300 

Originally shown at my exhibition, The Art Show SS12. (1 of an edition of 2 still available)

The Bruise Inkblot tests.

Nine individually framed 40cm x 40cm Photography, digital manipulation and silkscreen prints on paper. 

Exhibition Price £1100 

The Bruise Collection, Including Bruise in Black and the set of *nine inkblot tests were produced by screen printing high contrast photographs of cuts and bruises. There are nine sets of nine prints in the inkblot test edition. Five sets are still available including the set at the exhibition.
*There will only be 8 in the set on display at this Exhibition. Due to space we decided to show them in rows of four instead of three rows of three. The exhibition price includes all nine.  

The exhibition will be open to the public from Friday 8th Nov - 17th Of Nov. 

Albert Dock. Unit 7 - Colonnades.

For more details:

Info@mattfordstudio.com (Myself)

Grivicky@gmail.com (Curator Viktorija)

Mark Melia AW13.

The latest collection by Mark Melia sums up what the Liverpool designer is all about. Lavish embellishments, Grecian draping and other classic references that make him one of the only Liverpool designers that appeals across the board. 

Location Camp & Furnace

Photography Matt Ford 

Model Laila Wallace

Hair/Makeup Mac (Met Quarter)

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Introducing Almanac.

Liverpool's famously impartial and trusted blog, sevenstreets.com, has finally launched in print. 

Editor David Lloyd was kind enough to ask me to answer a few questions for a mini feature in issue one.

David Lloyd: Tell us about your new studio/gallery.

Matt Ford: I have been in the Studio for about seven years and it has been used primarily as a working photo studio. I've shot everything from fashion editorial for internationally recognised fashion brands like Philip Armstrong and Benna Jewellery to cultural festival artwork and most of my fine art work originated here. 

(Philip Armstrong AW13. Shot by Matt.)

After having four exhibitions over the past 2/3 years, in other locations around Liverpool, (one fashion and three art) I felt it was time to have a permanent home for my art work to be seen, so I made it into a showroom of sorts. I have also created a website to provide a digital residency for my work and now other Artists from the local scene and as far as Los Angeles. 

DL: You've moved away from pure fashion? Why?

MF: I still get a lot of commissions, but mainly directly from fashion designers, which I love. It's one of the most fast paced creative industries out there, art directing a shoot with designer feels like a creative collaboration. Just because of the commercial influence it doesn't stop them being artists in their own right. 

However, I started to evolve creatively because I felt like there was more that I wanted to say with my work. I wanted to know what it felt like to make something, communicate something, that stood alone from anyone else's direction. It's quite a daunting feeling putting your naked ideas out there to be judged, but it's something you just have to do. 

DL: Tell us about your recent work?

The beauty of the body. Silk screen print on wood By Matt Ford. (Shop print).

MF: One of the things I felt like I had to do was somehow move away from mass reproduced digital printed copies of my work and make something resolution, colour, size specific, that I had complete control over. So I got back to basics and started to screen print my own photographs. It's the first time in years I've felt like created something truly original. Alot of the work I make now is one off and you have to see it in the flesh to absorb its impact. 

Take for example my latest fine art collection, The Death Love Sex Self Collection. I tried to pour everything I had into it. Even though the underline theme of the series was drawn from ideas about what place religion has in modern society, specifically Buddhism, the process of making it went on to be so much more. Technically I discovered how to use colour, texture, composition and reference in a totally new way. My new work appears stripped down and simple, but emotionally it's the deepest work I've ever done. 

My latest commercial work involves a new poster for the Vogue Ball. The image involves hyper real digital manipulation and a vogueing girl with six arms like a Hindu god and she has snakes for hair. Through this I'm fascinated by Pop surrealism at the moment. I'd like to take this fascination further with another commission I'm working on from Homotopia.

DL: What's coming up in the space. 

(Preview Exhibition Dates Extended).

MF: With the launch of my website in April, I've been using the space to showcase the artists featured on the site. We had a 'Preview Exhibition' for Liverpool art month where we sold work from local artists including showing work from an amazing Los Angeles based photographer seen for the first time in the UK. His work was all received and we sold every piece. 

Image Gregory Goldin. (Shop Prints).

Image Lu Lowe. (Shop Prints).

The studio is also used by myself and a hand full of local photographers, in the past few months we've had the likes of Mark McNulty shooting music promo shots and Fashion designer Kirsty Doyle working in the space on her own stuff. We even have the space open most evenings to theatre goers from The Liverpool Actors Studio.  It's a relatively small space but we see a lot of versatility of culture pass through. It's a fascinating place to be. 

DL: How do you go about the curation process?

MF: The current curatorial process for Matt Ford Studio is about using the gallery/studio and website to show artwork from people who are inspiring and make me, as an artist, work harder. We're in a gradual process of bringing together a group of artists, from around the world, that I want to work with again and again on future exhibitions and projects. 

DL: What's inspiring you these days?

MF: Vintage movie posters! I'm about to start planning the next poster artwork for The Shiny New Fringe Festival,  so I've already started looking at classic movies posters for inspiration. 

(Shiny New Festival 2012)

DL: Is it possible to make a good living as a photographer in Liverpool?

MF: ...it's what I always say, if you work hard, you can achieve anything. 

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Preview Exhibition at Matt Ford Studio.

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Update: Exhibition dates extended.

Preview Exhibition has now closed to the public. We will be replacing sold work over the coming week and The Matt Ford Studio art collection will be viewable by appointment only, until June 30th. 

To book an appointment click here. 
To receive news updates on are forthcoming exhibition, coming soon, click here. 

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For Liverpool Art Month May 2013, Matt Ford Studio will be having a Preview Exhibition of new and exsiting work from our recently launched website.
The Studio will be open to the public to view the work Thursday the 16th- Sunday 19th May 2013. 12-4pm.
The next artist to be showing work on our site is Los Angeles based photographer Gregory Goldin. Check back soon for our interview with Gregory. Three pieces of his work (one featured on our poster below) will be on display and we will be selecting more to be sold on-line after the exhibition.

Check out the Photobooth Project that will be on during the expo on Friday night and Saturday Afternoon. The Art Month bus tour will also be stopping at the Studio on Saturday at about 2.30

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