I had a fun chat on Flak Photo Network with Stephanie Dean, and she ended up sending me a selection of photographs in response to the theme. These photographs were taken of her whilst she was in photographic education, and she elaborates on them too:

“This was by Mark Lidinsky(Sp? I know his last name was polish and started with an L). We were in a large format class at CCA (CCAC! – Oakland and San Francisco, CA). He called me over to model as Georgia O’Keefe in Alfred Stieglitz’ classic portraits of Georgia. This was the only one I had handy. There are others, and they are beautiful. This one was one where he tore the negative. Type55. Circa 1996.”

This photograph was sent to me by Christine Anderson after I posted about the Perhaps I’m Just a Poser project on Flak Photo Network. A few of us had a great conversation that made me laugh, and Christine had some funny tales. Anyway, as an example of the sort of conversation:

CA: “..this is also the now 40 year old lemon which was given to me when it was 20 years old by a sculpture student….. Cant find the cow picture as of yet but I wanted to get you something.”

PW: “Hey Christine, a 40 year old lemon?! That’s older than me! I’m going to put this photograph on my blog if that’s ok? It’s great. Was the photo of you taken during an educational situation? ”

CA: “Yes….40 years……it used to smell like a lemon not anymore.”

I love it when objects have a story to tell, but also when something makes me laugh. Of the educational situation the photograph was taken under, Christine said:

“This picture was my first year at school my freind had to take some pictures for photography class….so we went to the beach…. My college was situated on the bay in long island and was two minutes from beach… At the time I was Extremly shy…. The folder is my photography folder where my teacher wrote my critiques on the folder…. I was a painting major.”

To start off the submissions from others, I have actually used a photograph from my collection of Carrie Massey, a potential ‘Perhaps I’m Just a Poser’ contributor. This will either encourage her to send more, or put her off for life!

So what was this Carrie? “Right! Stand there and we’ll photograph YOU!”

Anne-Marie Atkinson was one of the presenters at the Photalk #1 event at White Cloth Gallery in Leeds. She presented work from her ongoing project ‘The Rugged Places’ and in her statement she described it as:

“…a photographic documentary series that explores the isolated rural location of the North Pennines and considers what it means to grow up in such an environment. Individual experience of teenagers is considered alongside wider cultural concerns of the rural environment, such as change of primary industry and decline of services.”

Also:

“Adolescents, who make up only a small percentage of the total population, are at risk of becoming liminally fixedʼ. Rendered remote by both their age and location, this project explores anxieties, desires and crises of identity experienced by teenagers against a dramatic rural backdrop.”