Melissa Rosanne

2010-03-03T15:56:00.000Z

Hey, now is the time for me to post some of my own goings on and work...

let it snow.

2010-01-07T16:42:00.001Z

After the big snow of the past week, went out and took a few pictures around my house x

Lohan.

2009-12-10T17:00:00.000Z

Vidal.

2009-12-10T16:56:00.001Z

http://www.dripbook.com/barbaravidal/book/sous-le-soleil-exactement/

Rosie.

2009-11-16T11:51:00.000Z

I love love this girl. Totally gorgeous, looks incredible in everything she wears. This shoot was in Harpers Bazaar shot by Dusan Reijin x

Anna.

2009-11-14T11:40:00.003Z

These beautiful shots of Anna Selezneva in Dealer de Lux are shot by the duo Waldemar and Max. Gorgeous x

Where the wild things are.

2009-11-14T11:20:00.007Z

The much anticipated release of Sendaks 'Where the Wild things are' is causing a stir in all aspects of the arts. This enchanting photoshoot featuring Julia Shvets is inspired the upcoming film, shot by photographer Kate Orme.

Alice in Wonderland.

2009-10-20T13:29:00.002+01:00

Can't wait x

Frieze Art Fair.

2009-10-20T11:01:00.010+01:00

So, I made my way to Regents Park, London, on Sunday with my lovely mother, to witness this years Frieze Art Fair. My first visit to one of the world's most important art fairs, what graced me was an overwhelming large amount of galleries and work. Having only a one day pass, I was excited yet had a feeling of dread that I was not going to be able to browse everything as long as I would like, or miss something really excellent.

However, I wandered around, taking in not only the work, but also the people visting and browsing, and was greeted with brilliant work. Grayson Perry's intricately sewn 'Walthamstow Tapestry' can be read from left to right, starting with a graphic scene of childbirth and then continues with depictions of the seven ages of man, through childhood, adulthood and eventually to death. But woven around these stages are hundreds of brand names, detached from their products but leaving behind them, Perry says, 'the aroma of the particular values they convey.'

I actually felt sad when greeted with Michael Elmgreens 'L'homme qui ne marche pas', which echoed to me scenes of the holocaust and camps ,especially due to the man's thin, almost breakable frame, but was an reflection of life after the recssion, a world with no more walking.
Here are more of my favourites;

Here are a few more of my favourites;

Also, what made my day was the sudden appearance of Tracey Emin, just as I was leaving. I quickly went up and spoke to her and grabbed a photograph.

yay x

Taylor Wessing photographic Portrait Prize.

2009-10-13T13:23:00.004+01:00

Here are the four shortlisted photographs for this years Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize. Personally, I am in favour of the last one, which titles;Stas, Sentenced for Murder, Juvenile Prison, Russia (2009) by Israel-born photographer Michal Chelbin.

Jack May.

2009-10-13T11:41:00.001+01:00

Yes yes, it is my best friends little brother appearing alongside Carmen Kass in this months edition of British Vogue.

yovani hotel.

2009-06-15T15:40:00.001+01:00

Messing around with the apeture on my camera in my hotel room in Uganda. Interesting effects.

Night dancers.

2009-05-05T15:35:00.001+01:00

There is a strong belief in witchcraft and evil spirits, especially throughout the slums of the cities and the rural areas of Uganda. Witch doctors are common; indeed we passed the witch doctors house several times. But the strong belief which interested and scared me the most was the story of the night dancers. By day, they are ordinary people who live out their daily lives, but by night they are cannibals who eat corpses and dance, naked. If you see one, you become one, and your children will also turn into night dancers. There is such a firm belief in these creatures and the story continues that if you doubt them, it is you they will come after.

Violation?

2009-05-03T11:20:00.002+01:00

I began to feel less and less comfortable taking photographs and film around and about as the trip went on. There became too many angry looks and too many dangerous situations I was putting myself in. Every photograph and film footage I took became and act of violation and intrusion. When taking photographs in Garden City Mall, in Kampala, I wanted not only to express the wealth, spaciousness and obscenity of the place, but also focus on the shifting boundaries that had changed between the subjects and myself and my camera. When walking around the slum, I was extremely conspicuous, and there was always a response to my presence, whether it be extremely welcoming, somewhat wary, or slightly aggressive. Again to my camera, associated with wealth and the west, people had very different reactions to it. However, in Garden City, only visited by the richer Ugandans or Westerners, no one gave me a second glance. So when taking pictures, there was no reaction to my previously supposed violation.

Washing.

2009-05-01T17:00:00.002+01:00

In the MLisada orphanage, where I spent most of my time, I felt more comfortable and at ease with myself and using my camera. There was no aggression there, quite the opposite, as the children were thrilled when I took their photographs. However, when wandering around taking photographs a sense of intrusion. When in the house on my own, walking around and taking pictures of personal effects and private spaces felt like a deliberate sense of invasion. For example, a persons washing is not meant to be seen, it is the in between phase of a clothing’s purpose, to be worn. By taking a photograph it immortalises the washing, forever putting on display someone’s private routines.

This can be said about many of the photographs that were taken in the slum. Things, places and moments which are never meant to be seen or remembered, have been captured and immortalised forever. The people who gave me negative reactions upon attempting or succeeding in taking a photograph; would they give the same response when realising the full extent of the taking? Or would they soften, or become even more negative and distrustful? After all, it is the unknown foreign nature of the camera which makes them dislike it, put in conjunction of course with my white skin. But seeing a photograph, something which is there and evident of itself, would it calm their qualms, seeing the product, or stir their negativity even more, seeing an immortalised picture?

Hide.

2009-05-01T11:33:00.001+01:00

When photographing in the slum, I could also argue that instead of a deliberate intrusion into other people’s lives, it is an act of protection. When walking through the Nsambya slums, the sights are often difficult to fully believe and take in. You can see the sights that are before you, but it proves difficult to connect yourself to it and truly believe it. Perhaps this is because our society is so far from this grave state of poverty. When thinking this, it can be viewed that the camera is a source of protection, a glass lense looking from one world to the next and therefore an act of non-intervention, By looking through a camera at an image, you do not have to look with your own eyes, and have to experience it first hand. You can hide.

Any spare plastic bags?

2009-04-30T15:52:00.001+01:00

One aspect of life in Uganda that has amazed me during all my three visits is the resourcefulness of the people. Our society, where we throw away unopened food, and last season’s fashions, is one of mass-consumerism and wastefulness. We have no comprehension of what it is to go without the latest material goods, never mind the basic necessities of life. Throughout my trips however, which have been largely spent in the slums of Nsambya, I have been made aware of the need to make use of every scrap of material, recycle every last bit of food, and pass down clothes through numerous siblings. For those who have electricity, it is turned off when it is not absolutely essential, and use of running water is kept to a minimum. In our worlds every increasing problem of climate change, where we are constantly encouraged to turn off running water, salvage electricity use, and use more public transport, surely this is the example we should be following?

An example of this resourcefulness I viewed two years ago, in a street centre for children, in Jinja, home to the source of the Nile and the second largest city in Uganda. Football is the main sport in Uganda, and amongst children and teenagers, it is the most popular game to play. But for the majority of people, actual footballs are hard to come by. In Uganda the average football costs 30 000 shillings, about ten English pounds. But when there are seventy mouths to feed, and 30 000 shillings could feed twenty children for a month, there is no spare money for footballs.

Two years ago, I watched a man create a football out of old plastic food bags and a long piece of elastic. Three hours later, the game was still in full swing.

Fahad takes photographs.

2009-04-29T15:22:00.001+01:00

Give a nine year old Ugandan orphan who has only twice left the slums of Nsyambya, Kampala, and see what he does.

I think this truely highlights the relationship between the photographer and subject, and also camera and subject. For the kids in the pictures, the view the camera as a symbol of western life, used only by adults, and associated with wealth. This assocation can be seen in the pictures. The children are posing in a way they believe to be adult and mature, which they have seen only on western television and music videos. Therefore, the link between the children and their poses is western influence, not just the music videos and tv shows they have seen displaying famous western artists, bute the camera itself, the perpertrator of their actions and movements in the photographs.

Smiling.

2009-04-29T12:38:00.002+01:00

It is extremely difficult to try and record, research and document life in the slums of Kampala without becoming over sentimental, not just within myself, but also through the camera, video camera or other medium. Because the truth of it is, smiling children become hard to look at. Maybe it is guilt people feel when viewing these sort of photographs, or the fact that it has been seen many times before, but still, its is preferred that these sort of pictures are not apparant. To try and capture life in a different way becomes much more challenging, it is difficult as a very conspicuous white person in a slum, to gather truthful information about life, as people act differently around me. Also, the biggest obstacle is as as soon as a camera is produced, the children become engaged, smile and demand their picture to be taken. Thus producing these photographs.

Intrusion.

2009-04-27T22:38:00.002+01:00

So...I have now arrived back from a very interesting four weeks in two completely cultural polar opposites, Kampala Uganda, and Washington D.C. Trying to make work in Kampala proved a lot more difficult than I previously anticipated.Trying to capture normal life became impossible, as soon as people who did not know us, saw us, their reactions immediately changed, spanning from being incredibly welcoming and happy, to being wary, distrustful, unsure, and sometimes aggressive. From this change in behaviour when confronted with myself and my camera, my work took on a different turn, as it has become an intrusion into life, with many different reactions. The camera and video camera became a weapon, thought of by many people as a massive violation. To the people I faced, such equipment was foreign and alien, so they reacted the common way most people react to things their do not know or understand. With fear, distrust and automatic dislike. Not everyone reacted in a negative manner, but their was a few sitautions when I knew my camera was the focus of people's attention, and they believed I was violating them. Which in a way, I probably was.