Now it’s time for a new  installment of OGA’s fruitiest feature ‘Bad Bananas Friday’. If you’ve been following us I’m sure you know the drill by now, if not it’s simple, ONE GIANT ARM have asked Bristol based photographer Campbell Sibthorpe and the creator of Bad Bananas to introduce a new photographer to OGA on a Friday.

To accompany the image Campbell will ask one question to the introduced photographer. This weeks chosen photographer is Amy Lombard. Amy was born and raised just outside of Philadelphia, PA. In 2008, she moved to New York to pursue her BFA in Photography from the Fashion Institute of Technology. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn, and is exhibiting work internationally.

Now for question time:

BB’s Question: ‘When your not taking pictures how do you keep yourself busy?’

Answer: ‘I’m constantly working on personal projects, so shooting aside, the editing process and researching upcoming shoots is enough to keep me quite busy. Plus, I have a full-time gig as a social media editor for TIME–so outside of the photo-realm, a considerable amount of my time is spent navigating the world of Twitter and Facebook.’

More from Amy Lombard can be viewed here: www.amylombard.com

Sydney Cunningham is a young photographer from London, she is currently in her final year of study at Bristol, UWE. We featured her work on OGA last February, and we’re pleased to see her newt project titled ‘Grow Heathrow’. When describing this work Sydney explains:

‘For almost a decade now, an area on the fringes of West London has had the threat of extinction hanging over it. The village of Sipson has unfortunately been earmarked as the site for Heathrow airport’s proposed third runway. Despite being in existence for almost 900 hundred years, its future still remains in doubt. Yet many refuse to accept the decision and have come together to fight the Governments proposed plans for Heathrow’s expansion. One of the more cohesive groups to engage in the opposition initiated a project established around three years ago; it has risen almost Phoenix-like from the flames, or rather from thirty tonnes of rubbish, on a spot of derelict land and has become known as ‘Grow Heathrow’. The aim is to purchase the land under a Community Land Trust, thus enabling it to stay in the hands of the local community.

 Within close proximity of one of the Worlds busiest airports seems an unlikely place to find a thriving community of like-minded yet total individualists. However, they have transformed, through hard work and much innovation, a forgotten piece of land into a thriving Community garden, holding workshops for the local community and setting a valued example of sustainable living beneath one of Britain’s most active flight paths. As a Photographer who is interested in the way people and communities find differing ways of living together, I have spent numerous months documenting the lives of those who have committed themselves to reinvigorating a blighted community which has become used to the threat of extinction hanging over them like a Hangman’s noose.

 The unrestrained advancement of the modern world is unrelenting, and it appears that long established communities are only cannon fodder for the profit driven Multi Nationals who it seems are gaining more and more control over our lives. Yet the voices in the wilderness refuse to go away and the Grow Heathrow activists, who are members of the Transition Heathrow organisation, refuse to accept what many think is the inevitable.

 The resourcefulness of the people involved is limitless. Despite the challenges, they have built a home from existing structures, and also with incredible ingenuity their own shelters, which express the individuality of the people involved. A unified core of thirty or so people are involved in the project, with around 15 living permanently on the site providing their own food and power, thus setting an example of a future without total reliance on fossilised fuels. A common sense of purpose prevails amongst the group who have so far garnered the support of local inhabitants by investing their time and knowledge into the campaign to save the village. The influence of the project is not to be underestimated as they have raised the spirits of the beleaguered villagers, who have been living in a physical and emotional no man’s land for many years now. The future remains precarious for Sipson, but the fight will go on, and the example set by Grow Heathrow will have a positive influence on many of us who have come to the conclusion that the unrestricted progress proffered by the current system is unsustainable.’

To see a further preview of Sydney Cunningham’s ‘Grow Heathrow’ project

It’s great to see the fresh talent that’s coming out of Bristol. You can see more from Sydney Cunningham here: www.sydneycunningham.com and sydneycunningham.tumblr.com

We’ve assembled the Self Publishing Library display boards that we’re taking with us to the Diffusion Festival Photography Publishing Fair. Look at all those beautiful and limited edition contemporary self published zines and photo-books!!!!

Stay tuned for further updates…..Can you see yours???? Don’t fear if you can’t spot it we’re bringing everything along!

A MASSIVE THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO HAS SENT THEIR PUBLICATIONS TO US OVER THE YEARS!!! X X X X

We featured Jacob Schenk’s work back in September 2011 and he’s got back in touch with us to share one of his recent creations. We appreciated his surrealistic work and are pleased to see it has progressed. Enjoy!

More from Jacob Schenk here: http://jacob-e-schenck.tumblr.com/

Shaun Badham is an artist living and working in Bristol. Not only is he a talented fella but we also have the pleasure of knowing him. He’s recently returned from an artist residency in Northern Ireland, and has created a new piece of work titled Port and Starboard.

Port and Starboard is an installation consisting of 27 photographs, 39 texts and a sculpture. When describing this project Shaun explains:

‘In 2009 I initially began to use photography for documenting installations and performances. It is recently that the photographic element of my practice has become particularly pinnacle, and has become the artwork itself. The acts/performances are the gesture and the photography and text is the artwork. I have no training in photography thus I use very simple techniques, and within this simplicity the photography thrives to surprise, glamour and question the artwork further within its audience.’

OGA would like to thank Jai Tanju and the Seeing Things Gallery crew for sending us over this beautiful Zine package!! Thanks guys!!!

The pack contains three of their fine Zine releases including Bangalore Blowout, Jerry Hsu’s Table For One and one that documents what happened when Seeing Things Gallery was left in the hands of a raucous friend on a Friday.

All three Zines will be reviewed individually in the coming days.

If Seeing Things Gallery, Film Porvida or Jai’s personal work are not on your radar you’re snoozing.

It’s taken us a while to get this one up (sorry Elliot!). We’ve only recently obtained a DSLR here at OGA HQ, previously being forced to loan them off people. We’ve now been donated one! It’s not top of the range but it’s good enough for us! So to mark the occasion we are proud to bring you Elliot Holbrow – NUT CITY: KEBAB CUSTOMS Zine.

This tidy Zine features a selection of analogue photography and sketches that offer the viewer an insight into the lives of a group of ruffians. It’s good to see another U.K head putting a fine zine out there!

A5 size, Limited copies, All copies numbered, 32 pages of photos & sketches, International shipping available, Mixture of B/W & Colour photos, Hand drawn covers on each copy By Elliot Holbrow, Joel Barton & Nazusk.

More from Joel Barton here: http://joelbarton.tumblr.com/

For a further preview

This ones a fine addition to your collection and well worth grabbing a copy. To get your hands on one head over HERE.

More from Elliot Holbrow over here: http://www.elliotholbrow.co.uk/

To see more of Joel Barton’s work head over here: http://joelbarton.tumblr.com/

We recently posted a trailer to Jarod Tabor and crews Common Places video shorts series. These beautifully edited videos feature a list of Photographers who we’ve enjoyed featuring on OGA over the years. We’re glad to see the first three installments are now ready to view online.

Common Places is a three part documentary series centered around Drama in a Common Place, a recent street photography show at Book and Job Gallery in San Francisco California. The series takes a closer look at the correlation between street photography and skateboarding, proposing the idea that both skateboarding and photography lend each other a hand when approaching and appreciating the day to day treasures that surround us.

The first installment of “Common Places” begins with two up and coming street photographers Chris Taylor and Brandon Getty. Both behind the lens and on the board, Taylor and Getty bring forth a unique sense of creativity while working within the boundaries of their aesthetic environment.

Chris Taylor, originally from Newark Delaware, has become a native to San Francisco over the past three years. Having developed a photographic style that stands out amongst the rest, Taylor’s black and white images envelop a feeling of the past and incorporate a sense of nostalgia and solitude within their frame. Initiated from a creative eye while skateboarding and looking for spots, Taylor’s photography is representative of someone who embodies a constant wondering eye.

cotphotoblog.tumblr.com

Brandon Getty resides in a town that has established itself as being the most miserable city in the United States, Stockton California. Selective in both what he skates and what he shoots, Getty’s style is derivative of his sparse and somewhat desolate surroundings. Behind the lens, Getty chooses to capture and embrace a sense of loneliness and individuality within every shot. Though many would say that Getty is restricted by his choice to live in Stockton, he would assure any critic that his style and aesthetic eye for photography is rooted in towns like Stockton where society seems to have been forgotten and time stands still.

shootingdaggers.blogspot.com

Filmed By:
Jarod Taber
Super 8 Footage By:
Jarod Taber
Shawn Whisenant

More info here.

Omar Jiménez is a Catalan photographer currently based in Barcelona. He recently got in touch with us to share a street photography project that he started shooting in 2010. When describing his photography he explained:

“What makes me pick up the camera is the feeling that there is something relevant that can be captured. Some truth that will be revealed to me. Of course this is false, because there are no certainties in this game. Sometimes you intuit something. Sometimes you feel you got it. But no more. So I think this is the reason because I keep doing it, because the promise of magic remains in-corrupt  And for some reason, this is specially notorious to me  in the city, where everything seems more intense, more condensed in space and in time. It is basically an endless hunt.”

To view more from this series

Omar Jiménez

Roma Moskalenko is from Kyiv, Ukraine. After contacting OGA to share his photography we wanted to know more a little more. When describing his images he explained to us:

” Through them, I show how I see the post-Soviet world in which I was born and that it has left a trace in every corner of my country.”

To view more from Roma Moskalenko

Roma Moskalenko