Friends of Photography

projects 2012

2012-01-17T14:12:00.000-08:00

Apart from my commissions I tend to work on a number of projects at once over a long period of time.
The more work I get the longer these projects take to complete.

2012 Photographic Projects
Family Album
2012 to present
A broad take on my extended family that aims to make portraits of all the customers of our family shop that closed in the last recession. Black and white film.

The Sky And The Ground
2012 to present
Artistic response into food production in Ireland using photography and video. More details to come.

Going Down The Town
2007 to present
On going project with Irish Teenagers in Rural Irish Villages and Towns, shot on 120 film colour negative stock.

The Shrinking Horizons Of Childhood
2007 to 2012
Photographic project about childhood and how children spend most of their time indoors. 30x 40 " Digital C Types from colour negatives shot on a Mamiya RZ67.

Psyches
2006 to 2010
Personal project : A disjointed series of photographs that displays a passion for image making and the interior life . Digital and film, small book project.

I will also direct a short film and be cinematographer on a short this year as well.

Our Alternative Advent Feast

2011-12-24T04:44:00.000-08:00

Its All Here :
http://www.studioaad.com/projects/alternative-advent-dinner

Food styling Anne Marie Tobin, Art Direction Scott Burnett

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU !

Carton House Cookbook

2011-11-16T02:07:00.001-08:00

Ghost Estate Photography Projects

2011-11-13T12:17:00.001-08:00

All this focus on decay and despair in many Irish photography projects got me wondering why ?

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2011/1112/1224307427495.html#.Tr5fzEBv8E4

As Fintan O’Toole writes today in the Irish Times “Contemporary photography has revived this melancholia” I wonder if we are set to create a despondent photography culture with all these projects on the gloom and decay in Ireland today.
For example Anthony Haughey’s Ghost Estates project concentrates on the ‘concrete in the landscape’ and reinforces the idea that the recession has been a disaster in property and economic terms only. The recession has been more than just about the failure of private property but of real human suffering, “A living misery’ as Fintan O’Toole says in the article.The absence of people suggests that they are separate to the housing issues, or not important at all. We have to move on from this focus on the material and the real and not forget to capture the spirit, the indefinable, the joy, the innocence, lyrical beauty, dreams, light and life. There are other photographers who are doing projects on similar subject matter but some actually capture a transient spirit, ambience and psychological feeling where this project does not approach that feeling for me at all.
Photographers love to concentrate on “reality” on the sociological aspects of war, moments of history or the idea of photographer as ‘reporter.' They use the absence, the silence, the death mask, the time frozen aspects of the medium as these photographers seem to think that photography is best at showing absence rather than presence.
The Russian film maker Tarkovosky wrote “Wherever it expresses-even destruction and ruin-the artistic image is by definition an embodiment of hope it is inspired by faith. Artistic creation is by definition a denial of death.” I am aware of the concrete realities of empty estates, despair and death but life goes on and life is everywhere and photography should be about wonder and discovery, finding the joy to care and live in the everyday.

Slavoj Zizek

2011-10-19T14:58:00.000-07:00

I was recently sent to spent three days photographing the Slovenian philosopher, writer and social activist Slavoj Zizek. Slavoj , the man the New Yorker called “An academic rock star” and the chronicle of higher education called The Elvis of cultural Theory!

I was introduced and he seemed occupied with a conversation that jumped from film Theory to politics to what was happening in China and America . He was here to film The Pervert's Guide to Ideology, a follow up to his last film, The Pervert's Guide to Cinema, that uses Zizek's theoretical matrix to explore what psychoanalysis and film can tell us about our beliefs.
I waited and waited and listened to random lectures on Marx, Stalin and Freud plus thoughts on the church, child rearing, Kant , Hegel and bad art films.
The first day I tried to do a sitting down portrait but it was nothing great. I noticed how lots of people who are at ease with the movie and TV camera are frightened to death by the still camera. Most of us are the same when someone pulls out a still camera out and wants to take our image.
Each day I made a bit more progress, chats at the coffee machine helped and the fact that he engaged each person he spoke to with a rigid attention, talking with a directness and non stop. My patience paid off when he appeared with a cool t -shirt of Marx and Freud for the photo shoot.
I photographed him on the set of Taxi Driver and Full Metal Jacket and The Sound of Music. I photographed him as Stalin and as a priest but the photos that I lit with flash and added a hospital green hue and shadow, worked best. Slavoj was warm and funny and very engaging if a little hyper, so he did not sit still for long. He claimed not to care for still photos especially his early childhood ones.
He had a real interest in Irish affairs and understood the history of the Irish Media, he spoke of DeValera , Yeats, Wilde, Joyce, Beckett he said, was a true hero. From global locations to Irish studio interiors, The Pervert's Guide to Ideology will examine the prevailing ideologies at work in our world and no more engaging man to do it.
Since then I noticed Slavoj Zizek was at the centre of the recent Wall Street protests in New York.
Like Elvis, he never stops gyrating.

Lighting Workshop

2011-09-25T13:15:00.001-07:00

Behance portfolio

2011-08-28T16:02:00.000-07:00

I just joined Behance to show my work.
check it out
http://be.net/mikeotoole

Direct Marketing Awards

2011-08-10T02:30:00.000-07:00

We produced and photographed Soccer, Rugby and Hurling for Kellogg's Campaign

OgilvyOne & Kellogg’s ‘Field of Dreams’

Gold for Best FMCG and An Post Direct Marketing Grand PrixOlive Fogarty, Chairman, OgilvyOne
Louise Sullivan, Corporate Communications Manager, Kellogg's

lighting Workshop 31 july 2011

2011-08-02T14:30:00.000-07:00

MAIN AIMS OF THE RECENT LIGHTING WORKSHOPS

To be able to Judge and feel the character of light
A systematic approach to lighting a subject well
Challenge the use of conventional lighting shaping
tools such as umbrellas and soft boxes
Learn to make educated judgements about how to light
Broaden lighting references and influences
Pick up new technical info and ideas

Lighting workshop today

2011-07-17T15:35:00.000-07:00

Some test shots from the lighting workshop.
Still Life, Portrait and lighting a room set...

Lighting Workshop

2011-07-14T12:58:00.000-07:00

My Two Workshops on lighting , a few places left for the second one at the end of July...
http://2011.photoireland.org/program/studio-lighting-workshop/

My notebook fetish

2011-06-11T12:11:00.000-07:00

I am always drawn to notebooks for some bizarre reason

Everywhere I go there are notebooks in garden shops, bookstores, airports, paper shops, discount stores, art suppliers, cool stores like Muji , uncool ones like Easons and even TK Max have them. I keep a small one A6 muji in my pocket every day, its like my passport and in it I am reminded of what's important, things i value and little notes about projects on my mind for future.

Its illustrated by pictures that reinforce stuff , like what is achievement for me at this time? Two pages on mastery, two on growth and so on.These are themes i will be writing about in future blog posts.

I have a pile of moleskins ,that i have been using for the past 10 years,stacked up and full up with ideas and thoughts,telephone numbers and so on on a shelf to my left.

I always keep a A4 notebooks one lined and one with blank pages in my bag.

I buy boxes of black sharpies and sometimes i find that ideas can only be brought to life by drawing and sometimes on the lined notebook pages by list.I love blank pages.

Please let me know if I am alone on this one...

I keep an occasional diary as well. I have been random posts in a lovely leather diary I bought in Tuscany in 2002 ! Over the past 11 years I noticed how i have moved from writing exclusively about work (i was obsessed with photography and work achievements) to more about life and how i think and feel.

I keep A3 black journals for my art work as visual journals.

My friends at AAD designed their own book of lists, of course I have two, I filled one in just over two months.

Make Lists Not War

February 4th, 2011

Our New Years Present is a little late. We originally came up with the idea for the list book in 2008! After putting it off that year and then completely redesigning it last year we finally decided to make it this year. It was meant to be on clients and friends desks at the start of January but due to some custom foil problems it’s only being finished now. Hopefully when it finally goes out it’ll have been worth the wait.

http://www.studioaad.ie

Thanks

mike

Http://www.mikeotoole.com

My Stamps

2011-06-11T11:11:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year I was asked by An Post to photograph five items to celebrate Irish Craft for the 2011 year of craft.This was my second time to have my photographs feature on an Irish Stamps collection. Photography for stamps brings its own problems mostly about how to make an image work thats is going to be as small as a stamp.The choice of object is so important, lighting for texture, keeping a consistent sense of style and preserving the detail in different kinds of materials.
By photographing them in the studio we had plenty of time to get these details right.

This set of stamps feature five outstanding contemporary craft makers. Deirdre McLoughlin, from Dublin, uses ceramics in her work, while Róisín de Buitléar, also from Dublin, works with glass. Inga Reed makes jewellery in Co Kilkenny and Dr Helen McAllister works with embroidered textiles in Dublin. The fifth craft worker is Liam Flynn, from Abbeyfeale, Co Limerick, an outstanding wood turner.
More:
Contemporary Irish Craft
Irish craftspeople today produce innovative, contemporary work using traditional, sometimes ancient skills. Craft covers everything from woodturning and basket making to blacksmithing and stained glass making. It is estimated that almost 5000 people are employed in craft, making the sector a significant contributor to the Irish economy.
In recent years Ireland has achieved a reputation as a world-class source of contemporary fine craft. Irish craft makers have participated at international shows such as the biennial LOOT, held at the Museum of Art and Design in New York, SOFA (Sculpture Objects & Functional Art) in Chicago and more recently Collect in London, putting contemporary Irish craft on the international stage.
Background on Craft Makers
Glass - Roisin de Buitléar Dublin’s Róisín de Buitléar draws inspiration from her cultural heritage in her blown and cast glass creations that she’s been making for almost 30 years. Her work can be seen in public and private buildings throughout Ireland.

Wood - Liam Flynn Liam Flynn has been making wood vessels in his studio at Abbeyfeale, County
Limerick, for the past 25 years. Flynn was the winner of the inaugural Crafts Council of Ireland Irish Craft Bursary in 2005. His work is featured in numerous private and public collections, including the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin; the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; the Woodturning Centre, Philadelphia and the Department of Foreign Affairs Collection, Dublin.

Metal - Inga Reed
Inga Reed has been making jewellery since the late 1970s, recently in County Kilkenny, where she makes her distinctive pieces in her rural studio. She uses classic goldsmithing techniques, combining precious metals and precious and semi-precious stones. It is the intricate organic engineering that underpins the structure of collected items like seed pods and leaves and the patterns and textures they create. Her work is featured in many private and public collections including the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin.
Textiles – Dr Helen McAllisterDesigner Helen McAllister has an MA in embroidered textiles and is head of fashion and design at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. She was the winner of the inaugural Golden Fleece award in 2002. Her work has moved from 2D image based hangings to 3D form making.

Ceramics - Deirdre McLoughlin The work of philosophy and history graduate Deirdre McLoughlin shapes space. It has been described as biomorphic, abstract and sculptural. She was awarded the Westerwaldpreis, outstanding ceramic art and craft work in the framework of a competition, in 2004 and showed at the 4th World Ceramic Bienalle in Korea in 2004.

The Year of Craft
Year of Craft is being celebrated through a diverse range of dynamic events to showcase the very best of craft made on the island of Ireland. The programme of events includes everything from exhibitions and open studios to lectures and workshops for craft enthusiasts of all ages.
Stamp photography Mike O'Toole

Tv Studios

2011-02-28T12:14:00.000-08:00

New Workshops

2010-12-09T11:52:00.000-08:00

Almost There!
http://www.photographersworkshop.ie/

Kids and Nature

2010-10-25T10:14:00.000-07:00

I keep on about how kids spend to much time indoors watching tv and on the computer.
Here is an article on why kids need nature.
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=10208
my own project can be seen here : theshrinkinghorizonsofchildhood.blogspot.com
Mike O'Toole

The 2010 Berenice Abbott Prize

2010-09-18T04:31:00.000-07:00

"Congratulations!! You are amongst some very talented photographers.
I took notes throughout the process and here is what David Fahey(http://www.faheykleingallery.com) said about your work: completely different, unique approach to familiar subject matter.”

The 2010 Berenice Abbott Photography Prize winners:

Christopher Capozziello, Hamden, Connecticut

Project Title: For God, for Race and for Country, a project about the Ku Klux Klan in the South

10 Honorable Mentions (in alphabetical order)

Alexandra Strada, Brooklyn, New York

Jukka Male, Helsinki, Finland

Kendall McMinimy, Appleton, Wisconsin

Lisa Wiltse, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Marjorie Salvaterra, Los Angeles, California

Michael Frahm, Antwerpen, Belgium

Mike O’Toole, Kildare, Ireland

Pej Behdarvand, Los Angeles, California

Ryan Spencer Reed, Ludington, Michigan

Teri Havens, Marble Colorado

You can see my project here http://theshrinkinghorizonsofchildhood.blogspot.com
and read about it here:

“The Shrinking Horizons of Childhood”

Mike O’Toole’s series “The Shrinking Horizons of Childhood” was developed from reading an account by Reins Michels, a Dutch football coach about how he saw a family pull up their car near a woods in Holland.The dog ran out immediately but the children did not run out and explore the woods.The children did not see the woods as a place of play, of freedom or adventure.

Alas this has become the norm and today local children know more about the wildlife and environment of the Rainforest than of their own country.

Like most parents O’Toole worries about how much time children spend indoors, using modern technology and about health issues such as obesity in childhood.

In this work he contrasted the fact that the children were staying indoors while it was sunny outside, using the reflections on the windows to bring nature indoors while playing with the idea of the underlying tension and the culture of fear that surrounds childhood.

Although the outdoors are no more dangerous than at any other time in history, parents worry about what ‘might happen’ outdoors. Apart from the dangers for children outside, children themselves are being seen as a ‘threat’ to society by playing football in the streets or simply being out and about.

We bring adult ideas of how children should be, control their activities and over-schedule their lives insofar as there is little agency or autonomy for children themselves, in short we don’t trust children.We keep them “safe” in their glass boxes like exotic birds from the Rainforest.One parent in America wrote to me about the removal of recess at her child's school. In other areas recess coaches are being brought in to show the children how to play !

Tim Gill a writer on childhood says “I see the benefit of time away from adults as an important way for children to grow up as engaged, self confident, resilient people with some control of their own lives. What's needed is frequent,unregulated,self directed contact with people and places beyond the immediate spheres of family and school and the chance to learn from their mistakes. Part social commentary, part fiction, part autobiography, this project is the start of a series on issues around childhood.

What interests O’Toole is a new kind of social documentary photography, less about reality and more about reflection.
The best photography approaches something of a dream,Its through photography that illusion becomes reality.

The Shrinking Horizons of Childhood MA Exhibition

2010-08-05T15:30:00.000-07:00

Light Sensitive (MA Group exhibition)
http://www.lightsensitive-maps-2010.co.uk/lightsensitive/home.html

I will show four 40x30" prints from my project The Shrinking Horizons Of Childhood
at this event in Baker St London this September. Note This Project now has its own Blog:
http://theshrinkinghorizonsofchildhood.blogspot.com

The MA Text
Mike O’Toole
The Shrinking Horizons of Childhood

Mike O’Toole’s part fictional part autobiographic series explores the tensions and culture of fear surrounding childhood. The children seem to be wavering between being objects of voyeuristic observation and willingly acting out roles in some vague performance.

The Shrinking Horizons of Childhood deploys the aesthetic of confinement, contrasting the supposedly safe indoor space and the vibrating light coming through the windows posing no apparent danger, but still inaccessible. Surrounded by intangible, derealized images of nature reflected on the windows, the children come across as over-protected, locked in from whatever “might happen” outside and at the same time posing a threat to the established mechanics of society just by being out and about.

The photographic image functions an imaginary documentary, less preoccupied with reality than with fiction, echoing the essentially representable, imaginary reality learned from books and the internet the children tend to take for granted in their forced spiritual disconnection, and the socially imposed collective narratives of childhood, too vividly imprinted in their parents’ minds.

Rhubarb-Rhubarb 2010

2010-08-02T13:09:00.000-07:00

At Rhubarb I Showed my project The Shrinking Horizons of Childhood to Pat Lanza from the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles
I also showed a broader range of work that I hope to exhibit at the Alliance Francasie in Dublin.
Over two days I had 15 meetings to show my portfolio and I left each person a limited edition mailer (see below) that was put together by Scott Burnett, at AAD.You can listen to him talk about creativity and the responsibilities of working as a graphic Designer here:http://vimeo.com/13492475

These review events are a great opportunity to show work to a range of people (each person picks the reviewers they want to make meetings with over one to three days)
Then on saturday night at what was called the Portfolio Promenade,we then laid out our work on tables and both the public and ALL the reviewers came to see us .

“We believe that formal portfolio reviews like this are among the most proactive and efficient ways for serious, career-oriented photographers to meet many international photography experts and colleagues in a professional atmosphere,” said Jim Casper, publisher of Lens Culture. “Photographers connect directly with people who can help them with artistic and business goals. Its great for the reviewers too- they discover new talent, as well as the latest work of photographers who are already established.”

One of the best reviewers at Rhubarb, was a Dutch man Marc Prust from Paris Photographic Institute Spéos, another was Mary Anne Camilleri from The magenta Foundation in Toronto, she was direct, original and very interesting in her review of my work.
I met Tim Paton photo agent from Balcony jump London, David White from Duck rabbit, Jim Casper from lensculture, Maarten from Schilt publishing, Emily from contact editions, John from source magazine, Ute Noll from http://www.on-photography.com
Debra from Klomp Ching Gallery in New york, Bill Kouwenhoven from Hotshoe, Anna Reid from Pavilion, David from DMB media, Steven Mayles from V2photo, Simon Bainbridge editor of the BJP, Max Foxhall from Genesis, Anna Nordstrom curator at the George Eastman house.

Photographic artists I met , saw their work or drank with at the bar included: Richard Kolker, Ikuhisa Sawada (came over from Japan for it) Matthew Conduit, Stephen Vaughan, Olivia and Alison, Hin Chau, Nicky Walsh, lena Aliper.

Good face to face contacts were made, opportunities explored and I gained some new perspectives on my work which I am still processing.
This is an event I recommend to everyone for next year.
On the 630am flight over I met an amazing man studying the five element principles of the art of Acupuncture, a story for another day...

The Shrinking Horizons of Childhood

2010-07-05T09:35:00.000-07:00

My writing on photography is not academic, neither referencing psychoanalysis or semiotics, but it has a philosophy, it addresses key ingredients of my practice that are part of me and part of our culture such as disconnection, longing, lonesomeness and potential (either future or lost) “The Shrinking Horizons of Childhood” is part sociological account but it operates as a sort of personal, social and cultural commentary rather than a critical analysis using photography.I am interested in a sort of imaginary documentary, through photography illusion has become reality.

“The Shrinking Horizons of Childhood”

Alas this has become the norm and today local children know more about the wildlife and environment of the rainforest than of their own country.

Like most parents O’Toole worries about how much time children spend indoors, using modern technology and about health issues such as obesity in childhood.

Sir Al Aynsley Green, who quit after ﬁve years in the job, said that the British public's hostility to young people had made his job as children's champion very difﬁcult.

O’Toole was conscious to make work that avoided the cliched imagery of children depicted in lifestyle campaigns or the harrowing looks of children depicted in charity advertising.

Avoiding the use of artificial lighting which is part of the high production values of fashion, movies and TV and with the language of light is associated with the idea of ‘re-illumination’ He choose instead to use natural light, which is the visual representation of freedom and natural impulses of man.

What interests O’Toole is a new kind of social documentary photography, less about reality and more about reflection.

childs play

2010-07-02T12:32:00.000-07:00

Hazels Snail 'Farm'

Decisions

2010-06-25T11:16:00.000-07:00

Today I made some tests prints on Ilford Galerie Gold Fibre Silk (a fancy name indeed) and I was very impressed with the results. Yesterday I tested out Fabriano Digital Art papers and loved the very smooth and very dull Matt quality of the images.

A few days ago I went into my darkroom and printed up some 20x16 multigrade prints with warm tone developer. Before that I printed out on Hahnemuhle Fine art Pearl some A2 prints as tests also.

This is part the life of the photographer, choosing the right camera and film or digital equipment and afterwards finding the best paper or developer or look for a project.

The questions about which prints,framing,right portfolios, and best scans all add up to what seem like hundreds of choices that have to be made.

Then the choice of project, choice of approach, where to publish, its goes on..

Hazel

Ben

2010-06-20T14:37:00.000-07:00

Ben

Cervantes Dublin

2010-06-13T15:57:00.000-07:00

New Frontiers, New Territories

a photography exhibition organized by the Institute Cervantes in Dublin.
I have been asked to take part in a seminar to discuss this exhibition of spanish documentary.
I will also take part in a group exhibition "Tools of the Trade"as part of the FotoIreland festival In Dublin.
http://www.photoireland.org/2010/programme/event/talk-7-photography-in-contemporary-Spain

My Workbook (2009)

West of Ireland

2010-06-01T13:11:00.000-07:00

Child with Net

2010-05-31T15:01:00.000-07:00

I was just leaving the beach at Achill and I saw this boy with his net by the edge of the sea. He was sort of fencing with the wave.I was packing up but I pulled this old MPP press camera from my car and shot one frame, holding it up and setting the focus to infinity.

Strange for a photographer but I hate cameras. So,when i was asked to contribute to the "tools of the trade' exhibition at south street studios in July this image was first to mind. After many years of working with almost every available camera and format I believe the camera is not important. Photographers with basic equipment still manage to produce great work. Now I travel light and only bring to a shoot what I may use, no extra lenses or anything, i tailor to suit the job at hand. Today I don't think I would take this image of an unknown child, due to the changes of how we perceive photographers photographing children.

That said, it feeds into my current project which is about childhood and the way in which we watch over children. Now I use my own children sally and Hazel or my friends children as subject material.

My man in China

2010-05-28T02:05:00.000-07:00

My ex assistant Dan filmed this in China.
He's now working in Beijing.
Beautifully shot.

http://vimeo.com/11203583

Childhood Horizons

2010-05-19T12:21:00.000-07:00

Childhood Horizons

2010-05-08T07:58:00.000-07:00

Allow children to be happy in their own way, for what better way will they ever find? Samual Johnson [1780]

Mike O’Toole’s interest lies in using photography to make comment about the changing horizons of childhood . In this series children are the subjects of his voyeuristic observations or willing participants in some kind of performance. Part social commentary,part fiction, part autobiography, O’Toole’s work plays with the underlying tension and the culture of fear that surrounds childhood. “Never have children been more restrained and watched-over than today”says O’Toole.
(Short version)

PhotoParley Dublin

2010-05-04T02:53:00.000-07:00

Photoparley
Photoparley Dublin, is a real place where Photographers who are serious about their photography can meet to discuss and debate issues relating to their own work and gain valuable feedback and support from others.The first meeting was this week and the energy and ideas were flowing,it was fantastic.

Here is how Photoparley will work
One evening ,six times a year, eight Irish based photographers will meet to show our current work in progress,to six other Photographers plus two other non photographers, such as a filmmaker, a storyteller, artist or curator or graphic designer to discuss their project and any issues relating to the development of those projects.
http://photoparleydublin.blogspot.com/2010/04/revolution-no9.html

Horizons of childhood

2010-04-25T09:56:00.000-07:00

Pool image

2010-04-21T16:00:00.000-07:00

I shot this the other day over at Chris and Joe's house.
I love it when i just see something that interests me and I make an image like this .
Pictures like this seem to come out of nothing,just a few moments of seeing and capturing it so it looks like one of mine.

Hazel is the model.

The Exploding school

2010-04-02T16:30:00.000-07:00

Ok, Its back to my project. Being outside nosing around as a photographer,one place leads you to another ,only this time it was through reading and then research on the internet, that I found out about this idea of the exploding school.
Inspired by the ideas put forward in the 1960s book Streetworks,the exploding school,is an inspiring and challenging idea
To to focus on the environmental education of the non-academic urban child. Having noticed a recent upsurge in public interest in town and country planning and the physical environment, the two Authors of the book Streetworks set about rethinking environmental education.
My own project on children and free play etc has brought me into contact with many excellent writers on Children's issues
and the environment from the physiological to the psychological aspects of the connection between the space and the child's
Use of that space and the child's agency with how to best use the little unscheduled time available to them today.
I guess I want to make a connection between the way the photo project is constructed and the methods of research now via the internet for a photographer and how people use whatever means available to imagine and enter some place of mystery and imagination. The desire for wonder and fantasy are I believe a need as deep as belonging.

In fact ancient people had much more respect for the otherworld and i think when we over schedule and over prescribe
Things to our children we take away some important and deeper interconnection between our self and our soul or spirit.

Portfolio Workshop By Mike O'Toole

2010-03-14T06:35:00.000-07:00

This is the third Annual talk to graduating students at IADT about putting together
their portfolios. The workshop and discussion will focus on everything from various ways of presentation, to marketing and promotion, for commercial and fine Artists.A number of Photographers and Artists portfolios will be on display for discussion.
The talk will include issues such as finding your direction and what a powerful portfolio can do for your career.

New Work

2010-03-07T13:01:00.000-08:00

Can we go outside?

2010-02-21T11:03:00.000-08:00

A project about childhood, play,learning and adult fears...

I see the benefit of time away from adults/parents as an important way for children to grow up as engaged, self confident,resilient people with some control of their own lives. What's needed is frequent,unregulated,self directed contact with people and places beyond the immediate spheres of family and school and the chance to learn from their mistakes.

Started new project today !

2010-02-16T15:13:00.000-08:00

Its about children and how we have created this unnatural lifestyle for them,tethered to the computer and sitting in front of the Tv. We have given no thought to free spaces for children to play and explore .We adults decide everything for them and thats a bad idea if you ask me.
What they need is frequent,unregulated,self directed contact with people and places beyond the immediate spheres of family and school and the chance to learn from their mistakes, on their own.
Inspired by Colin Ward, the 1970's anarchist's book Streetwork,the exploding school and Last child in the woods by Richard louv

What Photography means to me

2010-01-29T04:11:00.000-08:00

What photography means to me
It's about noticing things around us that we don't notice.
It's about awareness
It's about the thingness of things
It's about creating connections
It's about showing the joys and the sadness of life
It's about a sort of transcendence photography forces us to connect to the larger universe, by providing an appreciation of beauty, a sense of hope , the humour and playfulness associated with being in the flow and being grateful .
Photography connects us with humanity, our peers and subjects.
To be a photographer is to take up a Nobel way of life that requires bravery , persistance and courage to make a living.
For me it's very much about learning and growth, through photography you learn about all manner of things just by increasing awareness . A photographer must be curious and open minded.
mike

Can i take your picture?

2010-01-28T11:30:00.000-08:00

Lets be careful out there!

Another Day

2009-12-13T04:07:00.000-08:00

With the passion of the italian photographer Italo Calvino in 'the adventures of a photographer' i set out yesterday and this morning to photograph something from life.
I drove around 40 miles, the day was dry , the light lovely. I was listening to music and looking,being open to something that I might line up with my head and my heart and camera.
but despite the time and space to do so i either drove in the wrong direction or perhaps driving itself was the mistake.
my car was loaded up with gear from digital cameras to Mamiya RZ and 5x4 Wista.
Recently i saw some things i wanted to photograph but i choose to find out or try to discover new one rather than go back to these sites.
I realise this is a crazy way to practice but i trusted the instinct "shooting from the gut" and i was open to discovering something
but it was not to be on these occasions.

Musings on the creative process

2009-12-13T03:47:00.000-08:00

I sometimes feel trying to understand the photograph is impossible,its promise to truth , while at the same time being a kind of fiction and promises to fix life but offers us only an images of our own mortality- its like trying to catch mercury,
so i am trying to both understand both my own thoughts and something as complex as the photograph!

I think sometimes photographers are working in the area of the sub conscious , not really knowing why they are making images but its revealed to them later on perhaps.
I see a lot of work in the ma that reflects something about the interior of the person even if thats not understood by them or by us(the viewer) just yet.

next i will go and work with passion on "whatever interests me" from now till 5th January and see where that takes me!

Best
mike

Painted from Memory (MA Project)

2009-11-27T12:44:00.000-08:00

Painted from memory is a sort of portrait of a disappointment.

for awhile I was obsessed with ideas of love and longing.

I knew I could find my future major project by thinking through these

universal themes in art , music and writing.

I spent lovely afternoons in Dublin's National Gallery looking at work by

Murilllo and Rembrandt,plus Edward Munch.

I listened to Martin Hayes and Joni Mitchell, Tindersticks and Nick Cave.

"Trouble lies in sullen pools along the road I've taken

Sightless windows stare the empty street

No love beckons me save that which I've forsaken

The anguish of my solitude is sweet."

I began with an idea about a photographer who looses the love of a women, he has no photograph of her, so he tries to create one, using another woman as his model.

He has to paint her from memory.

He cannot either remember or forget her, without a photograph.

I was interested in how things far from us can be desirable.
James Elkins writes in the object stares back, that ʻthe allure increases with

the distanceʼ I think thats true.

There's gotta be a record of you someplace
You gotta be on somebody's books
The lowdown - a picture of your face
Your injured looks
The sacred and profane
The pleasure and the pain
Somewhere your fingerprints remain concrete
And it's your face I'm looking for on every street.

The journey's longer than
I thought my love
There's lots of things
Get in the way
But every time I think of you
You just steal my heart away

Just like the sunshine after rain
I'll come
To be with you will save the day
'Cos I know
When I'm with you again
You just steal my heart away

From Van Morrison steal my heart away

Introduction

2009-11-27T08:01:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Mike's new blog thingy.

I have something to say.

Listen up!

Join in

Talk to each other...