New Workshops

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

Kids and Nature

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

"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

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

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

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”     

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. The childrens commisioner commented “England is one of the most child unfriendly countries in the world”.

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. 

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.

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.

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. 

childs play

Hazels Snail 'Farm'