Saturday 16th May 2009 @ Photographique, Bristol
Exhibition running between Friday 22nd and Friday 29th May 2009 @ Southbank Centre, Bristol

The principal of a PhotoMarathon is very simple: just turn up, collect a disposable camera, and then take twenty photos of twenty topics. This city’s first PhotoMarathon was coordinated by the lovely people at Second Look and was completely embraced by the people of Bristol. As I arrived on the Saturday morning of the event, Photographique was already bustling with life and energy as over 100 people flocked to take part. There was a fantastic spectrum of ages and abilities, all eager for the creative challenge.

Second Look PhotoMarathon 2009 Topics:
Take an image to represent…
1 Entry Number
2 Steps
3 Circles
4 Reflection
5 Sign Of The Times
7 Layers
8 Closed
9 Rainbow
10 X Marks The Spot
11-20 Bristol Today

Step one for us was to go somewhere for breakfast and brainstorm some ideas over tea and sausages. Just reading through the topics really got all our creative juices flowing and suddenly everything around us became the inspiration for a photo – literally in the first case as the leftovers of our breakfast become a clever little way of showing off our registration number – drawing it out in ketchup!

Each topic could by interpreted as literally or as abstractly as you fancied and our endeavours turned into a fantastically fun afternoon walking around Bristol debating ideas. We created a lot of fake ceremony in taking each of our photos with some hilarious and memorable results: The heavens opened during our set up for ‘Circles’ and we were forced to create a human shield against the elements; we got some very strange looks for getting semi-naked in the grounds of St George’s for our ‘Layers’ photo; and our mission to capture a kiss on the cheek for ‘X Marks The Spot’ became a desperate agenda of contrived chat-up lines and voyeurism.

It was frustrating not being able to find a shot you were happy with because you knew you were limited on time but was equally thrilling when a fantastic opportunity presented itself or a shot came off perfectly. It was equally frustrating but pleasantly disarming having to use a very ordinary disposable camera. In our digital age we’re all so used to taking an infinite amount of shots willy-nilly but here you were really forced to think extra carefully and really take your time over every exposure. The challenge was exciting though and the Photomarathon would never have worked and not nearly been as much fun if we all had amazing Digital SLRs. Photo purist will complain but by limiting the technology and time available, the competition becomes a level playing field and therefore accessible to everyone; professional photographers alongside amateurs looking for a fun day out. Each could realistically produce a photo as good as each other as the competition became more about the ideas behind the camera rather than just technical ability.

Equally, we’re so used to instantly seeing how our photos have turned out on the screens of our digital cameras that it was with a strangely regressive excitement that I nervously enter the PhotoMarathon exhibit – How did the shots come out? Was it light enough? Was my finger in the way? Was it framed properly? Should I have turned on the flash? Will the ideas come across? What did everyone else come up with???

The exhibition at the Southbank Centre is a fantastic spectacle and definitely worth a visit whether you took part in the PhotoMarathon or not – just the sight of those 2000 photographs together is jaw-dropping! We spent a good hour examining ours and everyone else’s entries, being inspired, impressed and tickled with all the results. It was fascinating to see how many other people had similar or completely different ideas to some of your own and how they faired, better or worse, in capturing them. All in all a brilliant event and I can’t wait for the next one!

The winning photos for each topic:
Entry Number (356) – Melissa Plumer

Steps - Freebs Howith

Circles - Naomi Philips

Reflection - Steve Parsons

Sign Of The Times - Richard Breakspear

Layers - Jennifer Hegarty

Closed - Argemiro Rivera Diaz

Rainbow - Sara Palmer

X Marks The Spot - Duncan Leslie

Judges Favourite - Anna Rose

Click here to see SY’s Photomarathon Results

www.secondlook.org.uk

Matthew Whittle www.matthewwhittleblog.blogspot.com