Saturday, October 25, 2008

Spotlight 7 features Rod Monkey

[The following is courtesy of visiting curator bukutgirl.]

Rod Monkey


you can see the interview at Spotlight 7 here:
flickr.com/groups/spotlight_seven/discuss/72157608289757379/

Hi all - wanted to invite you to come and see this week's interview with Rod Monkey - He's a Scott living in London - who brings his fascination with modern urban landscapes to bear in his portraiture - Thanks again to Jake and Smoothdude for inviting me to guest curate again and of course to Rod himself!

Here are some teasers!

4) I know you have traveled all over the world to shoot - from Chile to the south west of America to Eastern Europe - what's the portrait you wish you'd gotten to take on your travels - the one that "got away"?
4. I'm going to cheat here and talk about a shot i did actually take, and I'm going to class it as a portrait, even though the subject was an inanimate object.

I took a shot of a toppled giant Moai on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) just after sunrise - he looked so serene, lying on his back in the warm morning light - totally relaxed and at peace. It was a gorgeous shot and I'm convinced it was one of the best shots I've ever taken. Unfortunately I managed to drop my portable hard drive with all my Chile images on it when I got home. This damaged the drive and meant i couldn't access the photos. I spent a lot of money to have the data recovered by a specialist firm and they managed to recover about 95% of them....but not this particular image. Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrggggghhhhhh!!!! Oh well, it just gives me even more reason to go back to this amazing island!

5) In your recent year you've focused a lot more on people - what has influenced this movement?

5. I think I just wanted to try something different - up until 15 months ago, if a person was in my photo it was a mistake - they'd wandered into shot and I hadn't noticed. I think spending so much time on Flickr seeing so many wonderful portraits made me realise i was missing out, so I took the plunge and bought a small home studio kit - I have to say I've really loved the change of emphasis.


and More of Rod's work here:
www.flickr.com/photos/rod_monkey/

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