Jan von Holleben interview

Jan von Holleben is an internationally renowned contemporary photographer.  The Berlin based artist often focuses on personal experiences of play and memories of childhood and has become a constant source of inspiration for students at Coulsdon College.

 

What Grows - Jan von Holleben

The visual arts department recently conducted a interview with him.

CC: Hello Jan, lets start by asking you, how would you describe your work or style?

JvH: Direct, natural, playful, considered, honest, improvised, educational, fun, childish yet totally serious by approach! I am fully responsible for what I release into the world.
I would never do anything that just pleases myself, is based purely on aesthetics or does not make any sense in the greater picture.I am not relying on photoshop to create my images.

Dreams of Flying - Jan von Holleben

CC: Can you describe in a few words how you make your work and what are the
hidden meanings?

JvH: One has to take into consideration that I am critical child of my own generation.
I saw bits of the 80s, the 90s and the change of the century. Visual culture has done ANYTHING possible within those years. Everything has been retro-ed or emerged from its own potential. Digital photography got invented and created full democracy amongst the medium. For myself and my photography, I try not to fall into any styles or trendy features. I am a purist and probably rather a visual communicator or illustrator than a professional photographer in the common sense.
Most of the work I do is based on text or theory which I translate into images. I try to use a neutral and timeless style and my grammar is based on a fun and easy approach to the subject matter.

My procedure would be:
Fully understanding the subject matter (research), then walking with the idea for some days, starting with some sketches on paper (for myself as memory of ideas but also to explain my team and possible models how my idea works), starting production (which can be a 10 minute shoot in the stdio or a two week project or split into various individual shoots depending on project) I am extremely pragmatic about my time and efforts. No fuzz and most of the times my team and I look like some funny immature photo-students when doing projects (which gives us usually access to all areas as I am hardly ever taken serious by outsiders)

Hidden meanings? Are there any?
If at all: Life is factual very easy and photography is a piece of cake (if you take it serious)!
The best feedback I get from people on a regular basis is, that I make them very happy. Maybe that is a hidden meaning? Maybe that I truly enjoy what I do as a job and see no boundaries. Photography has not many boundaries.

I can work on a book with Steidl one day, can shoot advertising the next, work with various magazines and make a fine art exhibition at the same time. All in one week. Freedom.
I can switch between studio, outside location, business center and shopping mall or black and white, snap shot sytle or colourful pseudo lifestyle photography. More freedom.

CC: What do you like most about photography?

JvH: The total freedom to switch between vision and reality or to combine both to whatever levels necessary.
Also that people are so dramatically receptive to photography.
:-)
And also that photography is one of the most tempting art forms. Photography, if for a career, will demand over and over a critical point of view from the photographer. Anyone can be a super photographer for the moment of a single super picture and can believe to be a great photographer. If you can stand the temptation, work beyond the pleasurable bits and not become an image maker, you can be a very happy and excited photographer. No pain, no gain!

CC: What and who inspires you?

JvH: What?: All of music's history. And I really mean all of it.
Photography and music are brilliantly analogue to each other. Whatever music can do to your ears and brain can photography do to your eyes and brain. Both can end up in the same region of your head and has the potential to fxxk you up! (by all emotional means).
Who?: Courageous people with integrity and a believe in themselves knowing that they can change the world (even the smallest world in the most hidden areas of life).

Ribs of a Broken Umbrella - Bell X 1

music video by Jan von Holleben 

CC: What advice would you give to a young photographer?

JvH: Check very thoroughly if you are a good image maker or if you understand (or at least sense) the reasons why you do photography.
If you only take good pictures than make it a wonderful hobby. If you understand what you do and see a point in sharing that with the world, then rock'n roll!
And most of all: photography is 20% technology and craft, The other 80% is YOU!

Thank you very much Jan.  All the content in this blog post can be seen on the website for Jan von Holleben: www.janvonholleben.com

Photographing the Mayor

Coulsdon College AS Photography student Ben Hines was recently runner-up at The Croydon Rotory Club Annual Photography Exhibition.  His prize was to photograph the Mayor of Croydon with professional photographer Desmond Wright.  Ben spent over an hour in the company of the Mayor photographing him in his chambers under the close guidance of Mr Wright. Here are some from the photographs from the day.

We will upload the results of the final shoot soon.

Artist Focus: Raphael Vicenzi

Raphael Vicenzi - from Behance 

Raphael Vicenzi is a Belgian Illustrator whose loose handmade style is both spontaneous and eclectic.  Coulsdon College Visual Arts Department caught up with him recently and asked a few questions.

CC: How would you describe your work or style?

RV: I think it's a weird mix of fashion illustration, street art, DYI,  typography & collage works. It's just a melting pot of different influences that found their way into my way of thinking. I try to stay spontaneous when I work now, I used to over think what I did.

CC: How do you find work or commissions?

RV: Usually people will contact me directly or go through my illustrator agency Colagene. They find me through my portfolio on Behance for example.

CC: Can you describe in a few words how you make your work?

RV: Either I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do or I just start a new piece and see where it leads me. Thus said the results are always very different from what I imagined. I just draw the woman, I use references a lot, then Ipile up textures & elements until I am happy with it. I try out different things until it clicks. The basic idea helps me to gather different elements that I just place around. Like I said, I try to be spontaneous when I work and hope for the best.

 

Client Works - My Dead Pony

CC: Did you go to college, what did you do?

RV: I have no higher education and I did not go to any art schools. I am  self-taught. Not the easiest way but it relatively worked for me.

CC: What do you enjoy most about illustration?

RV: When I come up with something unexpected. I never realize if I am inspired or not, it just flows by itself.  Sometimes it does not work and there is nothing I can do about it.

CC: What or who inspires you the most?

RV: My life, books I read, numerous artists (Tom Bagshaw, Banksy,  Muscha,Eduardo Recife, Sylvia Ji and so many others...) that I see  everyday on Tumblr. The more sources I use, the more I can make different connections between unrelated things.

 Eduardo Recife

CC: What advice would you give to young artists or illustrators?

RV: Work a lot, be curious, read books, put your works online, ask for help,find your own way of doing things. I always think that what Ira Glass said about creativity is the best advice I heard :

"Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me.  All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste.  But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you.

"A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”
 
 Raphael's work can been seen on his website, My Dead Pony and on Behance.

Student Work: AS Textiles Paper Dress

As part of the introduction to their exam theme 'Covert and Obscured' our AS Textiles students began to explore the possibility of using recycled materials and transforming their meaning by recreating something new. The students looked at origami techniques and were inspired by 'junk fashion' and Gary Harvey when creating their dress and played around with heat transfer techniques too. We think the finished experiment is beautiful! 

Student work: Robert Bragg

Our BTEC National Art and Design and A Level Graphic student Robert Bragg spent 2012 creating a drawing a day! It's an amazing collection of work and to celebrate completing he's exhibiting his work at Mine Gallery in Carshalton. The exhibition is open from 19th January - 26th January, you can find out more information, HERE. If you can't make it to the gallery you could always check out his new drawings - he's creating for another year of drawings for 2013 and this time his documenting them on his blog! You can see the drawings day by day, HERE.

student work: Bite the ballot!

In June 2012 our BTEC National Art and Design students worked on a 'live' brief for the Bite The Ballot student competition to create artwork based on the theme 'inspired impressions'. The artwork the students created was uploaded to the Bite The Ballot website and members of the public were able to vote for their favourite pieces. In November four of our students (whose work is picked above!) were announced as winners and their artwork was on display in The Houses of Parliament for a special exhibition. We've just got back from the event and it was wonderful to see their work on display and watch them receive their award certificate! Well done!

student work: Jan Von Holleben

The work of Jan Von Holleben never fails to inspire our students! We've talked about his work before here on the blog, particularly his series 'Dreams of Flying' and our AS Photography students had a go at recreating their own pieces in the same style last year as part of their AS-A2 project. Now our BTEC National Art and Design students have had a go too. The students worked in groups and created their own props and concepts based on their current project theme 'Journeys'. You can see the full collection of images HERE on our Flickr page!