The Scott's Last Expedition exhibition at the Natural History Museum is wonderful. I popped along there last week, paid my entrance fee, walked through the door and found myself immersed in the 1910s. The exhibition is really well put together, leading through different aspects, from sourcing supplies, and funding, to crossing the seas to get to Antarctica, to the hut and the preparations being made, through to the assault on the pole, and then on to the scientific legacy left behind. I spent 2.5 happily absorbing hours there.

I think that this exhibition, for me, was so effective because of the way in which it provided the background details, the quantities of the foodstuffs taken (450kg of golden syrup), the social and environmental backgrounds, giving me a much deeper understanding of what it was like, not just what happened. It made the tale real, rather than just an oft-told story, and it took me on the journey with it through the different stages. I loved that it reminded me just how remote Antarctica was then with a once a year mail delivery/collection meaning that the menfolk wrote letter diaries to their loved ones - whole notebooks worth of correspondence which once per year would be collected and dispatched. Just imagine the excitement and trepidation that the folks at home would feel when there once yearly dispatch was expected, with the letters telling of the highs and lows of life in a wooden hut on a frozen land. Imagine how news would be passed around the family and friends who hadn’t heard anything for a year, how treasured these must have been, read and re-read until there was a danger of them falling apart. Some of these letter diaries are included amongst the exhibits and they strike me as precious, real (although possibly understated due to both the period of history and the desire not to upset and worry the folks back home) and amazing reflections of what life was like at the time, not just a reflection from a later time.

I’d heartily recommend the exhibition, but I would say that I think it benefits from having plenty of time to absorb all the information, watch the videos, listen to the audio and generally be fascinated and consumed by it.

Last weekend I had the good fortune to visit "Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination" at The British Library. What an incredible exhibition. 150 beautifully illustrated and written manuscripts on display for us to be absorbed by. We didn't read the information before going in, so failed to realise that there were 150 of them to look at - we probably took an hour looking at the first 15 before looking beyond the next manuscript and realising the extent yet to be seen. Definitely the kind of exhibition to take your time over, and to be absorbed by, and also to think a bit about what these manuscripts have survived - 500 years of fires, wars etc.

The British Library have put images from some of the manuscripts into Facebook albums and whilst they are good to look at and study the detail of, they look so very flat and ordinary when compared to the real thing - no matter how good the photographer is, it's very hard to get gold to shimmer in a still image.

On Monday, Richard spotted the BBC Four series Illuminations: The Private Life of Kings which provided to be an excellent resource of post-exhibition information, although I did find myself saying "Ohh, yes, I remember that one" quite a lot.

All in all, definitely one to try and get to.

On Saturday, whilst visiting Richard's family in Margate, we decided to pay a visit to the recently opened Turner Contemporary gallery. Having watched it evolve over the past few years, from building site to gallery, it was a real pleasure to step inside and see what the space was like.  And it has lots of space, art is displayed on a grand scale, and I loved it.  

The opening exhibition, Revealed: Turner Contemporary Opens, is described as

Turner’s painting is evidence of the power of his imagination and his curiosity about new places and natural phenomena. This desire for knowledge marked the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, when many discoveries were made in science and technology and artists and scientists worked in close dialogue.

The six contemporary artists in the exhibition work in the same spirit of enquiry, invention and interest in the natural world that flourished during Turner’s lifetime. Just as Turner explored nature in paint and colour, so these contemporary artists play at the borders between what we can see and know and the truly fantastic. 

On entering the gallery, and looking towards the sea, which I am always likely to be drawn towards, the Daniel Buren installation (pictured above) was the first thing I saw, framing the sea and lovely blue sky in an effective manner.

The Russell Crotty work was the highlight for me. The globes, like the one pictured above, are ink drawn on paper, fragile and beautiful, featuring poems or prose.  The one above is "Walking towards dreamland" and features the coastline between Joss Bay and Margate itself, a coastlne I've walked along on many occasions whilst out walking the dog.  These globes, coastlines and words are frequently found in his works.

A wonderful gallery, with some delightful opening works. Planning to sneak off for a couple of hours every time I visit the in-laws and immerse myself in it.

On Wednesday afternoon I visited a couple of exhibitions in the London Street Photography Festival.  

The first was the set of photographs displayed in St Pancras station - Entente Cordiale - which are an interesting mix of English and French street photography.  These will remain on display until the 31st July.  The image entitled Le Touquet, France 2010, by Nick Turpin, was my personal favourite of this exhbition. 

The second, and the main reason for my journey, was the Vivian Maier: A life uncovered exhibition being displayed at the German Gymnasium, just over the road from St Pancras station.  I'd heard of Vivian Maier a few times this year, firstly I think via petapixel and then again by lomokev at his recent Miniclick talk in Brighton, and wanted to take the opportunity to view some of these images "in the flesh". 

I found this whole exhibition to be tinged with sadness. The first set of negatives were found in 2007, bought by John Maloof from an auction selling off the property from a storage unit when Vivian Maier couldn't pay the fees any longer. She had rolls of undeveloped films in there, so these photographs which are being celebrated are the raw photographs, without her guidance for development, framing etc and in fact without her even seeing quite a lot of them. There are also some 8mm films on display as well, these amount to about 40 minutes, and I sat there mesmerised watching the pictures roll by in front of me. Incredible stuff.

The Vivian Maier exhibition finishes on Sunday 24th July, and I'd recommend heading over if you have the chance.

A few weeks ago, Lomokev posted an article on his blog about the Hipstamatics exhibition in London. This intrigued me, so I thought I'd use one of my Wednesday afternoons off to go and take a look. The Orange Dot Gallery, where the exhibition is hosted, is small, and incredibly easy to walk past if you're not looking for it, it doesn't look like a gallery, being in the middle of a parade of shops. It was quite a lovely space, and I had the space to myself.

I know that there is a lot of love and hate for hipstamatic around photographers on the internet. Some people love it for its quirky effects. Others hate it for the uniformity of those effects. I go through phases as I do with most of my photography. Still, what better way to record my afternoon than via the medium of hipstamatic.

Chairs and hipstamatic prints - being the only person there, I got to stand back and get up close and really interact with the photographs

Hipstamatics hung - I loved the simple display method

Hipstamatic of a hipstamatic - this was my favourite photograph (taken by Gary Cohen)

After leaving the gallery I headed back to Carnaby Street (via the stairs at Russell Square)

and to the Lomography Gallery Store for a browse (I managed to only leave with a book, and not an arm full of photographic equipment)

So from low-fi iPhone to low-fi film in a matter of hours

A few weeks ago I received an email from the Musee de l'Elysee inviting me, as a contributor to the 2007 We are all photographers now exhibition, to take part in the new We are all photographers of the public space!

The adventure continues around a specific theme: the public space. Can one photograph everything in the public space? What are its visual benchmarks? What is unusual about it? When does it become private?

I decided to contribute one of my found project photographs, selecting Found: 2 arm chairs as, to me at least, this scene was unusual, with chairs like these being normally in a private space rather than a public space, and with the road markings making it evident and obvious that these were indeed in a public space

Today I received the following email, letting me know that my photograph was displayed, and including a photograph of my photograph being projected - on which I can count at least 6 heads watching.  Overall, pretty pleased.

Dear Photographer,

Your image was shown during the Nuit des Musées in the Rolex Learning Center at EPFL. Enclosed you will find an installation view of your image that shows it in the wall.

Thank you for participating. We also sincerely hope you will visit the museum.

From the team at the Musee de l'Elysee

All Photographers Now!
Originally uploaded by Jane Dallaway.

It's a really nice idea, you upload your photo and then wait - 100 photos are chosen randomly every week, and when a new photo is displayed a photo is taken of it being projected and then emailed to the photographer. It's just the kind of exhibition I can imagine happening at fabrica.