All images © Vaidotas Mišeikis, all rights reserved __________________________Go full screen!^

I am an Electronic Engineering PhD student at the University of Leeds and spend the majority of my scarce free time travelling around Northern England with my camera. I am originally from Lithuania and came to Leeds to do a university degree in 2005. In 2006, after getting a DSLR, I really got into photography and got completely hooked since then, focusing mainly on landscape photography. You can find more of my work at my website and my flickr account. Several of my photos are also available as prints at RedBubble.

Vaidas

The people of the Ruhr take pride in their industrial heritage, they have a “Route Industriakultur”  encouraging visitors to tour the sites left behind by the industries that once thrived in the “Ruhrpott”

Joe took this visit beyond the fences that keep the public out, delving into the very workings of Ruhrkohle Actiengesellschaft (Ruhr Coal PLC) and documented what is left today.

All images © Joe Stenson, all rights reserved.The gallery’s best seen full screen!——————————-^

More:

• website:  www.joestenson.co.uk
• twitter: @Leedsurbex

Joe Stenson presented to an Exposure Leeds “Talk&Social’ in 2011 | Read More

Lublin is situated a little over 100 miles East of Poland’s capital, Warsaw. It is the nations’ ninth largest city (population a little over 350,000) and has existed since Medieval times. It’s current old town is undergoing a significant refresh – thanks to the collapse of the eastern bloc and Poland’s entry into the EU.

This centre is virtually car free, and composed of largely high, tightly-packed buildings around narrow cobble streets. Having an air of romanticism, with cafés spilling out onto the streets and an air of positive change the city feels on the tipping point of vibrancy and a new found sense of purpose.

These images were taken while attending with a friend who grew up in the area and I hope they help share this city as a hidden gem of the Poles.

All images © Jon Eland, all rights reserved. It’s best seen full screen!————————————————-^

Aside from this project a zine-style photobook of images from a Polish train journey is available (along with other photo projects) on my website

This is the resulting image!

From 6.00-6.30pm we’ll be in Caffe Nero on Bond Street – catch up with existing friends or come make some new ones!

At 6.30pm the photo walk will begin and we’ll head off around the city centre for a post-Christmas look at the city centre. The best images will be collated and presented online as a set…

From around 8.00pm we’ll arrive at our destination for further socialising – the Pack Horse pub (Pack Horse Yard, off Briggate).

This event is free – and all photographers (irrelevent of age, experience or equipment) are welcome. If you’d like to come but don’t have a camera we may be able to assist; email us.

Facebook signup (optional).

Image: happy abstract starry christmas! - by Emma Brown, all rights reserved.

He’s going to be kicking off our 2012 events by coming along to tell us about his work – and what he’s been up to since we last saw him at OBH.

We’re also planning to take a large format image of the event and process it on the night…

Image: Padley Gorge Woods © Tim Parkin – some rights reserved.

Combine this with the usual social, hot drinks and biccies – how CAN you say no?

More info:
When: Wednesday 4th January – from 6.00pm-9.00pm (talk starts around 6.30pm)
Where: Old Broadcasting House, Woodhouse Lane, Leeds LS2 9EN – Directions (note: Woodhouse Lane car park closes at 9pm)
Entry: £3* (includes hot drink, subject to availability) – Exposure Leeds supporters get free entry.
Facebook sign-up (optional).

My work represents the detritus of a disposable society, where buildings and places are the remnants of formerly bustling and successful organisations and institutions. The stillness of these locations is what interests me most following what were often centres of communities and places where people shared experiences.

I have been recording forgotten places for six years now and I have moved away from recording digitally and towards the more detailed medium of medium format film. Human activity is what forms the details in these buildings and my most recent work is in response to the remnants of human activity visible in these details rather than the buildings themselves.

In the future, my work will continue to be as much an exploration of the social rise and fall as it is of the buildings that mark the fall. I intend to amass a substantial documentation over a period of decades of my small corner of West Yorkshire which will present communities thriving and declining along with our heritage and the reasons behind it.

James Lester

All images © James P Lester, all rights reserved. View more: www.jamesplester.com

Editor: A bit of an intro… a while back we considered the idea of an Exposure Leeds magazine, and a lot of headway was made in preparing content for the magazine but, for a multitude of reasons, this never actually became reality. Rather than waste all the effort that went into preparing this material, we’re now publishing all this material in a ‘magazine’ section of the website.

If you have a project, event or other material you think should be shared with others then please get in touch – we’re looking for new material to publish all the time.

Wuthering Heights banner on Leeds Town Hall

The 3rd of November saw the beginning of the 25th Leeds International Film Festival, the biggest in the UK outside of London, showing everything from Anime to Zombie films with some live performances thrown in, I was lucky enough to get involved after Jon posted a link for voluntary positions for the festival and I managed to bag myself a job as a Digital Assistant. I had no idea what I would be asked to shoot or what events I was going to cover and had no idea how photography was going to fit in with cinema and I was even more surprised to learn that only two percent of cinema hits the big screen and more and more people are now becoming interested in small screen cinema and short films rather than blockbuster movies. After watching 45-minutes of trailers for the selected films it certainly sparked an interest for me also, Leeds Town Hall has also recently upgraded the cinema sound system with the intention of more films being shown at the venue.

Candida Doyle (Pulp’s keyboard player) at The Beat is the Law

My first assignment was to cover the opening gala with the premier of Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights introducing Leeds-based newcomers James Howson, Shannon Beer and Solomon Glave. I got a real taste of what it’s like for a photographer working in the press industry. There were lots of people working on the event rushing around and waiting for people to arrive and the BBC Look North team set up on the steps of the Town Hall. I was asked to take some shots of the cast whilst the news team goes live – only to discover later while watching the 10 o’clock news that I was on it! The night after was the story of Pulp – The Beat is the Law with a question and answer session with keyboard player Candida Doyle, a Sheffield based documentary about the struggle of bands, young people, miners and the evolvement of music through the 1980’s and ending happily when Pulp headlined at Glastonbury when another band dropped out – bringing them moderate success.

Cast & Director – Sound it Out

My next shift was at Leeds’ gem – the Hyde Park Picture House – which I have never visited before. If you haven’t been there its certainly worth a visit to this beautiful 1914 building with lots of character. I shot two events here on two separate nights first Sound it Out, a documentary about South Shields’ last record shop – a heart-warming funny film about the day-to-day happenings and the different characters who shop there, including a very real message about the struggle of small towns throughout the UK. It was very surreal seeing someone on screen then next thing you are shooting images of them stood right in front of you.

Miss Behave Sword Swallower – Professor Vanessas Performing Wonders

Secondly was Professor Vanessa’s Performing Wonders – Vanessa is indeed a real professor of the history of film at Sheffield University and was accompanied by a magician, a sword juggler, one of the world’s last female sword swallowers, Miss Behave, and Britain’s Got Talent semi finalist and Hoolahoop legend Marawa the Amazing. “Is this really cinema?” I hear you ask – and yes it is! Old silent films of dance, tricks & performing circus arts with a piano accompaniment was extremely interesting and enjoyable and although the light wasn’t great for taking images in there it was a brilliant performance and very enjoyable!

Finally I went to the Hi Fi club to cover folk singer Serious Sam Barrett and his chosen documentaries rarely seen American folk shorts: Mouth Music, It Ain’t City Music and Mermaids, Frogs Legs and Fillets. Local Leeds lad Sam’s understanding of his genre and skills with his 12-string guitar not to mention his voice – second to none. There were plenty of people turned up to hear him sing, we also got to take a look into Sam’s normal life with a documentary his friend and colleague Hardeep Pandhals – Sam at 30.

Serious Sam Barrett

The film festival had so much more to offer than this small example, a comic con,workshops and many other films from Anime to Zombie flicks where shown, so if you didn’t get a chance this year give it a visit next year and if you want more than that apply to be a digital assistant and get behind the scenes, it’s well worth it!

Thanks to all who helped by nominating us, to the judges, and our fellow nominees – we were in great company. Also a big thanks to NTi Leeds for inviting us to the event.

We were also shortlisted for best blog and director, Jon Eland, was also shortlisted as ‘Leeds Digital Star’.