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December 2009
From 23rd-30th November, Martine spent time in Ningbo and Shanghai, overseeing the last hours of hanging 'Nottingham Impression', to attend the opening event, and also to work for The University of Nottingham, who have a large campus just a mile or so from Ningbo Museum. She found the whole experience "quite extraordinary, I was treated like a minor celebrity- on local TV, interviewed for radio, newspapers etc- and if you've ever seen the film 'Lost in Translation', you'll know how peculiar the whole thing would be for a westerner, because of the way they do things!". The show itself was a pretty substantial affair- spanning two large exhibition halls, with a sumputous 40 page book to accompany it.
The opening took place on November 26th, and was attended by the museum directors, party officials, and the pro-vice chancellor of The University of Nottingham's Ningbo campus- Professor Roger Woods, who together with Martine, made the speeches for the event.
It seemed ironic that for the third solo show of Martine's career, this was by far the biggest and best- and yet other than Professor Woods and his wife, Martine was probably the only other westerner, (never mind English person) to see it during its run! Thankfully though, she has lots of pictures taken both during and after the opening, plus the beautifully produced catalogue as a reminder. It was a real privilage to visit China, and she'd like to take this opportunity to thank Nottingham City Council and Nottingham Castle Museum for asking her to represent this city internationally in such an important way.
November 2009
Martine is off to China this month- she has been asked by Nottingham Castle Musuem to represent the city at a major show in Ninbgo- a large port city in Zhejiang province, and home to some 6 million people. Ninbgo has a brand new museum, and as a part of its programme to establish cultural links with its' twin sister- Nottingham, they have requested an inaugural exhibition about our city which is to run from 26th November- 4th January. Of course Martine has a large image library spanning 20 years of new developments, historic architecture and heritage sites across Nottingham, so it made selecting photographs a relatively straight forward task.
Working with David Green of Nottingham Castle, they have chosen 96 images under 4 different themes- Historical and Cultural, Education, Business and City Life & Leisure. Martine has written the introductory peices for each section, and the full collection, together with winning entries from a photographic competition about the show, have been sent out to China for printing. The competition, whcih was run in conjunction with Nottingham Evening Post, LINE+LIGHT (see www.lineandlight.co.uk for full information) and Nottingham Castle selected 12 shots to accompany Martine's work, and she was one of three judges for this. There is to be a smaller show here next spring at Brewhouse Yard Museum, which will display these peices, and Martine will be involved with the curating of it too.
September 2009
Martine is a judge for this year's Nottingham Creative Business Awards. As a previous winner, she has been asked to judge the photography category (of course!). Judges have been advised that entry levels have been very high in all categories, and that choosing the shortlist will be tough. The main awards night will be at Nottingham's Council House in October, and if its as well supported as 2008's, should be a memorable event.
http://www.creativeawards.biz/
This is the second time in 2009 that Martine has been a judge- in March and April this year, she was asked to be a national judge in two regions for the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) awards; for more information see the news section of www.builtvision.co.uk. She found the experience incredibly interesting- one of the main highlights of her 19 year career in fact, and is greatly looking forward to attending the Stirling Prize Award ceremony in London which is hosted annually by Kevin McCloud of Channel 4's 'Grand Designs.'
July 2009
Nottingham has had a beach erected in the Old Market Square and Martine has photographed it from various elevated positions, including the balcony of The Council House and from the roof of Bromley Library. This new 'look' for the square is a welcome addition to the variety of events that have been hosted since its opening. Nottingham Vision has images of the square with the Wheel, the Christmas Ice Rink, at Light Night, and in its 'straight' mode- with Gustafson Porter's elegant water feature in use. For a closer look at the full selection of images, just fill in the enquiry form and we'll email you samples by return.
February 2009
Snow! February 1st saw a big carpet of the white stuff- and Martine shot out to capture the city under its winter coat. Its always a good idea to think ahead and if you have a building that you'd like to have pictured in the snow, ask us to put in on the list for next winter. River Crescent and Nottingham Science Park both looked stunning- perfect for thiose clients who want Christmas cards, or just their image folio to contain more variety than the usual blue sky and summer foliage pics. Equally, if you just want Nottingham shots for your personalised company Christmas cards, we have generic views of city scenes in winter mode. Just ask.
