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November 2011
In November, Martine was invited to help celebrate CPMG's re-structuring, with a fabulous evening at Nottingham Contemporary. CPMG were one of Martine's earliest clients in 1990, at the time known as two Nottingham practices, Crampin & Pring, and another JamesMcArtney; Martine worked for both almost as soon as she set up in business. In the mid 1990's C&P and JMcA merged to form CPMG- Crampin Pring McArtney Gant and became the biggest practice in the city, with a folio covering education, healthcare, and commercial sectors to name but a few.
Today, the firm is headed up by Nick Gregory, Richard Flisher, David Glazebrook and Sara Harraway who've all been with CPMG for many years, leading their teams in many prolific schemes across the UK. Martine has continued to cover projects for them throughout the last two decades, has had another busy year with them in 2011, shooting the new Dunelm Mills HQ in Leicester, University of Teesside's Darlington Campus, the School of Chemistry at Sheffield University and most recently the new Humanities Department here at the University of Nottingham.
She's really delighted that they've kept at full speed throughout this recession, and wishes them a really busy and happy year ahead, well done CPMG!
March 2011
The City of Nottingham has honoured Martine by naming her ' a Woman of Substance'. With an event at The Council House on March 8th (100th International Women's Day), one hundred notable Nottingham women, including Martine, the academy award winning actress Samantha Morton, the polar explorer Fiona Thornewill, many women who have been pioneers nationally in healthcare, reform and social issues as well as more local works and deeds, were presented with certificates honouring their achievements.
Martine was delighted to be nominated by Nottingham's Civic Society for the contribution she has made to the city with her images, and finished the week's celebrations at a cocktail party at Nottingham Castle. Speaking to Nottingham's Evening Post newspaper, she said how wonderful it was to see such a diverse group of women noted for their achievements, and was proud to be one of the city's named recipients in the year in which she celebrates 21 years of being in business.
December 2010
Nottingham has finished the year on good and bad news, and Martine is reasonably optimistic about the city riding through the cuts which look set to bite hard in 2011. Whilst the shelving of the A453 will continue to make the drive to, and from the M1 nothing short of hell at peak times, the NET expansion, together with the regeneration of Nottingham Midland Station does make for positive reading. Already spin off projects are getting the green light- Martine photographed the area immediately adjacent to the station for a redevelopment brochure a few weeks ago- UNITY is to sit on the land currently occupied by the NCP carpark opposite the station on Queens Road. This is a prime site, and will see a mixed use scheme- largely commercial offices, but with cafe/restaurant units at ground level.
This will hopefully help kick start regeneration and confidence in our city again, in what is proving to be the difficult climate we all anticipated back in 2008 when Lehman's demise sparked the financial crisis.
August 2010
Nottingham played host on August 19th to the launch of a project by the RIBA called 50/50, which showcases the best buildings in Nottingham and the East Midlands from the last fifty years. More news about this exciting project, and Martine's participation in in can be found on BUILTVISION's news page. The dummy copy of the gazetteer was on display at the event- this 156 page book will be properly published in November, look out more more details on availability and price soon.
Book cover with the Level Centre by CLASH Architects on the front - Martine chats to Julian Marsh, Mike Reade and guest at the launch of the RIBA 50/50 at Nottingham Contemporary
May 2010
Martine has been photographing one of Nottingham's best restoration projects of recent time- Nottingham Trent University's Newton-Arkwright building. The site has been a tricky one for NTU, essentially there was no obvious 'front door' for the university, and it was time to give the city campus a real sense of place. Hopkins have done just that- refurbishing the iconic Howitt Newton tower with state of the art lecture theatre spaces and administration centre, whilst creating extensive conference and lecture facilities at the base. Arkwright retains its beautiful high ceilings and elegant rooms, whilst the rather grotty service yard between the two buildings has been replaced with a 'great central court', a top lit atrium with a soaring timber and glass roof. With a phased handover, its been a tricky card for the architect and client and their thousands of students- but what a joy is gradually being revealed!
Newton building- outside the lecture theatres and glazed frontage onto Goldsmith Street
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 sumptuous 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 privilege 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 pieces 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, which 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 pieces, 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.
The beach comes to Nottingham- welcome summer
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 those 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.
River Crescent, the Sky Mirror and Nottingham Science Park