In April I met one of my photography heroes! Murray Bullard, he is a documentary photographer with a great deal knowledge around long-term projects and photography as a genre, I first met Murray when he was presenting a talk about his long-term series about being frozen for the afterlife his first opening line had me hooked! “In 1962, Robert Ettinger published 'The Prospect of Immortality', the book that gave birth to the idea of ‘cryonics’ – the process of freezing a human body after death in the hope that scientific advances might one day restore life.”
Murray has had a book published by gost publishing it took Murray ten years to become established as a documentary photography his work was 6 years in the making, I was interested in discovering how he kept motivation and creative when documenting similar environments.
Who is Murray Bullard?
“Murray Ballard was born in Brighton, UK and remains based there. Murray graduated from the University of Brighton in 2007 with a BA in Photography and was selected for ‘Fresh Faced and Wild Eyed 2008′ – the annual showcase of work by recent graduates at The Photographers Gallery, London. In 2011 the British Journal of Photography recognized him as one of the ‘Emerging Photographers of Note’, following his debut solo show, ‘The Prospect of Immortality’, at Impressions Gallery, Bradford. Murray’s work has been published internationally in a range of publications including GEO, GQ, The Guardian, Intelligence in Lifestyle, Wired and the photography journals: 8, British Journal of Photography, HotShoe and YVI. Murray chooses to work on medium and large format cameras mainly and creates highly stylised imagery which lends itself well to documenting innovative science research projects.”
Patient Care Bay (Bigfoot dewar being filled with liquid nitrogen), Alcor Life Extension Foundation, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA. October 2006Patient Care Bay (Bigfoot dewar being filled with liquid nitrogen), Alcor Life Extension Foundation, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA. October 2006.
Above is Murray's image from his series, within the image the scientist is getting the chamber ready for the body to be frozen.
I traveled to Brighton to meet Murray to assist him on a project for Brighton hospital. I was going to catch a train to Brighton but was soon to realize that the train would take 7 hours to get from Devon to Brighton when I looked at a map is didn’t look that far but the train network doesn’t travel along the coast so I drove.
When meeting Murray it was foggy and raining I thought I won’t be meeting then to help with his project which was set to walk over the South Downs photographing the Ancient yew tree it’s said that “
Who or what lies beneath Kingsley Vale? Tales of hauntings in the dark and silent grove of ancient yews will come as no surprise to those who know this spot. But are the ghosts marauding Viking warriors, left to rot until the trees grew over their bodies, or do the gnarled trees take human form by moonlight?”
6 mile walk
I had a call from Murray to say we were still going on the photo shoot and I was going to help I’m. Murray was shooting on film medium format this was cool because I have not shot on film in this way before. We managed to find the Kingsley vale to photography the trees the mood was ideal very Eyrie with the mist setting in. I learned a great deal from Murray to take my time when creating photography as a street photographer I often rush to capture the subject or location I should blend into the city be one with the motion of the crowd and city.
Image above is the trees Murray was photographing.
When going to Murray’s office he had loads and I mean loads of photo books from street to landscape to documentary, I have learned from looking over his book collection to broaden the knowledge of my photography by viewing not only street photography books but photography genres this will give me a greater understanding of photographer.
I would recommend meeting your photography hero if possible even if it was over coffee to gain more confidence in your own work and learn how to create a professional body of work to show to the world.
My tip for myself, if I was starting off in the street photography genre, would take my time create a film my audience will understand and be bold and brave don’t hesitate when photographing the subjects, the main advice would be to understand my reasoning for the project I’m undertaking. Research and research use a notebook and create a solid outline for the body of work.
