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Rich & Famous

John Armstrong-Millar — 2012-04-29T21:22:17+02:00

Well not yet anyway..

We were off to the mountains today to catch some of the beautiful light and colours of the Pyrenees

Well, on the way we stopped into our local Boulangerie for some of their lovely bread.

And we met this chap

..

Yes, our local Presidential candidate… sadly not this time around

So, onto the mountains..Vallėe D’Ossau to be precise

And yes it really is that green.. makes me feel at home..(ireland of course)

Steph & Ben

John Armstrong-Millar — 2012-04-26T10:49:29+02:00

Looks like being a busy year.. Not to mention bookings already coming in for 2013.

This was the first one of the year.. with Steph & Ben up at Longeveau.

More images here.. https://www.facebook.com

An Interview with John Armstrong-Millar (Traduction en Francais)

John Armstrong-Millar — 2012-04-12T11:33:22+02:00

Interview with John Armstrong-Millar

Entretien avec J.A-M

Why do you take photographs?
Pourquoi cet attrait pour la photographie ?

Taking photographs is definitely a replacement for talking!! I’m not very verbally expressive, even though I’m Irish and sometimes get frustrated when trying to express myself. When I express myself through one of my images I feel a satisfaction not achieved in conversation.

I find that I don’t often like to discuss my work and don’t feel the need to qualify it in writing , I hope that the images speak for themselves and I feel I have failed if I need to explain them.

Prendre des photos est vraiment pour moi une alternative à la parole ! Bien qu’irlandais, je ne suis pas très communicant, et parfois frustré de ne pourvoir m’exprimer. Lorsque j’arrive à le faire au travers de mes images, j’ai alors un sentiment de satisfaction que je ne peux atteindre dans une conversation.
Je me rends compte que je ne tiens pas particulièrement à parler de mon travail et je ne ressens pas le besoin de le définir par des mots.
J’espère que mes images parlent d’elles mêmes, et si j’avais besoin de les expliquer ou de les commenter, c’est que j’aurais échoué dans ma démarche !

Your work is quite diverse which image would you say bests represents you.
Votre travail est très diversifié, de quelle image diriez-vous qu’elle vous représente le mieux ?

I’m not sure that I want my work to represent me I want each image to have an energy which sends a message and provokes a reaction from the viewer. I like them to be technically excellent to because that’s part of the beauty of a good photograph and I think it’s overlooked these days.
Being diverse is confusing because people like to categorize and I often think I should concentrate more in one area but I’m driven by spontaneous reaction and shoot very much on intuition.

Je ne suis pas sûr que mon travail soir censé me représenter. Je veux que chaque photographie ait sa propre énergie, qu’elle délivre un message et qu’elle suscite une réaction auprès de la personne qui la regarde.
J’accorde une importance particulière au fait que mon travail soit irréprochable techniquement, cela fait partie de la qualité d’une belle photo. C’est un aspect un peu négligé de nos jours à mon avis.
Le fait de traiter des sujets très variés peut paraître confus au public qui aime bien « cataloguer » et j’essaie régulièrement de me canaliser, mais le naturel reprend vite le dessus, et j’appuie sur le déclencheur au gré de mon intuition !

Colour or Black and white?
Couleur ou noir et blanc ?

Oh definitely colour, I am more interested in colour, to me colour is a bigger challenge than Black and white and it adds so much to an image, in fact you can take a great photo of just colour and nothing else; does that make sense?
On the other hand I often shoot portraits in black and white because I find you can see the subject’s character more clearly without the clutter of colour.

Sans hésitation, la couleur ! Pour moi travailler en couleur représente un défi plus stimulant qu’en noir et blanc et cela apporte tellement à une image. En fait, vous pouvez prendre une photo formidable uniquement composée de couleur, et de rien d’autre. Par contre, pour les portraits, je photographie en noir et blanc. Je trouve que le caractère des personnages est mis davantage en valeur de cette manière là, sans être « chargé » par la couleur.
Who do you Admire?
Qui admirez-vous ?

There are so many greats to admire ; They span the alphabet from A, Adams to Z.....I can’t think of a photographer’s name starting with Z....
but I do particularly like Saul Leiter and Ernst Haas who gave me an understanding of the power of colour.

Il y a beaucoup de talents à admirer : alors de A à Z… je ne connais aucun photographe dont le nom commence par Z. Mais J’aime particulièrement Saul LEITER et Ernst HAAS qui m’ont donné des clés pour comprendre le pouvoir de la couleur.

What was your first photographic experience?
Quelle a été votre première expérience photographique ?

OH! I photographed my sister who is famously difficult to please; I was 13 and had saved up to buy a light meter and a Practica L. I followed the instructions on the back of the Kodachrome film packet and not expecting great things,I sent the film off to be developed. I was astonished with the results every shot was sharp, clear and the whole family said they were the best photos they had ever seen!!

Oh… tout simplement en photographiant ma sœur (qui était réputée difficile à contenter !) à l’âge de 13 ans. J’avais économisé pour m’acheter un luxmètre et un Practica L. J’ai ensuite suivi les instructions au dos de l’emballage de la pellicule, pas du tout en quête de réaliser des chefs d’oeuvre. J’ai envoyé la pellicule au développement et étonné du résultat : les photos étaient nettes, claires. Toute ma famille m’a dit que c’étaient les plus belles photos jamais vues !

What gives you the most pleasure?
Que vous procure la plus grande satisfaction .

Apart from My wife you mean?
When the light is just perfect.... and don’t ask me to describe perfect.
Oh and good coffee is in there somewhere as well.

Excepté ma femme, vous voulez dire ?
Lorsque la lumière est vraiment parfaite…et ne me demandez pas de décrire la perfection.
Oh, ou alors la promesse d’un bon café, ici ou ailleurs.

What next?
Vos projets ?

This year its Morocco and more of France I live here but haven’t had time to explore that much because I was always working away from home. I’ve promised myself to take time to capture some of the beautiful images here.

Cette année, le Maroc et plus de prises de vues en France. J’y vis mais je n’ai pas le temps d’explorer autant que je le souhaiterais car je travaille souvent à l’étranger. Je me suis promis de consacrer du temps à prendre de belles images ici en France !

An Interview with John Armstrong-Millar

John Armstrong-Millar — 2012-04-02T11:02:16+02:00

Why do you take photographs?

Taking photographs is definitely a replacement for talking!! I’m not very verbally expressive, even though I’m Irish and sometimes get frustrated when trying to express myself. When I express myself through one of my images I feel a satisfaction not achieved in conversation.

I find that I don’t often like to discuss my work and don’t feel the need to qualify it in writing , I hope that the images speak for themselves and I feel I have failed if I need to explain them.

Your work is quite diverse which image would you say bests represents you.

I’m not sure that I want my work to represent me I want each image to have an energy which sends a message and provokes a reaction from the viewer. I like them to be technically excellent to because that’s part of the beauty of a good photograph and I think it’s overlooked these days.
Being diverse is confusing because people like to categorize and I often think I should concentrate more in one area but I’m driven by spontaneous reaction and shoot very much on intuition.

Colour or Black and white?

Oh definitely colour, I am more interested in colour, to me colour is a bigger challenge than Black and white and it adds so much to an image, in fact you can take a great photo of just colour and nothing else; does that make sense?
On the other hand I often shoot portraits in black and white because I find you can see the subject’s character more clearly without the clutter of colour.

Who do you Admire?
There are so many greats to admire ; They span the alphabet from A, Adams to Z.....I can’t think of a photographer’s name starting with Z....
but I do particularly like Saul Leiter and Ernst Haas who gave me an understanding of the power of colour.

What was your first photographic experience?
OH! I photographed my sister who is famously difficult to please; I was 13 and had saved up to buy a light meter and a Practica L. I followed the instructions on the back of the Kodachrome film packet and not expecting great things,I sent the film off to be developed. I was astonished with the results every shot was sharp, clear and the whole family said they were the best photos they had ever seen!!

What gives you the most pleasure?

Apart from My wife you mean?
When the light is just perfect.... and don’t ask me to describe perfect.
Oh and good coffee is in there somewhere as well.

What next?

This year its Morocco and more of France I live here but haven’t had time to explore that much because I was always working away from home. I’ve promised myself to take time to capture some of the beautiful images here.

Caribbean

John Armstrong-Millar — 2012-03-26T11:41:29+02:00

This week starts off with a change..

We are having a little “drop by” expo of some of my most popular Caribbean stuff..

All the prints are on the website of course but we have new pictures on the walls so come along and have a look..

Industrial Landscapes

John Armstrong-Millar — 2012-02-27T18:36:33+01:00

There has been a lot of talk recently about wind farms, and their impact of the landscape.

It’s true they don’t have many friends.. but they do have a certain beauty…

Foie Gras

John Armstrong-Millar — 2012-02-07T15:34:09+01:00

It’s not everyday that you get up in the morning to collect 8 large ducks and spend the rest of the day preparing Foie Gras..

It seemed simple enough… pick a Saturday in February, go and collect the ducks..

There was a slight problem with the weather.. it was snowing … a lot…

So we took the jeep and arrived at the farm…. read on….

And yes It does taste as good as it looks..

In the Press

John Armstrong-Millar — 2012-01-25T16:33:11+01:00

This was a wedding I shot last year in the South of France..

It was for Tracy and Bobby who were a super couple..It was great fun to shoot ,set in the Majestic Domaine D’ Essendieras and Organised by my good friends at Get Married in France.

We had uncharacteristically cloudy weather that day but as if by magic the Sun came out, right on cue.

I was really pleased to find out that their wedding was featured this month in the UK’s best selling Wedding Magazine… Definitely a good start to the year..

Link to the article in this months Perfect Weddings Magazine

PW_65_RL6_Tracy&Bobby_FINAL

Pays De Nay Artiste " Mireille Mathieu Grassl"

John Armstrong-Millar — 2012-01-23T10:02:07+01:00

The area I have moved to in South West France has a quite a vibrant Artists community.

Just south of Pau the “Plaine de Nay” stretches out towards Lourdes the gateway to the Pyrenees proper.

This week I went along to Mimi’s exposition “Palabrart”

It was an amazing mix of Maori, Australian and South American influenced art . Complete with Boomerangs and Didgeridoos..

Link to Mimi’s website here

Fireworks

John Armstrong-Millar — 2012-01-22T18:05:16+01:00

When I shoot weddings, as often as not there are Fireworks at the end of the evening..

There is nothing more spectacular than good fireworks on a Summer’s evening in the South of France.

It’s always worth keeping your photographer a bit later just to capture the moment..

Living in the Shadows

John Armstrong-Millar — 2012-01-16T15:23:26+01:00

It always has surprised me how much of a persons personality can be revealed without actually seeing anything more than their silhouette.

This is part of a series I’m preparing for an upcoming exhibition.

The Silhouette was started by people drawing around shadows of the human form/face and is probably one of the earliest forms of art.

The surfer in Hossegor and the young girl in Rome.

The name Silhouette comes from Étienne de Silhouette (July 8, 1709 – 1767) The french finance minister known for his austerity. Silhouettes were the cheapest form of portraiture in the 18th century and the name stuck..
Interestingly his father was a local man form near Biarritz His original surname would have been Zuloeta in Basque a name which can still be found in the region today.

Passengers waiting for a plane in Germany

A man going shopping in the Cote d’Azure

They all tell a story.. I find it fascinating that so much can be conveyed just by looking at shadows.
We cannot see their expressions but simply by reading their body language we can make a connection.

Link to Silhouette Gallery Here

Another trip

John Armstrong-Millar — 2012-01-11T10:05:48+01:00

I’m busy working on a few projects for this year..Looks like I’ll be travelling again. Not Venezuela this time.. seen in these shots from a recent trip up the Orinoco

Just as interesting though..More info soon..

2012

John Armstrong-Millar — 2012-01-02T12:31:36+01:00

Hi All

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year... or Bonne Annee depending on which side of the Channel you are..

This was a bit of fun over Christmas. Just snap all the corks from the bottles of wine we drank..

Inspiration IV Doing it for real

John Armstrong-Millar — 2012-02-26T15:08:56+01:00

Often as not when we look at photographs we see all we need to see in the image.

The clever juxtaposition of light and shadow, the tantalising glimpse of a piece of a story yet to be told.

A fleeting moment captured , we stop, we look and we move on.

But what about the story teller? How important is it that we know the Photographer?

Sebastião Salgado (for me at least) is a different kind of photographer

His images look like they have been taken in an alternative universe. There is the air of Communist Russian poster of the 1930’s extolling the virtue of the “common man”
But it’s more complicated than that. Through these images we glimpse a harsh reality of a world that is foreign to us in the West. It’s like looking back in time only to be jolted back to the present day when we realise that this world exists, and exists largely for our benefit .

I don’t believe a person has a style. What people have is a way of photographing what is inside them. What is there comes out. - Sebastião Salgado

Facebook

Website

Inspiration III A thing about Dogs

John Armstrong-Millar — 2012-01-30T09:41:18+01:00

Coming back to my ongoing theme of Influential Photographers

You know what I mean. Occasionally an image stops you in your tracks, makes a strong connection.

By now if you have been following this blog you may have noticed a theme.

For me photography is all about observation. It seems self evident but not everyone sees the World in the same way..

It's about reacting to what you see, hopefully without preconception. You can find pictures anywhere. It's simply a matter of noticing things and organizing them. You just have to care about what's around you and have a concern with humanity and the human comedy. Elliott Erwitt

His skill in being there at the decisive moment but being invisible at the same time is what I admire most. Anyone can point a camera at someone but only a few can take a powerful portrait.

So where do the dogs come in?

Well some of the photographs Elliott is most famous for are his wonderful portraits of dogs..

and of course it’s not just dogs..

I don’t think there is a wedding photographer in the world who at some point has not copied Ewritt’s style

Facebook

Elliott’s site

Sunset

John Armstrong-Millar — 2011-12-27T13:39:00+01:00

The weather was good over Christmas. So with not too much snow it was a great opportunity to go and take some pictures.

These ones show the Observatory on the Pic du Midi catching the last rays of the setting sun.

The light was changing quickly but the colours were superb..

Inspiration II Les Deux Magots

John Armstrong-Millar — 2012-01-05T11:12:39+01:00

A part of an ongoing series I’m talking about photographers that have produced images that have made me stop and think.

The second photographer is Saul Leiter 1923-

It was his colour photography in Paris (this one taken the year I was born!!) that made such an impact on me. It was so different from anything I had seen before. The wonderful painting quality, the simple style.

I found out later that he was, and still is a painter and he often used out of date film to achieve this lovely effect. A true artist...

Using out of date film is never an exact science. One never knows what to expect, which of course is its appeal. Today of course we can shoot digital and produce the same effect in post production .

The elegant simplicity of Les Deux Magots in Paris 1959 © Saul Leiter/ Courtesy Howard Greenberg Gallery

As an Habituée of New York, working for the big magazines like Vogue and Elle he is more famous for the work he did in New York.

© Saul Leiter/ Courtesy Howard Greenberg Gallery

But for me It’s the stuff he did in Paris that had the most profound effect.

Also I would like to thank the Howard Greenberg Gallery allowing me the use of Saul’s images for this blog,,

Les Deux Magots Still open for business

Howard GreenBerg Gallery

Saul Leiter on Facebook

a Link to an Interview More reading

plus informations En Francais

Inspiration

John Armstrong-Millar — 2011-12-25T15:19:31+01:00

From time to time I get asked what got me started in Photography or who my favourite photographers are.

I thought I would spend a bit of time this week listing my all time favourites...

First up is Ernst Haas 1921 -1986 Ernst Haas

One of the first photographers invited to join Magnum. It was his amazing colour work that fascinated me. At the time I was learning how to make images sharp and blur free.

He was able to shoot stuff that was blurred and out of focus but “it just worked”

For me the colour was the thing. The wonderful saturated colours and quite abstract approach his work seem to be more often Art than Photography

But that was the point.. as he said himself...

'Photography is a bridge between science and art.It brings to Science what it needs most, the artistic sense, and to art the proof that nothing can be imagined which cannot be matched in the counterpoints of nature'.More reading --

Merry Christmas

John Armstrong-Millar — 2011-12-25T11:53:56+01:00

Merry Christmas

Thanks to everyone for all their help and support, this year..

Fish and Chips

John Armstrong-Millar — 2011-11-13T12:44:54+01:00

Now here’s a thing

How often do you hear of English food being imported to France?Well it exists..

Dave Mansfield of the “Dordogne Chippy”

The fish and Chips were great ....

Portes Ouvertes

John Armstrong-Millar — 2011-11-17T12:43:18+01:00

Beaujolais "nearly " Nouveau

John Armstrong-Millar — 2011-11-27T12:19:28+01:00

In South-West France things are a bit more traditional, or just slower depending on your point of view

Beaujolais Nouveau is released on the 3rd Thursday in November each year.

Beaujolais can be sometimes seen as the poor cousin of French wine. It is often overlooked or worse derided as “plonk” that wonderful word to denote a poor quality wine bearly good enough for cooking let alone drinking.

This in my view is a mistake. A good Beaujolais can be amazing and goes exceptionally well with lighter meats. Beaujolais with grilled lamb is one of my favourites..

So yesterday evening we went to a Degustation to try out the 2011 Beaujolais..

Everyone taking the tasting very seriously

Christmas Lights

John Armstrong-Millar — 2011-12-18T12:11:16+01:00

I was driving through the town today and I thought the lights looked really nice..

Let it Snow

John Armstrong-Millar — 2011-12-22T11:30:36+01:00

Well it’s finally snowing here.

Well when I say here its’ not actually snowing it raining.. However that means that it will be snowing up in the mountains....

With good weather forecast for the Christmas Weekend we should get some great pictures...