Who forgot the onions?

I attended a talk at NTU last Wednesday evening in which Max Kandhola and Guy Birkin’s collaboration provided me with a solution to an idea that I have been playing with so far unsuccessfully. They talked about the ongoing journey that their project has taken. A book they referenced was the Six Stories from the End of Representation (pictured). After the talk and upon flicking through the pages of the book I found information on hexadecimal data taken from an astronomy image.
For a while now I have wanted to see the data of an image in its most basic form. I searched the internet for binary extraction etc but to no avail. As it turns out I needed a hexadecimal editor. After downloading one of the many editors out there, voila! Raw data from any file I select. The question now – what to do with it and why?

By still searching for the answer as to what is photographic truth for my MA project, I have ended up playing with images,  Jim Goldberg style. Goldberg is a photographer whose images I have come across before but didn’t remember his name. I hadn’t realised that he is a Magnum member as his images are far from the the agency’s usual aesthetic (Magnum is more diverse these days but still…). I managed to get hold of Goldberg’s book ’Raised by Wolves’ for a day and upon flicking through the pages, I was immediately reminded of Larry Clark’s ‘Tulsa’ project.

My subject matter being tame (damned right cuddly compared to the aforementioned titles) I am creating a collection of images and incorporating text on the photo. This is achieved by either writing on the photograph or photographing text and adding post. The subject is of a festive one and the images here combine a present list to Santa and the wishful author.