Philip Grocott’s Blog

A Vote for Ruth exhibition

A Vote for Ruth
Opens 9th August 2010, 3pm to 6pm

The exhibition runs until the 22nd of August 2010 at Burton Library, Riverside, Burton Upon Trent, DE14 1AH

Opening Hours:
Monday 8:30am to 6pm, Tuesday 10 am to 6pm, Wednesday 8:30am to 6pm, Thursday 8:30am to 8pm, Friday 8:30am to 6pm, Saturday 8:30am to 4:30pm, Sunday Closed

A Vote for Ruth is an insight into the General Election of 2010 on a local scale. In the four weeks preceding Polling Day, the Burton Labour Party and their candidate Ruth Smeeth, were photographed providing a documentary of their efforts to hold onto the marginal seat in the Burton Upon Trent and Uttoxeter constituency.

About the photographer Philip Grocott recently studied photography at Burton College in conjunction with Staffordshire University. In 2009, Philip was awarded a Merit in the Fujifilm Student Awards and recently exhibited as part of the FreeRange Art & Design Show 2010.

Burton College at Free Range 2010

This was Burton College's first time at the Free Range Art and Design Show. I was displaying photographs from my 'Vote for Ruth' project as a part of this. Easily the biggest exhibition that any of us had been involved in, I think most of us underestimated how much there was to do. Preparations and putting everything up was as equally manic as the opening night. Still it was all good fun and certainly an invaluable experience.
 
     
Putting everything up.
 
My 'Vote for Ruth' work.
 
Ruth Smeeth, the focus of my project came along too.
 

       

Exhibition TwentyTen - Burton College

Still a few days of Burton College's end of year show. The Foundation Degree photography is situated at Burton Library. If you're in the area, it's worth checking out.

Catalogue - Burton College at the 10th Annual Free Range Art & Design Show

You are invited to attend the opening of

'Catalogue'

10th Annual Free Range Art & Design Show

17th June 2010
6pm to 10pm

A Vote for Ruth

During the four weeks preceding the General Election, Philip Grocott documented the Burton Labour Party and their candidate for the constituency, Ruth Smeeth. 

Burton Upon Trent and Uttoxeter is a marginal seat in the Midlands, with a strong campaign between The Conservatives and Labour. 

Philip's aim was to photograph Ruth and the Burton Labour Party during their campaign, giving an insight to the General Election on a local scale.

A selection of the images will be shown as a part of Burton College's Catalogue at the Tenth Annual Free Range Art & Design Show.

Opening: 17th June 2010, 6pm to 10pm. Also showing on the 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st of June 2010, 10am to 7pm. 

Location: F Block T3, Hanbury Street, London.
Philip Grocott joined Burton College on the Foundation Degree in Photography as a mature student.

In 2009, Philip was awarded a Merit in the Fujifilm Student Awards. More recently he has been documenting the Burton Labour Party in the run up to General Election.

Free Range Preparation

This is the first year that Burton College will be exhibiting at the Free Range art and design show. Free Range provides an excellent platform for students to showcase their work to the public and industry.

Students from Burton College on the Foundation Degree in Digital Media Production (Photography) will be showing work from the 17th to the 21st of June. As one of the students, I’ll be exhibiting thirty images from my recent A Vote for Ruth project.

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Freerange ~ London Trip (blog post)

A trip to London saw us visit the FreeRange exhibition spaces, a tour of the PrintSpace and a lecture by Mark Neville.

First port of call was FreeRange. The college and the photography course has been contemplating exhibiting at FreeRange next year. FreeRange is the largest art and design graduate shows in Europe, set in the middle of the creative community at the Old Truman Brewery, London. It attracts a lot of attention from potential employers and the public. The show runs for eight weeks, with rotating exhibitions focusing on art, design, photography, interiors and architecture.

We were shown around to get a sense of the vast spaces and informed of the availability. At present it's something the students and college are considering being involved with. It certainly could prove to be an important springboard.

Fujifilm Student Awards Exhibition

Fujifilm have released details of an exhibition of images from the 2009 Fujifilm Student Awards.

The exhibition is on display at Bayeux pro lab on Newman Street, London, W1T 3EP from now until Friday 16th October.
Bayeux is open from 9am to 7pm, Monday to Friday, admission is free and no booking is required.


(My entry for The Fujifilm Student Awards 2009)

All 30 merit winning images from the Awards will be on view, including my Merit award winning image and the overall winning image, taken by Andrew Partner from Leicester College.


The awards were organised by Fujifilm Professional in association with Penguin Classics. The brief was to supply a cover image for the next edition of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. The 2009 Student Awards attracted 1,500 entries, from which 30 Merit winners were chosen as well as the final winning entry.

Next year will see the 25th anniversary of the Fujifilm Student Awards.

End of Year Exhibition 2009



Tonight saw Burton College hold the opening night of their annual end of year exhibition. The exhibition showcases work from all of the Visual Arts courses, including graphic design, fine art, fashion, illustration, web design and photography amongst others.

It was a busy affair with many students, parents and guests in attendance. Many were obviously impressed with what they saw. It was encouraging to see so much really good stuff and hear the positive comments.

If you're in the area it's worth going to have a look around and see the art young people are creating today.

The exhibition is held at Burton College, Staffordshire (map) from Tuesday 16th June until Thursday 25th June. Opening times will be from 10am to 8pm Monday to Thursday, 10am to 4:30pm on Fridays and 10am to 4pm on Saturday.

Fujifilm Student Awards 2009

(The view from the Penguin offices where the Fujifilm Student Awards 2009 were held)

The Fujifilm Student Awards 2009 in conjunction with Penguin took place last week. It was held at the Penguin offices in London, a great location over-looking the Thames.

I'll get it out of the way, I didn't win overall. That honour went to Andrew Partner from Leicester College. You can see his winning image along with the other Merit Award winners on the Fujifilm Student Awards website here.

It was a great evening, the hospitality, the location and great weather along with getting this far in the competition have made it memorable. The other finalists had great entries and it was difficult to guess beforehand who would win overall. Right up until the announcement, I felt an excited and nervous buzz. It could have been any of us.

Congratulations to Andrew Partner, who will have his image printed on the cover of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. He will also win £200 worth of Fujifilm Professional film and 25 Penguin Classics titles of his choice.

The other Merit award winners will receive 10 rolls of Fujicolor PRO160S professional colour negative film, a Penguin Classic of their choice (I've picked Susan Sontag's On Photography) and a copy of The Language of Things.



(Chris Beech, Course Leader picking up the award for Burton College with the most entries)

Burton College, at which I study, also picked up a prize for the institution with the most entries. The college will gain £250 worth of Fujifilm Professional film and 100 Penguin Classics titles for its library.


(Merit Award winning students and tutor from Burton College)

I'm really pleased with how far I got. I enjoyed the whole process from beginning to end and I think being narrowed down from 1500 entries to one of the thirty Merit winners is quite an achievement.

I'd like to thank Fujifilm and Penguin for this opportunity and for a great evening. I'd also like to thank my tutors for encouraging me to enter and the advice they gave me. And of course, thank you to family and friends who came along, gave me encouragement or wished me luck.

The people who threw those shopping trolleys into the river should also be acknowledged. Otherwise I wouldn't of had the image in the first place!



(Me next to my Merit Award winning photo)

For further information and photos, please see the press release on the Fujifilm Student Awards website here.