NEWS AND EVENTS

July 2009

I can't believe that it's nearly a year since I updated my site.  I really must try harder. I can only plead that I have been extremely busy. We now have ten grandchildren, seven of whom have arrived in the past ten years. Things have also been hotting up on the photography front. Over Christmas I made vast numbers of cards for private clients, and for The Conran Shop. I have also had some very big orders from The Conran Shop for cards for the ongoing range which they stock all the year round in its own Perspex stand.  Bagel & Griff in Leicestershire are now also stocking some of my cards (6 Church Square, Market Harborough; www.bagelandgriff.com)
And now for the big news: The Conran Shop are going to stock framed, mounted prints in their Gallery in South Kensington. They are also expecting orders from their branches in New York, Paris and Tokyo, which is more than exciting. I will post up the dates these are arriving in store when I know them for definite. www.conranshop.co.uk
 
In August, I hope possibly to get out to sell in some London markets - but I will try and keep you in the picture.

August 2008
 
Barbara writes:
So sorry to have been so remiss in putting news onto the site. I've been jolted into action by my biggest photographic news ever: my exhibition LOVE LONDON to be held at Habitat in Regent Street, W1, opening September 3rd 2008. This is a chance to thank personally Hus Mozzafar of Habitat for generating and overseeing this show (www.habitat.co.uk). Hus has believed in me and my work from the first moment he saw it, while buying for The Conran Shop (see below).

I would also like to thank Sarah Miller at Sister PR, representing the Regent Street Association,  for supporting my work over so many years, and pushing this particular show forward with her customary energy and enthusiasm (www.sister-pr.com) A big thank you also to Art Group, at Camden Town, who have so patiently scanned a shoe-box of negatives going back over 20 years, then produced exquisite prints, and finally mounted and framed them. I am seeing some of these images larger than I have ever seen them before. It is a wonderful experience for me (www.artgroup.com)
 
The exhibition Love London was previewed in the London Evening Standard; this report was also posted on their web site.

But I hope this blog is not turning into blag.
 
Click on the Love London icon for full details of this show. And if you want to say hello, I'll be there in person on Sunday 7 September, to coincide with The Great British Experience of the Regent Street Festival (www.regentstreetonline.com)
 
Click on Barbara Chandler's London under exhibitions, right, to see a fuller ongoing portfolio of my London images.
 
I am trying at last to upload images of previous exhibitions and portfolios onto the site. I am being nudged (nagged?) into this by Stephen Bennington, invaluable and inspirational designer/coordinator, who suggested the website in the first place, having so stalwartly helped put together my Love exhibition in 2005 (www.stephenbennington.co.uk). Stephen, who studied at Chelsea School of Art, is a talented painter in his own right. Do go on line and look at his work.
 
I am hampered digitally by the fact that all my old images are on film, of course. No, not doing digital cameras yet (why does everybody have to ask that?), though all new work automatically goes onto discs,  gradually to be joined by the best from the archives. It is not that I do not think that digital can cut the mustard. It is just that I have spent so long teaching myself the nuances of various films, and exactly how to use my trusty 35mm camera bodies (which remain more robust, actually, than my own...)
 
Significantly, the Art Group, who did the printing, mounting and framing for LOVE LONDON, preferred  negatives to work from. It was a job to find them all safely - my "filing system"  is erratic, to say the least. I managed for 37 pictures. The last one had to be taken from a disc made at one point from a neg: I know I do have the original somewhere, but this exhibition was put together at short notice to celebrate the Regent Street Festival on 7 September, and there just has not been time to go through everything again.
 
Some of the tags for exhibitions on the right refer to ongoing themes, rather than a past show. I find that gradually a theme will emerge as I go around taking photographs, and then I start to build on it.
 
Otherwise, there has been another reason for not posting news. We now have pushing 10 grandchildren, and six of them have arrived within the past three years, with one more expected shortly. What joy.  I have a plethora of pictures, of course. I would like at some point to share the most beautiful ones, but need to get permission from the four mothers/fathers concerned.
 
Otherwise, I have been terribly busy meeting orders for the cards at The Conran Shop in South Kensington, and have also supplied New York and Paris. The Conran Shop sell my cards for £4.50 each, and they fill a specially-designed Perspex unit, so do visit 81 Fulham Road, London SW3  if you would like to inspect quality for yourself. Some designs sell out very quickly. People fall in love with particular images for no particular reason, and it is great to find that a photograph taken in, say, Warsaw 20 years ago, is suddenly a London best-seller. Thank you to Conran director Polly Dickens for supporting my work (www.conranshop.co.uk)
 
A French lady phoned to say she was taking 20 cards to give to relatives at home for Christmas, and also ordered some enlargements. I love to get feed back on the cards, and to get to know my "clients" personally. Do remember that all images can be ordered as enlargements. 
 
Lifestylebazaar, a brilliant new shop at 10 Newburgh Street, just off Carnaby Street, W1, is now selling a selection of my cards, and we hope to be offering mounted prints and posters shortly, so do call by when you are in the centre of town. (020 7734 9970; www.lifestylebazaar.com)
 
Last Christmas, I  made up large quantities of cards for people who chose one or two particular images and ordered in bulk, often for their business. Of course some are very faithful clients, and have become good friends. Gerard, for example, dates back to my days at Portobello Road market, and has particular penchant for cherubs. Jane's order has risen from around 40 to nearer 200 over the years, parallelling the success of her business. Victoria ordered 200 cards through the site last year, as she particular did not want me to think she was asking for a special price...now, that's friendship. Thank to all of them for their support, which has helped me to believe in my work, and the appeal of the cards.
 

I have struck up a rapport with Helen Reed Designs, down the road from me in Chiswick (478 Chiswick High Road, W4; 020 8994 9993) www.helenreeddesigns.co.uk. Helen (a talented interior designer) ordered nine photographs for her recently-completed  re-vamp of the Blueberry restaurant in Chiswick High Road. Five of these are from my London collection of work which spans nearly 25 years. The other four are new work on a local theme. They are now in situ in very chic frames.
 
I have been very busy with new work, and gained powerful images from Finland in June 2007, from Sicily in November 2007, and from Scotland in May 2008. I  harvested a bumper crop of images from Oxford Street just before last Christmas, including Salvation Army singers and a steel band in Christmas hats. Several images for the Love London exhibition are very new, including two taken specially of Regent Street.
 
This Christmas I definitely want to do more stalls again selling my cards, as I love the direct contact with people who buy my work. So this time, I'll try and keep this website up-to-date, and post details of when and where.
 
In the meantime, see you on Regent Street!

The December 2005 issue of the prestigious  British glossy magazine House & Garden featured Image 30 (Snowy palace Russia '03) on the front cover, printed onto a large canvas.

Barbara writes:
"I had a stall in Broadway Market, London E8 in a new event called Hackney Mile of Art, on Sunday October 2nd 2005. It was a great day, with lots of artists, photographers, ceramic and textile artists and so on taking part. But it started off cold and windy which was not very good for lightweight cards! Then it brightened up and to my great delight trade was brisk.