Simon Keitch Photography Blog

The Lowepro Pro Roller X200 on location

After years of using a backpack to carry my core equipment I finally relented recently and bought myself a rolling camera bag, at which point my back gave a little sigh of relief. Even with what I consider to be a very lightweight kit I’m travelling with at least four bags these days, plus my backpack was starting to look a little overpacked and so with a week-long foreign assignment ahead of me involving trains, planes, and automobiles as well as a different hotel every night I figured it was high time I did myself a favour and ordered one up. I’ve always used Lowepro bags and although not generally a brand loyalist I will stick with what I know works and as I’ve had no complaints with the Vertex 200 AW I’ve had for the past three years or so Lowepro were the first company I looked at when shopping around, and  I eventually went with the Pro Roller X200 as it’s the largest roller bag that Lowepro produce that still meets the airline carry-on luggage size allowance. I always carry-on my main bag as it’s the most valuable (practically and financially) and thus ensures that regardless of what the baggage throwers do with the rest of my luggage I’ll always have the most important items when I arrive at the destination, and true to Lowepro’s claims I’ve had no problems at check-in and the bag fits perfectly in the overhead compartment.

Lowepro Pro Roller X200 fully loaded

One of the first things I noticed was only three memory card pouches; not a big problem as there’s plenty of space in the larger pouches but with four in the Vertex 200 I was surprised to see less rather than more in the Pro Roller. Otherwise the extra space and sturdy casing are all good and I was pleased to see that the Nikon SB-800 speedlights fit in perfectly with the head in the vertical position so less space is wasted (update: I have since replaced my aging SB-800 strobes with SB-900 models and I’m sad to say that they’re far too big to fit in the bag in this way). There are also two pockets on the front of the bag; one large one for a laptop which happily swallows my 13in MacBook Pro and a smaller pocket which comes in useful for holding paperwork/tickets etc, and each pocket is separated into two compartments.

Pro Roller X200 Handle Tripod Mount

I appreciate the little details and the Pro Roller has a few nice touches such as the tripod mount built into the handle (pictured above); not something I’ve had the need to use but it’s good to know that in a pinch I’ll have something to hand that would serve as a tripod, or as a lightstand for that matter. Another feature I haven’t used but appreciate having is that the interior of the bag actually unzips from the main case to become a simple backpack so if you’re flying on a smaller plane with tighter carry-on limits (such as some domestic flights) the case can be checked in and the smaller and lighter interior carried on as normal.

Pro Roller X200 TSA Lock

The three-digit TSA combination lock (above) works well and is yet another handy integrated feature; once the combination has been set the self-retracting cable can be pulled out and through the hoops built into the zips and then locked back into the unit. It’s ocurred to me that this could be used to also secure the bag to an immovable object although I’m still to think of a situation where this could be used that would not result in the bomb-squad getting called out. The wheels have a wide spacing which makes for a pretty stable roller bag and the large rubber-tread wheels roll and grip well even when taken off road. They’re also fastened with a standard 4mm Allen key which should make for simple replacement when the time comes.

Lowepro Pro Roller X200 Wheel

So I’ve had the Lowepro Pro Roller X200 for long enough to have given it a bit of a beating and so far it’s done very well. I really like the fact that my lighting bag – a Lowepro Magnum AW – sits perfectly atop the X200 and clips on to the handle so it doesn’t fall off. Probably not something the manufacturer recommends but it does mean a total of two bags that I don’t need to carry through airports on my shoulders anymore.

Back in June I travelled out to Switzerland with Cycle Sport magazine staff writer Andy McGrath to photograph Daniel Teklehaimanot at the UCI World Cycling Centre in Aigle; the feature appears in the new October 2010 issue and I’m pleased to say that they’ve done a very fine job with image selection and layout with only one photo that isn’t mine sneaking in via a side-bar with Sky rider John-Lee Augustyn about the difficulties for Africans making it to the professional ranks. This was a great assignment to get and was quite different from the usual celebrity athlete interview feature (not that I don’t love those too…); currently relatively unknown, Teklehaimanot was born and raised in the African country of Eritrea (a country with a strong cycling scene as a result of it being colonised by Italy from 1890 to 1941 but also a bloody war-torn history and ranked as the worst country in the world for press freedom violations) and poised to become the first black-African cyclist to make it to the top-tier of professional cycling despite undergoing a heart operation just last year after tests indicated that he had tachycardia. Big thanks to Ed Pickering for assigning me and Andy McGrath for being such a good travel companion and doing such a great job with the words; you can read the article in full by picking up a copy of the new issue from any good newsagents.

Out-takes: I really wish I’d stepped back and taken a wider set-up photo of this first one (an alternate from the photo that ran as the double page spread opener); there were four of us all hunkered down in the wheat; as well as Daniel and me, Andy (writer) and Michel (Daniel’s coach) were holding onto a softbox for dear life as gale-force winds blew through the valley.

A few months back I received a phonecall from Francesca Steele – a Plymouth based Performance Artist – who asked me to photograph her for an upcoming book being produced by the Plymouth Arts Centre to coincide with the Pigs Of Today Are The Hams Of Tomorrow performance arts show which is taking place at The Slaughterhouse – a nearly 200 year old dis-used slaughterhouse – at Royal William Yard in Plymouth this month which is being curated by Marina Abramovic. The deadline for the images was extremely tight but we pulled together a two location shoot over the course of two days; one studio shoot with a black background and a second on location at The Slaughterhouse itself; Francesca was great to work with and the images were delivered in time and so far with a lot of very positive feedback so I’m looking forward to seeing the finished book. Francesca’s current project – Routine – has involved her transforming her body within the relatively short space of a year through the adoption of bodybuilding training, diet, and finally competition, and we did another shoot together at Francesca’s first bodybuilding competition – Miss Plymouth 2009 – a few weeks later where I produced documentary photographs both backstage and front of house of the preparation and competition. I decided to do a little Q&A session with Francesca to give a better insight into what the project is all about.

SK: How did this project begin; where did the idea come from?

FS: The idea for the project grew initially from working with [bodybuilder and gym owner] Stuart Core on a different project – Horticultural Healing – a rehabilitation project for clients with acquired brain injury. Stuart collaborated on a series of photographic outcomes to the project, also working with a magician Christopher Howell; the photographer for this project was Manuel Vason – commissioned by Groundwork South West in Plymouth. Also around the same time I had been working at Derriford hospital in the Histopathology lab – which included the cytology unit and also the morgue – here I was working with the body in a dislocated, close up and visual way, using microscopes to examine, and learning more about bodily and cellular structures. With both of these projects on my mind and also at the time feeling a dissatisfaction with elements of my practice, the idea formed to use my own live body as more than a ‘tool’ within my work. To attempt to make the body/life into an artwork, in some sense. I started going to Stuart’s gym – Core Fitness – and felt aware it was unlike most gyms I had been to, and that the atmosphere was quite different. I felt fascinated when I heard men talk about food, and when they were so critical about their physical form and aimed for constant improvement. I talked my idea over with Stuart, and with his and Lewis Breed’s help and consistent advice and support I began to body-build. It took me some time to get around a few aspects of it; as a woman the focus had always been on eating less and losing weight, lots of cardio etc, but to body-build I had to completely change my diet and actually eat all the food I was told too and aim to gain weight. It did take me a while to really understand – and stop fighting what I’d been brought up culturally to believe about my body. To be honest this took me a couple of months – where initially I lost weight rather than gained, but it did eventually sink in! I set the goal of competing in a regional bodybuilding contest to have a goal and timetable to work to. This gave me 8 months of gaining and 4 months dieting down for competition. I gained a stone and a half in my gaining period and lost it during my diet – although my body changed dramatically over the year – and although I was the same weight at the beginning and the end of the year I looked completely different.

Backstage at Miss Plymouth 2009

SK: How does such a long term project translate into an individual live performance piece; for example the Pigs Of Today Are The Hams Of Tomorrow show which you’ll be appearing in?

FS: Simply – I don’t think it can. I have always thought that one of the biggest and more difficult tasks of being an artist is in the selection of what you show. Obviously with this work, it has become impossible show to everything – and really now this year is coming to an end it feels more that the process of making work has just started rather than finished. Competitive bodybuilding has two main elements  - the work that you put into your body, lifestyle, food & exercise – and the showmanship of posing and performing on stage. For the Pigs Of Today Are The Hams Of Tomorrow project, I am going back to my established one-to-one performance practice with some of what I have learnt from the performative side of bodybuilding. I am looking at the piece as a long slow tense piece of choreography where viewers have the opportunity to view one at a time.

SK: What you were aiming to achieve when you started this project; were there specific goals you had when you begun, and if you did do you think you’ve realised them or have they changed during the process?

FS: Apart from the duration act of bodybuilding for a year, there were initially a number of aims or ideas; these were partly to do with data collection and to investigate masculinity and feminity. The data collection I found fell to pieces as I went along. I found the process of bodybuilding itself to kind of wipe it out; it seemed to become irrelevant - and the data really didn’t change much! As I became more immersed in the lifestyle of bodybuilding it seemed less verbal or intellectual – but almost more of a meditative act – more about calm concentration and attitude making it possible to push yourself further and further; which somehow left less room for diary keeping. I was also interested in investigating masculine and feminine beauty; what attributes a female could take on or borrow from masculinity and where these boundaries between feminine and masculine lay in terms of the aesthetic of the body. I gave myself the goal to compete to give me a real objective to work towards and to help me to try to follow the process to the best of my ability, and also for the work to exist in the world of bodybuilding rather than just that of art. During the process most of my goals have changed as I have begun to understand more about competitive bodybuilding and can contemplate more of what its potential is within my art practice. I have decided to continue bodybuilding and competing, and using it as source and fuel for my artwork; I feel a year is really only enough time to get started and I am still enthusiastic and excited about what the future possibilities and dialogues can be for this work.

Francesca Steele will be performing ‘Routine’ at the Pigs Of Today Are The Hams Of Tomorrow taking place at Royal William Yard in Plymouth over the 22nd/23rd/24th of January 2010 with the book publication launch taking place on the 21st.

Plymouth Arts Centre presents The Pigs of Today are the Hams of Tomorrow, a curatorial collaboration with the Marina Abramović Institute for Preservation of Performance Art. The Pigs of Today are the Hams of Tomorrow will stage, document and discuss groundbreaking international performance art in order to examine and sustain the future of the medium. The Pigs of Today are the Hams of Tomorrow takes place over three days at Royal William Yard with performances by six renowned artists and artist-collectives.

This is the first curatorial project of the Marina Abramović Institute. Marina Abramović has pioneered performance art for over four decades on an international scale. Her major retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, opens in March 2010.

The Pigs of Today are the Hams of Tomorrow is a translation of the title of a conceptual piece of writing by Georg Jappe published by KunstForum International in 1978 on the contemporary state of art practice in relation to global political agendas.

Music has played such a huge role in shaping me and my work and so my one big regret so far is that I don’t get to photograph many bands and musicians; well 2010 is going to be different… My first shoot of the year was with Brotherhood of the Lake; a Devon based band ‘intent on creating innovative, heavy music based around solid song writing and an energetic live show’ to create promotional portraits of the group. The band were great to work with despite the freezing temperatures and biting wind on location at Dartmoor as well as the usual down-time between set-ups and locations of which we squeezed in three in total with a few different options.

I’d  already tech scouted the first two locations and knew exactly what images I wanted from each but I also had a third location in mind if time allowed; fortunately not only did we have the time but the band knew of somewhere close-by that fitted exactly what I needed; an old ruined manor house hidden away in the woods near Burrator that provided a dark grey stone backdrop and shade from the winter sun.

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The guys had been killing time with a bag of Mega Sour Apple Sweets and a video camera; Rusty (guitarist) kindly offered me one but I thought better of it and figured I’d rather steal their idea and photograph each of them choking one down. I thought Rob (vocalist) was going to lose his lunch.

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Check out the Brotherhood of the Lake MySpace Page for more info and a teaser for their forthcoming album debut Iron Sails.