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Chatting on Instagram Live /  by James Whitaker

James Whitaker Instagram Live ArchitectureChat Poster.jpg

Hello fellow quarantiners!

The instagram page @architecturechat have invited me to chat/give a lecture on their Instagram live feed, so on Friday morning at 10am (here in sunny London) I'm going to do just that. Whoop! Taking advantage of the more personal nature of a webchat rather than a big lecture theatre it could be a great opportunity to answer some questions, chat about my projects and tell some entertaining tales. So send me your questions and I'll see what I can answer…

Sid Jacobson /  by James Whitaker

9/11 Report

Back in November I was taking a flight from LA to San Francisco and got chatting to the guy sat next to me. He was 88 and on his way to spend Thanksgiving with his daughter and family. He was a lovely guy to chat to and, naturally, conversation came round to what he did for a living - it turns out that Sid is a bestselling graphic novel author. After a life spent at Harvey and Marvel comics he has now found his niche writing non-fiction graphic novels. In particular he and his illustrator partner have had great success creating graphic novel editions of the 9/11 Report and the Torture Report. 

Now, I've never felt inclined to reading the unabridged, 500+ page editions of either of these reports, but condensed down into a more accessible graphic novel version they make for fascinating reading. I got a sense reading the books that these reports aren't necessarily read and digested by enough politicians to make their findings take root. Indeed Sid's motivation for writing these books was to encourage more people to read the reports and enter the debate that they should be stimulating. I found it really interesting to read what the bipartisan, party-independent, perspective is on these major elements of recent American history. And while The Torture Report makes for some depressing reading, it is made even worse by the knowledge that even after the report's publication Trump was out on the campaign trail claiming terror suspects would "talk a lot faster with torture". We live in some sad times.

Thanks Sid - I've come away from that flight far more informed than I was when I boarded the plane and I'm looking forward to reading my way through the rest of your books now.

Photography on a Postcard /  by James Whitaker

Space Explorer Jack by Whitaker Studio

Photography on a Postcard is opening tomorrow at The Printspace and this image from my series Space Baby is going to be part of the show. For £50 you can buy a lottery ticket which guarantees you one of the prints, you just don't know which one. It could be this photo of Jack or it could be a Wolfgang Tillmans image.

All proceeds are going to the Hepatitis C Trust’s campaign to eliminate hepatitis C from the UK by the year 2030.

You can get your lottery ticket here.

WVWG Summer Exhibition /  by James Whitaker

Toddler with bucket and spade

Around the corner from where we live there's a little shop that runs a gallery of local artists' work in their window - Walthamstow Village Window Gallery. On Friday their summer exhibition is opening and Toddler with bucket and spade is going to be part of it. It's running until 3 September so there's plenty of time to see it while picking up your sourdough loaf from the shop opposite.

I am selling limited edition prints of Toddler with bucket and spade here.

Space Baby at 3DS Max London User Group /  by James Whitaker

Toddler in space

On Wednesday evening I'm presenting my work and, in particular the making of Space Baby, at the 3DS Max London Users Group. I'll be showing some of my workflow and how I created Jack's space suit with Marvellous Designer.

For more information go to - https://www.meetup.com/3DSLondon/

Come along and say hello over a pint.

If you've not been before you should, there's always interesting stuff being shown (this week being a perfect example) and beer - a winning combination!