FROM PRODUCING TV COMMERCIALS AND PRODUCING WEST-END PLAYS SIMON WEINSTOCK HAS NOW DISCOVERED A WHOLE NEW WORLD, SELLING PHOTOSHOP IMAGES ON A MARKET STALL.
A willingness to take risks in order to do the work he wanted to do characterises the varied career of Simon Weinstock. After gaining his degree in Creative Photography and Film Making at the London College of Printing, Weinstock spent some 15 years producing television commercials for the likes of DMBB, The Moving Picture Company and Carnival Film Productions. The work took him all over the world - he shot Bounty commercials in Antigua, yoghurt commercials in Australia and coffee commercials in Arizona.
Deciding that he wanted to get back to his original interest in photography, Weinstock gave up the commercials, took a flight to Calcutta and persuaded Mother Teresa to let him photograph her work in the Home for the Destitute and Dying.
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"Photoshop is quite simply a staggering tool for imaging. For me there is absolutely no end to its incredible performance. I have embarked upon a whole new successful career using its power and versatility."
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"I felt that although I knew of Mother Teresa, I didn’t know much about her work, and hadn’t seen many pictures of it," Weinstock explains. "I wanted to do it with her permission, it wasn't a commercial project." With permission finally given, Weinstock took his pictures and The Book of Giving was subsequently published, selling more than 14,000 copies worldwide.
Back in the UK, Weinstock's next venture was to work as an associate producer on two West End plays, Shadowlands and Map of The Heart. This came about through a contact from his TV commercial days. Since then he has concentrated on numerous photographic projects of his own making and has been published in many books and magazines, including The Independent on Sunday, New Scientist and Hello! magazine.
About two years ago he decided that it was time to learn about computers. "Originally I only wanted one to manage budgets, but I had loads of images and wondered if I could do anything with them," he says. Equipped with a PC and a copy of Adobe Photoshop he plunged in, spending hundreds of hours learning what the software could do.
"I started by playing around with my own pictures, changing skies and so on, but eventually I realised that you didn't have to start with real images, you could create from scratch in Photoshop. I was completely hooked," he says.
Weinstock generated a series of abstract compositions, using the various filters in Photoshop to play with light. Although the results are a world away from his photographic origins, Weinstock says that the photographer's skill in composition is still a key element. The next stage was to see if anyone else would be interested in his work, so Weinstock mounted and framed some of his images and took them to a small art and crafts market near London's Piccadilly.
"For the first couple of weeks there were some aghast faces,' he recalls, "but then people started buying. It was the best kind of market research, Piccadilly is a major tourist centre so you meet people from all over the world there. I quickly found out what kind of work was popular and to some extent adapted to what people wanted."
In addition to running a very successful market stall Weinstock is now on a crusade to win recognition for computer art from the art establishment. He has just been accepted to exhibit at the Battersea Contemporary Arts Show at Battersea Arts Centre in March 2000, a much-publicised and highly sought-after showcase for professional artists. "Computer art is not always accepted, but I'm out there doing my damndest," he says.
Simon Weinstock contact details:
Telephone no: 0208 671 1268
E-mail: s.weinstock@virgin.net.com
Web site: http://www.cookie-art.com
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