I agree this is not best thread to rake over all that business (if it was desirable at all) - as you mention,
there is already one on this, so anyone wanting to follow that should go there
Anyway Simon Harrison...
Simon Harrison is a fully qualified martial arts coach and trainer. He runs a series of classes in Notting Hill which emphasize the efficiency of technique in overcoming brute force, making them ideal for women and people of small stature. He has been graded by Grandmaster Chee Kim Thong and master Kim S Han of the Nan Shaolin Wuzu Quan Association and is currently second-degree black belt in Shaolin Ngor Chor Kung Fu. Simon has worked extensively as a graphic artist, illustrating for magazines such as 2000AD, Games Workshop and the NME.
www.randomhouse.co.uk/catalog/author.htm?authorID=4695His Kung Fu For Girls, not sure if these are different editions of the same book:
www.amazon.co.uk/Kung-Fu-Girls-Simon-Harrison/dp/0091891698/rwww.amazon.co.uk/Kung-Fu-Girls-Self-Defense-Style/dp/1931686939/Review:
www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/4190226/How-to-bring-out-the-Lara-Croft-in-you.htmlHe is still producing art but not of the sequential variety, like this from 2006:
http://magazine.saatchionline.com/magazine-articles/artnews/emerging_artist_of_the_week_siAt the end of last year he had an exhibition of photographs taken with Carolin Becker (who took the photographs he reworked):
www.thisislondon.co.uk/arts/review-23885356-street-life-captured-in-colour-and-light-by-becker-harrison.doThis is almost definitely the same Simon Harrison, although he is described as a graffiti artist there but there are clear elements of that in the work at that Saatchi link:
Caroline Becker and Simon Harrison took a trip to India together back in 2008, and while they were there Becker photographed people in the main square in Jaipur. Five hours after the photographer had snapped the locals a terrorist bomb went off in the square, and suddenly the photographs took on a whole different meaning, one which the graffiti artist Simon Harrison was able to help bring to the fore. The two creatives work together as BeckerHarrison to produce what could, to the uninformed eye, be the work of one person: Becker’s photographs are worked on by Harrison, who adds surreal depth and meaning to the already great images
The clincher is this:
DD: How did you begin working together?
Simon Harrison: I was teaching Caroline Kung Fu, and at the time she was taking pictures of homeless people. When she told me I said, “Let me get this straight… You are walking around dodgy areas with a £5,000 camera on your own taking pictures of people who could potentially rip you off?" I didn't think that was a great idea so i said I would come with her, and it developed from there.
www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/8506/1/what-a-difference-a-day-makesAnd I found this interview in London Street Design magazine, which also explains the graffiti link and how everything comes together here (he actually uses spray cans and airbrushes on the photos):
Can you tell us a little about your respective backgrounds and how you came together
Simon: Artistically speaking, I was heavily involved with graphic design and working on comics and animation and the two of us met through my teaching Carolin martial arts.
...
You had a spray paint and graffiti background too didn’t you Simon?
Simon .Yes. I spent a good few years in Zurich working with some graffiti artists out
there, who were also part of a band called Primal Lyrics. It’s got to be said, they were a little naive, but they really were talented musicians and great artists, although they were endlessly hamstrung by the huge fines the Swiss imposed for illegal graffiti work and the chunks of community service they were constantly being obliged to do. So while I was doing a lot of can work with them, I was also getting into airbrush painting which is a similar process – just finer and then began to combine the two, where they would paint with the cans and I would airbrush the pieces afterwards to throw an extra dimension into the mix.
...
Bearing in mind that you’re taking a spray can to a photo, what size prints are we talking about?
Simon. Large. The average is about 2m x 1.5m. And it did come down to a mixture of straight up spray and an airbrush, because there were lines and angles that demanded a delicacy that becomes simply impossible with a spray can. And don’t forget, they don’t come cheap!! Carolin handed me a print and said ‘Go for it’ and I’m thinking to myself – that’s 300 quids’ worth of photograph. Not exactly much margin for error here! I can’t blow it! I would just sit there looking at them while Carolin was ringing up asking how it was going, and I’d just be saying...’erm...I’m in the zone, getting there!’ until I finally felt confident enough to take a crack at them, and now I’m totally at my ease with it.
www.scribd.com/doc/31360782/LSD-Magazine-Issue-4-Unauthorised-HeroesIf you look around you find a lot more on his recent work:
www.faultmagazine.com/2010/09/fault-featured-beckerharrison/Here is their web site:
www.beckerharrison.comSo there you are - that's what he is doing.
If people would like I can always drop him a line via that site and see if he'd keep us updated on his current work as there is still interest in what he is up to (I did a quick search and there are half a dozen threads specifically asking about him).
