91Èȱ¬

Each week, we set a theme and ask you to send in your photographs; this time the theme was "my home town".

You can see the pictures I have selected here.

The new theme is "the night".

Interpret this in any way you see fit and send your pictures to us at yourpics@bbc.co.uk or .

Please include the words "the night" in the subject line of your message.

The deadline is midnight BST Tuesday 5 October 2010, and remember to add your name and a caption: who, what, where and when should be enough, though the more details you give, the better your chance of being selected.

We will publish a selection of your photos this time next week.

If you want to plan ahead, you can see a list of the upcoming themes here.

Files should be sent as JPEGs. They shouldn't be larger than 10Mb and ideally much smaller: around 1Mb is fine, or you can resize your pictures to 1,000 pixels across.

Please see our terms and conditions, but remember that the copyright remains with you. The pictures will only be used by the 91Èȱ¬ for the purposes of this project. Finally, when taking photos, please do not endanger yourself or others, take unnecessary risks or infringe any laws.

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• - What's this?

Each week, we set a theme and ask you to send in your photographs; this time the theme was "school days".

You can see the pictures I have selected here.

The new theme is "my home town".

Interpret this in any way you see fit and send your pictures to us at yourpics@bbc.co.uk or .

Please include the word "My home town" in the subject line of your message.

The deadline is midnight BST Tuesday 28 September 2010, and remember to add your name and a caption: who, what, where and when should be enough, though the more details you give, the better your chance of being selected.

We will publish a selection of your photos this time next week.

If you want to plan ahead, you can see a list of the upcoming themes here.

Files should be sent as JPEGs. They shouldn't be larger than 10Mb and ideally much smaller: around 1Mb is fine, or you can resize your pictures to 1,000 pixels across.

Please see our terms and conditions, but remember that the copyright remains with you. The pictures will only be used by the 91Èȱ¬ for the purposes of this project. Finally, when taking photos, please do not endanger yourself or others, take unnecessary risks or infringe any laws.

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• - What's this?

In 2007 three small boxes arrived at the (ICP) in New York, having travelled from Mexico City. The boxes contained the Spanish Civil War negatives of Robert Capa, Gerda Taro and David Seymour (who was known as Chim).

The boxes became known as the Mexican Suitcase and comprised 4,500 negatives which it was believed had been lost. Despite the film being nitrate-based, it was in remarkably good condition, something that the ICP in part attributes to the relatively dry and stable climate of Mexico City.

Some of the work has been seen in the already, but now every frame can be seen in a new publication and is on show at the ICP from the end of the week.

Capa, Taro and Chim were among the first to chronicle conflict using the small 35mm handheld cameras of the day, creating pictures that allowed them to get up close to the action.

Compared to much of the work that had gone before, these photographs seem to place the viewer into the frame, standing where the photographer stood. This collection just adds to that feeling as we are no longer limited to viewing the frames selected at the time for publication, now we can see every shot on the contact sheets.

These sheets show how the three photographers used the freedom the format gave them as they shaped their stories and indeed evolved their own photographic style.

The photographs also show the back story, the quiet moments, the shots taken just for the record and sometimes personal reasons. How many photographers working today archive their digital version of these moments I wonder?

In addition, you can see the news magazines from the 1930s that contained the work, setting the photographs in their context and place in history.

Here's a small selection of the pictures:

You can read the .

The in New York from 24 September to 9 January 2011.

The Mexican Suitcase, edited by Cynthia Young is published by Steidl ICP /

Related post on Viewfinder:
The whole story: Capa's falling soldier

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• - What's this?

If anyone doubted that we are all photographers now, surely this frame by Peter Macdiarmid of Getty Images proves the point.

For the past few days I have been editing pictures for our coverage of the Pope's visit, and so have been glued to the desk watching the photographs arrive from the news wire agencies. There have been plenty of great pictures taken, some of which you can see in our coverage.

But looking at this one frame it's clear that virtually everyone in the shot is holding a camera or cameraphone. In this one small section of the route the Pope travelled in his popemobile through London, I can see more than 50 cameras. Each person probably took at least half a dozen frames, some considerably more.

I don't want to get into the debate about pro vs amateur, or quality issues regarding cameras - or indeed the threat to professional photography.

What really interests me is the way people use pictures. Yes, they are still a record of our daily lives, and of historic moments, but they are also used in the way words once were.

They are conversations. The picture doesn't only prove that I was there and saw this, it says this was my experience of the moment. I saw it this way, and now I can share this photo with my friends, either by sending it from a phone or by uploading it to the web where I can express my point of view.

There has always been a healthy amateur photographic movement within the UK, but we have now moved beyond that. And that's great; photography is now a part of many people's lives and something they use as a tool. It's no longer just for birthdays, holidays or Christmas.

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• - What's this?

A photographer whose work I recently discovered is that of Giulietta Verdon-Roe whose latest project attracted my attention as it reminded me of The Hebrideans by Gus Wylie, one of my tutors at University. Giulietta has been documenting the inhabitants of North Ronaldsay, the northernmost island of Orkney, Scotland and is currently there holding an exhibition of the work entitled As You Are.

What's fascinating about this is the fact that though the exhibition has been seen elsewhere, this time the only audience is the same small community that is depicted in the photographs.

Giulietta said:

"I originally began to research the Shetland Islands and then when I was about to set my dates to go, I was told about the furthest northern island of Orkney, North Ronaldsay, with its population of just over 60 and 13-mile dry-stone dyke, this was something that seemed impossibly romantic to me."

Although Giulietta had made contact with a couple of people on the island before setting off it was only on arrival that she began to realise the task she had set herself.

Giulietta said:

"Having flown in on the small eight-seater plane I was picked up by the lady who runs the bird observatory and shown the field where I could camp. I pitched my tent as the light was dropping, the wind getting up and the rain starting, I wondered what on earth I was doing.

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"But I managed to borrow a bike with a basket for my camera gear and strapped my tripod to the back and began to cycle around and begin to understand the layout of North Ronaldsay.

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"It took ten days of explaining myself before I took my first portrait. I was only booked to be there for two weeks, so although I knew this was meant to be the first trip of many, I began to worry that in reality I wasn't going to come back with anything of any substance at all.

Ìý
"Halfway through the weather was so bad that everything soaking wet, the trip was not going to plan. However, with persistence and countless cups of tea in a great deal of homes I began to shoot more portraits and hear the islanders' stories."

This time around though, the weather meant that the tent was soon replaced by a chance to stay in a converted attic space of one of the houses on the island, Giulietta was now part of the island.

Five months on and Giulietta is back again, this time to display the pictures in an exhibition held at the Old Manse. When I asked Giulietta how the opening night had gone, she said:

"The opening itself was a great success, almost the whole island came, it lasted from 2pm until 11pm with food and drink aplenty, some individuals even began to form a little group to play cards. It was lovely to see so many of the islanders in one place.

Ìý
"I think realistically there has been a mixed reaction, some only came to the opening because it was in a house which has been shut for almost 30 years and this was the first time it had been opened, so the exhibition itself was secondary. I think others are appreciative of the efforts to bring it up here and to be able to see what was taken and feel it's an appropriate representation of the islanders and its land. The comments in the guest book were very positive, but in all it's really difficult to know what is really felt.

Ìý
"Currently two new families have moved into the two newly built council houses and there are now four children in the school again. The communities' outlook is currently positive and time will tell what will happen next, but they still need younger families to move to the island."

For Giulietta it's time to think about her next project, but for now she has more pressing matters to deal with as the house housing the exhibition is damp and the fibre prints are breaking away from the mounts and warping.

Here's a small selection of the pictures on show and .

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• - What's this?

Each week, we set a theme and ask you to send in your photographs; this time the theme was "chaos".

It was a tough assignment but we still had more than 100 entries. You can see the pictures I have selected here.

The new theme is school days.

Interpret this in any way you see fit and send your pictures to us at yourpics@bbc.co.uk or .

Please include the word "school days" in the subject line of your message.

The deadline is midnight BST Tuesday 21 September 2010, and remember to add your name and a caption: who, what, where and when should be enough, though the more details you give, the better your chance of being selected.

We will publish a selection of your photos this time next week.

If you want to plan ahead, you can see a list of the upcoming themes here.

Files should be sent as JPEGs. They shouldn't be larger than 10Mb and ideally much smaller: around 1Mb is fine, or you can resize your pictures to 1,000 pixels across.

Please see our terms and conditions, but remember that the copyright remains with you. The pictures will only be used by the 91Èȱ¬ for the purposes of this project. Finally, when taking photos, please do not endanger yourself or others, take unnecessary risks or infringe any laws.

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• - What's this?

The general election is but a distant memory but, as some of you might remember, this was the first UK election to be documented by an official election artist. I blogged about the project back in March.

Photographer was commissioned by the Speaker's Advisory Committee on Works of Art to record the campaign and today his work is unveiled at a show in Portcullis House, Westminster. The show is open to the public this weekend, between 10am and 5pm. .

For now though, sit back and enjoy an audio slideshow in which Simon talks about the stories behind some of the pictures.

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• - What's this?

Given that this is something that affects us all it's a subject that is bound to draw many photographers over the coming years.

One who has made a start is Yang Zhou whose final project for her MA in Photojournalism at the University of Westminster is a delightful collection of pictures and anecdotes around the theme of old age.

Yang's approach to the project was partly influenced by her own experiences of growing up with her grandparents in Shanghai. Despite as she puts it having, "a perfect resource for a project on this chosen subject matter" readily available Yang chose to photograph in the UK and was inspired by Bertrand Russell's essay How to Grow Old.

Therein lies the strength of the project. Yang's delicately focused pictures, taken using an old medium format film camera, is ideally suited to the subject.

Yang asked her subjects to:

"Choose a favourite corner in their room, usually a chair or a sofa, and sit there. This mixture of formality and lack of posing gives the photos a double function. For instance, there is one photo of this 75-year-old lady leaning on the table with her hands holding each other in front of her. It signals to the viewer her eagerness to talk or even debate. In the meantime, it reminds us of a universally valid image of a grandmother ready to begin a serious talk with her grandchild. In such a way, the portraits in this project are both descriptive and symbolic."

The portraits are interspersed with photographs of items found in the homes Yang visited which adds to the projects lack of narrative, something that works in its favour.

Margaret (pictured below):

"For the first time in the last few months I felt a little old. But when I become miserable, I think of other things. Pleasant things. I keep my brain rolling away from myself. If you think about yourself long enough, you become quite stupid.
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"Old age is wisdom. You don't know everything, but you know more than you ever did. And you're still learning more. Never stop. One important thing is to adapt to new things, which is quite difficult. You've got to have a broad vision of life to get things together. If your get a narrow vision narrows, you can only see things as they were, not the way they are or will be.
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"I enjoy being with young people because they give me fresh views on things, not all I agree with though. But they do point out a lot of things I might miss if I didn't speak with them."

.

can be seen at P3 Gallery, University of Westminster, 35 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5LS from 11 - 13 September 2010.

Read the rest of this entry

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• - What's this?

This week's photo theme is a timely one as I, like many others, have just returned to work after a summer break.

There's a wide range of subjects portrayed this time around, including a wonderful street photograph by Sarah Horrigan, a fun shot by Nadia Hugo as well as Robert McClean's evocative shot on a ferry.

You can see the pictures I have selected here.

The new theme is Chaos.

Interpret this in any way you see fit and send your pictures to us at yourpics@bbc.co.uk or .

Please include the word "Chaos" in the subject line of your message.

The deadline is midnight BST Tuesday 14 September 2010, and remember to add your name and a caption: who, what, where and when should be enough, though the more details you give, the better your chance of being selected.

We will publish a selection of your photos this time next week.

If you want to plan ahead, you can see a list of the upcoming themes here.

Files should be sent as JPEGs. They shouldn't be larger than 10Mb and ideally much smaller: around 1Mb is fine, or you can resize your pictures to 1,000 pixels across.

Please see our terms and conditions, but remember that the copyright remains with you. The pictures will only be used by the 91Èȱ¬ for the purposes of this project. Finally, when taking photos, please do not endanger yourself or others, take unnecessary risks or infringe any laws.

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• - What's this?

Each week, we set a theme and ask you to send in your photographs; this time the theme was "open spaces".

You can see the pictures I have selected here.

The new theme is back to work.

Interpret this in any way you see fit and send your pictures to us at yourpics@bbc.co.uk or .

Please include the words "back to work" in the subject line of your message.

The deadline is midnight BST Tuesday 7 September, and remember to add your name and a caption: who, what, where and when should be enough, though the more details you give, the better your chance of being selected.

We will publish a selection of your photos this time next week.

If you want to plan ahead, you can .

Files should be sent as JPEGs. They shouldn't be larger than 10Mb and ideally much smaller: around 1Mb is fine, or you can resize your pictures to 1,000 pixels across.

Please see our terms and conditions, but remember that the copyright remains with you. The pictures will only be used by the 91Èȱ¬ for the purposes of this project. Finally, when taking photos, please do not endanger yourself or others, take unnecessary risks or infringe any laws.

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• - What's this?