Something lost

I recently was lucky enough to visit the new exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery, Shirley Baker: "Women and Children; and Loitering Men" which is a collection of documentary photographs from 1961-1981.  

http://manchesterartgallery.org/exhibitions-and-events/exhibition/shirley-baker/

Shirley Baker was reputedly the only female UK street photographer active during the immediate post war years.  The featured shots, in both colour and black and white, are of inner city Manchester and Salford.  What is striking to me about the exhibition is the number of pictures of children which are set and presented as part of the wider community at the time.  Street photography is a fantastic medium to collect and document society and social change and to provide future generations with a record of that time.  Sadly today, the UK has become very politically correct and taking pictures of children is frowned on despite it being perfectly legal in public places.  Of course I understand that some people may find it obtrusive and even offensive but this is in stark contrast to many other countries.  An interesting question to consider is why is that so?

Perhaps the real issue is more a comment on modern British society and how values and attitudes have changed.  Today in this country, anyone taking photographs at all is suspected to be about to perpetrate some form of evil, never mind photographs of children.  Personally, I think that there is a huge amount of over reaction.  The net result is a sad one and a loss for future generations when it is very likely that an exhibition like Shirley Baker's will never be able to take place and this aspect of contemporary life will be lost forever.

In the ring

Sometimes things come out of the blue and turn out to be really good opportunities.  A friend from my Krav Maga class has, amongst other things, a business selling "Sheath" sports underwear.  He asked could I do him a favour and take some pictures for him.  He had persuaded the boxer Brian Rose to model for him so early on a Saturday morning I went to his gym in the centre of Blackpool.   My normal genre of photography is street and I have done some portraits before but this was a bit different.  I looked on the internet for some great examples of this kind of work and took a little inspiration but wanting to be properly prepared, I sketched a few poses and stances in my notebook so I would not get "photographer's block" on the day.  I think my skills as an artist require further refinement but at least my renditions were more than stickmen.

 The gym itself presented some interesting angles as there was a boxing ring in the centre of it.  The lighting was a little more tricky with bright spotlights everywhere.  Down one side of the room were some large windows so some natural light shots would also be possible.  Brian was a good model and obviously used to being in front of the camera.  I wanted to take some shots aimed for my friend's purposes but also capture a few others including some headshots and some sparring.  Overall, we got a good result and the best ones looked good in both colour and black and white.  I used a 50mm lens throughout. 

My preparation sketches - with apologies to Leonardo Da Vinci

Portrait

Strange and Familiar

Every now and again you come across something that is truly worth shouting out about.  One such recent example is a fabulous photography exhibition at the Manchester Art Gallery.  "Strange and Familiar" is a collection of photographs by international photographers who in their work and according to the programme, "have captured the social, cultural and political identity of the UK".  Those featured are amongst the best and most famous in the world including Henri Career-Bresson, Bruce Gilden, Gerry Winogrand, Robert Frank, Sergio Larrain and Bruce Davidson.  The exhibition itself is curated by Martin Parr, one of the leading visual chroniclers of British life. 

It is a relatively large exhibition and I have already paid two visits and am planning my third!  Within the genre, the selection is eclectic and demonstrates to me the wonderful and multifarious ways that photographers see and interpret the world.  The selection takes us through the decades and portrays what would be difficult to describe in words, but in pictures captures what can only be described as quintessential Britishness.  There are documentary pictures of sweetshops in the early 1980s, some great images from the City of London in the 1960s, a poignant picture of a blood stained pavement in Northern Ireland from the time of the troubles and some images of the throng eagerly watching the Coronation of King George VI.  

Many are cliches - but that is part of their charm and obviously represent scenes that grabbed the imagination and attention of the photographers.  The exhibition was originally aired at the Barbican Centre in London in 2016.

The bookshop in the Gallery has some excellent anthologies on sale including a full catalogue of the exhibition and don't forget the excellent scones, cakes and coffee in the cafe.  I would heartily recommend it.  The best thing of all is that it is free.  More details below.

http://manchesterartgallery.org/exhibitions-and-events/exhibition/strange-and-familiar

Bruce Gilden Masterclass

Last week, I completed a four day masterclass with Bruce GIlden in London.  I was one of a small number of students, with the majority coming from outside the UK and as far as New York and Hong Kong.  I have admired Bruce's work since I started photography as someone who produces not only great pictures but also manages to capture the human condition in each one.  On the Monday evening, there was a reception and viewing of his latest series set in and around Detroit at the Leica Akadamie in London.  For the first day on the Tuesday we had to submit 15 pictures for his review and critique.  On the basis of this, he set an assignment  for the afternoon that was designed to build on what was there but also to challenge.  That was the pattern for the course each day, except Friday where we spent all day reviewing the work and pulling together a coherent series for each person.  Bruce also gave us a lecture, running through many of his best known shots and give in us the background to some of them.  His feedback was very direct and thought provoking but hugely informative and inspirational.  

Reviewing my portfolio series of people eating food on Friday

He asked each one of us what we were thinking when we took the pictures and he said that one of the ways we would know if a picture was good or not was if he could talk about it.  I developed the sense of going out to shoot with some specific purpose in mind.  Yes - always be on the look out for that decisive moment but have a clear objective in mind and think of the story.  He also spent a lot of time talking about his approach to portraiture as opposed to just candid work and how he focused on the eyes and almost into the soul of his subjects. 

I spent my time trying to capture some pictures of people eating food which presented challenges but by the end of the week resulted in an interesting series.

Overall I learnt a great deal from the 4 days and would go to another seminar of Bruce's.  

Paris - City of Photography

Tucked away in the North West corner of the Tuileries Gardens, at the rather splendid address of No 1, Place de la Concorde is a wonderful venue called "Jeu de Paume" which a centre for modern and postmodern photography.  The building itself has an interesting history having been built in 1861 in the reign of Napoleon III to house real tennis courts, known in French as 'jeu de paume'.

Outside the Jeu de Paume

It has a colourful history being at one time a counting house for the Nazis and prior to its current use, was a centre to show impressionist art.  Today it houses various exhibitions from photographers around the world.  During my visit there were two major exhibitions namely those of Josef Sudek and Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreiege.  Sudek's exhibition was called 'The World at My Window' and featured some 130 photographs from 1920 to 1976.  Based in Prague, the evocative images portrayed scenes from Sudek's studio window and further afield which captured the differing effects of light on his subjects.  He overcame the physical  handicap of losing and arm to carry his large, heavy camera and tripod.  Hadjithomas and Joreige's exhibition was called 'Remember the light' and featured an eclectic collection of pictures and short films portraying their Lebanese roots and the civil war.  Another gallery I visited was 'Polka' in the heart of the Marais area of the city.  This is a delightful venue and was established in 2007 by Adelie de Ipanema and her brother.  There were two collections on show.  Firstly there was Sebastian Salgado with 'The Tour de France' and secondly three Italian photographers, Ghirri, Giacomelli and Nori with 'Fratelli d'Italia'.  The building was modern and minimalist with a further gallery in a yard behind the main studio.  I dropped into the gargantuan Centre Pompidou which has a photography gallery in the basement.  There was a fabulous collection on show from Louis Stettner called 'Ici Ailleurs' and I picked up a book featuring the photographs.  

Unfortunately, due to the summer holidays several other galleries were closed at the time of my visit , most noticeably the Maison Europeenne de la Photographie and the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson.  This was supremely disappointing but taking something positive from it, it means that a return trip to this great city is on the cards.

Paris loves photography, is arguably the home of street photography and there are at least a dozen world class galleries to choose from.  Our major cities in the UK could do worse than to copy them.

Master of Photography

Sky Arts is currently screening a fascinating series http://www.masterofphotography.tv/, sponsored by Leica, which pits a small number of photographers, both amateur and professional, against each other in an eight week competition.  Each week, the contestants are assigned a particular project and they bring their output back to the studio where they are coached by a different guest celebrity photographer.  They subsequently have to submit one print to the three judges for what can only be described as 'direct' critique and feedback.  The tasks so far have ranged from street photography, where they were tasked to capture the essence of a particular place, to the naked body.   The standards are exceptionally high and they should be as the finalists were selected from several thousand hopefuls. 

It is interesting though that as one gets to this level, the relative standards are still quite diverse with one or two of them producing really outstanding work. It reminds me of a conversation I once had with a golf club professional many years ago who, as far as I was concerned, played like a god (I am not a golfer .....) but he was sadly resigned to and accepting of the fact that he was not 'quite' good enough to ever make it on the circuit.  Malcolm Gladwell in his book 'Outliers' tried to capture the essence of this and deconstructed what he believed were the factors that made one person that bit more special than another.  He attributed this to several factors, raw talent being one and 10,000 hours of practice being another.  The emphasis was on the 10,000 hours where he asserted that anyone can reach exceptional standards if they put the work in.

Sky Arts, Thursdays at 8pm

This is something that the athletes who are competing at the Rio Olympics at the moment must be thinking about too.   What is also interesting to observe is how the competitors go about their work.  Some seemingly have a very clear idea of what they want to do before they start and others only start to create when they are standing with a camera in their hands.

I was particularly pleased to see Bruce Gilden, the renowned American street photographer, as one of the guest celebrities whose forthright style clashed with one of the contestants whose self view of his ability differered from Gilden's.  Watching him do a double take as Bruce told him he would have a 'problem with photography' was great television.

Last week's episode was entertaining enough as one of the contestants stripped off completely to feature in his own photograph.  He seemed to get great delight from this.

I look forward with anticipation to the rest of the series.  I have a view as to which contenstant may win and it will be interesting to see if I am right. 

#MasterOfPhotography