A good People and Place photo

One takes many photographs which might help to fulfil a brief but may not be anything exceptional. Sometimes, one does make a photograph that stands out.

Dorothy unwell after lunch

When I showed this photograph to others, they immediately picked it out from a group even though there were other impressive images such as an Osprey with a duck in it's claw and a panoramic view of the Bristol docks. The assumption was that this image must have been set up when in fact it was not; Dorothy, a member of a group with whom I was lunching, had fallen ill after lunch and an ambulance had to be called which is why one sees a man leaning near her with a phone in one hand; this act further adds to the emergency of the scene.

The composition works since the figures are placed in such a way as to add to the dynamism of the scene and yet the distortion, although partially removed by a lens profile and some tweaking, rather lets down the reality of the scene unless one is prepared to accept this effect as adding to the atmosphere.

Martin Parr in Bristol - second visit

I had gone to see Martin Parr's exhibition of photographs made in the Bristol area for a second time partly to meet up with other OCA students, an unofficial study day, yet also to listen to a social historian talk about the photographs on display. However, the talk was by Phil Walker who had worked closely with Martin Parr over the exhibition since the social historian was unable to attend.

Martin Parr is liked by some and disliked by others; I am a liker but want to understand the other view. Perhaps it is just a matter of taste but there are those who do seem to raise a serious objection to Parr. He is an internationally renowned photographer, a documentarist who is head of Magnum UK and whose work is also considered art. One can look at his work in different ways such as the social historic which is really the basis of this exhibition. Parr came to Bristol in the late 1980's, producing The Cost of Living (1987), when there was the divided society of the late Thatcher era.

For Parr, the role of photography is to exaggerate and some of his images contain not so much a punctum, what Barthes describes as an area of significant detail, but are themselves a punctum, a punctured view of the world. Photography tends to be used to make things look better than they actually are and Parr challenges this. 

Does Parr reveal any truths about Bristol or is Bristol just a backdrop for his view of the world. Henri Cartier-Bresson, one of the founding members of Magnum, suggested that Parr might be from another planet. His work is seen by some as dispassionate and detached.

One image of two people standing outside their prefab house does have historical significance. There are not many of such buildings left and there is talk of the remaining ones being listed. Parr met with the occupiers who are photographed standing outside.

A photograph of a Yoga class taking place in the city is indicative of the kind of alternative culture that exists in Bristol. The photograph of Airbus workers at work is also a reminded of the kind of industry found in Bristol.

One photograph of four women in Cribbs Causeway standing facing the photographer in what amounts to a portrait photograph. This attracted a lot of criticism as not being representative of the shopping centre as a whole yet as usual, Parr had interacted with his subjects and what makes this photograph special is that the four women are all from the same family, ranging from Great Grandmother to Great Grandchild. The photograph hence gives us an insight into Cribbs Causeway through contact with it's people rather than merely representing part of the building.

Parr takes thousands of pictures every year yet is usually only happy with about 10 of them!! For him, photography is a calling as well as a profession. Editing is not easy owing to there being so many images to consider.For this exhibition, Parr managed to edit down his images to 600 from which the 60 on display were chosen.

There are recognisable themes to Parr's work such as consumerism, shopping, issues around class etc Parr claims he is trying to be objective in his search for truth. Photography is a "soap opera"! There is subtle stage management as he knows what he is looking for.

Another striking image is of a rather dubious looking yacht salesman, a sign of the times when greed was considered good.

The Commonwealth Society Function where a young black man faces a couple of older Britons has an obvious narrative of racial tension.

There is a garden open day which features what appear to be a couple with a child; there is no proof of this particularly since they do not seem to be communicating with each other although they do both wear Rohan trousers of similar material. Perhaps their apparent dysfunctionality is a result of the presence of the photographer. As with much of Parr's work, there is a constructed narrative at work along with a dry humour and an unflattering  approach.

Mshed are going to purchase 10 works from this exhibition that are about the city and representative of Parr's work; visitors have the chance to vote for the one they like.

Anti-consumerism images include an attractive jar of lemon curd from a church fete with the winner's name written on a label. 

A photograph called The Clifton Club (2008) shows a rack of towels in cubby holes; they look almost like pieces of ivory and are reminiscent of one of Fox Talbot's earliest photographs of china pieces in a chest.

One aspect of these photographs is that one is not aware of the photographer making the pictures, they speak for themselves.

There is a view of Parr's work that it is perhaps cruel and lacking in empathy; it is not a people's art. 

Parr's images contain mini-dramas.

One OCA student reckons he could have done photographs as good as those Parr has made; what makes Parr's work as art!?

Editing can be painful ... how to select from so many images. Some images are meaningless, not striking in any way.

Parr's people are not posed and possibly not representative of Bristol.

POST-MODERNISM - OCA notes

Having received some references prior to viewing the Post-Modern exhibition at the V+A, I decided to note down a few of my thoughts about the material suggested.

The first is a review in The Guardian which starts by referring to post-modernism as "all swagger and stance" which although humorous does sound a trifle dismissive; it also refers to post-modernism as belonging to the past which is interesting to note. As someone new to the subject, I was unaware of that.

The journalist, Hari Kunzru, says that post-modernism was all "Fun, bright, clever, but disposable and disturbing." Again, one is left wondering what he means since post-modernism tends to evade definition.

Kunzru's first mentions architecture. Modernism has resulted in a great deal of joyless architecture with the result that there was a revolt and it happened in the modernist skyline of New York with an atrium in the AT&T building. Nicknamed The Chippendale building, it was seen as a bit of a joke yet was to mark the beginning of a new artistic approach.

These days, driving through a city one is surrounded by a plethora of coloured signs, semiotic seductions. I can't help but think of Orwell's novel "1984"which describes a modernist world without any sign of the art that was to replace it which got underway in the 1970's.

Kunzru goes on to define post-modernism, this time in less racy terms, "This is the essence of postmodernism: the idea that there is no essence, that we're moving through a world of signs and wonders, where everything has been done before and is just lying around as cultural wreckage, waiting to be reused, combined in new and unusual ways. Nothing is direct, nothing is new. Everything is already mediated. The real, whatever that might be, is unavailable."

The V+A have decided to cut out the art and literature side of post-modernism, they are essentially a museum of design, and also present post-modernism as a movement that lasted 20 years although they do go outside this time frame. There are numerous examples, the subject of this exhibition.


Postmodernism is said to have ended with 9/11, the toppling of the Twin Towers in New York which ushered in a new era. Obviously, one can not be too dogmatic about this but a parallel can be drawn between the rise of the internet and the end of postmodernism.


Irony has been distinguished as one of the main characteristics and the end of postmodernism has been referred to as the end of the age of irony. Postmodernity follows postmodernism!

Lee Friedlander exhibition in London

LEE FRIEDLANDER

at the Timothy Taylor Gallery, Carlos Place, London

September 2011

outside the gallery in Carlos Place

There was no charge to see the Lee Friedlander exhibition; after all, the prints were on sale at prices ranging from about 600 to almost 1,000 USD. The gallery itself is situated just south of Grosvenor Square which meant a walk through the West End in late afternoon sunshine. There are not so many people and cars here as in Oxford Street to the north and Piccadily to the south.

The exhibition space was composed of white walls on which were hung a couple of exhibitions by Lee Friedlander at about eye level; these ran around the room. There were very few people which allowed one a good view of the prints which were excellently crafted and, in some cases, such as the auto-portrait Lee Friedlander presents at the very end of the exhibition, one wonders how he managed to get such a wide range of tones in the image and capture such a wide dynamic range since there is darkness of the car’s interior as well as sunlight falling on skin. Presumably, he has good knowledge of the Zone system.

Inside the Timothy Taylor Gallery

Lee Friedlander appears to belong to the school of black and white photography in which form plays an important part. Woven around these forms, often partially framed by the car itself, are wonderfully and highly complex details. Although not a post-modernist, Lee Friedlander seems to anticipate the era that was to follow.

The first series of photographs are about cars from 1964. Lee Friedlander was given a brief by Harpers Bazaar magazine to photograph the new cars just coming on the market. He did this but instead of putting the cars at the centre of his images, he says “I just put the cars out in the world, instead of on a pedestal.” Nowadays, such an approach might be considered almost de rigeur but at that time cars were supreme status symbols, a Very Big Deal, and his approach was deemed “subversive” and too avant-garde. Contextualising the subject albeit artistically was not an acceptable approach.

The second series of Lee Friedlander’s photographs are taken from a car, hence “America by Car”; we move from photographs of car exteriors to photographs made from car interiors of the outside world which perhaps indicates a shift in Lee Friedlander’s way of looking at the world. Here he uses a super-wide camera but crops the images to a square. He makes use of “side and rear view mirrors, windscreens and side mirrors as framing devices”. The compositions are visually intriguing as well as being technically superbly crafted; they give an impression of America that is varied although there are few people and often little sign of life. It is a steely eyed and yet somewhat sterilized view of the United States.

None of the photographs in either section carry captions although these can be found elsewhere; one is left to enjoy the visual treat Lee Friedlander presents without the need for reference.

Pond in Carlos Place

Eyewitness : Hungarian Photography at the Royal Academy of Arts

Eyewitness : Hungarian Photography at the Royal Academy of Arts
(London – June to October 2011)

Exhibition entrance

  

As I entered the Royal Academy, I sensed a certain presence; this historic building in Central London is at the heart of the British art establishment and yet this is the first time I have seen a photographic exhibition here although at the Academy’s annual summer exhibition, photographs are routinely shown. One wondered as to what might be so special or important about the Hungarian contribution to photography to necessitate an exhibition of it’s own and by the end of the exhibition, I still found myself considering this question; certainly, the Hungarian influence on the development of photography is considerable and needs to be noted but I was not entirely convinced by the argument put forward although it is surprising to consider the number of Hungarians active in photography resulting in the exhibition reading rather like a history of photography.

The exhibition offered the chance to hire an audio-guide that really helped to enjoy the event; instead of having to read captions, one was able to listen to informed people describing the significance of the images on show. I was struck by the quality of the prints, done on silver gelatin, revealing a good range of tones. In fact, photography in Hungary was considered something of a fine art with Rudolf Balogh being an accomplished exponent at the beginning of the twentieth century. In spite of concern for detail and aesthetics, photography was regarded as primarily a tool of communication rather than an art tool.

Inside the exhibition

For example, the female photographer K. Sugar, who focuses on the peasant population at a time when most people did not recognize them as a social grouping because there were so many of them, made fine photographs of them revealing them with fascinating detail.

Andre Kertesz, one of the great Hungarian photographers, was self taught (his initial images are somewhat amateurish) yet portrays his subjects in an endearing way; for instance, there are three images of musicians side by side in the exhibition. He was active from after the First World War onwards. At the age of only 16, he made a remarkably composed photograph of a sleeping boy; lines apparent in the design of the photograph cross each other over the boy’s face. Interestingly, it was later in life that Kertesz revisited the photograph and altered the framing to make an even more striking image.

Another photographer who was also to leave Hungary was Munkacsi who was an established professional specializing in sports photography. His image of a racing car might not look very much by today’s standards of auto-focus, high ISO and fast motorwinds but in 1929, it was almost impossible to catch such action; the image is also beautifully composed.

One series of images that catches the eye, is those made during the war by unknown soldiers although their names are recorded. They were encouraged to make images of front line warfare and send them to a newspaper for possible inclusion and even prizes. One haunting image in this style is of a dead body lying in the snow with three Ravens in attendance nearby. These are the beginnings of photojournalism showing the horrors of war (trenches with damaged equipment and dead horses) yet not without humour (a dog on a mountain top has a pair of binoculars placed before his eyes).

Jozsef Pecsi was a Hungarian photographer who specialized in advertising and wrote a book on the subject that was published in 1930. Kati Homa experimented with photo-montage which is evident in her double-exposed image of a female face in the wall beside a staircase. It was perhaps the need to work with basic materials that encouraged such innovation.

Hungary itself fared badly in the various trials and tribulations of the twentieth century. After the first World War, Hungary had lost 72% of it’s territory and 64% of it’s people.

One noticeable feature of Hungarian photography from this era is the habit of looking down, usually at an angle of about 45 degrees, on the world below; there is one such image of a group of nuns walking along the side of a road in which the photographer turns the image into almost an abstract form owing the head gear worn by the nuns while another “looking down” image is of Winchester College by Cornell Capa, the brother of the famous Robert Capa. Cornell Capa is often overlooked as he did much to keep his brother’s memory alive but it was he who set up an institution that was later to become the International Centre for Photography in New York. There was the idea that photography could become a tool for good in the world and help to make it a better place.

Another great Hungarian photographer who went on to be a significant part of the Bauhaus movement, was Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. He experimented with photo-processes such as photograms and his publication “Painting, Photography, Film” emphasises the need for photography to meet the requirements of realistic representation in which representation could itself be an act of creation; painting was considered to be more concerned with colour and composition.

Brassai, another great Hungarian photographer who was eventually honoured by the French, worked a great deal in Paris. Recording the seedy nightlife was part of his work and one image stands out, that of a bejeweled woman alone in the corner of a restaurant, her claw-like hands encrusted with jewels. One may question this person’s sexuality, her femininity is questionable, but the image is not about that rather it is concerned with her overall appearance and presence.

Brassai was to photograph Picasso with whom he developed a life long friendship; there is a wonderful image in the exhibition of Picasso seated by the most extraordinary stove with a curving metal chimney yet in spite of the fine metalwork, it is Picasso who stands out. He managed to discover the surreal in the everyday and unwittingly became known as a surrealist.

When Munkacsi went to America, he expected to become a sports photographer as he had been before in Europe. However, he made an image of a model running rather than standing still while working on an assignment for a fashion magazine and this image not only made him famous but started something of a revolution in photography. He turned what was often a joyless, static, studio-bound approach into something much more lively.

Another famous Hungarian photographer was Robert Capa who might have become better known if his life had not been cut short by a landmine. Some of his best known photographs are those from Dunkirk made during the Second World War. They were largely ruined by an inexperienced lab technician yet the surviving images add to the eeriness of the occasion. After the War, Capa became one of the founders of the Magnum photo-agency.

Kertesz had a great eye for a photograph. Some of his images are very imaginative and personal such as his lonely cloud, a single cloud juxtaposed with a high-rise building. Another is of a “pigeon landing” where the form of the pigeon is seen amidst the back drop of a building. Towards the end of his life, after the death of his wife and having been inactive in photography for awhile, Kertesz was given a Polaroid camera by someone and he began making subtle colour images which seem to be more about his life and his mental state.

Following the Second World War, photography in Hungary became concerned with socialist realism and this lead to repression within the art of photography. The work of Peter Korniss is noticeable during the 1970’s and 1980’s; he managed to fulfill the brief of getting close to his subjects. One witty image from this time is by Lasglo Fejes of a Christ figure in a church beside which stands a camera; the image is entitled “Suffering Christ” a comment perhaps on the suffering that photography has the capacity to record and expose. By the end of the 1980’s, the year 1987 is cited, Hungarian photography ceased to reveal uniquely Hungarian qualities as it came under the influence of globalization and so the exhibition ends at this point. There is a final noticeable image of a fallen communist relic made by a Hungarian from New York.

outside the Royal Academy of Arts, London

One of the most contentious images in the exhibition is of Robert Capa’s fallen soldier about which much has been written. Was it staged? Recent research has shown that it may well not have been owing to records made at that time yet the argument continues. The exhibition however does not dwell on this image merely mention it’s significance for above all, it presents a wide array of excellently executed black and white photographs that cover many significant aspects of nineteenth century Europe as well as the development of the photographic medium of this time. It also reminds us of the part Hungarian photographers played in all this, something that should not be underemphasized or overemphasized for that matter. As it happens, one of the world's leading nature photographers is Bence Matte, a young Hungarian with an individual approach.

Raghu Rai looks at a few of my photographs

At first I showed Raghu Rai a couple of prints that I had done by a printer he had recommended to me. He found them too bright .. he prefers prints with more density. I saw his point and mentioned I was trying to reveal the luminosity of my subject.

He looked through my Taj Mahal photographs and pointed out that close-up photos of for instance someone's sari hanging over their shoes said little about the Taj Mahal itself. Similarly, photographs of the fountains looked much better if the Taj was reflected in the water around them; otherwise, the images tend to become slightly meaningless abstracts.

Later photos do include the Taj Mahal in the background and manage to say more as a result.

He suggests sitting on the platform of the Taj Mahal and photographing people with the Taj as a background! A practical piece of advice!

I was a little hesitant at showing him the deliberately photoshopped Taj Mahal photos. He liked the one of birds but felt the more general views of birds on the lawn at the Taj needed to  be seen first as a kind of introduction to the close ups.

Was glad to see that he was amused by some of my photoshopped Taj Mahal photos of towers morphed into birds ... !!

a chat with Raghu Rai

I met Raghu Rai on the terrace above his office; it was a cool, sunny, late afternoon in early march and we drank tea and munched a biscuit or two.

I had asked Raghu about Martin Parr, the first "real" photographer I had met, at a time when I knew nothing of photography. For Raghu, Parr is photographing the superficial and while his work was exciting for a time, it has now been overdone. Parr needs to move on! He risks repeating himself.

Another German photographer, Raghu is at a loss to recall his name, had done some panoramic photographs which Raghu admired but when this photographer came to India in the mid-1980's, he only stayed about 10 days, shooting with flash into people's faces; from this a book was made. It said little of the real India and was in many ways was insulting to Indian people.

People have a natural dignity and it needs to be respected. When Raghu photographs in India he is one of it's people and he emphasises with his subjects; to impose upon them might create dramatic photography but does not create truly insightful photography.

The West has adopted an arrogant approach.