Image Magazine #03 by The Association of Photographers UK

COMMENT

YOU CAN GO YOUR OWN WAY… What makes one image better than another? It’s a tough question, and after a certain level the answer is that it’s probably subjective. That’s what’s made the Association of Photographers’ Photography Awards so interesting this year – instead of asking a panel of judges to pick out a definitive list of winners, it has approached a group of experts and asked them to make a more personal selection. Sarah Thomson, head of art production at Fallon, picked out her favourite commissioned advertising entries, for example, while Rankin, photographer and co-founder of Dazed & Confused, curated the portrait categories. Claudio Napolitano from the Jed Root agency chose his favourite non-commissioned object photography, while – more surprisingly – Tom Stoddart, the celebrated photojournalist, selected the non-commissioned environmental images. Like any competition, their choices will cause some arguments but, unlike most competitions, their choices are clearly theirs – not a group decision that’s presented as objective fact. It’s allowed for some more quirky choices to emerge, with Daniel Moorey from adam&eveDDB choosing two edgy, fresh photographers for the fashion and beauty categories. Susie Babchick, meanwhile, a photography consultant best known for her work with Corinne Day and Waren du Preez & Nick Thornton Jones, has chosen a sombre, hard-hitting story for the Project prize. Portrait © Jonathan Worth www.jonathanworth.com

In fact, going your own way turned out to be a theme of the issue, despite the fact that this issue focuses on advertising. Advertising is sometimes painted as the bland boy of commissioned photography, characterised by copycat, faceless work but, as this issue shows, the strongest ads are often the complete opposite of that. Guy Bourdin’s work for Charles Jourdan tapped into the photographer’s inimitable style to create a visual identity that still stands out today, for example; Ukrainian duo Synchrodogs have applied their wayward style to great ads for brands such as Kenzo, Urban Outfitters and Bimba y Lola. Simon Roberts, meanwhile, described his commission for Citizen Watch – in which he chased the sun around the globe – as a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity. “In some ways the only way to do this subject was through an ad,” he explains. “I wouldn’t be able to fund it myself, and no magazine would be able to commission it.” “Our work with Citizen started when we came up with their tag line, ‘Better Starts Now’,” adds Evgeny Primachenko, one of the Wieden+Kennedy creatives who came up with the crazy idea for the campaign. “So when we got the assignment for the ad campaign, the first thing we said was, ‘Well we can’t do a regular ad when we’ve just come up with ‘Better Starts Now’.”

Diane Smyth Editor

CONTENTS

6 BOOKS

NEW PUBLICATIONS FROM WILLIAM A EWING’S LANDMARK: THE FIELDS OF LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY PUBLISHED BY THAMES & HUDSON TO PETER DAZELEY’S UNSEEN LONDON 16

CAMERAS OUR QUICK GUIDE TO THE CAMERA GEAR OF THE YEAR FROM THE FUJIFILM X-T1TO SIGMA’S BRICK-LIKE DP2 QUATTRO

26 STUDIO 54 TOD PAPAGEORGE – YALE’S GRADUATE PHOTOGRAPHY DIRECTOR – PULLS A FANTASTIC, AND EYE-POPPING, SERIES OF IMAGES OF STUDIO 54 OUT OF THE ARCHIVE

32 RUNAWAY SUCCESS MORE THAN 20 YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH, GUY BOURDIN REMAINS ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL FASHION PHOTOGRAPHERS IN THE BUSINESS – AND HIS AD CAMPAIGNS FOR CHARLES JOURDAN ARE CENTRAL TO HIS LEGACY, ARGUES ALISTAIR O’NEILL, COCURATOR OF THE SOMERSET HOUSE EXHIBITION GUY BOURDIN: IMAGE MAKER.

42 FORWARD THINKING OWNED BY ADVERTISING GIANT WPP, FORWARD WORLDWIDE SPECIALISES IN CREATING EDITORIAL CONTENT AND CONTRACT PUBLISHING FOR CLIENTS SUCH AS PATEK PHILIPPE, AMERICAN EXPRESS, STANDARD LIFE, THE ACADEMY OF ST MARTINS IN THE FIELDS, AMONG OTHERS. IMAGE MAGAZINE+ CAUGHT UP WITH PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR MATTHEW BEAMAN, WHO JOINED THE COMPANY FROM WALLPAPER*, TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT ITS WORK WITH PHOTOGRAPHERS.

Cover Bernd Opitz, winner of the Non-Commissioned Fashion & Beauty Single category in the AOP Awards.

Image Magazine is the publication of the Association of Photographers, UK.

50 AOP AWARDS: THE WINNERS IN DECEMBER, WINNERS OF THE 31ST AOP AWARDS WERE UNVEILED DURING AN EXCITING NEW EVENT FOR THE ASSOCIATION – THE INAUGURAL AWARDS & EXPO, WHICH INCLUDED AN EXHIBITION OF SHORTLISTED AND WINNING IMAGES. GEMMA PADLEY SPEAKS TO THE CURATORS ABOUT THEIR CHOICES, ASKING WHAT STOOD OUT FOR THEM AND WHY.

107 GOING NATIVE ONCE CALLED ADVERTORIALS, THEN BRANDED CONTENT, NOW NATIVE ADVERTISING, A NEW STYLE OF CONTENT MIXING SPONSORS’ PRODUCTS WITH EDITORIAL FLAIR IS CREATING NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMAGE-MAKERS, FINDS ELIZA WILLIAMS.

The Association of Photographers (AOP) is a not-for-profit member organisation representing commercial photographers, agents and assistants globally.

WHEN THE PEOPLE AT ITALIAN COFFEE BRAND ILLY SAW GABRIELE GALIMBERTI’S COUCHSURFING SERIES, THEY LIKED IT SO MUCH THEY COMMISSIONED HIM TO TRAVEL THE WORLD TAKING PICTURES. GEMMA PADLEY FINDS OUT HOW A PERSONAL PROJECT LED TO WORKING WITH ONE OF THE BIGGEST COFFEE MAKERS IN THE WORLD.

Based in London (UK) the AOP supports its members with business and legal advice, workshops and talks, a member forum and an annual Awards programme to spotlight the best in commissioned and noncommissioned photography.

136 DOG EAT DOG

For more information go to www.the-aop.org

TANIA SHCHEGLOVA AND ROMAN NOVEN, AKA SYNCHRODOGS, ARE TAKING FASHION ADVERTISING AND EDITORIAL BY STORM WITH THEIR IRREVERENT APPROACH TO PUSHING PRODUCTS, FINDS COLIN PANTALL.

115 IN PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

153 CHASING HORIZONS SIMON ROBERTS WON A ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME OPPORTUNITY TO CHASE THE SUN AROUND THE EARTH ON COMMISSION FOR CITIZEN WATCH.

Office +44 (0) 20 7739 6669 Image magazine is the publication of the Association of Photographers, UK.

BOOKS

Amore e Piombo Ed. Roger Hargreaves and Federica Chiocchetti Amc2 journal Issue 9 £29.00 www.amcbooks.com

The latest issue of the Archive of Modern Conflict’s journal was published to accompany the Brighton Photo Biennial exhibition Amore e Piombo: The Photography of Extremes in 1970s Italy – easily the most talked-about show of the festival. The journal is a worthy record, including 136 pages, most of which are full-bleed images taken from the archives of the now-defunct Team Editorial Services (TES) agency. TES was active in Rome throughout Italy’s so-called ‘Years of Lead’, which lasted from late 1960 until early 1980, and which saw kidnappings and assassinations become standard political currency. Shadowy groups within NATO, the CIA, the Italian secret services and the P2 Masonic Lodge manoeuvred to ensure the Italian Communist Party was discredited and destabilised, while film stars from the burgeoning Cinecittà studios presented an altogether more glamorous, louche image of modern Italy – all captured by the TES in-house team. Amc2 journal’s cover is spattered with bullet wounds and the first image shows a pockmarked wall; other than that, it mostly collates the glamour in the first half, and the horror in the second, to paint a picture of a society on the brink of collapse.

BOOKS

Landmark: The Fields of Landscape Photography William A Ewing Thames & Hudson £39.95 www.thamesandhudson.com

William A Ewing is best known as a curator – director of exhibitions at the International Center of Photography in New York from 1977-84, he went on to direct the Musée de l’Élysée, Lausanne from 1996-2010, founding the influential Regeneration touring exhibitions of new photographers. This book started off as an exhibition, too – Landmark: the Fields of Photography, a show held at Somerset House in 2013. But Ewing is also an advisor on Thames & Hudson’s photobook publishing programme, and this tome is a big expansion on the show rather than a catalogue of it. Where the exhibition featured just over 70 photographers, the book features more than 100, for example, and it includes 240 illustrations. But a similar idea underpins both permutations – the harsh realities of our changing environment, rather than the usual depiction of the timeless natural world. The book includes work by Edward Burtynsky, Mishka Henner, Lee Friedlander and Simon Norfolk, as well as shots of other planets constructed by NASA to breathe new life into what can be a stuffy, uninspiring genre.

BOOKS

People of the Twenty-First Century Hans Eijkelboom Phaidon £24.95 http://uk.phaidon.com

Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook, caused a sartorial stir recently by explaining why he nearly always wears the same clothes – a grey T-shirt, a hooded top and Adidas flip-flops. “I really want to clear my life so that I have to make as few decisions as possible about anything except how to best serve this community,” he said at his first public Q&A at Facebook’s HQ, adding that he wants to limit the time he spends making “frivolous” decisions. It sounds extreme but, as Hans Eijkelboom’s exhaustive surveys reveal, our decisions about what to wear every morning may be less free than we think. Taken individually, Eijkelboom’s images are unremarkable street portraits; what makes them interesting is repetition, identifying a type, and photographing how individuals conform to it over and over again. There are middle-aged men “appropriately” dressed in beige raincoats; there are young women sporting vivid pink vests. Eijkelboom started his project in The Netherlands in the 1990s and has since photographed in New York, Paris, Shanghai and elsewhere, each time spending 30 minutes observing members of the crowd before starting to shoot. This book collects hundreds of grids photographed all over the world over the past 25 years, building up an impressive historical and anthropological study.

BOOKS

Tectonic Johan Rosenmunthe SPBH Editions £40.00 http://shop.selfpublishbehappy.com

Tectonic is a small book, but it’s beautifully printed and very thought-provoking; ostensibly a study of rocks, in various forms and shot in various ways, it’s accompanied by a mystic text by a Victorian alchemist, Mary Anne Atwood, and turns out to be a study of human knowledge. “Materials interact with – and compare to – a human scale,” writes the Danish photographer. “The preferences of materials are controlled by social history and do no originate from matter itself. Matter is a hostage of the human mind. A social discourse has the power to raise and lower the potential energy of a certain material.” Some of the images are straight still lifes, others are more elaborate setups, and others use found imagery, sourced online or in ageing books. Still life is very trendy right now with a certain breed of young photographer, and Rosenmunthe’s work is part of that scene – it’s usually richly coloured, sometimes verging on the acid bright – but where others seem to simply be following an aesthetic trend, his work is backed up with an interesting, well-developed take on our approach to the world around us.

BOOKS

Unseen London Peter Dazeley Francis Lincoln £30.00 www.peterdazeley.com

Peter Dazeley photographs the behind-the-scenes offices, tunnels, temples and bunkers to show a side of London usually hidden from view. Some of London’s most famous sites are here – Big Ben, for example, and Battersea Power Station – but Dazeley shows Big Ben’s clock face from the inside out, and the amazingly ornate control rooms tucked away in the hulking power station. Accompanied by lengthy texts by Mark Daly – a journalist who specialises in defence, aerospace and cities and is therefore in a good position to comment on these urban secrets – it’s less a photobook and more an encyclopaedic insight into London’s underbelly. Some of these locations correlate with systems of power and influence, as seen in the chapters labelled ‘Law and Order’, ‘Army and Navy’ and The Square Mile’; others stay secret to preserve more beautiful illusions, such as the sites photographed in the chapters ‘Backstage’ or ‘Body and Soul’. Britain’s colonial history and the wealth of the Empire underpin many of the images, such as in the fabulously ornate main pump room in Crossness Pumping Station, and the lavish interiors of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office; the now-dilapidated former home of the Naval and Military Club – better known as the In and Out Club – shows the nation’s subsequent decline. As Daly’s text argues, though, the In and Out Club started as a home and may yet become one again, as still burgeoning house prices encourage developers to restore, refurbish and resell London’s last forgotten corners.

BOOKS

Does Yellow Run Forever? Paul Graham Mack Books £30.00 www.mackbooks.co.uk

Paul Graham is one of the UK’s best-known, best-respected photographers, but he’s been based in the US for years, and this book is his first after the so-called ‘American Trilogy’. American Night, A shimmer of possibility and The Present took on big issues such as social inequality and the death of the American dream, and have been lauded, with A shimmer of possibility in particular acclaimed as the best photobook of the last 15 years in the 2011 Paris PhotoBook Prize. How do you follow that up? In Graham’s case with a small, very personal book, featuring rainbows shot in Ireland, his partner asleep in bed, and American high streets with retail units such as the ‘Golden Pawn Shop’. There is a message, along the lines that the purest gold is already in your home, but it’s a modest, poignant set of images rather than a big campaigning book. “It seemed like the right thing, after a 12-year odyssey, to work in a quieter way,” Graham told BJP in October. “It’s also fun to fly in the face of it all – to chase rainbows and make images of my partner, to try to find the ‘gold at the end of the rainbow’. I mean, it’s delightfully silly – what next, kittens and puppies?”

BOOKS

Photographers’ Sketchbooks Stephen McLaren and Bryan Formhals Thames & Hudson £29.95 www.thamesandhudson.com

“Armed with a new sense of freedom about what they can publish and display, photographers are abandoning outdated notions of what’s considered respectable,” Stephen McLaren wrote recently. “Photobooks, social media and photographers’ growing confidence about their medium have helped shift the cult of the finished masterpiece, the perfect print hanging on a white wall in some great gallery.” He and fellow photographer Bryan Formhals have put together a book celebrating the process behind making a photographic project – namely the sketchbooks, the mood boards, the Instagram feeds and the contact sheets that image-makers amass along the way. Lavishly illustrated, and featuring interviews with all the photographers involved, it’s a fascinating insight into the creative process and into work that can be as valuable as the so-called finished article. “I am very fond of the sketchbooks I began in the 1950s and still work on today,” Saul Leiter told the website One Long Century in 2011. “I think there is a certain freedom when you are involved in painting a sketchbook. You are not burdened to do anything important. You are not dealing in big rings. You are just thinking and the sketchbooks are a way to express your thinking. They are very intimate. I work on my sketchbooks almost every day. If I had to choose what I value most in my work, I might choose my sketchbooks.”

BOOKS

Neither Kate Nolan Self-published €42.30 www.katenolan.ie

Kate Nolan’s Neither is self-published; designed by Dutch designer SYB it includes a very interesting element – a caption strip that’s separated from the photographs and can therefore be flicked through independently from them, or put into various pairings with them. The images show young women in Kaliningrad – the tiny Russian enclave on the Baltic Sea – but the book also contains anecdotes from Russian women who moved into the city after 1945 and its current inhabitants. The moveable caption strip is one woman’s account of a moment of epiphany, when she abandoned a party, got chatting to a stranger on the street and realised that, “I just want to strip away all the garbage/all the dead weight of garbage/that doesn’t belong to me/I want to see reality stripped/and I want to dance/as if nobody is looking.” This text bounces off the images in fascinating ways, the images suggesting the weight of history, that it will be almost impossible to escape, but also the unobtrusive presence of an image-maker recording what’s there but trying not to disturb her subjects’ reveries.

BOOKS

Crystal Love Starlight Mayumi Hosokura Tycoon Books $40.00 www.tycoonbooks.net

Mayumi Hosokura is just 34, but her book Crystal Love Starlight has made it onto some of the “best photobooks of the year” lists. The name comes from a restaurant in the Gunma prefecture of Japan, which was at the centre of an alleged prostitution case in 1992; Hosokura came across the story after looking through old copies of Jomo, the local newspaper, and decided to shoot what’s left of the diner, plus hotels nearby, nude studies in Tokyo, and the neon signs along the three-hour drive from Tokyo to Gunma. The result is an evocative series that gives a sense of what happened, but blurs the boundaries between fact and fiction. Crystal Love Starlight is published by Tycoon Books, which is based in Tokyo and published Hosokura’s last series, Trailer. Tycoon has also published Julie Cockburn’s Conversations and Alexander Gronsky’s latest project, Less Than One. Founded by Taro Serikawa and Yosuke Watanabe – himself an interesting artist – Tycoon is dedicated to publishing new talent and a good place to find emerging photographers.

CAMERAS

Pentax 645Z

www.ricoh-imaging.co.uk The 645D set a new standard for integration and price for medium format digital. Far from resting on its laurels, when 50-megapixel CMOS imagers became available in the popular 44×33mm medium format size, Pentax moved rapidly to launch an updated 645 DSLR. Make no mistake – the 645Z is absolutely a DSLR, as much in layman’s terms as it is technically. Handling is not significantly different from the larger full-frame 35mm options, and Pentax has taken a leaf from the mass market and included features like an articulated 3.2-inch screen, 27 selectable AF points and metering operational from -3 EV. And if that were not enough, the £6799 body undercuts competing MF systems by an astounding margin, and in certain conditions can hit 4.5fps; it will produce 4K video, M-JPEG/AVI and full HD video in H.264. Wireless control is via an optional Flucard 16GB SD card, and tethered shooting – a feature missed on the 645D – is via USB 3.0. It is rare that a camera can be considered unique on the market without some quirks to limit appeal, yet the Pentax 645Z is unique and appealing to almost any genre. Even the lens range is impressive, with stabilisation and weather sealing combined with costs that, while higher than the variety for 35mm, are still very competitive for the medium format market.

CAMERAS

Nikon D810

www.europe-nikon.com Less revolutionary, and more evolutionary, Nikon combined the D800 and D800E when faster processing became available to create the D810. The product of extensive feedback and also one of Nikonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first professional bodies to be made outside Japan, the new 36-megapixel DSLR lacks both the optical filter of the D800E, and the AA filter of the D800, and refines almost every area of the original duo. Vital in a camera popular with wedding photographers, the mirror and shutter mechanism are quieter, though the appearance of an electronic first curtain is tempered by the limitation that it only works in specific mirror-up modes more suited to scientific photography. Almost all the improvements introduced in the D4S are mirrored in the D810, with Group AF and exceptional in-camera processing making JPEGs a natural workflow even at higher ISO. Better yet, the base ISO has been reduced to 64, with exceptionally clean, noise-free results and impressive dynamic range. Highlight priority metering and enhancements to video and picture controls complete a thorough revision of an already popular, well-regarded camera; the D810 is a compelling upgrade from the original.

CAMERAS

Sigma dp2 quattro www.sigma-imaging-uk.com

Perhaps the greatest indication of Sigma approaching success with the Foveon technology that it now owns came with the launch of the dp2 quattro earlier this year. A dramatic entrance was guaranteed with an unusual but beautifully balanced body design that broke away from the brick-like original DP models with an impressively slim camera body, kicked-back grip and large lens. Optically, the 19mm f/2.8 dp1 and 30mm f/2.8 dp2 quattro are as good as ever; Sigma has long used the large sensor compacts to demonstrate excellent lens design. Electronically, it is quite a departure from the previous generation. In place of the 46-megapixel (15.4Ă&#x2014;3) Merrill Direct Image Sensor, the quattro puts the three-layer capture to use in a different way â&#x20AC;&#x201C; with 19-megapixel spatial resolution adding true colour from two 4.5-megapixel layers. In practice, the additive, rather than interpolated, process works well and has allowed Sigma to improve sensitivity and get usable results at much higher ISO. File sizes are also reduced, without any noticeable loss in quality over the Merrill series. Nothing looks like it, and the images it produces are incredible, surpassing the resolution of even medium format conventional sensors.

CAMERAS

Fujifilm X-T1 www.fujifilm.eu

Launching a new camera system is a risky move, but one that has paid off for Fujifilm. After the success of the X100, the APS-C family has gained a new bespoke sensor and spans the low-end consumer to highend professional demographic. The X-T1 launched into an already mature range, offering a conventional SLR-like appearance and weather-sealed magnesium body. On-sensor phase-detection gives leading AF performance at 8fps, and the EVF is one of the most impressive we’ve seen, with minimal lag and great colour contrast, and high resolution vastly superior to typical APS-C optical finders, particularly when working with slower lenses. Fujifilm has made full use of the digital display, with split-screen modes and the digital rangefinder. Where the X-T1 really shines, though, is in Fujifilm’s attitude to features and support – the new Graphite Silver Edition model shown at Photokina boasts a silent shutter up to 1/32,000s and many user-inspired changes to the interface. These improvements will also come to existing X-T1 models via a new firmware update at no cost. Fujifilm also includes wifi in the X-T1, with extensive manual control via a free Android or iOS app, and the ability to pull GPS data from the smartphone. The technical aspects go a long way, yet a huge part of the X-T1’s appeal is the direct manual control and compact, attractively functional appearance.

CAMERAS

Sony A77 Mk II www.sony.co.uk

Hitting stores at half the price of the Canon EOS 7D Mk II, Sony’s revised 24-megapixel, SLR-style camera, with APS-C sensor and EVF, can match or beat its rivals on performance features, though it can’t even begin to compete in lens range. A 20 percent improvement in sensor ISO over the original A77 makes more difference to the smoothness of lower ISO settings (from 50 up) than its doubleexpanded limit of 51,200. The absence of a moving mirror allows 60 JPEG frames at 12fps with a new Bionz X processor. A new phase-detection module has 79 points over a larger image area, 15 cross points and a central f/2.8 spot. With 1/50s shutter lag, the A77 Mk II is ideal for hair-trigger action timing and machine-gun bursts. GPS is gone, replaced by wifi and NFC. Audio limitations and HD video quality are unchanged, but battery life is reduced.

CAMERAS

Red Epic Dragon www.red.com

At one time it was imagined that this camera might compete with DSLRs, not for video at which it excels, but for stills. With credits for several covers and spreads in highly influential fashion magazines, it has proven to be perfectly capable of delivering high-quality stills in the studio â&#x20AC;&#x201C; each 6K video frame from the new Dragon sensor is 19 megapixels. But the idea that these cameras can be used handheld like a DSLR for photography is something of a stretch. Besides the weight and ergonomics, the price, starting at $30,000 for the basic body, rising to $56,000 or more for a fully kitted rig, will limit ownership and make it a serious investment for most single operators. If video is your main money-spinner, few cameras will impress high-value clients more than the output from the new Epic Dragon, but ditching your trusty DSLR for stills is premature.

CAMERAS

Sony A7S www.sony.co.uk

Twelve megapixels made the Nikon D3 a low-light hero, and seven years later the D3S still sells, while the resolution race thunders ahead. Sony reversed that dash with the A7S, a 12-megapixel, full-frame, mirrorless camera joining the 24-megapixel A7 and 36-megapixel A7R, proving that lower resolutions are still plenty enough for many, especially when balanced against other standout features. The new sensor enabled a maximum ISO of 409,600 and a sub-frame readout for direct 4K video, along with the option of a completely silent electronic shutter with no capping blind. Launching several high-end Carl Zeiss and Sony G lenses at the same time at Photokina 2014 ensured that the attention of movie-makers, TV, news photographers, police, military and thousands of wealthy amateurs was assured. This silent, full-frame camera is also friendly to Leica lenses, astro photography, underwater, moonlight â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a real stealth bomber of a camera at under ÂŁ2000.

CAMERAS

Panasonic Lumix CM1 www.panasonic.com/uk

Image sensors have been gaining in size in premium compact cameras, and they have done the same in smartphones, only it’s not usually headline news. Panasonic’s recent adoption of the one-inch sensor in models such as the Lumix DMC-FZ1000 travel camera has now found its way into the firm’s first smartphone – the €899 Android-powered Lumix CM1 – after a long absence in the mobile market. Looking much more like a compact camera than any other smartphone to date, albeit with the Leica 28mm equivalent f/2.8 Elmarit shoved to one side. Apart from the ability to output 20-megapixel stills as raw files, the CM1 can record 4K video (using tiny micro SD cards), just like its FZ1000 sibling. Around the back there’s a 4.7-inch 1080p display and obligatory 1.1-megapixel camera for face-to-face video chat. But while it’s a valiant attempt to mimic a traditional camera – right down to the customisable control ring on the Leica lens – it’s not particularly discreet.

CAMERAS

Canon EOS 7D Mk II www.canon.co.uk

The usual two- or three-year product cycles for this type of camera were ignored, and after a protracted wait the EOS 7D Mk II has surfaced as a leaner, meaner camera aimed unreservedly at imaging pros. Although it would appear to adopt a refinement of a number of existing technologies, such as the 20-million ‘Dual-Pixel’ AF CMOS sensor, pro-grade 65-point AF system and a slew of movie-capture options to rival the capabilities of the EOS 5D Mk III, it is perhaps the thoroughness of it all that’s most noteworthy. The AF system, using all horizontal and vertical line-sensitive sensors, practically covers the entire width of the frame, and the viewfinder is uncommonly big and bright, unlike most APS-C models. It outclasses rivals when it comes to hosing down subjects, shooting at 10fps without the addition of a battery pack. It’s not exactly cheap at £1600, but kudos to Canon for not overlooking this important segment.

STUDIO 54 Tod Papageorge – Yale’s graduate photography director – pulls a fantastic, and eye-popping, series of images of Studio 54 out of the archive

STUDIO 54

Bianca Jagger rode a white horse through it on her birthday; the owners gave Andy Warhol a bin full of dollars for his: New York’s Studio 54 opened in 1977 and closed less than three years later, but it’s remembered as the most glamorous, most louche, the best nightclub in history. It was also one of the most photographed because, populated by celebrities and partypeople, and decorated with literally tonnes of glitter and an illuminated, coke-snorting man-on-the-moon, it was a treasure trove for image-makers. Tod Papageorge was one of them, first arriving at a New Year’s party in 1977 -78 and going back again and again until it closed. But while most of the photographers there were on assignment, or shooting celebrities with a view to selling on the images, he was working for himself, free to capture the scene on his own terms. “I was on my own kind of self-assignment, of course, but it had nothing to do with celebrity, and all to do with making what I hoped would be ‘clear photographs’,” he says. “By which I meant pictures that were legible and complete, although drawn from a visually complex situation.” Because of this, and inspired by Brassai’s images of 1930s Parisian nightlife, Papageorge was shooting on a 6×9 Fujica rather than the lightweight 35mm Leicas favoured by many others. With “the feel of a lead brick in my hand” and “a gruesomely inaccurate viewfinder”, this beast was hard to shoot with but, says Papageorge, it allowed him to create more detailed and richly toned images. Capturing about 1500 images over five or six visits, he showed half a dozen in the ’80s – “a couple of which have become iconic”. “This is what the times, at least in New York, favoured,” he says. “Editing a few ‘winners’ out of a larger group,

Studio 54, by Tod Papageorge, is published by Stanley/Barker, priced £40 for the standard edition or £300 for a boxset special edition, including a signed, limited edition print.

then printing and, hopefully, exhibiting them with the object of selling one or two to MoMA or a collector.” The rest languished undiscovered – some negatives never even printed – until Papageorge’s German gallerist, Thomas Zander, asked him to send over some archival work about a year-and-a-half ago. Papageorge included a couple of Studio 54 JPEGs in the mix and, intrigued, Zander asked to see the rest. He produced scans of over a hundred more and Zander ended up showing a large grid of 39 at Paris Photo in 2013, where they caught the eye of UK publishers Gregory and Rachel Barker. “Rachel and I had been looking for another project… to publish for nearly three years after the Scot Sothern book [Lowlife], so when we got back to London, we emailed Tod. Fortunately, he was looking for a publisher,” says Barker. Barker and Papageorge picked out 66 of the best images and Barker sequenced them to follow a typical night out, showing New York’s beau monde arriving, in the heat of the night, and falling asleep (or passing out) towards the end. The book is structured around three templates – doublepage spreads, right-hand verticles and smaller horizontals appearing as pairs on the two facing pages – and was lushly printed by EBS in Verona. The result is compelling and beautiful, and even Papageorge is impressed. “As a group, they’re much better than I’d first understood,” he says. “I’d rejected [some of] those pictures back then as not being good enough for even a proof print. A good argument for either never destroying a single one of your negatives, or for concluding that I should never be trusted to edit my own pictures.”

Image ÂŠ Tod Papageorge

RUNAWAY SUCCESS More than 20 years after his death, Guy Bourdin remains one of the most influential fashion photographers in the business â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and his ad campaigns for Charles Jourdan are central to his legacy, argues Alistair Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Neill, co-curator of the Somerset House exhibition Guy Bourdin: Image Maker.

RUNAWAY SUCCESS

“Guy Bourdin had a long-standing relationship with that particular client,” says Alistair O’Neill, curator of the exhibition Guy Bourdin: Image Maker, of the celebrated fashion photographer’s work with designer Charles Jourdan. “Bourdin was incredibly consistent in who he worked for – he worked for Paris Vogue from 1955-87, and for Charles Jourdan from 1967-81. Once he trusted the people he worked with, he revisited the relationship as many times as possible.” The result is a huge portfolio of ads showcasing Jourdan’s celebrated shoes, “highly regarded by the fashion industry for their pictorial ingenuity and sense of visual perception”, as O’Neill puts it. This marketing helped Jourdan’s shoes become a runaway success, despite their oblique take on the product. “The shoe design is often not the central focus; you have to look a bit harder,” says O’Neill. “It’s left quite unexplained [that they are advertisements]; they are quite elusive.” Bourdin famously sent suggested layouts to Vogue Paris – which often ran them as suggested – and O’Neill is confident he art-directed the Jourdan ads too, ensuring the images were never overlaid with text and surrounding the ads with thick white borders to help them stand out in magazine pages. “They also often play with the centre, so that the central spine of the magazine is not running through the focal point of the image,” says O’Neill. “It’s wonderful to be able to make an exhibition [of Bourdin’s work] with exquisite printing that really shows all aspects of the image and how the colours sing, but it’s also always wonderful to go back to this work in the original context of the magazines.” O’Neill has also had to go back to the magazines to gather information about the ads – much of the Charles Jourdan archive has unfortunately not survived, so looking at the end result is sometimes the only way to piece together what was run when. Most were based around the Spring/Summer, Autumn/Winter fashion seasons, for example, but Bourdin produced more than one ad per season,

Guy Bourdin: Image Maker is on show at Somerset House, London, until 15 March

and “they didn’t follow logic if you look at the magazines and how they were sequenced”. The sheer volume of Bourdin’s work for his closest client is clear, though, and it’s much, much more than would usually be expected. In 1978 alone he sent Jourdan 24 completed images, for example, as many as a top fashion photographer working now might produce across his entire portfolio of ads. In 1979, meanwhile, he shot the famous Walking Legs sequence by taking a roadtrip around the UK for a month with a pair of mannequin legs. It all suggests a personal passion for this ostensibly commissioned work, and while O’Neill doesn’t believe Bourdin was a shoe fetishist, he says the photographer was clearly interested in them. “Bourdin was interested in shoes – if you look at his work for Vogue Paris, you can see he was interested in this kind of photography,” says O’Neill. “Most photographers are less interested in the product shots and beauty photography, but Bourdin loved that kind of work as it allowed him to produce images that were more about images [than a 10-page fashion story]. That’s why he excelled in ads for shoes. But he always photographed women wearing shoes, never just the shoe itself.” In fact, O’Neill has pitched the whole exhibition – which features more than 100 works and includes previously unseen material – as ‘a walking tour’ through Bourdin’s work, and has opted to open the show with a room devoted to Walking Legs. It’s bound to be a blockbuster exhibition, and as such marks the latest development in the photographer’s reassessment outside fashion. “By the mid-to-late 1970s, fashion photography started to get assessed in survey shows – the first one was in the Nikon Gallery in Paris, and in 1978 there was a history of fashion photography in George Eastman House in the US,” says O’Neill. “Bourdin was included in those shows, and he was also included in contemporary reports in national press such as The New York Times and The Times on the nature of fashion photography as an expression of contemporary culture.”

Charles Jourdan, Spring 1979 Image ÂŠ Guy Bourdin Estate/courtesy Somerset House

Charles Jourdan, Autumn 1979 Image ÂŠ Guy Bourdin Estate/courtesy Somerset House

Charles Jourdan, Spring 1976 Image ÂŠ Guy Bourdin Estate/courtesy Somerset House

Charles Jourdan, Autumn 1970 Image ÂŠ Guy Bourdin Estate/courtesy Somerset House

Charles Jourdan, Autumn 1979 Image ÂŠ Guy Bourdin Estate/courtesy Somerset House

FORWARD THINKING Owned by advertising giant WPP, Forward Worldwide specialises in creating editorial content and contract publishing for clients such as Patek Philippe, American Express, Standard Life, The Academy of St Martins in the Fields, among others. Image Magazine+ caught up with photography editor Matthew Beaman, who joined the company from Wallpaper*, to find out more about its work with photographers.

FORWARD THINKING

IMAGE: What is Forward Worldwide? What do you do? MATTHEW BEAMAN: Forward Worldwide is a publishing

agency that creates editorial and branded content for a range of clients; we also produce a lifestyle magazine called Fabric and run the charity StreetSmart. Forward also founded the Forward Poetry Prize. I commission, produce and direct still and moving images for all of the publications and marketing materials we produce for our clients. IMAGE: What kind of photography do you commission? BEAMAN: It varies depending on the client; for example, the

stories we work on for Patek Philippe are often large-scale travel and architecture stories, still lifes and portraits, and we commission increasingly more moving image for them. Standard Life is mostly portraiture and a lot of illustration. Fabric magazine is mostly fashion and portraiture. IMAGE: What kind of work do you need; for example, do you prefer stories, single images, etc? BEAMAN: Again, it varies a lot depending on the project, but we tend to commission as much as we can, so we are able to tailor visuals to illustrate the story perfectly. IMAGE: How much moving content do you commission? Do photographers need to be able to do both for you? BEAMAN: We commission film and animation for all our clients, and will nearly always work with dedicated filmmakers as moving image requires a very different skillset to stills. It might not always be possible to send a dedicated film crew, for instance, on a trip to a remote part of the world. In these situations, the photographer and assistant have shot moving image as well as still, like the Ethiopia film shot by Joel Tettamanti. IMAGE: Where do you find photographers? BEAMAN: I am always looking for new and exciting

approaches to photography and go to various photography festivals, take part in portfolio workshops, look at various international blogs and share interesting work with our photography editors. The best way is to drop me a note by email with a link to your website, and if the work is suitable for any of our projects I will get in touch to arrange a meeting. I find this a much better way than telephone, as I often don’t have time to take calls.

www.forwardww.com

Rock of Ages writer Robert Bevan travels across Ethiopia with film-maker Joel Tettamanti to make a story on Lalibelaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s legendary underground churches for Patek Philippe.

Fogo Island shot by Adrian Gaut for Patek Philippe magazine Extra

A Village Under One Roof shot by Joel Tettamanti for Patek Philippe magazine

Seasonal Style still life shot by John Short for Fabric magazine

Actress Tara Fitzgerald shot by Anoush Abrar for Fabric magazine

AOP AWARDS: THE WINNERS In December, winners of the 31st AOP Awards were unveiled during an exciting new event for the Association â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the inaugural Awards & Expo, which included an exhibition of shortlisted and winning images. Gemma Padley speaks to the curators about their choices, asking what stood out for them and why.

AOP AWARDS: THE WINNERS

The annual AOP Photography Awards have returned – with a difference. This time, The Association of Photographers has partnered with New Events to launch a joint Awards & Expo event, taking place at The Business Design Centre in London from 11-13 December. The new venture includes a gallery of 200 winning and shortlisted images from the 31st AOP Awards, plus a trade fair filled with exhibitors showcasing cutting-edge photographic equipment, technology and services. The annual awards ceremony, which celebrates the finest commercial photography, took place on Thursday, 11 December, with the winners from the 21 categories announced in front of an audience of 600 guests. AOP members were invited to enter all categories, which included Commissioned Advertising Series, Commissioned Editorial Series, and Non-Commissioned Portraits Single, while The Open Award – Stills, and The Open Award – Moving Image (new for this year), were open to all. The winners in each category were selected by 12 specially invited industry professionals, who sifted through hundreds of entries to curate their favourite shots and series. Sarah Thomson, head of art production at Fallon London advertising agency, curated the Commissioned Advertising Single and Series categories, for example. For the Single category, she was looking for “a great image and one that works for its purpose”. “For me, for a fantastic image to have impact, it doesn’t necessarily have to be sensational or loud,” she says. “It can be very quiet or restrained, but it has to be affecting or funny, or demanding; it has to evoke a response.” Thomson chose an image by Maak Roberts, a commercial photographer who works between London and Berlin; the image she chose was created for The Shark Foundation, a Swiss organisation that protects and preserves sharks and their natural habitats. “I really like the way this image made no attempt to be real,” she says. “It is a charming and sweet shot in some ways, which is clever because it makes the blood look more shocking. It looks contemporary and clean, and the idea is perfectly realised. Even if you didn’t know what it was for – and I didn’t – it clearly makes a point about killing sharks for an unacceptable reason very quickly.” For the Commissioned Advertising Series category she chose another wildlife-focused shot – George Logan’s ad campaign for the Born Free Foundation. “I hadn’t seen this series before, so I was making an assumption about what it was for; obviously, that wasn’t too hard,” says Thomson. “I looked at it many times, although it was heartbreakingly sad. It was so subtly rendered, and its quiet hopelessness seemed like a muffled scream.” Miles English, art director at international men’s

lifestyle magazine The Red Bulletin, oversaw the Commissioned Design Single and Series categories. Richard Wadey-James won the former, while Paul Calver scooped the Series Award. “The ambiguity of this picture, which could be portraiture, fashion shoot, reportage or campaign, is what makes it so appealing,” says English of Wadey-James’s image of a girl staring pensively out of a window. “The lighting and pose suggest drama to come, the beginning of a journey. Is she daydreaming or gazing? Perhaps she is in awe or reflecting. It could be an image from any time in the last 70 years; only the lighting places it in a modern context.” Calver’s winning series, meanwhile, conveys a very different vibe – the hustle and bustle of London’s street life. “The pictures have an energy more associated with New York street photography,” he says. “Photos of London can be dour and downbeat, but these make the city seem vital and glamorous: the confident fashionable girl; the promise of the day ahead, stepping into the street from the Tube; the grid of personal space around the busker; the snapshot of upwardly mobile Soho. Together they give a true sense of living in the most changed city in Europe.” David McKendrick, creative director at B.A.M agency in London, was tasked with overseeing the Commissioned Editorial Single and Series awards. He chose Gavin Kingcome’s striking image of a man – possibly a butcher – in a blood-soaked setting. “I was looking for an image that stopped me in my tracks and made me curious,” says McKendrick. “The vivid colour and the content of Gavin’s image made it almost uncomfortable to look at, but in a strange way I couldn’t stop looking at it. I had no editorial context, so I had no idea what the commission might have been, but I could paint my own picture. “We are bombarded with so much imagery these days that it’s rare for an image to cause such a strong feeling. The curiosity that the image provokes struck a chord with me, and I wanted to see more of the series.” Commissioned Editorial Series winner Dan Burn-Forti’s images strike another chord altogether, but, says McKendrick, they share that sense of impact. “I was looking for images that stood out, that weren’t just beautiful but had a solid idea,” he says of the playful portraits of dogs, photographed for the Evening Standard’s ES Magazine. “I really like the politically incorrect nature of this series, and they make me smile.” Photographer Rankin curated the NonCommissioned Portrait Single and Series categories, selecting Sam Barker and Cristian Barnett as joint winners of the Single Award, and Barker as Series Award winner for his atmospheric nighttime environmental portraits. He had no idea that Barker was behind both the series and the single image that

AOP AWARDS: THE WINNERS

he picked out, he says, adding that “his breadth of skill is excellent; they are technically beautiful images”. “Cristian’s image deals with reality and escapism,” he adds. “His approach to imagemaking feels honest; there is a lightness of touch, which is refreshing.” Sarah Pascoe, head of print at creative advertising agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty, curated the Non-Commissioned Life Single and Series categories, which went to Philip Haynes and Julia Fullerton-Batten, respectively. “I held the same premise for both categories,” says Pascoe. “I was looking for images that showed ingenuity and inventiveness, while retaining the quality of the overall image. I chose Philip Haynes’s image for the sheer simplicity of showing the beauty and power within the human body, coupled with the simple palette and graphic environment. “I had no background to Julia’s series apart from what you can work out from the images themselves; it shows a simple observation technique of capturing life naturally framed by its own environment. I loved the glimpse into a world we can all recognise, but is kept simple and uncluttered.” Claudio Napolitano, director of the photography department at artist management agency Jed Root, curated the Non-Commissioned Object Single and Series categories; he chose Carol Sharp as the Single Award winner, and Michael Harvey as the Series winner. “I was looking for an image with strength and impact, something I’d remember long after I’ve stopped looking at it,” Napolitano says of Sharp’s airy image of a dandelion flower blowing in the breeze. “I wasn’t working to a specific criteria; I felt it would be easier to follow my personal, emotional response to the images. This one seemed to stand out. I love the stillness of it, yet it’s hugely dynamic; the colour palette and the shape of the flower seem to almost give it a personality – an attitude that transcends the object.” Harvey’s colourful images of bubbles leapt out because of their technical proficiency and skilful use of light, meanwhile. “I loved this series for a number of reasons: technically, of course, it’s amazing – the lighting hits the bubbles with just the right power to give these incredible reflections – and the shapes and the subject in itself are so playful and innocent. I love how all the images can stand on their own, and yet as a series they seem to tell the story of us all: one comes to life, swirls around a bit and then disappears. Life’s pretty simple after all.” Photojournalist Tom Stoddart curated the Non-Commissioned Environment Single and Series, which went to Gary Bryan and Philip James respectively. “Bryan’s image was a standout for

me,” says Stoddart. “I like it because the symmetry and sheer scale is extraordinary. The three figures at the bottom of the image tell the story of the environment, and you realise how small man is in relation to his surroundings.” James’s ethereal environmental portrait, meanwhile, had a quieter power that slowly grew on him. “I kept coming back to these images; they seduced me, and I started to look beyond the immediate atmosphere, which is, of course, amazing,” he says. “They are very quiet images, technically well shot, and possess a beautiful use of light; I’m a sucker for light and atmosphere, and these images are full of both.” Susie Babchick, photographers’ representative at RSA Photographic and RSA Films Ltd, chose Noel Mclaughlin’s series, which documents an encounter between Colin, who was born with cerebral palsy, and sex worker Rachel, for the Project Award. “I was looking for originality, a strong visual language, strength of style and technique, as well as thorough coverage in conveying a story,” comments Babchick. “The intimacy of Noel Mclaughlin’s work appealed to me. I found that I let my guard down and opened my eyes and mind to the story. McLaughlin was able to work closely with his subjects, who convey a trust with each other and in turn with the viewer. I also find the composition and the colour tones inviting.” Daniel Moorey, head of print at Adam & Eve DDB communications company, oversaw the Non-Commissioned Fashion & Beauty Single and Series awards, the former won by Bernd Optiz, and the latter by Julia Fullerton-Batten for her series showing models half-hidden from view, wearing acid-bright tights. Moorey enjoyed the vibrancy of Optiz’s image, recommending its dynamic sense of narrative. “This image has an energy and an exuberance to it,” he says. “It almost looks like an image from the sixties. The colour of the woman’s hair, the shimmer of her dress and the primary colour of the car are fantastic.” Photography agent Mark George chose the winners of the Assistant Award Single and Series categories, which were awarded to Josh Redman and Emma Townsend. Redman’s image of a boy lying on the ground has a sinister edge, while Townsend’s series is a reminder of the skill required to make compelling still life images. “Whenever I judge an award, and I am looking for a winning image, my primary concern is that I see a photograph that moves me, tells a story, has some depth and – if possible but very rare these days – a sense of uniqueness,” comments George. The final categories were The Open Award – Stills, and The Open Award – Moving Image, open to all photographers, including non-AOP members. Peter Bailey of Peter Bailey Productions

AOP AWARDS: THE WINNERS

curated the Stills prize, which was awarded to Matthew Murray; Ed Webster of 4 Creative oversaw the Moving Image Award, which went to Paul Rees. “I was immediately drawn to the dark mystery of Matthew Murray’s image,” comments Bailey of the photographer’s brooding landscape. “This photograph shows a beautiful interplay of light and shade created by, and echoed in, the cloud formations… The structure of the composition carries the eye diagonally through the picture from left to right, following the descending line of the river valley, after which the gaze is drawn up to the somewhat menacing sky. The photograph has a soft, painterly feel, which creates a sense of timeless beauty.” Webster was also looking for good composition and technical proficiency but, he points out, the challenge with moving image is to extend the beauty of single frame across the entire duration of the film, plus add a good story. In a strong category he found several compelling entries [click on link below to see the shortlist], but for him Rees’s film about the race to break the world land-speed record had the edge. “I felt that the winning entry not only looked beautiful but had a compelling story, while the use of sound, music, timelapse, slow motion and aerial photography all played a part in building something special,” he says. “Apart from the technical excellence, the film offers something more elusive in that both the photography and the subjects exude charm.” For Steve Knight, chair of The AOP, the strength of this year’s prize bodes well for both The AOP and for professional photography in general. “Our first Awards took place more than thirty years ago, but it has remained a measure of the quality and diversity of work within our industry,” he says. “We have been very fortunate to have such amazing curators who delivered a unique assessment of our Awards. Many thanks to them and all the photographers who submitted their work.”

Click here to see all the shortlisted entries in the 2014 AOP Awards

Assistant Award – Series Image © Emma Townsend

Assistant Award – Single Image © Josh Redman

Commissioned Advertising Series Image ÂŠ George Logan

Commissioned Advertising Single Image ÂŠ Maak Roberts

Commissioned Design Series Image ÂŠ Paul Calver

Commissioned Design Single Image ÂŠ Richard Wadey-James

Commissioned Editorial Series Image ÂŠ Dan Burn-Forti

Commissioned Editorial Single Image ÂŠ Gavin Kingcome

Non-Commissioned Environment Series Image ÂŠ Philip James

Non-Commissioned Environment Single Image ÂŠ Gary Bryan

Non-Commissioned Fashion & Beauty Series Image ÂŠ Julia Fullerton-Batten

Non-Commissioned Fashion & Beauty Single Image ÂŠ Bernd Opitz

Non-Commissioned Life Series Image ÂŠ Julia Fullerton-Batten

Non-Commissioned Life Single Image ÂŠ Philip Haynes

Non-Commissioned Object Series Image ÂŠ Michael Harvey

Non-Commissioned Object Single Image ÂŠ Carol Sharp

Non-Commissioned Portraits Series Image ÂŠ Sam Barker

Non-Commissioned Portraits Single Image ÂŠ Cristian Barnett

Non-Commissioned Portraits Single Image ÂŠ Sam Barker

Open Award – Moving Image Image © Paul Rees

Open Award – Still Image © Matthew Murray