these faces
Photographs and drawings by Timothy Neat
Scotland, England, France, Spain, 1947-2013
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Spain
In the summer of 1963, Neat spent a month at the International Student Work Camp, at Cortes de la
the brutalities of mechanised civil war – yet imbued with a classic tense calm.
Frontera, in Andalucia. There, aged 19, he took a series
And in these photos, from the beginning of Neat’s
of photographs that, 50 years on, look like classics of
career, we see a combination of features which will remain
documentary reportage – four reels of 35mm film, shot on
unchanged: fellow-feeling with the subjects of the work;
a small Zeiss-Ikon. He hitched-hiked south from Dieppe, on
the unsentimental depiction of lives to which most pay
the back of a Vespa driven by a London art teacher whom
little heed. Perhaps we should add a third – which is the
he met on the night ferry (David Hockney, resplendent in
under-acknowledged gift of earning the trust of those he
his gold laime jacket, made the same crossing). Riding
depicts. How else can we account, again and again, for
pillion across France, he took the road-photos that open he
these faces that look out at us with an almost restful, wry
next chapter.
self-acceptance – faces that trust themselves to show us
In Spain, Neat travelled by third class train. Settling
who they are, without self-consciousness? Like all of his
into Cortes de la Frontera, amidst the mountains west of
work, these pictures demonstrate Neat’s accord with the
Ronda he found the brilliant light, the almost medieval
worlds he is proud to document: One and All as the Cornish
lifestyle, the unself-conscious openness of the people
say.
- in a still carless pueblo blanco – a thrilling and deeply affirming human experience. These photographs, captured in the evenings and at weekends, document his relationship with the people of the village. The lack of young men and women is notable. Somewhat surprisingly these images excited no interest until 2010, when Ana Cabrera (a director of Edinburgh’s Hispanic Festival) heard of them, looked at them, and organised a small exhibition in the Music Library of the City of Edinburgh. Encouraged by this interest, in October 2011, Neat drove to Spain with a set of one hundred photographs, and offered them to village via the Ayuntamiento. A display was quickly mounted in the village hall; grandly labelled the Museo de Pablo Ruis Picasso. The whole community soon turned out to view an an exhibition recognised as an ‘historical group self-portrait’. These images remind us of how much Spain, and Europe, has changed over the last fifty years. It is almost as if these photographs show us another country, outside time, an ancient nation scarred, just a generation previously, by
Caption
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Spain Guardia 1
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Spin Seated Matador
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Spain J.Toms
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The Victorian Market and the City of Leeds
In October 1963, Neat began a four-year Honours
Neat also took photographs in the city’s parks and
Degree course in Fine Art at the University of Leeds, where
wrestling halls, in the museum, in the university art class -
Professor Quentin Bell led a small department. After
and the images captured reflect his unease at the contrast
an experimental First Year, Neat began to specialise in
between the cultured world of university study and the
history and film making. John Jones was his tutor. One
harsh world beyond. By strange chance Jimmy Saville was
project centred on the city’s Victorian Market and, making
one of the wrestlers he documented – and their watching
use of unused 16mm Bolex, made a 27 minute B/W film,
him from the front stalls was a girl, hands clasped together
entitled ‘Six for a Bob’ (1965). At the same time, using the
in adoration and a kind of ecstacy... The bearded giant
departmental Contraflex, he took the photographs shown
photographed amongst the pine trees in Adel Woods was
here. Neither the film nor the photographs attracted
an Irishman who had done sixteen years active service in
contemporary interest but, looking back, today, we can
the British Army. - not least against the Mau Mau in Kenya.
see that these photographs, like those from Spain, capture
His name was Joseph Costello. Completing his twenty
an extended historical moment and carry compelling
one years service and disgusted by killing he became a
authority.
tramp, and amongst his service medals he was proud to
Here is an almost Victorian working class Northern
wear badges of Lenin and Fidel Castro. He acted in one
England: here are communities untouched by either Harold
of Neat’s student films, ‘The Edge of the Forest’. He died
Macmillan’s ‘consumer society’, or the ‘the white heat of
shortly afterwards, having been hit by a car. There is
the Technological Revolution’ advocated by the then Prime
certainly evidence of brutality in these Leeds photographs
Minister Harold Wilson (whom Neat had met in Cornwall,
yet they also, clearly, celebrate human goodness. Here,
and heard speak at great rallies in the Leeds and Bradford
the ‘chiaroscuro’ John Constable saw bringing beauty to
Town Halls, in 1964). These Market photos show us the the
ditches brings beauty and wonder to the faces of children
ravages, in human terms, of industrialisation; the hardship,
and England’s sidelined poor.
stoicism and resilience of England’s working people. The impact of mass post-war immigration is also clear and Neat was obviously fascinated by the frequent beauty and energy of strangers, as by the embittered despair of those he describes ‘as a dispossessed, English underclass’. Like any serious photographer, Neat sometimes treads a fine line between sympathetic acknowledgement and exposure. Not for the first time in his art, we see some darker places. Poverty can be picturesque and characterbuilding, the discipline of industrial labour socially affirming, but these photographs must also be seen as an indictment of many of the values and processes by which British society has been constructed over the last three hundred years.
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Poets, artists and friends.
In 1968 Neat took up a teaching post at Lendrick
from the School of Scottish Studies in Edinburgh, Murray
In 1994 Neat’s his major art historical work, ‘Part Seen,
Muir School (a boarding school for maladjusted children
and Barbara Grigor of Inverkeithing, and the Alva Film
Part Imagined: Meaning and Symbolism in the Art of Work
of high intelligence) in Perthshire, Scotland (home to
Workshop. When his documentary, ‘Hallaig’, about the
of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret Macdonald’,
his mother’s maternal ancestors). Visits to Edinburgh
Gaelic poet Sorley MacLean, won prizes including a
was published. In a sense, these two artists had been his
nurtured a friendship with the poet and folklorist Hamish
Christmas Day showing on C4 Television, Michael Kustow
companions for half a lifetime; so, when, many years later
Henderson, whom Neat had met in Cornwall the previous
(Commissioner of Arts at C4) began to support his work.
he began to draw seriously - he felt impelled to place them,
year whilst filming Padstow’s archaic MayDay festivities.
Consequently, ‘The Tree of Liberty’ (about the Songs
like the living, in his drawing books. Neat has long been an
It was to prove a lifelong relationship and Neat found
of Robert Burns), won Best Documentary at the Celtic
avid letter writer and his drawings can, also, be seen, he
himself ‘gradually integrated into the cultural life of
International Festival in1987. In 1988, ‘Time is a Country’
says, ‘as forms of correspondence, as working notes, as
Scotland’. He got to know writers, singers and artists, and
(about the life and times of the redoubtable Margaret
celebrations of permanent companions and comrades: as
several joined him to work on both practical projects and
Gardiner, founder of the Pier Art Centre in Stromness) won
acts of recognition, as a hand offered to artists who helped
cultural campaigns. Always interested in art as a social
him a second Christmas Day showing and, in 1989, ‘Play Me
shape their time’.
phenomenon, collaboration now became integrally part of
Something’ (an experimental feature film made with John
his working methods as a film maker and writer. And, over
Berger), won the Europa Prize as best film at the Barcelona
the Edinburgh sculptor, Eduardo Paolozzi: and the painter
the years, students, artists, colleagues found themselves
International Film Festival.
Andrew Ward leaving Inverness station in 2013 – to join
his subjects – objects of artistic scrutiny - as he put them
Neat’s long collaborative friendship with John
in notebooks or drew them out on the stage of Scotland.
Berger has had a defining influence on many of his
Neat enjoys reciprocity: the giving of honour where
later achievements. For example it was Berger who
honour is due. Thus, on the following pages we find
suggested that this book - be a book of drawings as well
drawings of Hugh MacDiarmid, the poet whose Memorial
as photographs. ‘There are plenty of ruined buildings in
Sculpture in Langholm, Neat did so much to get erected.
the world but no ruined stones’, Hugh MacDiarmid had
We see photographs of Ian Hamilton, the law student who
written in the thirties – now Berger suggested that there
brought the Stone of Destiny back to Scotland, in 1950.
have been plenty of good books of photographs but none
We encounter Tilda Swinton personified as Michelangelo’s
of photographs and drawings, by the same artist. Henri
David. We read poems dedicated to Hamish Henderson,
Cartier Bresson had done great things in both fields but
Eleanor Bron, and the great Russian cameraman and film
tended to keep his two arts apart... It was the kind of
director Vadim Yussoff.
suggestion that once encouraged a ill man to take up his
From 1973 till 1989 Neat was lecturer in the History of Art at Duncan of Jordonstone College of Art, Dundee. These
his wife and young family in Germany: leaving Scotland for other soils, like so many before him.
bed and walk. Portrait photographs, by their nature, are images of
were the years of Alberto Morrocco, Scott Sutherland,
living people: drawings, however, can conjure the dead and,
David McClure, Jack Knox, Will MacLean and it was in
amongst Neat’s drawings, the dead certainly appear. They
Dundee that Neat’s career as a film maker took off: again,
feature because they exist prominently amongst those
he made use of an unused Bolex. His prime interests
to whom he wishes to pay homage: thus, amongst Neat’s
were anthropological, literary or musical, and strangely,
many living friends and collaborators we find Michelangelo,
it during the Thatcherite eighties that Neat gathered the
John Keats, Zadkine, W.B. Yeats, Delescluze - the leader
only sustained patronage of his career. He got support
of the Paris Commune, angels, and an anonymous skull.
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The last photos, here, show plaster heads carved by
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Tig! For the Morn’s the Fair Day
Memes
(for Hugh MacDiarmid, 19th July 2012)
(For Sorley MacLean, speaking of MacDiarmid, on Norman MacCaig’s 85th birthday, 1996)
Last night I walked With Hugh MacDiarmid The narrow streets O the Muckle Toun: How he sang and bowed his fiddle ‘The Bonnie Woods o’ Craigie Lea.’
In the Crook o’ Devon I met a man, His name was Mr Young, He had, he said, met Robert Burns And I, in meeting him could claim - with certitude until my death – Acquaintance with Proud Scotia’s bard, at three remove.
He walked easy Like a gypsy To a platform In the square And in the dappled sunshine debated Reading to the students there. Three times deep, The drum was beat And then was beat again Before, behind the band, We processed, arm in arm The Bonnie Woods o’ Craigie Lea. Where waters meet He said, ‘That Tune!’ And the silence in the hills Was eerie, as dead voices In the trees began to sing And Hugh stuck out his tongue.
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Bird watcher (for Vadim Yussof, May 1992)
Balanced, Thai, a dancer, Vadim climbed upon his tree To show us what the Buddha saw when he sat down: Vladimir! Georgio! The Vadim Zoom! The tiger’s eye is skin on water, Leaves fall slow through veils of air. Sasha, at the market stall stands saffron, sunlit joy, Tarpaulin blue, a mango stained with amethyst; Tin trays, corn-on-the-cob, old bikes, a water-girl. The pitcher breaks! O see the water sculpt Two pointed breasts, a belly, and a triangle of hair: Such fulcrums level tests the man no level knows. The moment is, the living is and he, heir To Rublyov, and painted backlit skin.
Was it Crook o’ Devon, or Dornoch, Saw the last witch in Scotland burned? And was it naked, on a donkey, she was brought From Brora to be tried? And did she kneel Before the sticks to warm her hands Or light the fire? And was it picking dulce she did: Or walking with her cat above the heath? Her name was Janet Horne. Such templates are cut permanent As litmus turning blue, as stones To mark a grave, as Roman arch, and entropy - Miss Cranston’s High Back Chair – The spur to dance in Bog an Lochan, The Venus, Titian fingered to his wall.
Dunfermline Toon (for Ian Hamilton)
Iron frae the veins o Calvin Is rusting yet in Scotland’s heid – Sic Bluid and bane nae sword can sever, Armour stains the marriage bed. Lours Scotland - as she did theday? Shed pearls lie moonlit in the river: Rise wounded heid and welcome now An hour of sin and victory!
‘A torchlight procession of one,’ you said, And Valda dropped the small white rose Upon the oak and brass around the son you bore. O Hokusai – your wave was pale to this – And distant Fujiama plain beside great Suilven’s head. O see the mountain come: - pin-pricked with light – The human hand will burn or rot But permanent the line the mind will draw Between two stars; and in the words ‘the rain’, See children skipping, happy, home from school.
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