Contemporary TIMES A Series of features on Contemporary Photography & Art Volume One
Written and Photographed by Shona and Stewart Wall Freelance Photojournalists and Publication Designers stewartwall@icloud.com / 0795 512 4000 http://www.rps.org/special-interest-groups/contemporary
Vice President Walter Benzie ARPS, right, on RPS stand
A self-created camera support in use at Birmingham
Report and photographs StewartWall@icloud.com
ONE THING I noticed when I viewed press notices about the new Photography Show, held in Birmingham this March, was how it seemed to concentrate on photography itself compared with the show it replaced, which always seemed more aimed at the wedding and portrait photographer. On May 31, 2013, Amateur Photography magazine wrote about the demise of Mary Walker’s Focus on Imaging: “The door is open for anyone prepared to set up an annual photography show in the UK after Europe’s largest such event, Focus on Imaging, was axed earlier today” and Future Publishing Ltd walked straight in with gusto. I attended on the Monday and was greeted by one of the Bens in the press office. Ben said the previous two days had been busy and successful, just the sort of thing I expected a press officer to say. But he was spot on and there was more of the same when I was there.
Our own team from the Royal Photographic Society was there and I had a good chat with our Director General Michael Pritchard FRPS and an even longer chat with RPS trustee Robert Gates ARPS. Robert said they had signed up a large number of new members and in a separate area the distinction panels were equally busy. The
stand looked good and fitted well with the new branding of the RPS website. The day passed very quickly. I bumped into a number of photographer friends including Peter Smith LRPS, who told me about his interesting panel he is putting together for an A, and Stuart Wood FRPS, with whom I chatted about how the world
of photography is changing so rapidly. By 2.30pm most days the quick food stalls had run out of supplies, as the crowd were bigger in numbers than maybe was anticipated. Speakers looked up at sell-out crowds ready to listen to their every word.The major camera manufacturers, some missing from recent shows,
were back and looking at the attendees, there was a clear sign of how photography is expanding. It’s no longer the domain of the bearded waistcoated brigade peering into a dark viewfinder. Now there are all ages, all sexes, some ugly, some beautiful, and many in between, who are followers of the f stop, although many have no idea yet what an f stop is and perhaps they never will or need to. At 3pm I went to The Super Stage to listen to world famous Magnum photographer Steve McCurry. The seats were filled to capacity and McCurry looked a little daunted by it all initially. I even spotted Geoff Harris from the sponsors Digital Camera nervously rechecking his notes beforehand and all he was
doing was introducing the superstar. He did it well. McCurry came onto stage, greeted us all, and also included his mate Joe McNally who was watching. McCurry talked us through his early beginnings where he managed to achieve an interview with a picture editor from National Geographic. The editor looked at his portfolio images and showed interest in seeing more from a trip the young photographer was planning to India: “Come back to see me afterwards and we will see how you manage light and how you tell the story.” McCurry nodded while wondering what the editor meant. But McCurry worked it out and his first India photographs met the grade. He told us how even
today his first thought is to look for the light and to position himself to take advantage of it. He recommends getting on with shooting. I recently heard one of his fellow Magnum photographers David Hurn also advise people to keep shooting as the next image you take might be your best one. Too much preparation leads to procrastination, announced McCurry, as he told us how he will often only get five days to cover a story and he prefers to get to the story rather than spending the first four days researching and then only one day to shoot. McCurry advises that you keep shooting on your way to your destination. He referred to an image of an Indian mother and child reaching towards the car he had been
travelling in, a fantastic image which he would never have achieved if he had been only looking at where he was going. McCurry introduced us to his five maxims in life. His most important one was “follow your passion”. McCurry told us he had decided he wanted to travel and experience the world and photography enabled him to do that. When we looked at his images we could see the passion. We could see how the use of light, use of colour, composition and getting into the story had made him one of the best travel photographers in the world. The new organisers should feel proud of what they achieved and they have left me wondering how they will top it next year.
A portrait of
Daniel Meadows
Daniel revisits UK bus tour for library archive Words: Shona Wall Pictures: Stewart Wall StewartWall@icloud.com
FORTY YEARS AGO a young photographer began a quest to find the remarkable in ordinary people.
Left: Going back once more, Daniel is editing the work he did in the 1970s. Above: a wall in his study dedicated to his work
Armed with a second-hand Rolleiflex, some sound recording equipment, savings and Arts Council funding, Daniel Meadows set off in a double decker bus to observe and record daily life in Britain as it was happening in September 1973. His tour took him over a year, ending in November 1974. One example among the hundreds of people he photographed and recorded, was a manual worker called Charlie who could read Latin fluently and considered being a priest, but Charlie said his father wanted “some sweat off the bones”.
Daniel Meadows with a picture of the bus at his home
Daniel recorded Charlie’s father too, who at the time was preoccupied in the craft of making and flying kites. Other scenes he captured was a song one young girl would sing to her baby sister, the slaughter of a pig – “You must be careful
to avoid the animal getting bruised” – and the dedication three pre-teen boys put into racing pigeons. His collection is a detailed record of hobbies, crafts and attitudes that now seems barely remembered.
“The stories of us aren’t actually told,” Daniel said. “Newspapers only tell stories of when people do something odd, but the kind of stories I hear in conversation or on the streets are the best I’ve ever heard. “The Photographic Omnibus
Transport museum works to restore bus JRR 404 was built in 1948 for Bartons Transport, a Nottingham based independent bus operator. The bus had an offside sunken gangway in the upper saloon to allow height reduction, as there were many low bridges in the area. In the early 1970s, the government made grants available to bus companies to update their fleets. JRR 404 was taken out of service in July 1973. Daniel bought the
bus for £360. He took out the seats and stored them at an old dairy in Gloucester while on tour. He sold the bus in February 1975 to Tameside Railway Club, which bought the bus so that their families could go out on trips with them. They picked up the original bus seats. For the past 30 years, JRR 404 has been housed at the Transport Museum in Wythall, near Bromsgrove, which is managed by the Birming-
ham and Midland Motor Omnibus Trust. Mechanically, the bus is “not in bad nick” according to volunteer restorer Dave Keating. “We’ve glued back the head-lining and put new rubbers on the windows,” he said. “It’s been partly rewired and we are treating the wood framework. This means drilling out old screws and refilling the holes. It’s very labour intensive.”
was a means of connecting people. It was important for me to photograph them as they were. The inspiration for the Photographic Omnibus came from Edwardian Photographer, Sir John Benjamin Stone, who
was also a Birmingham MP. “He established a movement to record Britain before it was altered by the Industrial Revolution,” said Daniel. “He wanted to record festivals and customs. Daniel bought the bus for £360
from Bartons, an independent bus company from Nottingham. He lived on the bus, sleeping on the top deck where he also built a darkroom. In the windows, he created a gallery. He travelled to six areas where he had been given regional arts Volunteers at the Transport Museum in Wythall, near Bromsgrove, who are working to restore JRR 404. From left, Phil Ireland, Mike Adler, Dave Keating and Leo Coley
council funding: Yorkshire, East Midlands, West Midlands, South West, Southern and Northern, which took in Barrow on Furness across to Newcastle and Carlisle. He photographed more than 900 people. While touring, Daniel used to take people’s photographs for free, outside, using one shot only, and also recorded them in conversation. He later wrote a book, “Living Like This: Around Britain in the Seventies”. The first edition, published by Arrow, was for 13,500 copies, retailing at £2.25. In 1996, BBC Radio made a documentary where Daniel went back and re-photographed some of the people he had met on the bus. He has also had a long teaching career. Daniel is currently editing the tapes he recorded and is compiling a digital library where users will be able to click on the still photographs of people and hear clips of them speaking. It makes for compelling and thoughtful viewing. It is hoped this work will be presented to Birmingham Library in 2014. Daniel Meadows In His Own Words - See Page 2
A portrait of
Daniel Meadows - in his own words
Seize control and be your own storytellers Interview: Shona Wall Images: Stewart Wall StewartWall@icloud.com
‘I
WAS sent to boarding school when I was small. By the time I was 18, I was fed up with my own class of people. I was interested in everyone else.
“I deliberately failed exams and things like that, but I went on a school trip to see an exhibition of Bill Brandt’s work in London. I thought it was the most wonderful thing. He seemed to walk through many people’s lives using a camera as a passport. I wanted to travel with a camera.
“I went to Manchester Polytechnic between 1970-73. It was the only three year full time photography course you could get on if you didn’t have physics O-Level. The study itself was packed with maths and physics. “Contemporaries on the course were Martin Parr, Brian Griffin, Peter Fraser, Charlie Meecham and Kate Mellor. They expected people to become commercial photographers, but Martin and I especially wanted to do documentary. “The course was good. They were tolerant of people wanting to experiment. There was a little gang of us who all met in Brian’s flat in Moss Side. I’m not sure why we always met in Brian’s flat. Perhaps he had the most interesting record collection. “We gave each other little assignments to do. Then we would put them on the wall and got others to judge them. I remember I went to Knutsford once to photograph the Mayday celebrations in the style of Cartier-Bresson. “In 1970 it was hard to find material about photography. Photographic galleries and books were far and few between. Good quality galleries and books were even more few and far between. There was no institutional embracing of photography, though there was the Museum of Modern
Daniel with his wife Georgia. They married in 1980 and have three sons Institute of Contemporary Arts in London in October 1975. I drove lorries for Kelloggs in Trafford Park all that summer to raise money for the prints at the exhibition. “The other project I did with Martin Parr was photographing June Street in Salford. There were 20 houses awaiting demolition and it was one of the streets they filmed for CoronaDaniel working on his 1970s photographs and sound recordings that will be presented to Birmingham Library in 2014. Art in New York. Britain has these wonderful eccentricities but also a ghastly snobbery which might explain why art is not celebrated here as in other countries. “In newspapers, stories were rarely picture-led. Photographers were referred to as monkeys. In the way that young men can be quite arrogant we didn’t want to produce photographs
I opened a little studio at Moss Side in a former barber’s shop on Graeme Street. I only opened at weekends. I would invite people in and photograph them, then give them a free print. I felt curious about everybody. I had enough time to be with people for them to lose a little of that sense of strangeness. “Looking back, I was a very dedi-
“He seemed to walk through many people’s lives using a camera as a passport” for people who wouldn’t appreciate them, so we had to find other ways to do things. “I wanted to hitch my natural curiosity with my love of photography, so
cated young photographer. I took pictures every day and also took audio recordings of people as well. “I did two major projects with Martin. One was Butlins Photographic at
Filey. I worked at the concessionaire for money to get through the summer holidays. Also, I wanted to put my studio on wheels. Sometimes I like to think I was influenced by the turn on, tune in and drop out movement from the States, but I think it was also that I wanted to be like Cliff Richard in Summer Holiday.
‘T
he Photographic Omnibus was a bureaucratic thing to run. I had to get permissions or be moved on by police, so everything had to be booked six weeks in advance. I lived on the bus and built a darkroom at the top at the back. The bus was 13ft6 high, not the more usual 15ft, which was good for going under low bridges, and the wooden frame meant I could drill into it.
“I got to know people at Bartons Transport and made it clear the next time one came up for sale I wanted it. They were impressed that I was prepared to pay for it. It cost £360, which I had saved by working at Butlins. There were also sponsors from private individuals, commercial sponsors, and I was one of the first photographers to get arts council funding. I set off in September 1973 and finished the tour in November 1974. I sold the bus for what I paid for it to Tameside Railway Club. They were railway enthusiasts who were always having outings and leaving their wives and families behind. They got the bus so their families could go with them. “I sold the bus as I needed money to live on while I wrote a book, “Living Like This: Around Britain in the Seventies.” I also exhibited at the
signposts of their lives ripped out of their faces by progress. “I was extremely productive for about ten years. After that I went into teaching but revisited the bus project sporadically. “I don’t like being solely defined as “He was that bloke who was living on the bus”. The stories of us aren’t actually told. Newspapers only tell
“It was about how we tell the story of who we are” tion Street. To maintain that contemporary daily life, they had to rebuild it in a studio, while everyone living there was being moved into flats. We took a recording of every living thing in the houses in the spring of 1973. It was broadcast on Look North and we were paid £10. “We have a nasty habit based on our class system of talking down to people. The BBC will say: “Here are your paintings.” Why not call them Our Paintings? We have this ghastly class twitch that has to pigeon-hole people. All my work has been trying to reverse that habit. “Big media is always on the side of power. The dustbin of history is the most interesting place to look for stories. Some people have had the
stories of when people do something odd, but the kind of stories I hear in conversation or on the streets are not the stories I hear somewhere else, and those stories are the best I’ve ever heard. “Photography is ubiquitous now. Everyone has a camera, but there is no considered narrative, or if there is, it’s: “Here I am on my holidays”, or “I will show you how to mend a washing machine.” When I worked in June Street, and later on Digital Stories for BBC Capture Wales, we got the people to work on the scripts. It was about how we tell the story of who we are, and how we take that power back. If we hand the ability to tell the stories only to the institutions, there is something wrong.”
Bubbling after a weekend in Bath Words and pictures by Stewart Wall StewartWall@icloud.com
W
hen you see a finely balanced wheel go around it’s easy to forget that in the centre there is a well orchestrated set of bearings working together to keep it rotating. Or, in the case of The Royal Photographic Society, it’s a team of 16 staff and more than 300 volunteers.
Twice a year they hold an Advisory Board meeting where The Director General, Michael Pritchard, and representatives of his staff, The President, Derek Birch ASIS HonFRPS, vice president Walter Benzie ARPS, and the rest of the council get together to listen to representatives from each of the UK regions, special interest groups and Richard Tucker, on behalf of the chapters, as to what the membership would like to see happen in the future. Recently at a weekend in Bath I attended one of these days. The day started with an introduction from the president. He talked about what has for the past few months been the biggest story and that is the society’s new website. He thanked Emily Mathisen, the Web Content Manager, who has been dealing with the natural problems that have occurred as thousands of members have got used to the new site. She has also had 45 webmasters to deal with, me included, and many of us thanked her for her patience. The reports then began with Vanessa Slawson FRPS, who we usually see on the Professional & Applied distinction panel and was recently voted on to council. She is looking out for the membership as well now, looking at recruitment and retention. She talked about some nice benefits of being a member, including things like being able, as a member, to get 15% off membership of English Heritage. She and other council
Walter Benzie ARPS introduces Patricia Ruddle ARPS who spoke about The Contemporary Group
Plenty of detail to absorb during a two-day visit to the headquarters of the Royal Photographic Society in Bath members plan to attend regions and special interest groups to get to know their requirements. The president then presented his report. He spoke about the interest in the RPS throughout the world. There are 20 chapters, with interest in potential new groups all the time. This year’s print exhibition, the 157th, has more than 7000 submissions made from photographers worldwide, so it will be an interesting time for the selectors.
I like the way the RPS run this competition in the way that the initial submission is online and then the shortlisted photographers are invited to submit prints for the final 100 to go on tour. The way prints are made is as personal to the photographer as the way the image is taken and it’s good to see this being recognised. Derek Birch’s report continued on the society’s involvement with photographic education.
Its charity status gives the society the opportunity to do this for both members and the public and is aimed at all ages from youth to 3UA. He was pleased to be able to mention that they had recently managed to increase membership discount on these events to 25%. He then spoke about the next big thing which is the awarding of the publishing contract for the society’s magazine, The Journal. Think Publishing won
the tender and will be taking over from the June issue, taking over the role previously held for 14 years by EC1 Publishing. The society works closely with a lot of other organisations and one, The PAGB, then talked about the way they work.
N
ext up was Director General Michael Pritchard who talked through the results of a recent survey where the whole
membership were invited to be involved and 3000 took part. The results were fascinating and we saw which cameras people preferred, how many worked towards distinctions, and who produced photobooks. Michael will be writing a more detailed article on this in the next month or so for The Journal. It should be a fascinating read. John Innes of Think Publishing then talked about The Journal. Think Publishing have no titles
of their own but specialise in organisations with members such as The RPS. They are keen to work closely with the society to ensure The Journal is exactly as we want it to be. At the end of his time as president, Derek’s post will be taken over by Walter Benzie ARPS. Walter has been getting out and about over the past year, getting to know us all and feeling “The Width and Breadth” of the society.
He spoke about the specialist groups including our own The Contemporary Group. He visited our event “A Wider View” in Reading. Like others I like Walter’s dry sense of humour and he started by saying that at the event he saw “Some Dreadful Pictures”. He was referring to harrowing scenes in the images Romanian Photographer Dana Popa showed us, from her country of birth under Nicolae Continued on Page Two
Behind the scenes at RPS HQ where the 16 staff work
Left : The President, Derek Birch ASIS HonFRPS listens to members’ views Top: Michael Pritchard, Director General of the RPS, runs through the results of the members’ survey Right: Bob Gates ARPS, RPS Council member and trustee runs the induction day John Innes, of Think Publishing, describes his strategy
how RPS team functions From Page One
Ceausescu. She told us of the 1966 decree where abortions were made illegal and the terrible deaths of women because of illegal ones. The day then moved on to specialist groups. Members already participating in a specialist group often report that when they joined they really felt the benefit. More than 70 per cent of members are not yet in one. There is no limit to how many you can join. There were talks from Edgar Gibbs of The Audio Visual group, Janet Haines ARPS of The Digital Imaging Group, Patricia Ruddle ARPS of The Contemporary Group and finally Jay Charnock FRPS of
Visual Art. Included in the talk by The AV group was a show shot on an IPhone. They also spoke about their talks and annual competition where they exhibit their shows on a 16ft screen. I would love to watch a film, shot on an iPhone, screened 16ft wide what technology! Patricia Ruddle ARPS then spoke about the Contemporary Group. The general feeling seems to be that the contemporary group is one of the hardest for people to understand. One of the later speakers, Jay of Visual Art, talked at length about the blurred lines between the groups. She also talked about how it’s really up to the individual member to make the decisions on what a group is. I
could personally identify with this. Patricia ran through a brief history of the contemporary group and what it now does. She introduced us to the magazines and talked about this online publication, The Contemporary Times, and also a project the NE Contemporary Group are currently working on, The NHS65. Patricia is writing a fuller report on her talk and we hope to be able to produce it in a future issue. The next specialist group was described by its chairman, Janet Haines ARPS, as “butterflies”. The digital imaging group is concerned with how you produce your images and float from one genre to another. It’s by far the biggest group, currently
with 1127 members. The group produces a quarterly magazine called Digit. It’s a stunning magazine full of helpful guidance on how to produce digital images. The group was initially set up with a shelf life and might well have folded by now. But digital photography keeps evolving, and the group rewrote its constitution to be able to continue as there was still very much a demand for it. The group does apparently attract some criticism that it is Southern centric. But Janet reported that this is only because that’s where volunteers stand up and offer to set up a group. Janet and her committee are very keen to set up new centres. If anyone is interested she welcomes their contact.
Jay Charnock FRPS of Visual Art finished off by talking about her group and also about groups generally. It was a lively talk and she referred to images that could have fitted many groups. Day One of my weekend at Bath showed me that the hub at the centre of The RPS is running smoothly and is well organised. In a way I wish every member of The RPS could see a day like this.
D
ay Two of my weekend was an invite from Council member Robert Gates ARPS to attend a volunteer induction day. The RPS takes its volunteers seriously and want them to understand the mechanics of the society. It was a busy day at The RPS HQ
in Bath as an Advisory Day for Distinctions was also being run. Our event was mainly for Regional Organisers and Bob ran through a well used Powerpoint presentation outlining the way The RPS recommends running regions. He covered the set up of specialised groups, the 17 regions and 20+ overseas chapters and the distinctions process. He also spoke about potential exhibitions open to all members and contact with national speakers and events. Members interested in any of this are advised to badger their Regional Officer as there is lots of potential. Bath itself is a stunning town. It reminded me of the white walled towns on the hillsides in Spain.
Stop for lunch: A chance for the delegates to mingle
Pathway to perfection: A scene from Bath
RPS workshop goes backstage Report and pictures by Stewart Wall Stewartwall@icloud.com
THE DEAN Clough centre in Halifax, the site of a recent workshop organised by the Royal Photographic Society, is a building with a fascinating history.
Wikipedia describes it like this: “The Dean Clough in Halifax, Calderdale, West Yorkshire, is a group of large factory buildings built in the 1840s–60s for Crossley’s Carpets, becoming one of the world’s largest carpet factories (half a mile long with 1,250,000 square feet (116,000 m2) of floorspace) After years of declining production the mill closed in 1983. A consortium, led by Sir Ernest Hall, developed the Grade II listed site for various commercial and cultural uses. It is now seen as a leading example of successful urban regeneration. Dean Clough is located on the north side of Halifax near the Victorian North Bridge and the modern flyover sections of the Burdock Way relief road system. The converted mills now house about 150 large and small businesses and arts venues including the Crossley Gallery and several other art galleries and the Viaduct Theatre, home base for the Northern Broadsides theatre
Cameramen at work at the two-day workshop was a shame as I missed tours of the wardrobes. The second day saw us led in and seated to watch and photograph the cast getting used to the stage. Actor Russell Richardson, who
area. The maximum number of seats is 310. If played to one side of the traverse (ie by dropping a canvas in front of the smallest seating bank) the seating capacity is reduced to 160. Not wanting to limit the
“We were there to photograph the cast, not interrupt it” Morris dancing and merry making in preparation for Wakes week when people escape their toils in the beautiful summer of 1914 company. Phoenix Radio 96.7 FM has its studios in D Mill. The Yorkshire Region of the RPS arranged a two-day workshop with the co-operation of the Northern Broadsides theatre company during the
Once one of the world’s largest carpet factories
second week of March. Northern Broadsides often produces works of Shakespeare. The company had stopped off at The Dean Clough for a five day showing of its touring production called An August Bank
Holiday Lark. The production, written by Deborah McAndrew, is set in the idyllic summer of 1914 in rural Lancashire. The story tells of a community excited about Wakes week and escaping their
Photographers listen to Irene Cooper and Mary Crowther
toils from work in field and mill. The story of the Rushbearing Festival involves much singing, courting, drinking and dancing. The looming war barely registers although it will make its presence felt.
But we did not go to photograph the actual play or even a dress rehearsal but behind the scenes. The RPS trip as a whole lasted two days but I could only get along for the second day which
Final checks for the lighting and cameras
plays Dick Shaw, told us over lunch that one of the interesting aspects of a touring production is the variety and differences of stages they come up against. At The Dean Clough, The Viaduct Theatre defaults to a ‘traverse’ layout, with banks of seating on either side of the performance
audience, director Barrie Rutter, who also plays John Farrar in the production, put a lot of emphasis on ensuring his cast played to both sides of the audience. His job was made harder by two massive iron girder roof supports that protruded up from the stage. The group of about 20 RPS photographers arrived at The Dean Clough at 10am ready for an 11am start. Regional organiser Mary Crowther was aided by Irene Cooper on the day and ran through some required health and safety issues. Irene has photographed many productions in the past and ran through potential issues of the temperature of light in the theatre, the level of light and how it was important to be “Not seen or heard” by the cast. This was their time and we were there to photograph it, not interrupt it. We split into two Continued on Page 2
The many roles of Barrie Rutter, director and actor in An August Bank Holiday Lark by the Northern Broadsides Theatre, which is touring the country between now and June
Top: Barrie Rutter with Russell Richardson, who plays Dick Shaw Left: Threatened romance: Frank Armitage, played by Darren Below: Getting the lighting right
Putting more into theatre images From Page One groups and went either side of the stage. At a recent RPS Professional and Applied Assessment Day in Bath I watched a panel of images being declined for Associateship. When they first went up I thought they looked a good panel and so was surprised to hear the Assessment Panel talk negatively. But they were right in their assessment. They spoke of how with today’s modern digital cameras that handle high ISO so well it is no longer enough to just get grain free, well-exposed imagery. You need to do more. But what is more? Speaking to other photographers over lunch I was impressed to hear one photographer had concentrated on the interaction between some of the actors especially two of the girls who were forever giggling and laughing together between
scenes. Another embraced the low light and using blur looked to capture the colours and flow of the dance. I looked to capture the intensity of effort and concentration the cast, especially Barrie Rutter who is in his late 60s but showed the energy of a man much younger as along with acting his own part he looked after everyone else.
B
en Burman, Emily Butterfield, Elizabeth Eves, Sophia Hatfield, Darren Kuppan, Jack Quarton, Lauryn Redding, Russell Richardson, Brett Lee Roberts, Barrie Rutter, Mark Thomas and Andrew Whitehead make up the cast of An August Bank Holiday Lark and are still to perform at LBT, York Theatre Royal, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Liverpool
Playhouse, Watford Palace Theatre, Oxford Playhouse, Derby Theatre, Everyman Cheltenham, Rose Theatre Kingston and the Oldham Coliseum, all between now and the middle of June. That’s quite a workload. You can get more booking details by going to http://www.northern-broadsides. co.uk/index.php/coming-soon/anaugust-bank-holiday-lark/. The photographers have been invited by Irene to each put forward their three favourite images to create an exhibition. Irene will be talking about the workshop at The Yorkshire Region’s AGM in April. The trip was major success for Mary and The Yorkshire Region and she is planning more such events. If you are interested drop her an email at photobox50@gmail.com. There might be a delay in her response for a few weeks due to other commitments.
Deadline at Dusk by Nelson Guzmán Avellaneda
At The Surface Gallery, Nottingham
I have to hold my hands up and admit to being puzzled by the exhibition “Deadline at Dusk by Nelson Guzman Avellaneda”. At the same time I think the question needs to be asked as to whether that’s a bad thing or not. So what is successful imagery? Is it an image we look at, like and move on from and maybe even forget? Or an image that we struggle to understand and continue to think about, even to the point that we consider if it should exist. Maybe it’s both and more! Nelson Guzmán Avellaneda found inspiration for his project Deadline at Dusk from the low budget films made in America in the 1940s and 50s that their critics christened Film Noir. The star of a Film Noir is often the convolute story line, one that can sometimes obscure the narrative. When you start to look closely at the images that make up Deadline at Dusk and search for the narrative, it is not immediately clear either. The night before I visited the exhibition I looked at the images with my seven year old daughter Jessica. Often the still-creative minds most children have can see things we “processed by society” adults have lost. We looked at the image of the garden with the deep shadows and the football goal, was it the home of a young boy? The shadows scared Jessica. But on another image, of a beach, she liked the rolling waves which made her feel relaxed.
made up primarily of three framed images on the wall between two sentries which are pillars with digital projectors on top. The projectors are showing what might be mistaken for films. While they are scenes from the films I think their real purpose is to show headlines……….such as “Grim and Suspenseful, as any you have seen” and “Nothing Ever Hit so Hard”. The projectors are set to loop and the headlines repeat over and over again. On the opposite side of the room is a row of small picture viewers, rarely seen today. Each one houses another sinister scene devoid of light. The viewer has to lean forward as though prepared to enter the image’s world and leave reality behind.
She worked out the townscape was very late at night as many I still do not know what to make of the exhibition as of the rooms were in darkness. Online Marcia wrote “The blue it is as puzzling as the genre it explores. Report by Stewart Wall @Icloud.com beach and townscape makes me feel cold. The garden shot is Surface Gallery Writer in Residence spooky, because of the dark corners”. The images are shown in numerous ways in the actual exhibition at The Surface Gallery. On entering, the initial impression is that it’s minimalistic. People might wonder if they were in the right place or if this was the reception. It reminded me of once walking into a small home and just before I asked where the living room was, I spotted that there was a three piece suite squashed into the room I took for the hallway. But The Surface Gallery is quite a large area. The exhibition is Four images to the left by Nelson Guzmán Avellaneda. All others by Stewart Wall
Maria’s dance work is put in the limelight Emma and Lucy at the barre
Report by the RPS ContemporaryTimes email Stewartwall@icloud.com
Dancing with Light is an exhibition of Maria Falconer’s commercial photography, currently open at Deda – a venue in the city of Derby dedicated to the development of dance. The exhibition launch, on March 6, was well
attended with contemporary photographer Paul Hill among the attendees. More than 20 of Maria’s contemporary dance images, shot in Scotland and Derby, are on display, both in colour and black and white. Having moved from Edinburgh to Derbyshire about 18 months ago, Maria is keen to introduce herself to the Midlands and London as a commercial photographer specialising in Movement and Dance. Deda is the East Midlands Centre for Dance and as such is an ideal location for the work. Most of the work was shot in Scotland, and at the Edinburgh Festival; with companies such as Scottish Dance Theatre, Rosie Kay and SmallPetitKlein. The pictures include production shots
Maria Falconer FRPS at the opening of her Dancing With Light exhibition at Deda, Derby
Photograph by Nigel Tooby FRPS
taken at dress rehearsals, promotional images and documentary work but there are some new pieces made locally, including Gary Clarke and the publicity shot for “Elemental Force’ made at Chatsworth House - one of which is the signature image of the exhibition. In addition to commercial work, Maria also shoots for personal satisfaction and is currently completing an MA in Photographic Studies at the University of Westminster. The exhibition is open until May 31. Deda is sited at Chapel Street in Derby, DE1 3GU.
Top: Signature piece: splendour and magnitude at Chatsworth House
Left: Graceful movement from Jody Sperling
Right: Paper chase SmallPetitKlein
by Percy Bysshe
t “Before the bridge goes down; And if they once may win the bridge, What hope to save the town?” Harry Minns, 90, takes to the
The people’s poetry Photography by l 0795 512 4000
TALES OF heroic bravery, humorous rhymes, descriptions of dementia and snippets of English history unfolded at a poetry reading in Caistor. Readers aged from seven to 90 performed at A Lyrical Affair, at the Sports and Social Club off Brigg Road in a busy evening, with Town Councillor Kate Galligan acting as Master of Ceremonies. Among the performances were “Horatius at the Bridge” by Thomas Babington, Lord Macaulay, read by Caistor stalwart Harry Minns, 90, Roger McGough’s (Can I Be) The Leader, read by eight year old Pearl McCann, and Canadian poet Paul Sutherland, who now lives in Market Rasen, read out his own work. West Lindsay District Councillor Angela Lawrence also
joined in, with a whimsical contribution by Pam Ayres called, “Will I Have To Be Sexy at Sixty?” Besides being an evening of rhyme, it was also one of music, with Alice Wood performing four songs, and Dee de Wit singing a cautionary tale about a librarian, and a musical tribute from Patricia Redfearn to people from her
family’s home village in Ireland. Jessica Wall, seven, dressed for the part as she read, “What Do Witches Like?” by Judy Hindley. The event, backed by Caistor In Bloom, took place on the weekend nearest to National Poetry Day, which was on October 3. It was organised by Ms Galligan and her father Michael Galligan.
Working towards a distinction Report & Photos by Stewart & Shona Wall Stewartwall@icloud.com
PHOTOGRAPHERS with ambitions to achieve distinctions with the Royal Photographic Society were given helpful advice at a special meeting in York.
Richard Walton FRPS, of the Licentiateship and Visual Art Panel, and Tessa Mills FRPS, of the Contemporary Panel, examined 15 potential panels at an advisory day at the National Railway Museum, organised by the Yorkshire Region of the RPS. Before examining any work, Richard and Tessa explained to the audience of about 35 people how the distinctions panels work, and showed examples of panels that had been successful in the past. They explained that licentiateships were about being able to demonstrate a broader range of skills and techniques. Once the worries of gaining a Licentiateship are over, it is accepted that the photographer has a good knowledge of the fundamentals of photography and the direction then changes to passion and reason for photography with the Associateship. Quality of work, both in photography and presentation, is still required but what might be deemed a mistake at L will be investigated by assessors at A as to whether it was the intention of the photographer and adds to the enjoyment of the viewer lack of detail in blacks might be an example or noise/grain. Altogether, nine potential Licentiateship panels were viewed, with advice given particularly on the overall appearance of a panel - where the photographs should not look too similar, but each contributing photograph should complement the others to give a balanced look to the panel. It is a skill
Tessa with Nigel Tooby and Patricia Ruddle
‘Why I enjoy being an RPS adviser’ says Tessa Mills Why do I undertake Advising for the RPS Contemporary Group? It is a genuine privilege to see new work in progress. I find it exciting to read images like turning to the first page of a well-recommended book.
Tessa Mills examines one of the photographs from a planned Associateship panel at the RPS Advisory Day in York
Far left: Richard Walton and Tessa Mills examine a potential L panel Near Left: RPS stalwart Frank Reynolds helps with administration. Above: A young attendee admires the venue
similar to page design. Six potential Associateship panels were also viewed. The event proved an ideal opportunity for both members and non members to learn about the subtle differ-
ences that are looked for. The RPS has panels of selected photographers who both assess panels for qualifications and advise on days such as the one in York. They have as much passion for this
part of their photographic lives as they do for shooting their own photography. On this day Tessa and Richard had travelled almost 1000 miles between them to attend.
The railway museum is a lovely location and the attendees shared stories of their work over coffee. Many were nervous of showing their work and receiving feedback. They did not
need to feel nervous. Tessa and Richard, handled both complimentary commentary and constructive criticism of work expertly, leaving all who attended highly motivated.
There is an openness in these images, an offering from the photographer where I have an opportunity to learn about the person behind the lens as well as seeing through their vision. There is the shared knowledge of the time and effort put into the proposed panel that adds to my respect and appreciation of the panel’s worth. There is an element of surprise in being shown a new idea that has the potential to entertain, as well as to inform. I know that evaluating one’s own work is incredibly difficult, and good images thrive on confidence, so by having the opportunity to highlight the best images, I can hopefully add fuel to the inspiration and abilities of the photographer. This is very satisfying for me. It is fun to share my enthusiasms for image making and visual communications with a like-minded group. The RPS Distinctions have ‘boxes that have to be ticked’ and
“Reading the handbook is absolutely essential” as Panel members we are primed to see where these ticks apply - or where they are missing. This is an essential part of our communications on advisory days. Reading the handbook is absolutely essential, but there is nothing like a visual illustration based on one’s own offerings. Photography can be an incredibly strong tool. I am aware that the RPS’s Distinction process is a wonderful foundation and framework supporting us towards attaining a level in our work that is initially beyond our imaginings. This might not be a complete list and it is a personal list. You may get very different answers from other panel members.
This way for the exhibition at the National Media Museum
In contact; the contact sheets of Tony Ray-Jones, left, and above, a board giving details of his history
Quintessential England Report and Pictures by Stewart Wall StewartWall@icloud.com
”H
Jo Quinton-Tulloch, Head of the National Media Museum, opens the Bradford International Film Festival and the exhibition of Only In England
Only In England amuses viewers at Bradford
ERE THEY COME. The bloody English... in their Zephyrs, Wolseleys and Anglias. Off to their beauty pageants, caravan parks and penny arcades. Off on their day trips and annual marches. Off to watch the children’s parade. Off to their dog shows and fancy-dress competitions. To eat their buns under umbrellas. To sit in deckchairs in their suits and ties.”
So begins writer Mick Jackson’s tribute to the Only In England exhibition, featuring the work of Tony Ray-Jones and Martin Parr, currently being hosted by the National Media Centre in Bradford. A wet evening welcomed us to the launch of the exhibition, a contrast to many of the sunny scenes taken by iconic photographer Tony Ray-Jones. Sixty of
Cloakroom: somewhere to store all the wet coats
Michael Pritchard, Hazel Blackwell and Geoff Blackwell
his previously unseen images were selected by Martin Parr, himself a well-known photographer who credits Tony RayJones as being his inspiration. The exhibition, which is running from 28 March-29 June 2014 in Galleries One and Two, also includes previously displayed work by Ray-Jones and Parr, and shows how the two photographers were fascinated by the English population at large. Media Museum Curator Greg Hobson chose Martin Parr to
by Tony Ray-Jones, he realised they had both been covering an event at the same time. It is obvious Parr would love to have met Ray-Jones. He speculates that they might even have seen each other at that event. I share a similar feeling. For a time, I lived in the same remote hamlet in Essex as Tony RayJones – Little Baddow near Chelmsford – though not at the same time. We also seemed to share similar passions as we have both toured the UK in a camper van.
select the images as throughout his career Parr has repeatedly referred to Tony Ray-Jones as being the singular most important influence on how he shoots his own work. Tony Ray-Jones died suddenly at the age of 30 in 1972. Greg Hobson talked of the interaction between Parr and Ray-Jones although it can only be seen in their images as the two never actually met. In the film that Greg showed, Parr reports that while he was going through 2500 contact prints
As Greg Hobson pointed out, Tony Ray-Jones is not well known outside of the world of photographers, possibly as he died so young. During his life he never published any books nor had major exhibitions. This is such a shame.
I
was born in 1961 and my own childhood memories are full of the sort of scenes Tony Ray-Jones was shooting. I guess this is also true for a lot of you reading this article. When
I look at the images I cannot easily recall the styles of clothing but the images help. They also remind me of the National Health glasses that people wore before chains such as Specsavers became established, and of the singular style adopted by men’s barbers at the time. I think anyone from England viewing this exhibition will see familiarity. I was amazed to see an image of Jaywick Sands in Essex. I know Jaywick very well. It is a community of former holiday homes, now occupied all the time, and was once categorised as the most deprived district in Britain. I used to park up on the exact spot in the background of Tony Ray-Jones’s Jaywick Sands image. I would pour a cup of coffee and start to read a newspaper. People in the tight-knit area knew my car and would approach to ask if I could take their photographs. I would book them in for a shoot in their home the following day. I only had this approach to “sales” in Jaywick and I had forgotten about it until I saw the Continued on Page 2
Celebrating personalities
Museum curator Greg Hobson tells the launch about the planning process for Only In England
From Page One image in the exhibition. One often-debated topic is the way contemporary photographers approach the subject of technical quality. Some say that some contemporary photographers appear sloppy in this area. I have always struggled to give a good answer but Greg Hobson’s talk provided one. Tony Ray-Jones was influenced by America and in particular Robert Frank’s book The Americans. Ray-Jones noticed that Robert Frank was more concerned with the content of the photograph than technical quality. Tony Ray-Jones was a highly competent commercial photographer earning his living from photographing cars but for his passion to record life he adopted a practice of not letting factors such as prevailing light and technical quality get in the way of an interesting image. It was interesting to hear that the museum has brought back to life some of the images. Scanning the often badly scratched negatives on high resolution scanners at the museum, the now digital images were sent to Martin Parr’s studio for careful retouching. As was the style of the day in Tony RayJones’s time he would print the
Back to back: Martin Parr’s study of Sarah Hannah Greenwood for his Non-Conformists project
Colourful personality: one of the visitors at the National Media Museum images heavily with deep blacks but the museum decided to bring out detail from the dark areas. Walls with graffiti sprung to life. Greg Hobson passed comment that he was not totally sure about this approach and I know where he is coming from. I also agreed with him when he said that you
can’t compete with the originals as forever in your mind with an original you will always be remembering that this is another artist’s work. The cosmopolitan crowd that turned out for the opening seemed to enjoy the evening. I bumped into RPS Director
What’s not to like? People admiring the work on display at the Only In England exhibition at the National Media Museum in Bradford
General Michael Pritchard FRPS and RPS Council member Geoff Blackwell ACCA ARPS and his wife Hazel. Michael will have a new fan in my Mum as he caught a photograph of me smiling. When you walk around this exhibition I think it would be hard not to smile.
Busy: Some of the attentive audience at the launch
A notebook belonging to Tony RayJones showed how he planned his visits to different towns
Photographers get down to business Report: Shona Wall Photographs: Stewart Wall StewartWall@icloud.com
WHILE we look to the March of the Makers to pull our economy out of trouble, the UK’s manufacturers have been celebrated in an arts project across the country.
Open For Business features more than 100 photographs taken by nine of the world’s best known photographers: Martin Parr, David Hurn, Jonas Bendiksen, Alessandra Sanguinetti, Stuart Franklin, Peter Marlow, Mark Power, Chris Steele-Perkins, and Bruce Gilden. The public got a chance to meet some of these photographers, and hear their thinking behind their work, when the exhibition opened at the National Media Museum in Bradford at the end of January. The Open for Business exhibition is the brainchild of arts group, Multistory, and Magnum Photos. The exhibition is to go on tour at nine different venues throughout the UK during 2014 and 2015. “During a period of great economic instability, and where questions are being raised about the strength of Western economies within the worldwide market, there has never been a more relevant time to explore the condition of Britain’s manufacturing future,” said Multistory, which is based in the Black Country. The project found that “Made in Britain’ is still associated worldwide with innovation and quality. More than 100 workplaces were featured in the project, from small one-man band operations to big corporations featured on the FTSE 100 index. Some of the best-known names included BAE Systems, Siemens, Airbus, Tate & Lyle, and Bombardier. Engineering, pharmaceuticals, textiles, shipbuilding and foods were among the businesses profiled. Many of the photographers had a previous association with the areas or businesses featured, and some showed very different styles of approach: some preferred to study
Question and answer session by Emma Chetcuti with the photographers who attended Bradford, from left Peter Marlow, Mark Power, Emma, Jonas Benkiksen, David Hurn and Stuart Franklin
personalities, and others preferred to study the personality of their chosen workplaces. Dates/venues of the tour are: the National Media Museum, Bradford, (Jan 31-May 5, 2014), MACH 2014, Birmingham NEC, (April 7-11), the National Railway Museum, York, (May 16-September 7, 2014), Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester, (May 23-August 3, 2014), Science Museum, London, (August 22-November 2, 2014), University of South Wales, Newport, (November 21, 2014-January 2, 2015), Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery, (January 16-March 12, 2015), MShed, Bristol (March 20-June 21, 2015) and Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow, (July 3,-September 6, 2015). For more information, look up www. openforbusiness.uk.com.
Dance Peter Marlow explains his thoughts
Plenty of visitors during the question and answer session
Quiet before the storm: Open for Business moments before the exhibition started
Bradford by Jonas Bendikson
Mark Power’s “jigsaw” of imagery
Photographer Mark Power talks to Emma Chetcuti
David Hurn studies his photographs in the exhibition
Celebrating the march of the makers Words and photographs by Stewart Wall StewartWall@icloud.com
To most photographers, regardless of their background or genre of photography, if you mention the name Magnum they know what you are talking about.
I have met photographers from most backgrounds and genres but never a photographer represented by the “well-known co-operative agency with offices in London, Paris, Tokyo and New York, which was founded in 1947 by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa and others” (description taken from their website). So when I was invited to visit the exhibition “Open For Business”, a joint venture between Multistory and Magnum, at Bradford’s National Media Museum, I was interested to see what would be on display. Multistory is a Black Country based group which works with local residents, photographers, world-class artists, writers, documentary filmmakers and many more to celebrate everyday life from factories, pubs and clubs, people’s homes, and markets. I got to the museum half an hour before the 10am start of the public launch and found my way to the exhibition. Only one person was there by then, Vanessa, who is a conservationist at the museum.
Mark Power “falls in line” with one of his images
This exhibition certainly created a very interesting atmosphere. It’s on Floor Seven of the museum, a floor that had previously been quite dark but now had whitewashed walls where stunning imagery had come to life. Many of the photographers’ names were familiar to me with a few new ones. They included: Jonas Bendiksen from Norway who focused his camera on Bradford; Stuart Franklin, UK, who covered Scotland, specifically shipbuilding and renewable energy; Bruce Gilden,
USA, who visited nine UK manufacturers and concentrated on portraits of workers; David Hurn, Wales, who visited five manufacturers and looked at the way the people reacted with their environment; Peter Marlow, UK, who had previously shot a project in 1982 called Closed Down Britain - Industrial Wastelands. This time around he made a conscious effort to not photograph the personalities of the workers but searched for the inherent personality and “feel” of the plants, using just his curiosity as a guide. He visited
16 manufacturers. Also contributing was Martin Parr, UK, who visited 10 manufacturers and set out not only to record the workplaces he visited but to make interesting images of them. Chris Steele-Perkins visited 11 manufacturers. Over a period of 10 days he decided to spend roughly one day at each factory and as well as photographing the workplace he also posed groups of people who work together. Mark Power, UK, visited three manufacturers and using artificial light and together with black backgrounds, showed the theatrical
world of human effort, concentration and skill. The success of this world was mirrored in the way he carefully created a “jigsaw” display of images. Alessandra Sanguinetti, Argentina, visited 14 manufacturers and relished the chance to enter a world unknown to her. She was drawn to individual faces, finding the personal even in the most impersonal of settings and reflected how someone might be replaceable in their particular job, but their peculiarities and individuality are not. That last observation very much comes over in this exhibition.
The viewer could see in the images what they knew of the backgrounds of the photographers. The exhibition works for me because despite one simple commission, to show “Open for Business” in photographs - a commission met by all - each photographer has stood true to their own particular style. Nine photographers worked individually, but as a co-operation. Emma Chetcuti is a director of Multistory, the Black country group responsible for bringing this touring exhibition together. She took the
microphone and led us around the exhibition interviewing each of the five photographers in attendance at this Bradford event one by one. Emma asked them each about their photographic technique. All the photographers fully embraced digital technology. David Hurn spoke about how he uses the digital cameras as he did his film cameras of old. He said he never looks at the screen at the back of a camera but for a reason I had not heard before: he said the screen could “stop” you shooting the right shot. With film you ultimately did not know what you had in camera until you processed the film. With digital you might look at the screen and think you have the right shot in the can, relax and then miss another shot that you would still be shooting if on film. During post production, he uses Lightroom for just doing the alterations he would have done in the darkroom; contrast, exposure etc. Mark Power borrowed a very expensive high-end medium format camera for the exercise, a camera that he soon had to return. He is writing a poem about it, such is his fondness for it. What came across with all the photographers was that while they all possessed a high level of technical ability, they took time to understand their subject and the camera is simply a passport to enable to show us, the viewer, their findings.
A portrait of Rod Fry Report by Stewart Wall StewartWall@icloud.com
My first meeting with Rod Fry, vice chair of the contemporary group, was at the North East Contemporary Group meeting in 2013. Rod had travelled from the South West where he leads the South West Group.
He showed us a series of images including a set of interiors of a house: a kitchen, a telephone, a bedroom. There was no one in the images. Rod went on to explain they had been taken a few days after his mother had died and so she was no longer there to answer the phone when he used to call her every Sunday or to cook him a meal in the kitchen or to sleep in the bed. The bureau, now devoid of her personal papers, stood proud in the spot where she used to sit. Rod called the series Letting Go. The following is a Letter from Rod. It explains his relationship with the images and what they represent. Letting Go By Rod Fry ARPS “On the 26th June, 1998, my mother passed away peacefully in her sleep, in the home she had lived in for 36 years.
Letting Go: Rod Fry took photographs of items which he most associated with his mother after she died so that he could carefully commit his memories to the past Rod Fry, above, and left, Rod’s alter ego as seen on Facebook
I was devastated by her death. The whole process of arranging her funeral and tidying up her affairs - though traumatic - was a busy time and kept me on autopilot to enable me to do
this last act of love and kindness for my Mum. The funeral service marked a public way for friends and family to say their goodbyes, but afterwards there was still the disposal of the home and all its contents. I found it very strange visiting what was my family home with all its family possessions that I had grown up with and were as much a part of my life as they were my mother’s. Slowly, but surely, the contents was stripped away: a gift here, a bequest there. Before my eyes my own family
history was being broken up and consigned from the present into the past. I realised that after the house was sold I would have no tangible record of these once familiar surroundings. In order to help with the grieving process on one of my visits to the house, I took my camera and made these images so that I would have a memory of the family home. I kept the images to parts of the house most associated with my Mum: her favourite chair in the lounge, where she would sit and chat with me; her seat at the kitchen where she would sit and have a meal with me that she had
prepared all too infrequently in this busy life we now all live. I wish I had made more time to spend with Mum. The phone in the hall was where she would ring me for a chat on Sunday for a gossip. I still miss those calls. The large wardrobe was where all her clothes were neatly hung, only now they have gone to charity shops and all that was left were the hangers, and lastly her bed where she would read late into the night, listening to the radio, and where she died. These pictures were made in 1998. I could not develop them for two years, and not look properly at them until
2002. Now I can understand they were my way of committing my mother, her home and the place where I grew up from being in the present, the here and now, to being a very cherished memory of the past. It was a very personal way for me to say goodbye and let go of the present and see it safely into the past. This is part of the power of the record photograph, an often underestimated genre of the art. We record our daily lives not necessarily for today but to view in the future, to remind us of our yesterdays, momentarily clearing our minds of
A memorial to the slave labour of wartime Rod is also working on another book. He is passionate about self publishing and is also part of the team that is developing the RPS Book Competition. But his own current book, The Atlantic Wall Project, is based on the name given by Hitler for a series of Today Rod sees these as memorials to the men and women, (slave workers) who died during their construction. He has written a poem called Empty Tombs, and is his reaction to the pictures he shot. Rod also wrote to say that even on a warm day he shivered after taking the photographs.
Poem by Rod Fry
the business of our present.” At that meeting Rod also talked about “reading an image”, how clothes might enable us to date an image, the postures of people to consider their relationships to each other. You canl often see Rod and his wife Marcia writing and showing images on the RPS Contemporary Group Facebook pages. They are busy photographing the country’s piers and urban exhibitions such as the Gromit figures in and around the South West.
A portrait of Nigel Tooby Report by Stewart Wall
N
StewartWall@icloud.com
OW in his mid-50s and carving out a career in professional photography, Contemporary Group member Nigel Tooby almost went the pro route over three decades ago.
He was offered a job on the traditional route for a young photographer back in the late ’70s, to make the tea for a studio that specialised in shooting album covers for international rock stars like Phil Collins and Pink Floyd, among others. But parental advice sent young Nigel back to complete his physics degree, initiating a career which ultimately swallowed up the next 30 years of his life. He came out of those 30 years still with the desire to be a professional photographer, a bit of capital and a distain for the corporate world in how it can swallow up a person’s life and character. He decided he would initiate his new professional photographer’s life by working through the RPS’s distinctions route: ‘L’ was gained with images from his stock library, ‘A’ was a series of contemporary images documenting the ups and downs of his own family life - a project he still continues today - and ‘F’ was gained with a book called “Of Our Times: The Price of Money”. His photobook was effectively photographic satire. It smashed through the veneer of corporate business and exposed the dangling noose used
What a babe: from a commercial brochure
Photographic satire: Nigel Tooby ponders the fate of whistle-blowers within the corporate culture
The NHS Balancing act: need v. cost
Hands up: Nigel’s Facebook picture by the corporate hangman to entice its followers. Of Nigel’s personal work, 100% is what he would hope would be seen as contemporary. He started the RPS’s North East Contemporary Group to meet up with other like-minded photographers. Nigel takes inspiration from searching the nation’s newspapers and pulling out current news articles. With those and sometimes with song lyrics and books he has read, he will plan and shoot images that expose his view on those topics. The North East Group is currently working on a book to celebrate the NHS’s 65th Birthday. One of Nigel’s images was of a set of scales, with a heart on one side bearing a ‘quick fix repair’ of a sticking plaster and then a large wedge of money on the other side. The wedge of ‘available’ money does not balance with the much needed proper operation. I showed the image to a Head Cancer Surgeon who had brought his
Get the party started: commercial brochure work
Family life under scrutiny: a project called Mifamilia 13-year old-daughters into my own studio for a shoot and he sighed. The image hit home with him as telling the nation’s health story perfectly. You can see the planning Nigel puts into his professional corporate work but he tones down the contemporary approach as people do not always want hard hitting images. He steers away from social photography, not wanting to photograph brides for example. Whether personal or professional, his images have impact,
whether they are pigs on a farm or the inside of a rock venue. Nigel is currently working on a project for Simon On The Streets, a Leeds-based charity which supports homeless people. It is hoped it will lead to a calendar and a solo exhibition in 2015. The Ropewalk Gallery near Hull is also planning a solo exhibition, this time based on his RPS fellowship book. The exhibition, expected to be held in early 2015, will carry a health warning.
Colourful: rock concert
Mifamilia: Father and son’s shoes
Simon in The Streets Project: a potential view a person living on the streets might endure
Plenty to see at first annual exhibition WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY STEWART WALL
IN A digital world it’s good to see photographs in print form and at the Yorkshire Region’s first Annual Print Exhibition there was plenty to see. Held in The Room At The Top at the National Media Museum in Bradford, 45 members of the Yorkshire Region came together, each bringing three images. The members took turns to talk about their images, explaining the reason for taking them and why they had brought them. David Horne FRPS kicked off the proceedings by talking about his images, which included a stunning shot of cyclist Mark Cavendish. David told us he used to be involved in cycling. The images would have fitted into all of the RPS’s special interest groups, from contemporary images to nature. It was the task of Fotospeed-sponsored judge Peter Yeo FRPS to then talk about the images and choose his favourite of each members’ set of three. Before an excellent lunch was served all the prints were laid out on tables
Out and about in the regions and the members themselves then voted on their overall favourite. It was a close run result and 15 of the images received a vote of some description which demonstrated the breadth and variety. Overall winner with her image Round And Round The Garden was Sally Sallett LRPS, with three photographers sharing joint second place - Carol Emmott, Bernard Todd and Stewart Wall. After lunch it was the turn of Peter Yeo FRPS to show and talk about his images. Peter is well known to the world of photography as both a judge and speaker, he is also on the RPS Licentiateship panel. He showed us images from subjects as diverse as the remains of Auschwitz concentration camp and a German prisoner of war camp near Brigg, Lincolnshire, which was recently on the market for £2million, to images he took on the beach, handheld at f22 for four seconds, and photographs of newborn seals at Donna Nook, near the RAF base in Lincolnshire. Peter has served with the RAF.
Event Co-organiser Douglas Hay talks about his own images
Judge and guest speaker Peter Yeo shows images of a now demolished prisoner of war camp at Brigg in Lincolnshire Peter described one process and showed images from where he had walked around his home with a long telephoto lens, taking out of focus shots. Using digital processing, he then turned them
into abstract art. They worked well. The message was not all photography is about expensive lenses and pin sharp results. Peter showed us nearly 200 images
Sally Sallett with her image Round And Round The Garden (left)
including a set of stunning A2 images he had printed on his new Epson 3880, using Fotospeed lustre paper. It was good to see what is possible with digital images in print form.
The annual print exhibition was organised by Douglas Hay LRPS and Paul Styles LRPS, using an idea Paul obtained from the Thames Valley Group.
David Horne with his photograph of cyclist Mark Cavendish
John Shepherd with his distinctive images of flowers
Neil Wittmann with shots that remind him of being a teacher
Paul Styles opens the day to a packed Room At The Top at the National Media Museum in Bradford
Mary Crowther, Yorkshire’s regional organiser
A look of concentration from the audience
A portrait of Stewart Wall Report by Shona Mckensie
P
ROFESSIONAL photographer Stewart Wall has had a number of lucky instances in his working life, but maybe four stand out for him.
The first was when some friends decided to study photography O’ Level at school, so he joined them back in 1976. The second was a couple of years later in 1978. His mother steered him towards applying to the Brentwood Gazette for a job as a trainee photographer. He was offered the job because he was the only applicant among 35 who had at least five O’ Levels. He started the job while on a school holiday. On the first
A blacksmith demonstrates his craftsmanship
day the Chief Photographer Len Wheal sent him out to get a photograph that said ‘Snow’ as the town was covered. Stew
came back with an image of a group of children playing in the snow. They had all co-operated and Stew was hooked.
break-out in Northern England, miles from where he was based, but the helicopter used in the break-out had flown from the then small airport in Stansted. These were the days before legwork had been replaced by computers, the internet and the mobile phone. Two hours after the news broke, Stew had travelled to Stansted, tracked down an image of the helicopter pilot and arrived at Fleet Street with it. The third bit of ‘good luck’ was not so lucky for someone else. On another occasion he was waiting with the rest of the pack outside a Magistrates Court for Mark Reid, son of comedian Mike Reid. Mike had just started in the BBC show EastEnders. Stew noticed Mike approaching and spun round to take a shot. In frustration, Mike hit out. Stew ducked, but
THE PRESS YEARS JUST after he started working as a press photographer at the age of 17, Stew shocked his boss by asking for the following Monday off. He was technically still at school and wanted to tell his teachers he would be leaving to start work. His schoolmates were amazed. He worked at the newspaper for eight years. One night he was sent to cover an event for the
“He and his wife moved in together on the day they met” local carnival organisation with a new reporter. They got chatting and moved in together hours later, on the day they had met. She has now been his wife for 30 years. They have three adult children and a daughter aged eight. After eight years with the Essex Chronicle group working for three of their titles: The Brentwood Gazette, The Essex Chronicle and The Evening Herald, Stew decided to move on. He liked it there but many of his colleagues were in their 60s and had worked there for most of their lives. He thought this was his future if he did not do something about it. He applied for a job on The Evening Gazette in Colchester. He did not stay long there as the
Daniel Meadows, who described how he has revisited the bus project when Stew photographed him
buzz of short deadlines had pulled him in, so he joined an agency supplying the nationals such as The Express, The Daily Mail, The Times and The Sun. He quickly became known as someone who could get anyone’s image. There was a prison
“Although the image of Mike Reid established Stew as a court photographer, he was not sure if this was a world he liked” still got a photograph of the comedian and his fist aiming straight for the camera. Mike Reid walked into the court but then came out to apologise to the photographer. With a
young family to feed, Stew offered the image as an exclusive to his most regular client, The Express. The Express declined so he sent it to multiple publications. The Express came back asking for the exclusive now they had seen it but by then it was too late. All the papers used the image except The Sun who it was rumoured had a private arrangement with the comedian. Mark Reid’s story ended sadly. He killed himself, aged 24, by setting himself on fire. His baby daughter died in her cot, aged six months, a short time later. Although the image of Mike Reid, at a stressful moment in his life, established Stew as a court photographer, he was not sure it was a world he liked. His decision was made six months later after the murder of a young woman in Colchester. The Sun Picture Desk asked him to accompany a reporter who was sent to ask if the victim had been a prostitute. Stew was asked to photograph the mother’s reaction as she was being asked this question. This was too much for Stew. He declined to do the job and decided to find work elsewhere.
Chasing the beach: one of Stew’s entries in the International Postcard Exhibition at Nottingham
THE COMMERCIAL YEARS
What followed was a quarter of a century of different photographic careers. Stew started shooting PR and advertising, supplying clients such as Rank, Barclays, and Harrods. The 1991-92 recession hit hard and Stew had a long list of companies who owed him money, many of whom took anything from between four and nine months to pay up. Continued on Page 2
A portrait of ....
Stewart Wall
From Page 1 THE EQUESTRIAN YEARS Stew’s next move was into equestrian photography. He took the images at different events and sold them to a local horse magazine, Anglian Horse. He also sold to Horse and Hound and to thousands of competitors. He built a colour darkroom in his cellar and hand printed the photographs. His father planned to join him as a retirement project and started to photograph the horses as well. But his father never made retirement. Four months before he was due to retire, he died suddenly one Monday from an aneurism. He had shot photographs only the day before. Stew’s mum still wanted the images sent out in true British Style, but the months that followed printing the work were hard and Stew moved into photographing portraits.
Above: Stew’s daughter Jess demonstrates one of her father’s entries in the International Postcard Exhibition at the Surface Gallery in Nottingham
Layout artist: “Are you sure you want to tell people that you and your wife moved in together on the day you met? Won’t people think you’re a bit chaotic and dramatic?” Stew: “Creative people should be chaotic and dramatic”
Above: The Age Divide, which came joint second at the THE ENTREPRENEUR YEARS In the years that followed, Stew tried his hand at entrepreneurship on a bigger scale, at one point employing 16 people including three other photographers. The firm would shoot 100 portraits a week, with an average turnover of £10,000 a week, making up large laminate photographs in-house with the aid of a vacuum hot press. The company also had its own picture framing equipment and would make up frames inhouse. The work is still there, but his patience is not. An adept salesman as well as a photographer, plus someone who could personally operate every production process within his company, he would struggle to understand why others could not deliver to his own standards. He did not find the administration involved in being an
Below and right: Stew’s bread and butter work
employer at all satisfying. Once, questioned by his wife as to why he pursued the business on such
routine hernia operation went wrong. When he recovered, he shut his business and instead
average of 100 portraits a week” a large scale, he recounted how a rival photographer had just asked him for advice on how to photograph something under glass and ended: “I’ve got all this knowledge and nobody to pass it on to.” In 2004, he nearly died after a
travelled around the UK in a motorhome with his wife and new baby. After several years, and still in his late 40s, he decided he was too young to retire. Now 53, Stew, his wife and youngest daughter have settled
in Lincolnshire, where he runs a portrait business from a former fire station in a tiny, picturesque Roman town. It takes a certain skill to be able to pose several young children and get them all to smile angelically for the camera, while at the time getting the exposure and lighting right. It is an ability that he takes so much for granted that he did not even think to submit an example for this article. The
page designer had to request some. FINDING A NEW PATH The fourth bit of luck came for Stew while he was setting up his latest studio. That luck was joining the RPS. Since becoming a press photographer in 1978, someone had always paid him to take photographs. The RPS and the people he has met through the RPS have opened up new ideas
to him: Ideas that he can shoot without commission. He still cannot easily shoot just for the sake of shooting but he is thinking through projects. Stew is Writer in Residence for the Surface Gallery in Nottingham, and has agreed to be the Photographer in Residence for a major project in his local town. He is currently webmaster of the RPS Contemporary Online publication, Contemporary Times, a role he has assumed
with gusto. This latest journey has seen him interviewing many other well-known photographers such Daniel Meadows and
cially felt like an inspiration and a privilege. The RPS and especially the Contemporary Group have opened up a world for
“It takes a certain skill to be able to pose several young children and get them all to smile, but it is an ability he takes for granted” Tim Smith, and more recently he has met Magnum photographer David Hurn. Meeting Daniel Meadows espe-
him where photography means more than just making a living. And that feels like the greatest discovery of them all.
Brian Steptoe, FRPS, addresses the event and explains how examined in detail
The rise of the photobook explored at workshop Report by Shona Wall and Stewart Wall Photographs by Stewart Wall THE INCREASING popularity of photobooks was the subject of a workshop attended by about 35 photographers at the National Media Museum in Bradford.
The event, which was organised by The North East Contemporary Group and the Yorkshire Region of The Royal Photographic Society, was the first of a potential series of workshops to assist those considering entering The RPS’s newly introduced Photobook Competition. The Competition was the brainchild of Contemporary Group members Brian Steptoe FRPS and Rod Fry ARPS. Earlier on in the year they approached the Director General of the RPS, Michael Pritchard FRPS, with the idea of running a competition aimed at lifting awareness of photobooks. Books featuring photographs have been with us almost since the birth of photography but with the introduction of digital photography and the emergence of online self publishing they are no longer the preserve of those few individuals who manage to get a publishing deal. Within a few hours a photographer or author can now design and upload a book to a company such as Blurb and often within a week the printed book will land on their doorstep. Lots of photographers are seeing it as a way of replacing a way of cataloging their images but there can be so much more to the photobook.
With a little thought and careful layout and sequencing the photobook can tell stories and captivate the reader as well as any established novel. Nigel Tooby, who has been awarded a Fellowship from the RPS for his photobook, “Of Our Times, The Price Of Money” opened the day with a brief introduction. Brian, a founder member of the Contemporary Group and a former chairman of the Distinctions Panel, brought several photobooks from his personal collection. Brian has been collecting photobooks for many
years. He attributed their rapid growth to the fact that they are more permanent than many exhibitions and that photographers can gain a wider distribution of their work through them. While the photography is important, the design, sequencing and how the text supports the images and intent of the book should also be considered, he said. He pointed out how production can vary, from digital presses to something much more intimate like a handbound piece of artistry. Brian listed exhibitions where photobooks were featured, and spoke of photobooks which
recently had won awards, such as Concresco by David Galjiaard and City Diary by Anders Petersen. He also examined different styles of design and discussed the use of “found” images where the images were not exclusively created by the author, such as Mishka Henner’s No Man’s Land, which used images from the internet. After a lunch break the audience split into teams and each team were issued with a set of 6x4 inch prints and set the task of selecting and sequencing them into a potential book. One team were given a set of images taken by Magnum Photographers.
Stewart Wall LRPS then guided a group discussion on photobook software. About 65% of the audience had made a photobook so it was a chance to exchange ideas and knowledge. The software provided free by Blurb was also discussed on the big screen and those who had not used it before were given an introduction to it. The talk was the first one of what is hoped to be a series around the country. If you would like your regional organiser to arrange one please email them and ask them to contact Brian at bsteptoe@compuserve.com.
A portrait of Tim Smith Report by Shona Wall
A CHILDHOOD of living in different countries gave photographer Tim Smith a lifelong passion for exploring other cultures.
Tim shared his visual journey during a talk jointly organised by the Yorkshire region of the RPS and the media studies’ department of Leeds University. A former press photographer, Tim began by showing the audience of about 40 people two photographs he had taken of Terry Venables at the same press conference. The first was of Mr Venables with a beaming smile. The second was of him looking thoughtful. Both were used but several months apart – when Mr Venables started as manager of Leeds United Football Club, and when he departed. Tim used the photographs to show how images are chosen to fit the news story of the moment, and how quickly the picture editor’s requirements can change. Tim began working for a press agency after studying photography in Newport. He mainly worked for the Sunday broadsheets, in particular The Observer. He showed another photograph of a disused textiles factory, taken for The Observer, to highlight how timing can alter a photograph. When he
Terry Venables at Leeds United Tim Smith: first visited the factory, it was a dull day. He returned at sunset, hoping to capture the sunlight flooding through a series of windows. The effect was an eyecatching row of shadows. He also stood on a chair, to make the clock look more dominant. While at Newport, Tim lived in a large multicultural community. “I took photographs because I was interested in the lives of the people there,” Tim said. “Newport taught me that you don’t have to travel very far to find interesting stories and interesting pictures.” His journey into different cultures grew while working at the press agency, covering changes to the steel industry in
Photograph by Stewart Wall Sheffield and the textile industry in Bradford, which had both attracted workers from overseas. “The photographs I like to take are driven by a narrative. For me it was growing up in different parts of the world. “When I was still very young we went to the West Indies by boat. I went through the opposite experience to people I have interviewed. They came to Britain and felt as if the light had dimmed, but in Surinam it was like someone had turned the colour up. “While working as a press photographer, I was becoming more interested in doing longer term projects,” said Tim. “But to do
An empty weaving shed at Manningham Mills, once the largest textile factory in the world
Harvesting tea on the Kitabi estate, Rwanda
The Old City of San’a, capital of the Yemen
that meant I couldn’t be a press photographer, because press photography is something you have to commit to.” Tim started working for the art
exhibitions and teaching packs. Partly I wanted to make a record but also I wanted to explain to the wider society what had drawn people to here.”
“MY father worked for an overseas aid agency, focusing on long term projects such as infrastructure. When I was primary school age our family travelled by sea to the West Indies. I thought it was a great adventure. I went to a local school and had a lot of contact with people there. I came back to finish my primary education in Kent, then my father told us one day that we were
galleries and museums service in Bradford, in the photographic section of the Bradford Heritage Recording Unit. “We were putting together
going to live in East Africa. I went to local secondary schools as a boarder and it suited me fine. Much later on my dad got a job working for the World Bank in Washington. “After I did a science degree in Edinburgh, I was doing bar work in the States for a bit, when someone suggested, as I had photographed bands for a student publication, that I did a course in photography. I went to
what was then known as Gwent College of Higher Education at Newport to do a two-year B-Tech course in documentary photography. “The Head of Department was David Hurn, who was one of the top London photographers in the 1960s. It was extraordinary how many people he knew and how well he knew them. “The course concentrated on getting
Having photographed people from different places who had settled in Britain, Tim began to explore different places, such as Ukraine and the Yemen, to pho-
us to take photographs rather than the semantics of photography. They thought it was important to look at all sorts of photographers and their works. Daniel Meadows, Martin Parr and Paul Hill were all visiting lecturers in the first year. In the second year, Daniel Meadows became a member of staff. “Martin Parr at that time was just switching over. Bad Weather and A
tograph people there who had previously lived in Britain. He even met a man in the Yemen who he had photographed many years before in Newport. Tim is adept at gaining sponsorship for his long-term projects, both via arts and museums funding, and from commercial enterprises. “Yorkshire Cable and Marks and Spencer have both contributed to projects, because they were seeking opportunities in the Asian communities,” he said. He is also returning to his photographic roots, and has started working part-time at Newport as a lecturer, teaching practical skills to people studying for a BA (Hons) in documentary photography.
Fair Day had just been published. Up until that point a lot of what was taught was black and white magazine photo-journalism, but Martin Parr was one of the new colour photographers and he brought in a new kind of aesthetic. “I look to photograph things that haven’t been photographed before and you can do that if you are sufficiently interested enough.”
Words and pictures by Stewart Wall Stewartwall@icloud.com
H
OW do you see your street? How much do you notice what’s happening in it? When you last walked home from work or from school or to your local shop, what did you see? When you last went to the shop, what colour was the person’s top who served you? Trish O’ Shea’s exhibition at The Surface Gallery in Nottingham asked similar questions. Trisha has been asking them for quite a while. Alongside the exhibition in December 2013, Trish invited artists and those interested to meet her and walk from Nottingham Railway Station to the gallery, a walk of about one and a half miles. It’s interesting that with the interruption of Christmas I am writing this article a month later. The gap is an accident but it is interesting to realise how I remember the walk. My walk that day through the street of life began before I met up with the other artists. I caught the train at Newark to travel the last 20 miles or so into Nottingham. It made parking easier. Before the train arrived I noticed a group of men looking excited at a day out. It crossed my mind they might be up to no good. It was not my imagination. On the train the conductor collected the ticket money. One of the group pretended to be asleep as the conductor got to him. Unfortunately for him the conductor had not given up on him when he walked away, it was to simply help someone. The traveller “woke” up to see the ticket collector walking back. To be fair the traveller laughed as he paid up. It was a game. Arriving at Nottingham early I went straight to the meeting place, Hopkinson’s vintage shop/ cafe opposite the railway sta-
Plenty to see, if you know where to look for it - one of the group who joined the art walk in Nottingham
The art of looking past she had been commissioned by local authorities to do just that, to help local people to connect, through art, with their local streets. It reminded me of the famous golfer Walter Hagen who once said, “You’re only here for a short visit. Don’t hurry. Don’t
ble to see many things as statues. A little further along she “discovered” another statue, formerly a street light. At some point the light has been cut down and the post now stands through time alongside some utility boxes. Do
Intentioned and unintentional statues take part in sentry duty
“Apparently the garden was an attraction for locals to party in at night” worry. And be sure to smell the Creating a bridge for the community - artist Trish O’Shea
tion. I walked around the shop intrigued by its artefacts. Half a dozen artists met up, mainly lecturers in art. I thought it was a shame no students attended. We set off and I walked on the fringe of the main group. This suited
me as I wanted to photograph the artists observing the environment. I had asked Trish what her objective was and her answer was to connect with the environment and to create a bridge for others to connect. She said that in the
Trish stopped to point out things: canals that might go unnoticed, marks on gates. She picked out a roundabout, talking about the beautifully manicured area that perhaps no-one had walked over, except the grass barber. She likened the road sign on the roundabout, pointing out the direction of
they still have a purpose or stand unnoticed? The walkers enthusiastically stood around this set of “unintentional statues”. We stopped to look at old brick walls, something that maybe ancestors did not notice but now their age attracts us. We then stopped at a round garden near Carter Gate, encircled Continued on Page 2
Old brickwork grows more interesting with the passage of time
An advertising board adds colour and form to this street view
What can be seen around here? Looking for art in everyday street scenes
Everyone joins in - recounting their journey in charcoal
Closer scrutiny of streetlife From Page 1
by the same brick that made up the terraced houses it fronted. Three bonsai trees stood in it, the only growing aspect, the rest being old cans of long past parties. A taxi pulled up and two ladies got out. I beckoned to them to join the group who were by now standing within the circle. They were reluctant to join them but rather, in a territorial way, told the group to go away. I asked them about the garden. One lady was fond of the small space, the other said it was F**k**g S**t. Apparently although designed to make the otherwise all bricked area look more attractive, the garden was an attraction for locals to party in at night. Prior to the exhibition Trish had made the walk a number of times. She had collected items of discarded property, no longer wanted by the owners who had decided the street was a good storage place for it. Placing them together she made artwork with the items. So what is art? Do you think of a painting or a drawing, perfectly moulded by accepted design and form, or can life itself
Trish O’Shea leads a group of artists on the walk
be art? Can art be seen around us every day? As I walked back from The Surface Gallery to catch the train to Newark I walked through been a good day, they had caught many ticket dodgers. The game was still being played out. Above and left, Trish O’Shea’s exhibition inside The Surface Gallery close to the It had been fun noticing it. bus station near Nottingham’s City Centre
Photographer Stewart Wall observes a ‘game’ outside the station
Expanding our perspectives Words and pictures by Stewart Wall
READING isn’t around the corner from me. It’s 200 miles each way and I really did not know what to expect of the RPS Contemporary group’s weekend of talks, called A Wider View. I told my wife that while I was looking forward to meeting people that I had got to know via the internet but had not met face to face, I had a suspicion that I might end up disappointed with the actual speakers and weekend itself. How wrong I was. Photographer Dana Popa, a still young Romanian, launched the talks to a predominantly slightly older audience. Dana told us about the history of her country of birth and how life had been under the direction of Nicolae Ceaușescu. She told us of the 1966 decree where abortions were made illegal and the terrible deaths of women who died because of illegal abortions. Dana was born in 1977 and so was just about to start her teenage years when Ceausescu was overpowered. It was clear
her life, certainly her photographic life, is shadowed by his regime. She showed images from her project “Sexual Slaves” where she photographed women who had been sold, often by their parents, into the sex slave world and transported to The West. Dana tracked down
some of those who managed, sometimes after years, to escape and return. Many of her photographs were taken in hostels and shelters for these women where the conditions to us would be deemed living in squalor. She told how one shelter wanted $50 to allow her in to photograph the women, so they were still being sold but obviously not in quite the same way. Dana went on to show us photographs of the current generation preparing to head to the West. They have been given names like David, Jean and Theobald to enable them to “fit” in. Many teenagers have been raised by their grandparents as their parents had already headed West to earn money. Their parents very much support their children financially but I wondered how they must feel, having been deprived of their Mums and Dads and having grown up being prepared to leave their home country. It is predicted that next year the UK will be hit by a wave of Romanian immigrants and I wondered how they would view the
country. Dana had said her photography was designed to make you think and it certainly had me thinking. Next up was someone more familiar to me as I had spent a day with him recently. Daniel Meadows honFRPS is also well known to many through his project of the 1970s, the Photobus, where after university he bought a bus and travelled the country shooting free portraits in an attempt to document the time. But he said he was not going to talk about the bus in detail as it had only ever really been “a sprat to catch a mackerel”. The ‘mackerel’ was a series of short videos showing the people of the time in their home surroundings, people the bus had discovered for him during his travels. We were shown a selection of the videos, the first public audience to see them. While the videos were short to us, Daniel has been spending all his time going through them and compressing them into viewable lengths. He has gone through hours and hours of recordings editing the highlights. Next year his entire archive will be going to the new Super Library in Birmingham. His videos included George Bowen, a National Front candidate for election. The video made us all laugh where Bowen
“ordinary” person. He went on to show videos of Mrs Byford, 11-year-old John Payne and his pigeons, Mr Cothrow and his leeks. An Italian also sang about the bollards his local council had put up outside his shop. Having Dana Popa and Daniel Meadows talk so close together was interesting. One regular question you hear is “What is Contemporary Photography?” In just these two speakers you could build your own answer. Dana’s life had been “framed”
“Some viewers’ comments were not nice but at least they had made a comment” outlined his policies and finished with “and anything else you think I should believe in”. Daniel photographed people on his Rolleiflex and recorded them with a tape recorder. It was not important to Daniel if he personally agreed with what was being said or not. It was important to photograph the “extraordinary” in the
by a dictator and his hold on her country of birth. She was dealing with this via her photography while Daniel Meadows simply went out with his camera into the world to discover. But the works of both photographers tell stories of their time and makes us think of time and our own lives within it.
Continued on Page 2
From Page 1 The approach of Marketa Luskacova is somewhere in between the two previous speakers. She was born in the Czech Republic and began recording the remnants of the Christian peasant culture of Slovakia. “The Pilgrims” was exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1983. Marketa showed us a variety of images from her projects including where she had spent many hours photographing musicians in London to people at the seaside in north east England. While doing all of this she has worked through many barriers in her life, including once being told by a gallery that her work was “too foreign”. The final speaker on Saturday was an equally enlightening talk. “Writer on photography”, Francis Hodgson, attempted to answer why some photographs are worth millions of pounds. He started his talk with a slide that simply said, “If you have nothing to say... say nothing.” According to Francis, it’s easy to take an image that is good but hard to take an image that says something. And if the viewer cannot recognise the photographer in the photograph, then it is styleless. He spoke briefly about technique “The Surface”, “The Cliche” and the “Transparency” of the image. He showed us problems that cause an image to fail and the potential solutions. “When you get the technique right then you will gain the viewers’ attention and while your image holds their view then whatever your message is will come through,” said Francis. The day concluded with a short speech by Walter Benzie ARPS, the newly elected Vice President of the RPS on where he sees the RPS heading and what his plans are for it. Day two should have started with a drum roll and maybe leaps and somersaults. Natasha Caruana, another still young photographer, was born to and grew up with a travelling circus family. Her first major photographic project, “Lying Still”, was a series of portraits of “The Other Women” and came about after
Plenty to broaden our minds at A Wider View her own five-year affair with a married man came to an end. She advertised in Time Out and other newspapers for women who had experienced the same to collaborate with her on a photographic exploration into the subject and they came forward wanting to tell their own stories. Three years later a new project was launched albeit closely linked to the first, “The Married Man”. Natasha joined an online dating agency for people looking for affairs. The project saw Natasha start
out with a Hassleblad to take images and saw her finish with a disposable camera to get the look she wanted. She joined the website under a false name and had 80 dates over 18 months. She told how one man wanted “more” from their date. She had no intention of getting into bed with anyone but he explained that it was costing him, being the man, £250 a month to be a member! She thought, I might be cheating you in that I am here to really create a photographic project rather than truly date but
you are cheating too, on your wife! The hardest thing she had to keep up with in her ruse was to get the men’s names right. Some days she saw three men, breakfast, lunch and dinner. But not only was that three names to remember but the men also used false names and then wanted to tell her their real names. They also often wanted to speak about their wives. Natasha photographed the remains of their dates; the tables, the chairs, the surroundings. As far as I could see no men
were harmed in the making of her project, other than their egos when she kept things platonic. The images receive a lot of reaction and not always positive ones. Some viewers’ comments were not nice but at least they had made a comment. Her next project shown was called “Fairytale for sale”. On the website Gumtree she had noticed many ladies selling their wedding dresses. In their adverts they showed photographs with themselves posing in their wedding dresses. Natasha, again under a false name, would contact the sellers and ask for high resolution images which people sent to her. She then created an exhibition from the images. She liked how the people had blocked out their faces in the images. The project brought to me a lot of questions. I have photographed over 2000 weddings over a period of 35 years. It
was not just about the potential copyright infringement issues that I considered but also about whether the selling of a wedding dress is really the end of the fairytale. What is the fairytale anyway? After the highly charged talk by Natasha came Jem Southam honFRPS. All the
speakers so far had been concerned with contemporary issues concerning people. But Jem’s focus was on the environment. He spoke about and showed images from a project about A Pond. A pond local to Jem caught his attention and he decided to take a photograph of
it. As is often the case with Jem at this stage there was no thought of a long-term project. A man approached him and asked what he was doing. Jem was shooting with a 10x8 inch camera and under his black cloth would have stood out as something more than a tourist.
The man was renovating the pond. It was owned by a local “lord of the manor”, who did not care for it and he had permission to work on it as a hobby. Over three years Jem photographed the pond and watched it change. The man disappeared one day never to be seen again but before he went he had put life back into the pond by reigniting its eco system, a dead pond now lived. Then, on another visit the pond had changed once more, a new “caretaker” had taken over and the photographic project began again. An American art dealer fell in love with Jem’s images and asked if he could create an exhibition based around them. A while later the dealer decided to fly over to the UK to see the pond and remarked, “Is that it?” The reality failed to compete with Jem’s images. And so this is how Jem works. He picks, or often the landscape picks him, to photograph a spot. He will then return
many times to re-photograph it, noting the changes that have occurred. He will often work with poets and geologists in creating collaborate works. The final speaker was Tessa Mills FRPS. Tessa ran through a recent highly successful associateship panel by Mike Naylor ARPS. She outlined what was looked for by the panel, of which she is a member, and why a panel might be successful or why it might not. The weekend was wrapped up by a short speech of thanks by Rod Fry ARPS, followed by Brian Steptoe FRPS, who spoke of the forthcoming photo book competition he has initiated with Rod. Brian was also one of the organisers of “A Wider View” along with Chair of the group, Avril Harris ARPS, who closed what appeared to be a highly successful weekend.
Stewart Wall
Written and Photographed by Shona and Stewart Wall Freelance Photojournalists and Publication Designers stewartwall@icloud.com / 0795 512 4000 http://www.rps.org/special-interest-groups/contemporary