AN ENGLISH EYE

F E A T U R E

All images © James Ravilious

AN EN GL ISH E YE

Described as an expression of the common purpose of man, James Ravilious’ unsung retrospective documents the landscape and people of north Devon with a warmth and humility that was mirrored in the book’s compilation. Alex Schneideman charts its journey.

ames Ravilious and his wife

Jmoved to the north Devon village of Dolton in 1972 hoping for art teaching work in the area. And it is here that a first thread through history becomes apparent: the threads that connect Ravilious’ work with the wider world criss-cross his life, as do the deep lanes that run like old and lost rivers through the north Devon countryside.

Ravilous’ wife, the writer Robin née Whistler, still lives in north Devon, her homeland. Robin’s father was the poet and glass engraver Laurence Whistler who was, in turn, the younger brother of Rex Whistler, both major figures in the contemporary British art scene of the 20th century. James’ lineage had artistic weight too: his father was the engraver and artist Eric Ravilious. So in the union of Ravilious and Whistler two deep lanes joined with a kind of inevitability which seems to occur so often in the stories of creative endeavour.

Ravilious and his wife left London and settled into the rhythm of the seasons in a secluded rural area of south-west England. North Devon in the 1970s was a place of close community ties, old fashioned and unspoiled. And, as Robin says, James was, ‘looking for a path in life’.

Before arriving in Devon, Ravilious had trained as a painter and engraver at St Martin’s School of Art in London and had been teaching for some years. He had not studied photography, but he had seen the 1969 V&A exhibition of Henri CartierBresson’s photographs, which ran for a short period of time and then toured to Sheffield, York, Leeds, Eastbourne and finally Oxford. Ravilious visited this exhibition and was profoundly affected by it. For the first time he appreciated the ability of the medium to depict humanity and it was the spark that would lead him to pick up a Leica.

Along with Cartier-Bresson, Ravilious’ great inspirations included Lewis Hine, Frank Meadow Sutcliffe, Walker Evans and William Eugene Smith, all exponents of the humanist current in photography. Another important inf luence came from the English photographer and artist Edwin Smith. After Smith’s death in 1971 it would be Olive, Smith’s widow, who gave Ravilious one of Edwin’s first cameras, an Ica bellows camera, and some old, uncoated Tessar lenses. These optics would help give his work the particular extended tonality that he became known for. The subtlety of his print making was also inf luenced by his close reading of Ansel Adam’s Zone System and discussions with the photographers’ guru, Brian Allen. ›

‘Ravilious and his wife left London and settled into the rhythm of the seasons in a secluded rural area of south-west England.’

n 1966 funds had been made available

Ifor a local institution whose role it was to foster the art and cultural life of Devon’s rural parts. The Beaford Centre was founded by the artist and teacher John Lane on behalf of the Dartington Hall Trust, an organisation dedicated to supporting the arts in Devon and the West Country. Lane invited Ravilious in the autumn of 1972 to contribute to the Beaford Archive, a photographic record of the landscape and people of north Devon. Ravilous was to record the lives and landscapes that surrounded him in return for a part-time stipend that would enable him and his family to live.

With his commission from the Beaford Centre and John Lane’s support, Ravilious set about weaving his tapestry of life around him. By the time the Beaford Centre ceased its financial support after 17 years (largely due to Thatcher-era arts cuts), Ravilious had contributed some 80,000 negatives to the archive, yet despite losing financial support he continued to photograph the people, life and events of north Devon for the next decade.

Not a natural networker, Ravilous dreaded the idea of schmoozing in London for the purposes of advancing his work and reputation. Consequently this extraordinary and growing collection of photographs drew little attention from the outside world, despite a publication of the work in the 1980 book Heart of the Country, which received good press coverage and was well reviewed.

It was not until the Royal Photographic Society accorded Ravilious a retrospective exhibition in1997 that his work began to receive broader recognition. This exhibition, titled An English Eye, had been curated by the sociologist Peter Hamilton, who had come across Ravilous’ photographs through the work of another sociologist who had used Ravilous’ pictures to illustrate his thesis on the people of rural Devon. On 6 June 1997, as ill health increasingly hampered Ravilious, Hamilton arrived in north Devon to interview him for a magazine article, and to discuss the publishing of a book about his work. The day before, by happy accident, Ravilious had received a visit from Barry Lane, director of the Royal Photographic Society, and its exhibitions manager to discuss the idea of a retrospective. Hearing that Hamilton was due to arrive the next day, they suggested he be offered the role of curator of the RPS show. So began An English Eye.

Hamilton had previously published many books of photography, including acclaimed publications featuring the work of Willy Ronis and Robert Doisneau. Hamilton and Ravilious formed an instant bond and the publisher took great care to look through the thousands of negatives and reference prints that Ravilous had made, to produce both the RPS exhibition and the book that formed its catalogue.

Toby Matthews, Hamilton’s son, designed the book and essays were contributed by Edward Chorlton, on behalf of Devon County Council, and Barry Lane, secretary general to the RPS. Peter Hamilton provided the main texts (which are inspirational in their depth and detail). The writer and play wright Alan Bennett, a collector of Ravilious’ prints, wrote the foreword. The first edition was printed in Leeds at the legendary and now defunct printers Jackson Wilson. Two subsequent editions have been printed at EBS in Verona. ›

‘Perhaps you can detect in Ravilious’ images the peculiar ability of British artists to commit to paper a view of the world that looks on it aslant and often with a kind of sweet sadness.’

adly, Ravilous died in 1999 at the

Sage of just 60 from the illness that had dogged him for many years. The book was proposed, developed, designed and published as his health was failing. The timing of the publication is just one of the reasons this book deserves a place in any collection: it was to be one of the last creative efforts of an important artist. More particularly the work gathered in it is quite simply beautiful. It is a book of intimate humanity and sensitive depiction, but what is not often acknowledged is that the photographer’s own personality and emotional poise is written into the grain of every image.

James Ravilous’ photographs do not take a particular political position or try to teach in any meaningful way. Perhaps you can detect in his images the peculiar ability of British artists to commit to paper a view of the world that looks on it aslant and often with a kind of sweet sadness; an understanding of the natural world that Dylan Thomas called ‘the green fuse’, the force of nature which all of us who live on this island are viscerally aware of. And Ravilious’ work represents the conf luence of British art: there is a clear line leading back through the history of British art, from Eric Ravilious to John Piper, Frank Meadow Sutcliffe and Samuel Palmer, all the way to Thomas Bewick. In addition, through Ravilious’ photographs you can witness the synthesis of British photography with British art and with the European humanist photographic movement.

The love and care that were taken at every stage of publishing An English Eye is key to understanding the value of the book beyond the quality of the images, from his wife’s support to the inspiration of a visionary arts director, from the gift of Smith’s camera to Hamilton’s creative partnership. From the deep lanes of Devon to the shelves and minds of thousands of photographers, An English Eye is an expression of the common purpose of man. And in these fractured times perhaps it is best to leave the last words to our putative national bard, Alan Bennett: ‘The whole effort was to introduce one half of Britain to the other’.

WRITER’S NOTES

Alex Schneideman wishes to thank Robin Ravilious and Peter Hamilton for their generosity and patience during the writing of this article.

The original prints from the 1997 RPS exhibition are going to the Burton Art Gallery’s permanent collection. See burtonartgallery.co.uk.

Robin Ravilious has prints available for purchase. Contact her through the website jamesravilious.com for more information.

The Beaford Archive has a fantastic website (beafordarchive.org) with thousands of Ravilious’s photographs available to see.

Two recent books of note are The Recent Past (photos) and James Ravilious – A Life (memoir), both published in 2017 by Bitter Lemon Press.

An English Eye by James Ravilious, published by Peter Hamilton / Devon Books, 1998, includes 113 duotone images printed at Jackson Wilson, Leeds. The second edition was published by the Bardwell Press, 2007, and printed by EBS, Verona. The foreword was written by Alan Bennett.

The Beaford Archive would like to offer B+W readers a discount on all digital prints from beafordarchive.org. Use coupon b+w15 at checkout to receive 15% off all orders until 20 November.