the journal of autumn london independent 2002 £2.50 ...€¦ · being ralph gibson, chris killip...

The Journal of

independent

Photography

LONDON 2002£2.50

Autumn

London Independent Photography - Autumn 2002

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Avril HarrisTel: 020 8366 [email protected] and Exhibitions

Tony WallisTel: 020 8960 [email protected], Design and Listings

Jeanine BillingtonTel: 020 8995 0455Distribution

Gordon Raisin - p. 18

Noël Kinsley - p. 11

Roberto Leone - p. 14

Homer Sykes - p. 6

LIP Members’ Exhibitions 4

Review of Joy Gregory 4WorkshopHelen Griffiths

Personal Ads 4

The Photographers’ Gallery 5Bookshop ChoiceLaura Knight and Sarah Fordham

Review of Homer Sykes’ 6On The Road AgainPeter Marshall

Wonders of Photoshop 10Leyla Hassan

Trees 11Noël Kingsley

Laundry Day 14Roberto Leone

A Field Trip to the Docklands 18Gordon Raisin

Photo Events 20

IPSE Events 22

LIP Programme 23

Copy date: Please send copy and photos for inclusionin the Winter Journal to Jennifer or Virginia BEFORE13 November 2002

Cover Photo: Roberto Leone

Co-editors:Jennifer HurstfieldTel: 020 7359 [email protected] and news items

Virginia KhuriTel: 020 7370 [email protected] and news items

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Autumn 2002 - London Independent Photography

These book reviews are written by freelance writers Sarah Fordham and Laura Noble, who are also staff at ThePhotographers’ Gallery bookshop in central London. Many more reviews can be found on the

Photographers’ Gallery website, www.photonet.org.uk

Laura Noble and Sarah Fordham present the pick of recently published books. LIP membersreceive a 10% discount on these. You need to show your LIP membership card when purchasing.

The Photographers’ Gallery Bookshop Choice

LOUIS FAURERAnne Wilkes TuckerMerrell: £39.95 (£35.95 LIP members)Published to coincide with an exhibition held at the Museum of Fine Arts,Houston, earlier this year, this book is the first to look at Louis Faurer’swork in depth and contains previously unpublished material. Faurer wasknown for his documentary-style portraits of New York and Philadelphiaand in particular Times Square in the 1940s and 1950s. He worked as acommercial photographer, but his main contribution to the developmentof photography was his street portraits, which were hugely influential onRobert Frank, Diane Arbus and many others. In her essay Louis Faurer andFilm Noir, Lisa Hostetler writes that it was not just his frequent depictionof cinema theatres, movie-goers and film posters, but also the dramaticlighting, unusual camera angles, combined with Faurer’s tendency toisolate individuals from a crowd, that suggest his preoccupation with filmnoir. This stunning book is a valuable addition to any photographyenthusiast’s book shelf.SF

VISIONS FROM AMERICAPhotographs from the Whitney Museum of American Art 1940-2001Prestel: £30 (£27 LIP members)This comprehensive glimpse at the Whitney Museum’s collection of post-war American photography displays the commitment of its founder,Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, to American Art. The museum houses sometwo thousand photographic artworks and strongly emphasises streetphotography, challenging imagery and investigations into humanbehaviour.The works featured in this anthology of 85 colour and 134 duotoneillustrations vary considerably from era to era. The cast list reads like adream– Gordon Parks, Lee Friedlander, Joel Meyerowitz, WilliamChristenberry, Larry Clarke, Nan Goldin, Sally Mann and Irving Penn,to name but a few. Works are chronologically presented for easy access.This book is about the work, not the biased views of a curator but acelebration of photographic achievement at its very best.LN

WINDOW WITH A SEA VIEWNinnea Larsson£10 (£9 LIP members)Linnea Larsson resides between the Three Cliffs Bay and Rhossili on SouthGower, Wales, and dedicates her book to those “who are, have been andwill be living on Gower.” Her sensitive and poetic approach to interiorillumination and space from existing exterior light celebrates hersurroundings. The resultant book is a beautiful collection of colourphotography with attention to detail that emphasizes the sublime of theordinary.Dappled rays filter though a blouse hung against the window, softeningthe edges of the jug and bottle on its sill, as the flower pattern on the netcurtains become visible only on the blouse, as if imprinting its pattern onthe fabric. Larsson’s use of available light both saturates and bleaches colour,creating a harmony with the shapes and textures in each room; furtherenhanced by the square format. The intimacy of her vantage points arereminiscent of a child’s view of the world where even the smallest of thingsare fascinating.Already a bookshop bestseller, Window with a Sea View comes highlyrecommended.LN


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Cowboys, Carsand the Road

Peter Marshallon

Homer Sykes’On The Road Again

Bell Road, Hounslow waswhere I narrowly failed tobuy the electric guitar that

might have taken me in quitedifferent directions, and also wherein the early 1960s, spotty postO-levels, I found a copy of JackKerouac’s On The Road and paidmy sixpence for a book with a sexyredhead staring out from a coverwhich described it as “thisExplosive Epic of the BeatGeneration”, a thinly veiledautobiographical account of thetravels of Sal Paradise, drivingacross America with his friends inthe late 1940s in (again from theblurb) “a wild desperate search forKicks and Truth”.

Kerouac expressed the mood of ageneration that included the youngex-Swiss Robert Frank, a mood ofnervous restlessness and energythat drove Frank across the USA afew years later. The Americans,finally published in the USA, acouple of years after On the Roadhad an introduction by Kerouac, inwhich he said that Frank with hiscamera had sucked a sad poemfrom the soul of America.

Homer Sykes was born inVancouver, Canada, in 1949, but hewas raised in England, studyingphotography in London. Twobooks that made a greatimpression on him as a studentwere Henri Cartier-Bresson’s TheDecisive Moment and RobertFrank’s The Americans. They madehim decide he just had to seeAmerica. In the long summervacation of 1969, he travelled toNew York, then worked for a

New York, New York (1969)

Mingus, Texas (1999)

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month in New Jersey beforetravelling by Greyhound busaround the USA, returning with 30rolls of Tri-X exposed with hisLeica M3 and 50mm lens. Aftergraduating, Sykes began work as afreelance in London, and a year ortwo later made a second trip toAmerica.

In England he had becomeinterested the work of TonyRay-Jones, who died tragically in1972 aged only 30. In the late1960s, Ray-Jones hadphotographed at a number of‘traditional’ English events such asthe Broadstairs Dickens Festival,Parents Day at Eton and the BacupCoconut Dancers, producingpictures that showed surrealdisconnections usually inessentially mundane events.

Sykes was inspired to start his ownproject on Calendar Customs in1970, and this was eventuallypublished as the book Once A Year– Some Traditional British Customsby Gordon Fraser in 1977. Earlierpublished portfolios of this workincluded Calendar Customs inBritish Image 1 (Arts Council, 1975)

and Customs and Traditions inCreative Camera International YearBook 1975. He was in distinguishedcompany in the ‘Year Book’, withthe others in the portfolio sectionbeing Ralph Gibson, Chris Killipand Les Krims.

Homer Sykes certainly has theadvantage of a memorable name,combining the classical and thedown to earth. It is a very suitablename for the author of On the RoadAgain, a book about journeys. Theconnection is made even moreobvious in his other new book thisyear, Shanghai Odyssey.

In 1999, Sykes showed his workfrom America to his colleagues atNetwork Photographers (take alook at their web site atwww.networkphotographers.comto see some of the finestphotojournalism around), whoencouraged him to take up theproject again. He revisitedAmerica for three weeks in 1999and again in 2001 to take furtherpictures. Almost a third of thepictures in the book are from the1999 trip, and about a fifth from2001.

On the Road Again combines Sykes’photographs with text from thejournal he kept during his twomore recent visits, ChanceEncounters, an American Journal. Itis interesting to read thesevignettes of meetings with variousstrangers (some stranger thanothers) but I’m not sure they addanything to the photographs.Some are presented in a section atthe front of the book, with a fewinterspersed with the images,which seems to suggest that therewas some indecision as to howthey complement the pictures.Frank is a very hard act to follow,and On the Road Again lacks thenarrative and filmic structure ofFrank’s work, although there areimages that are reminiscent ofworks by Frank, as well as of otherphotographers such as HenriCartier-Bresson, Walker Evans,Garry Winogrand and LeeFriedlander.

An empty gas or petrol station atDenton, Texas (shown over page)is a stage for a man in a cowboyhat, boots, waistcoat and darkshirt. Unlike Frank’s New York

Calico, California (1971)

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New York, New York (1999)

Denton, Texas (1999)

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cowboy lounging on a street, helooks ill at ease, hands thrust intopockets, looking down at thedesolate forecourt, hiding from thephotographer behind the brim ofhis hat. The flat landscape stretchesinto the distance, empty, with just agate, a stretch of fence, scrubbytrees and grass. Not a horse insight.

Mingus, Texas (1999) (see p.6)shows decaying buildings arounda road junction in a small town. Asign for ‘Johnnie’s Liquor Store’dominates the picture, fragmentsof its neon tubes still hanging; thestore no doubt is as dead as theboarded-up shops across the road.Cables from a central telephonepole break the sky in best WalkerEvans tradition. It’s a desolatescene, enlivened by a floral sign onthe corrugated iron shack at leftand the stripes of the awnings onthe first floor windows at right.

The book’s cover picture, taken inNew York in 1999 (see p.8) showsthree people on the roadway at astreet corner. Centre of frame, adark-suited black man walks awayfrom the camera, filling the heightof the frame, looking up and awayfrom camera. At his left an oldwoman, strangely squat, makes herdetermined path towards the edgeof the frame, fur hatted headgazing down. Right of frame, awoman in a head scarf squirmsuneasily around the rear of a taxi,white trainers emerging oddlyfrom her long dark skirt as sheapparently pushes her rear at thecamera. In the background, carspass through the intersection andthe traffic opposite prepares to

rush toward the scene when thelights change.

Another image from New York in1999 catches a woman apparentlyin ecstatic communion as sunlightfinds its way into a corner outsidesome massive building. She leansback into the corner, fingersinterlaced in front of her stomach,head back and eyes closed. In theshade at bottom left a pigeonstands prosaically.

Sykes made four visits to America,but was not equally blessed withpictures. Most of the best comefrom the 1999 trip, with some from1971, and a few from his first 1969adventure – particularly a doublepage with a white boy betweentwo parked cars at left (Trenton,NJ, 1969), a black girl reaching upto a man, head thrown back fullyhorizontal in Washington DC, andanother picture of two kids on thestreet in New York, one raising aknife as the other runs laughingpast the photographer (see p.6).Perhaps on his final visit heconcentrated more on the writing.

My favourite image was taken inCalico, California, in 1971 (see p.7).It is a picture which is full of cluesbut with no solutions, a fine degreeof tension but no resolution. Thereare many prominent verticals andtwo strong diagonal elements – arod held by the woman coming outof the doorway at left and ashadow of a foreground post onthe sandy path. I like thephotographic quality of thetextures from the strong sidelighting, the kind of 1930sambience of the buildings and

fittings, and the mystery, likesomething straight out ofRaymond Chandler.

The book looks attractive and isdesigned for 35mm landscapeformat images, many of whichare presented full page, andsome with a small border. A feware printed too small – and theshape makes this inevitable forthe few portrait format frames.

I’d have liked a few more details– page numbers, a list ofphotographs, and moreinformation on the photographer– but these are minorannoyances in what is a greatbook, and at £20 it seemsreasonably priced. Like Frank’sThe Americans, this is not a bookthat sets out to show a positiveimage of America, but to show ithow it was, or at least how thephotographer saw it. Sykes is avision that repays interest andclose attention.

On The Road Again Homer SykesMansion Editions, London, UKISBN 0-9542233-0-6Softcover, £20.00 / $35.00

A longer review of this work willappear shortly on the ‘AboutPhotography’ websitehttp://photography.about.com.Homer Sykes will be giving a talkon Thursday 19 September on histwo new books, On the RoadAgain and Shanghai Odyssey(see LIP Programme p. 24).There is a retrospective exhibition ofTony Ray-Jones work at the FocusGallery.Please see Events (p. 20) forfurther details.

Seeking to enhance your landscape portfolio?This is your opportunity to spend two weeks in March 2003 absorbed inthe awesome and dramatic landscape of the American Southwest. Theitinerary is currently not finalised, but definite areas are Capitol ReefNational Park, Canyonlands National Park and Monument Valley.Total cost approximately £1500 (includes airfares, all 4WD transport, lodging, food,experienced guide). Your only concern is what kind of camera and film to use! Groupis limited to a maximum of six people.Interested? Contact Quentin Ball on 020 8444 5505 or [email protected]


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Experiments withPhotoshop

Leyla Hassan

Pre med

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Untitled

These images were taken nearly two years ago, when I had to gointo hospital for major surgery. I thought I would take my mindoff the trauma of it by taking a throwaway camera into hospital

to document what was happening to me. I was also about to finishmy degree at London Guildhall University where I specialised inphotography, so it was a very stressful time for me.

During my stay in hospital I managed to take some images – somebefore and some after the operation. The other patients thought I wasmad at first, but later they wanted me to take photographs of themtoo. I had complications so I stayed in hospital longer than I shouldhave. Nonetheless I tried very hard to keep my spirits high andmanaged to take these images. The throwaway camera had a flashand Kodak Ultra film. But nearly two years on I looked at the imagesand scanned them into Photoshop and changed the colour mode toblack and white. I have worked on them and think that the imageshave become more ambiguous and have more of an impact in blackand white. I teach Photoshop now and find it to be a very useful toolin my photography. The possibilities are endless for creating artworkbut I still like working in the conventional methods. I really enjoycombining the two.

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I have loved trees for as long asI can remember, and have beenphotographing them virtually

exclusively for about eight years. Iworked in colour for two years butsoon turned to monochrome,preferring its subtle expressivemood. I’m no botanist, but reallyenjoy being among trees, and Iseek to show through my workhow trees add beauty and a senseof place to a location. I also wantto convey some of their characterand how they permeate theirsurroundings with a calmingenergy and stillness. I photographtrees that can be found in any parkor woodland, and I amparticularly drawn to situationswhere the light helps to create aspecial atmosphere, particularly inthe very early morning.

I primarily use medium formatwith interchangeable film backsand employ N, N+1 N-1 and N-2development to precisely controldevelopment for varying contrastsituations. I seek to achieve highquality negatives in the first place,so minimising manipulation in thedarkroom. The photographsillustrated here are virtuallystraight prints with minimaldodging or burning in, althoughthe contrast range may be as wideas 9 stops. I also enjoy portraiture,both candid and formal, mostlyusing natural light and controllingshadows with reflectors.

Noël has had two solo exhibitions ofhis tree photography in centralLondon - Grosvenor House, ParkLane, W1, in 2000, and Gallery 1885,Kennington, in 2001. His images arefrequently in demand by organisationsincluding The Woodland Trust andthe Tree Council.More of his work, including hisportrait work, can be seen onwww.noelkingsley.com. Noëlwelcomes contact from any like-minded photographer – his emailaddress is [email protected]

TreesNoël Kingsley

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Giornodi bucato

RobertoLeone

It happened one day, sometime ago, while I was goingthrough my photo archive. Trying

to put some order in my chaoticcollection of prints, negatives andslides, I suddenly realized that mostof my pictures had a very distinctivetrait in common, some sort of fil rougelinking them all. I had never noticedbefore that, wherever I was, whateverI was photographing, most of thetime the scene would include aclothes line with laundry hanging upto dry! That was no coincidence.Obviously, there was somethingattracting me in that simple,apparently insignificant backgrounddetail. It was not just a pleasant, yetcasual, composition matter. Althoughit was occurring at a subconsciouslevel, I sensed there was more to itthan mere decorative merits.

Then it all came to me. Laundry, hungto dry... Don’t get mislead by theapparent normality of such acommon sight and gesture. Thinkabout it: laundry is one of the few“rituals” that we all share. Somethingthat really goes beyond culture, classor religion. A common gesturedepicting the human nature in one ofits rare moments of relaxed intimacy.Personal pieces of one’s existenceexposed right there and then,exhibited outside one’s home as a flagto be proud of and not ashamed of!Some sort of absolute exhibitionism,intriguing and still completely naive.

I always loved seeing these clotheslines. They are a real lifekaleidoscope, improvised ribbons of acolorful domestic celebration. Theygive me a sense of peace and hope,like a truce in today’s belligerent,harsh, frenzied world.

Whether sociologically interesting orjust plain funny, these pictures aremeant to remind us of how life is

simpler than we see it, with muchmore things in common than wethink.

Roberto Leone was born in Florence,Italy, in 1956 and has been takingpictures since he was young. After hisstudies, inspired by the great mastersof both still photography and movingpictures, he created his own videoproduction company and producedseveral successful documentary videossuch as Pasta!, The World ofChianti, Florence and its history.

Since moving to London from Italy atthe end of year 2000, Roberto hasresumed his activity as a photographer,focusing his creativity on portrayingpeople and their life in a whole varietyof contexts. Far from pursuing the“conceptual” way so popular these

days, his photography and subjectsmay be classified as “traditional”. Hiswork reflects a desire to share thefeeling of his pictures, while notrequiring the viewer to guess themeaning hidden in them.

He works with both medium formatand 35mm cameras, usually with400ASA film. Given the significantimprovement in emulsion performanceof today’s films, he believes there is noreason to prefer transparencies tonegative material. He acknowledgesdigital photography as a fascinatingoption : it provides new tools and canexpand the creativity of the artist/photographer.

To contact Roberto Leone phone(UK) 0781 6175846or email: [email protected]

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Polinesia

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La Mutanda

La TopolinoIl Rammendo

Holland

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Il Vicolo

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A Field Trip to theDocklands

Gordon Raisin

Sometimes I see lengthycrocodiles of tourists movingslowly along London

pavements behind their harassedleaders. That is not what happenson LIP field trips.

The last one I was fortunate to joinwas led by Peter Marshall to theDocklands, that futuristic dinosaurpark in London’s ‘gateway’. Petermet us at Canary Wharf station, allof us draped with cameras at theready, convenient compacts onsome, full bags on others. Heknows the district well, past andpresent, and had prepared the tourthoroughly, handing out sheetswith the itinerary and street plans,even one based on aerial survey (incase we got lost?). This wassupplemented by appropriatebackground and comments, butnot too much, as we went roundenjoying the sunshine andexercising our cameras more or lesstogether and definitely not as oneof those crocodiles. After all, wewere ‘independents’ – though withshared interests and outlooks.

These field trips introduce us tofresh environments or possibly toones we already know but can seewith fresh eyes. There is thecompany of other photographers,the chat and the comparison ofapproaches and picture-capturingstyles, which can extend one’sown vision.

We had brought packed luncheswith us so as not to waste time –and to revive our hard-workingfeet. Even so there was not reallytime to stand and stare, as I like to,and consider carefully possiblesubjects and how they should betreated. It was certainly a way ofworking I am not used to, but thatprobably made it a valuableexperience, sharpening responses.Much the same applied to CarolBallenger’s workshop atRichmond, where we had notmuch more than an hour topicture the Park before our filmswere whisked away to beprocessed.

I have the amateur attitude thattime is made for man, but it mayhave been a good thing to have toproduce at that faster pace at leastfor a bit before reverting to oldhabits. Sometimes I feel that thingsneed time to sink in beforesurfacing again, without in any

way claiming a Wordsworthian‘emotion recalled in tranquillity’. Soa faster pace was a healthyexperience.

It was only to be expected that ourresults showed a variety ofresponses, but Peter was quite rightto comment in particular that myphotos may not portray theDocklands as such. One reason isthat I found the place had littlehuman dimension and found itdifficult to come to terms with thatphotographically in the time, shortof cliché. I am far from being a PaulStrand, but I doubt whether even hecould have produced ‘Wall Street’from emotional scratch withoutprior feelings about it.

The fisherman seemed incongruoussitting there patiently, dominatedby massive building works andindustry, with ‘That Dome’ lurkingbehind; but the water, often dirtyand refuse- strewn, kept up aconnection to the real world.Nevertheless I found plenty ofinterest to me in my own sphereand I am going back knowing andfeeling much more. And, like thefisherman, I shall have time.

So come along to field trips – butnot so many of you that I might becrowded out.

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the journal of autumn london independent 2002 £2.50 ...€¦ · being ralph gibson, chris killip...

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