Saturday 30 May 2015

Over the Hill - Tim Andrews Photography Project

I wasn't going to write about this project initially although it is one that I have been following for a few months.  It's an interesting project. Tim Andrews in not a photographer; I think he used to be a lawyer or something corporate in fact.  But over the last three years he has been photographed by over 300 photographers who he invites to take part in his project.  He started it by answering an advert when a photographer was looking for a model.  The project is interesting in itself because rather than a photographer recording his personal story through a series of self portraits the subject has taken it upon himself to manage that process, turning the usual photographer gaze upside down and inside out.  What makes it even more interesting is the fact that Tim Andrews is also managing an illness and through his project explores the fragility of his ageing body and self.  I have been prompted to write about this project after all because there is a sense of taking control, of agency which is extremely interesting for me and also because of the question of vanity - or lack of it.  Is this a vain project or is it a generous and extremely brave project, where Tim Andrews reveals what he can, through collaborative work, of his frailty and indeed failings, along with the more palatable aspects of who is he is.

My A5 project is currently in some sort of no-mans land while I think about what to do with it.  My aim was to explore a story that was about me and my family.  I have been heavily influenced by my reading of Family Frames by Marriane Hirsh where she discusses the role of family albums/photographs.  I have been particularly struck by the notion of photographs gazing back at us and informing us about who we are meant to be in this modern culture of ours, about who we are within our families.  Mostly people choose to have very flattering and rather unrealistic portrayals of themselves, their families - or am I just being incredibly cynical.  The reality of families, which are usually fraught with internal seen and unseen tensions, admitted and denied fractures, is not what is usually portrayed in the images.  In my A5 work I have tried to capture not only the happy, sweet and enjoyable moments but also some of the more painful moments and aspects of our family.  I am happy to look at these, to try and make sense of them, to use my project to deepen my understanding and empathy for all that is real - the good enough and not so good enough.  Despite having involved my mother in the taking of the photographs, letting her know what I was planning to use them for, she is not happy about the photographs and feel they are intrusive and unflattering, and that I have shown her little respect.  This leaves me in a difficult position.  And I am having to think about how to address this, how to solve it.

Which has led me to think about Tim Andrew's work.  A work where an individual has over the course of several years offered his body and self to artists so that they can explore aspects of him and of course themselves, their perception of age, of illness of maleness, an ageing and unwell body.  It's an extremely generous act - but one that he has been in charge of to some extent.  My mother on the other hand is not in charge of anything to do with my work, and perhaps I was expecting too much of her.  Perhaps not working collaboratively enough although to be fair to myself, I have tried to.  And in any case the work's underlying importance has only over time started to reveal itself to me.

I won't say more about Tim Andrew's project for now.  Take a look at it yourself.  There is a range of photography, some that appeals to me and some that doesn't.  But it's fascinating, especially when you consider how the subject is in control of it.  It's perhaps Tim Andrew's way of taking control of something when he is dealing with an illness that he has little control over.  It's really worth thinking quite about seriously in relation to the book I mention above which I will finish soon and eventually be able to write about.  How I resolve my issue with the images, I am less sure about just now, but am sure I will find a way.

Tim Andrews

Tuesday 26 May 2015

A5 Narrative images - impact

"In horror I turned to other poems I had written at Oxford, in East Anglia.  They were no better; even worse.  The truth rushed down on me like a burying avalanche. I was not a poet.
I felt no consolation in this knowledge, but only a red anger that evolution could allow such sensitivity and such inadequacy to co-exist in the same mind" 
The Magus, John Fowles.


Instead of finishing off Family Frames which I really should be be doing so I can get on with writing the commentary for A5 and then submitting it I have started reading The Magus by John Fowles.  I mention this because the quote above feels pretty accurate about how I feel at the moment about the work I do.  I certainly feel like I have a long way to go before I will truly believe I am a photographer of any worth, although I do not feel hopeless about it.  Just that the work ahead is still to come and it might be a hard slog at times.  There is so much more to photography then mere photographs.

I have been wondering what the images I have taken for the A5 are about really - not just some family photographs but surely, hopefully something more.  Last week I was asked by an online magazine if I would like to be featured after I retweeted an article they had posted.  I was flattered to be asked so said yes, although I do understand that the magazine is small, young, growing and that the internet is starving for fodder, so it is a modest start and one which is good for me no doubt. I am pleased they thought my work was worth the effort.

However, I feel like a fraud and also horrifically exposed for several reasons.  One obvious reason is that I really like naturally to hide under a shell and find any form of recognition, no matter how small, excruciatingly painful and awkward - I have just about got used to the constant 'marketing' I must do if I hope to spread the news about my photography and occasionally get some work.
The other reason I have found this process difficult is because I know now that the work for A5 reveals some intense long held familial rage on my part which I have used unashamedly in the work and how I go about editing and then presenting the work is really something to think very carefully about.  I discovered this because I included one of the more difficult portraits of Evelyn, my mother, in the article and she was of course rather unhappy to have it on FB where I had posted a link to the website.  As I look at the image now, rather than see the slightly clever composition, which I was proudly boasting to myself about, I do see very clearly the expression of her face, and my unkindness or lack of compassion in choosing to use it.  It probably doesn't help me in the least for commercial work either.  I wonder about my motivation for including it there where something less brutal would have done.

Now I must think carefully about how I edit the final piece for submission - although for me the image says a great deal about what the work is about; and if I were to exclude it would I be diluting my work?  Yes, for sure, which is not the point.

All of this does bring up the question of responsibility of the photographer - a huge, complex and contentious issue.

I shall try to quickly finish The Magus which seems like a very important book for me be to be rereading now (perhaps, not only as I do really recognise a lot of the narcissistic pretension of the protagonist) and then get on with Family Frames so I can write up the commentary and submit the work by June which is when it is due - and it is almost upon us!  How did that happen??




Wednesday 20 May 2015

Saul Leiter

I came across Saul Leiter via a Twitter connection and ended up watching a wonderful documentary called In No Great Hurry about him.  Apart from the fact that Saul Leiter comes across as a genuinely remarkable and kind person, I absolutely fell in love with his photography.

Saul Leiter was the son of a rabbi and was expected to follow the same path but he abandoned his studies and went to New York at the age of 24 to pursue art.  He was a painter who started using a Leica after being encouraged, and eventually became a fashion photographer.  He became part of what is known as the New York School and was working at the same time as other well known photographers in New York from that era, such as Diane Arbus (he took a portrait of her) and Robert Frank.  He used colour film when it was unusual to do so and his colour street photography is incredibly distinctive and beautiful.

I love his street photography and now have a copy of his book, Early Colour.  You can really see the knowledge he gained as a painter in his photographs and I think his work might be timeless for that reason.  He mediates what he sees and transforms seemingly simple quotidian scenes into something very beautiful.  He is not as well known as some of the other big names from that time but that is changing and I think his work has a quality that will endure.  His style is incredibly expressive and I wonder if a lot of people are emulating (perhaps without realising) what he used to do on various online platforms today.

The colour prints I have looked at explore colour, shapes, reflections and blurred scenes, all of which he uses to create small masterpieces that to my eye will be worth looking at for many, many years going forward.  Saul Leiter was born in 1923 and died in 2013.  Anyone interested should certainly see the film I mention at the top.  It's beautifully made and he is wonderful to listen to.  His lack of grandiosity, his low key modesty, his  kindness and the appreciation of his all the good as well as all the sadness from life is wonderful to witness.

Wikipedia
Guardian