A Star in the Sky - Thomas Lekfeldt

I viewed these photographs some months ago, and have been unable to revisit them since. I am still haunted by them, as they document my greatest fear. However I have decided to write a blogpost to try and get down some of my thoughts. They are the most powerful images I have ever viewed, and as a sequence they tell a story in a way that words never could. The photographer captures details as they would be captured in your memory, and even months after looking at the pictures I can still recall their details as if I had been there myself. I have flashbacks of the images in my mind, as if they were my own thoughts. I cannot find words to describe the talent of that photographer, and his bravery at capturing something so emotionally raw, and, dare I say it, taboo. Although I would never have the emotional strength to capture a story like that, I hold his work as the highest calibre to strive for when completing a picture narrative.

The images that struck me hardest were:

The first one, where Vibe is receiving her injections. It is very distressing. Placing it first in the sequence gives it greater impact.

The pictures of her back at school and playing with her sister when she is well. The sense of hope & joy is tangible.

The shot of them leaving the hospital after hearing bad news. I keep seeing it in my mind, and if I had been in their position it is what would play out in slow motion in my thoughts.

The image of the family eating dinner while she is in her bed beside them in the kitchen.

Vibe's father choked with tears.

The image of her twin sister playing with her cat at the end. It is so moving.

If you are reading this blog and want to take a look, the website is below, but please be aware that the images are very upsetting, and may be too much to take if you have children and/or are a worrier (I am both).

http://www.thomaslekfeldt.com/portfolio_detail.php?ID_serie=20

Byker & Byker Revisited - Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen

Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen was one of the founders of Amber, a photography and film collective that came to Newcastle in 1969. The Amber website can be found here:

http://www.amber-online.com/sections/about-us/pages/introduction

At a recent visit to the Side Gallery in Newcastle, I purchased one of her books entitled "Byker". There is also a sequel called Byker Revisited which has an excellent picture on the front cover of a Staffordshire Bull terrier trying to catch bubbles. I also purchased "Step by Step" as well.

"Byker" is an precious collection of an area, and a culture, that have now been demolished and rebuilt. Similar to the Gorbals in Glasgow, I am of the view that the demolishment & redevelopment of those areas was a mistake.

Sirkka-Liisa moved to Byker when Amber came to Newcastle, and integrated herself into the community. Her personality and "foreignness" (she comes from Finland) enabled her to win the hearts & minds of the community and they allowed her to immortalise Byker and a way of life that has gone forever, replaced by something more material & cold.

The book is an excellent collection of images, and some of them can be seen on the Amber website above. Where some social documentary images can be lacking in aesthetic qualities, hers are both deep, insightful, often humorous and beautifully composed. She makes use of the now demolished rows of terraced streets, which provide delightful repetition and lines as a backdrop for the narrative. Patterns of light & shadow contrast are also capitalised to stunning effect, and I particularly like the appearance of dogs & cats in some of her shots.

Her interiors are also beautifully lit & capture a fashion of clutter that is rarely seen nowadays. Walls are cluttered, carpet patterns are cluttered and mantelpieces cluttered and laid out for visitors. My favourite interior is a shot of someones wall, where they have a picture of a lovely view, complete with pelmet & curtains, and more clutter along the "windowsill" so it looks as though they have a window looking out to the Italian Riviera. The book also contains text, in the form of stories told to the author whilst capturing the images. These add to the photos, in that they capture the spirit of the community in a touching and lightly humorous way.

Stateside Exhibition at the Side Gallery

On Saturday 8 August, I visited the Stateside American Documentary exhibition at the Side gallery in Newcastle. The exhibition was nearly all social documentary, and was entirely in black & white.

By way of background, the gallery was set up by Amber, a photography & film collective. I have found their website to be a rich source of thought provoking material, all the more interesting to me with it being local. A link to the Amber online website is here:

http://www.amber-online.com/sections/about-us/pages/introduction

Amber came to Newcastle in 1969 to create its own "social document" - an exploration of working class and marginalised cultures and of the lives and landscapes of northern communities. It thus had a lot in common with many of the featured photographers in this exhibition, which included Lewis Hine, Russell Lee, Walker Evans etc. They were part of the FSA commissioned photographers to document the lot of poor farmers and sharecroppers brought to the brink of starvation by the Depression. Under Roosevelt's New Deal, the agency was headed by the economist Rexford Tugwell & Roy Stryker. Both men were convinced of the power of photographs to give a human reality to economic arguments, and how right they were.

Russell Lee in particular was well suited to this task as he was happy to spend many months on the road, and had a straightforward "Lets get on with it" attitude. He took honest, decent, non invasive pictures that said to the viewer "These folks have a problem here, lets give them a little help so they can solve it". Russell Lee himself came to Side. I was particularly taken by 2 of his images in this exhibition. One was titled "Weslaco, Texas, 1939" and showed a mother and her 3 children sitting in the dirt; none of the children had shoes. Whilst this was not dissimilar to "Migrant mother" by Dorothea Lange, the most striking feature of Lee's shot was the empty eyes of the mother and her daughter. The soul had been drained right out of them. Put another way, they look utterly pissed off. It is a very natural shot and captures the negative emotion in an empathetic way. This is a link to the photo on the Amber website.

http://www.amber-online.com/exhibitions/american-mining-communities/exhibits/033

The other image by Russell Lee that I was drawn to was "Christmas dinner, Smithfield, Iowa, 1936". Here's the link to the photo:

http://www.amber-online.com/exhibitions/american-mining-communities/exhibits/009

Although the children have shoes, it is evident that they are in great poverty, yet they look quite content - the excitement of Christmas has washed away their worries for the day.

The exhibition also contained an interesting display of children's photography - Wendy Ewald's Portraits & Dreams. Although I confess I did not personally like the images, I though the concept was pure genius. When Wendy Ewald arrive in Kentucky, she wanted to document her new community in a way that would capture the rhythm & soul of the place, but the camera seemed to get in the way. By teaching children photography and helping children "to see", she was able to achieve this document, through the images of the children.

The exhibition also contained some of Berenice Abbott's buildings (even though she is best known for portraiture) - I particularly liked her use of shadow play and strong graphic compositions in those shots.

Exhibition by George Georgiou at The Side Gallery, Newcastle

On Saturday 3 July 2010 I went to a photographic exhibition at The Side Gallery, Newcastle. When I have stumbled upon photographic exhibitions in the past (such as at The Baltic and Queen's Hall, Hexham) I have usually been unimpressed, failing to be inspired by photos of e.g women showing off their private parts (I think that was at the Baltic some years ago, can't remember who the photographer was). So my expectations were fairly low.

However this was not the case at The Side, where I found a gem of an exhibition by George Georgiou entitled "Fault Lines". It was documentary photography, and explored Turkey. The photographer himself lived in Turkey for almost 5 years, and was therefore well immersed in the country to document it. Here's some words by George Georgiou to describe the raison d'etre behind the series.

"Turkey is poised geographically and symbolically between Europe & Asia, the tensions at the heart of the country becoming increasingly severe. There is a fierce struggle between modernity and tradition, secularism & Islamism, democracy & repression - often in unlikely and contradictory combinations.

"Living in Turkey, I was surprised at how quickly change was taking place: landscapes, towns & cities reshaped, and extensive road network under construction, town centres "beautified", and large apartment blocks springing up around every town and city - they are becoming carbon copies of each other".

"The modernization is designed to handle the mass migration from village to city that is transforming Turkey, Istanbul, a city of a million people in 1960, is now one of the world's largest urban sprawls with an estimated population of over 15 million. Meanwhile there is a rapid disintegration of community in Turkish villages and towns, with the new low-cost housing projects based on models that have generally failed in Europe".

The exhibition is also online, and he has a fabulous website which you can find here:

http://www.georgegeorgiou.net/projects.php?groupid=1

Aside from the fascination at looking at the development of a country far removed from my own, here was my thoughts about this particular exhibition.

1. All the images had an extremely large depth of field, and were eye wateringly sharp throughout. Technically 100% accurate. This was much more apparent in the exhibition than online, which highlights the usefulness of actually going to a gallery.
   
2. They had eye catching strong saturated colours, often set against a neutral dull backdrop such as flat grey skies, dull bare earth wasteground, grey concrete or barren mountains.
3. There was a strong sense of scale.
4. The subject matter was extremely interesting and insightful.
5. There were details that caught your eye, such as the mobile phone in the man's hand in the deserted cafe that looks from a bygone era.

In summary, it captured strong content sympathetically, in an aesthetically pleasing and technically competent way.

My favourites from the exhibition were:

• "Turks 2" - the low key panorama images which had spotlighting on people's faces. They were all candid & natural poses, and I particularly liked the image with the bright pink headscarf. It reminds me of a station platform, and I would be interested to know how he produced this.
• The boy playing football and the little boy on the trike outside the yellow housing complex with all the satellite dishes. It's another one of those shots where the triangle formed by the boy's legs as he kicks the ball gives it extra impact.
• The Tailors Shop, Dogubeyazit - everything is green, even his suit, and I love the proud expression on the tailor's face.
  
• Cafe, Kilis - I like the desertion of the cafe, the colours, the plant growing up the wall and then the mobile phone in the man's hand which is so at odds with his surroundings.
• The blue cart on the derserted curved road up to the modern housing blocks, with their bright colours.
• The shot of the bus window
• The image at the end of the exhibition with all the people stood in a large fenced off yard. The strong pattern and brightly coloured clothes again contrasting strongly with the dull background and I am drawn to wonder what they are all doing standing there like that.

The exhibition also highlighted something about Britain which I hadn't really considered before. The images captured the barren bare earth landscape of Turkey. In Britain, every inch of the land is landscaped, manicured, or naturally flourishes. Or that is how it seems. From the fields, hedgerows, or rugged natural beauty of the Lake District, Scottish countryside etc. everything uncultivated is green & beautiful. I believe much of that "uncultivated" land is managed to a degree. Where land is occupied, it is tended & manicured. Although there are exceptions to this (think industrial wastegrounds or run down estates), they are exceptions not the norm. It is something I have taken forgranted. I guess it's a beneficial side effect of a wet climate, and historical investment in infrastructure, where people are paid by the council to cut the grass, manicure the common ground etc. I wonder if it will still be like this in 50 years time when public services are cut to strip out non essentials (like council gardeners & defra subsidies for landowners) and if global warming starts to toast the British climate. Just a thought.

A final point - the gallery itself was in a pretty photogenic location - here's a couple of shots I took whilst visiting.

Traffic Jam - Inspired by William Eggleston

Following my earlier post on the work of William Eggleston, I decided to take some inspiration from him and also fill a very boring hour stuck in a traffic jam on the day of the England game in the World Cup (Wednesday 23 June 2010).

It was a very sunny day, giving the contrasty light that often features in his work. It was also apt to take the shots from my car, as I read that a lot of his work was captured whilst he was waiting in a parked car and therefore his subjects were unaware they were photographed. The compositions were loose and unplanned.

I tried to look for interest in the mundane; things that captured the feeling of the hour. They included the England flags flapping from another car, the laughing faces of the couple in the car behind (they were playing paper, scissors, stone to pass the time), the reflection of the glaring sun on the car window whilst the occupant chatted on his mobile, me taking pictures from my car window and the landscape framed by the passenger window, also reflected in the wing mirror. I also set the colours to "vivid", as many of his pictures contain saturated colours. But other than the increased vibrance setting in Lightroom and to block out any number plates, these pictures are straight out of camera.

They are quite different to my usual style, and wouldn't win any competitions, but I am pleased with my captured memories of the day they closed the A69!

William Eggleston

I was recommended to review some of the work of William Eggleston by my tutor. He was one of the pioneers of colour photography, and this was included in feedback for my colour assignment.

We don't tend to have photographic exhibitions in the North East of such famous photographers (or there certainly aren't any on at the moment) so my research was restricted to the internet.

My first thoughts were "unimpressed". But then I went back to his official site http://www.egglestontrust.com
and had another look.

And then another one.

And then something began to stir, a feeling. A reaction to some of his shots. I suddenly found myself drawn to certain of this images, because they captured for me the light & colour of my childhood. Quite a magical sensation, like smelling a scent from childhood that evokes such a strong emotional response that you've almost gone back there, back in time. I then noticed his fondness for using strong contrasty light, the very sort that current photography magazines would have you avoid at all costs. But using it to create magic, feelings, that almost transport you to that place, inside the image.

His bold colours are well documented, but for me it was the application of those colours. They are often specific fashion colours that you don't see nowadays, except perhaps in a house that hasn't been updated for 35 years. So their capture, and vividness, places the image strongly in a time & place. Hard to explain really.

Then there is his capture of the mundane. Sometimes it doesn't work for me, but then at other times it really does. It's difficult to say why some of them move me, while some of them don't. The use of light & colour make them interesting, but not always so for me. His portfolio captures such diversity that I would imagine that there is something for everyone in his portfolio.

For me, there were a couple of images that I absolutely love. I'm not even sure what they are called.

1. Los Alamos

http://www.egglestontrust.com/los_alamos_port.html

It's the one of the drink in the plane window. I love this image for a number of reasons. I like the high contrast, shadow play and the sparkly shadow made from the drink. I like the colour of the drink, and the hand with the stirrer. I like the sunny light in the window. I even like the brown seat and the old fashioned pattern on the plane interior "wall". But most of all, it captures how flying used to be. Something special. He didn't know at the time about Easyjet, Ryanair and all their Americal equivalents. How cheap flights would make nothing special anymore (an observation made my Roald Dahl). But it is as if he did know that moment would one day be special. And he caught the essence of it beautifully.

2. Dust Bells

http://www.egglestontrust.com/dust_bells_v1.html

This time it's the one of the girl lying in her bed with the television on and all the shoes hanging on the door. I surprised myself by liking this one so much, but I think it is the natural intimacy of it and the fact of the television being on all night. Again this captures a bygone era, because the television stations run all night now. But I particularly like the colour, because they are so specific to that era. The bedspread colour & pattern defines the time period, and for that reason I find this image very nostalgic, as well as very attractive.

I also liked a lot of his room interiors, and point of view for shooting.

I would guess that he is an acquired taste. But sometimes art is like an olive - you have to eat 6 before you like them, and then you like them forever more.

Talk at the RMPS & Irving Penn

A new photographic society has been formed in our village at the start of the year. It is a small society, and its specific aims are to share knowledge & experience, and not to be competitive like a lot of camera clubs. Anyway, I made the mistake of offering to do a talk on "Composition" using some of the things I have learned on my course, and immediately regretted it as I absolutely hate giving talks. It came back to haunt me, as these things tend to, and so I ended up doing a talk on "Elements of Design" last week. Despite being a small group, it is a very professional and well educated audience which was pretty intimidating as I was terrified of making a fool of myself. As a result, I spent a lot of time on preparation reviewing my notes, making summary slides and, most importantly, seeking out examples to illustrate the principles. This was a very helpful exercise in itself, and helped to consolidate my knowledge.

In the end, the talk went very smoothly and I received a lot of kind positive feedback afterwards, which was a real boost.

As an aside, whilst preparing the talk I discovered that Irving Penn uses triangles in a lot of his work, creating very dynamic portraiture. Here is some examples:

Review of a Selection of Works from the Photographic collection at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne

This is my first real serious look at a photography book i.e. a book containing the work of others, rather than a "how to" book of photography. There are a couple of points that hit home, before reviewing the work which includes many artists considered icons of 20th century photography.

The first was that the invention of photography liberated painting from the need to replicate reality, and therefore became a means of documenting history and capturing moods and moments. Social-documentary photography was born with the likes of Lewis Hine. I find looking at many early photographs depressing in mood, but initially did not consider that this was due to the fact that such photographers were driven by the hope that their images would initiate change. I find this a very interesting concept, and looking through those eyes gives the images greater impact to me.

The photographic movement in France at that time surrounding Henri Cartier-Bresson contrasted with this in that the forces driving such photographers were their own aims & style, termed "author's photography". Other movements in photography in the early 20th century included its use as a means of political propaganda, surrealism and of course Ansel Adams f/64 group, so called "Straight Photography".

Given the expense and less practical equipment that was available then, it is even more astounding what images were created at that time. Most of those individuals were required to be technically innovative with their equipment as well as artists. This is particularly apparent with the likes of Ansel Adams and Harold Edgerton. In modern times, even by middle school, pupils are often separated into "artists" and "non artists", and the A-level system in particular tends to separate science from the arts so pupils can either be one or the other. I suspect not many students study physics with fine art, yet a number of those early photographers were required to be both.

From the entire collection in the book, the artists that stand out to me as those I would like to emulate would be:

Ansel Adams, for his sharp and powerful landscape compositions;
Henri Cartier-Bresson for his decisive moment; I particularly like Rue Mouffetard, Paris 1958;
Alfred Eisenstaedt for his street photography; V-day 1945;
Dorothea Lange for her moving social documentary photography during the Great Depression;

I remain unmoved by nudes, apart from Edward Weston's "Nude" 1936. I also strongly dislike surrealist photography, and photography which captures strong unpleasant subject matter such as "Bon Appetit" by Anna & Bernhard Johanne Blume. Indeed there are some images that I can hardly bear to look at. But I guess that makes them strong, albeit unpleasantly so!