Credit where credits due
A while ago @epeeist posted a post about an upcoming show by photographer Chris Killip.
What a wonderful rabbit-hole that turned out to be.
From Chris to Graham Smith to Tish Murtha to Fay Godwin to Jane Bown
After 50yrs there’s something remarkable in Tish and Smiths photos. At the time they were taken they were just unremarkable everyday pictures of people and places familiar to the photographer.
Killip put in a bit more effort. He’d rent a room or caravan and live in the community he photographed for months at a time. Talk about commitment.
Godwins photo of an open empty moorland doesn’t just tell a story. Bottom of frame is a small barely noticeable wooden sign with the word ‘private’. That’s a whole thesis on land ownership, right to roam, class divisions…
Bown could knock out a banging portrait within 15mins of rocking up to the shoot. No lavish production, wardrobe, hair or make-up. Just careful use of window light (or a spare 100 watt bulb she carried in case light was bad)
Leafing through Killips book, 1946 - 2020 - Youth on Wall, Jarrow, Tyneside - just floored me
By the by, the movie Tish is now available on various streamers. Enjoy
Any photo or photographer move you enough to share a few words?
Don McCullin’s entire output from the gangs, and down and outs in the East End of London, to his war photography and his dark, dark landscapes of later years. But I can’t do better than the man’s own words:
Having gone through the times and seen many of the atrocities perpetrated by the Pakistani Army on civilians, I am still haunted by the pictures Kishor Parekhs captured and presented in his photo book - Bangladesh a Brutal Birth
Browsing Sidibes photos listening to Ali Farka Toumani - could almost be there.
Liking the apparent simplicity of Fukase though there’s something un-nerving in that 2nd photo down - those bright beady eyes.
How does a simple photo gain “weight” or “depth”? Is it intrinsic to the photo? the photographer? Or did it just happen the catch the eye of a publisher?
I’ve only seen three Wim Wenders films (Perfect Days, Wings of Desire and Paris, Texas) but I’ll definitely watch this, thanks for sharing. I really like his meditative style and imo he only got better with age.
I can well imagine that. I’ve never seen a movie like Paris, Texas where nearly each scene was such a fascinating image. A masterpiece.
Salgado and Wenders together ought to make for an interesting view. Thanks for making aware of this documentary,
It’s just that, when I look at what I do and why I do it, it all goes back to what I learned reading about him and regarding his works. He was the full package, a photographer who was competent in composition, light, color (well, one significant subset…) and tone, AND he strived to understand his medium as comprehensively as possible.
That last part is the most significant to me. it’s not prevalent in these days, not just in photography, and that disappoints me profoundly…
“I can get—for me—a far greater sense of ‘color’ through a well-planned and executed black-and-white image than I have ever achieved with color photography,”. A.A. 1967
Continuing a somber note, I’ve just come across an exhibition by Japanese photographer Akihiko Okamura - The Memories of Others (Photo Museum Ireland to 06 July 2024)
A softer, contemplative depiction of turbulent times.
One photo in particular, a group of people gathered in front of a burning building, reminds me of LS Lowry - people made small, engulfed by events surrounding them.
