Work of Alec Soth

Alex Soth

Gathered Leaves exhibition, Science Museum, 6 Oct 2015 - 28 Mar 2016

I’ve been researching the work of Alec Soth, partly as there is an OCA study day in January at the Science Museum that I would like to attend and partly as his name has come up several times lately as someone who takes pictures in the way that I  wish mine would. 

There is such vulnerability in his work that strikes a real accord with me.  The way he catches the subject(s) on film with no sense of them deliberately posing.  It looks like, in the majority of his single poses, that he used flash to illuminate the subject but, unless he has post processed his work with darkened edges, I would have thought he would have lost the spontaneity of the subjects.

In some of his wilderness pictures the juxtaposition of his subject within such wide open spaces but placed diagonally and horizontally in the centre of the picture, breaks all the thirds rules where the focal point should be either one third from top or bottom or one third from either edge.  As they say ‘you learn the rules to enable you to break them’ and it works well in Soth’s images. 

Examples of Soth's work at the Science Museum can be seen here:   Gathered Leaves Exhibition

Book: What Are You Looking At?: 150 Years of Modern Art in the Blink of an Eye

Will Gomperetz is best known as the rather eccentric looking BBC News arts correspondent. However, his cultural pedigree is impeccable. He was Director of the Tate Gallery for 7 years and a seasoned journalist with the Times and Guardian.

Moving through the past 150 years since the recognized birth of 'modern art' Gompertz looks at the different schools of art which sprang up and analyzes each movement in a clear, matter of fact way, without losing the reader in intellectual pseudo-speak.  Nicely illustrated as well, what you are looking at is a great reference book for anyone interested in art.

This is a book to dip in and out as the fancy takes you rather than one solid read from cover to cover. Entertaining and informative for those who want to learn more about art trends. 

Book: Europeans by Henri Cartier-Bresson

I was given a copy of the above book recently, having read it many years ago when I first started studying photography, and found it profoundly moving to work through the images again seeing many old friends

Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004) travelled across Europe, from the Scandinavian fjords to the Irish bogs, in order to produce this collection of photographs. It brings together images spanning the years from the late 1920s to the early 1970s, and seeks to capture what it meant to be European.  Cartier-Bresson used his camera to document a way of life.  He thought of photography as a way of life and for almost five decades he used a camera to document life with a camera.

Brilliant beyond words, just as great photography should be. Cartier-Bresson was one of the most important photographers of the 20th Century and this book is a great reminder of why. The images are funny, sad, surreal, beautiful and above all humane.  He was undoubtedly a Master and for those who wish to understand what the decisive moment means, this is the book. We follow Cartier-Bresson's voyages in Europe and his impressions of the people and places he found along the way. This is a great sum-up of work from one of the big masters of photography.  

My favourite images include 

Copies of the book are available through all the major outlets (Amazon, Play, etc) from £10 upwards. 

OCA study day - Exeter, Jem Southam

Yesterday I travelled to Exeter public library to join a group of OCA students from the south and south west to listen to Jem Southam, a leading British photographer and lecturer at Plymouth University.

Jem discussing one of Fox Talbot's first images

Jem's main area of work seemed to stem from randomly taken images as and when an image struck him.  He started his talk with how he felt that art had transformed into photography through the work of Henry Fox Talbot and how he might have chosen to create an image of the famous Lacock Abbey window.

Jem felt it was unnecessary to travel miles away from home to record areas when he could find just as interesting areas to photograph around his home.  He showed a portfolio of work recording the changes that had taken place from the view from his kitchen window over a period of 20 years.  He outlined the changes he and his wife had instigated over the years and why they had made various changes.  Southam had also put together a body of work called 'Red River' based in Cornwall about the environmental destruction that had occurred when parts of the mining industry had used a river as part of the mining process, thus turning the river red and killing any form of life.

Jem showed parts of his work where he had recorded landslips on both the southern coast in England and parts of the Normandy coast where landslips occurred as frequently as in the chalk cliffs of England.  He found the colours and patterns of the cliff faces interesting to record.

One of his major works was that of recording the development of a local dew pond entitled "Ditching Beacon, Dew Pond where he spent several years recording the changes made by local people to 'improve' a small pond in the middle of a village.

All in all, it was fascinating to see Jem's work and how he managed to put together various portfolios from such simple starting points.  I find it interesting to accept that it isn't necessary to travel away from home to build bodies of work when you would know your surrounding area much better than one you had never travelled to before.

Thanks to Amano Sam

Book Review: Georgia O’Keefe (1887-1986) – Flowers of the Desert

Publisher: Taschen GmbH (25 Aug 2000);

This was a brilliantly informative book and just the right length and with the right amount of

detail for a novice art appreciator like me.  I thought the colour reproduction of the pictures were excellent.  I also liked the style in which it was written, which was neither condescending nor high-flown.  Others in my photographic circle were very impressed with the book and agreed with me that it was excellent value for money.

O'Keeffe’s interest in photography led her to use the 'close up' in a photographic way to spectacular and sometimes sublime effects.  Her sense of composition was never less than powerful and her everyday subject matter was presented in new and remarkable ways.

A book that opens up new ideas and provides new directions for reading and photographing is especially exciting. I strongly recommended it.

Lightroom 5 Demonstration

I recently attended a meeting of the RPS DiG Southern Region group when they were hosting a Lightroom 5 session with Adobe software engineer David Mellows.  It was a packed session with approximately 100 people attending to learn the latest techniques from this image database.  Fortunately, there was enough light to make notes by.  I had been to one of David’s demonstration sessions with the South Western DiG and the hall was almost completely dark, totally unsuitable for making notes.

David was very quick in his demonstrations on using the Library area to import images, make smart collections and filter out unusable images.  He went on to show how to add keywords and copyright to images, adjusting RAW and JPG images and saving them in various collections.  He went through the different headings including preparing slideshows and adding music and creating photo books which are fairly easy to create using this software.

David was asked to demonstrate things a bit more slowly as many of the audience had never attended a Lightroom demonstration before.  Fortunately I had and had also looked up some aspects on YouTube and Adobe TV which was where David learnt all the new tricks of the trade when a new version was released.

David is a also well-known photographer who attends high profile events including red carpet occasions and had quite a few tips to get the best exposed images ready for immediate use on TV and in the newspapers.

I do find his attitude towards women and less experienced photographers to be rather patronizing and don’t think I would like to work with him.  On the plus side his knowledge of Lightroom and Photoshop is phenomenal and I have to respect that.

Review of the talk in Bath by Martin Parr, documentary photographer

15/01/15: Martin Parr talks about his work in the Andrew Brownsword Gallery at the Holburne Museum Bath.

Martin Parr in profile is waiting to deliver his talk.  I am sure that there is an ironic link between his satire and the portraits by Gainsborough, Reynolds & Stubbs looking down on us, but it escapes me, I think.

Martin Parr, Regency photographer.

Who would have guessed that Parr got hooked on photography because his father was a twitcher? I was intrigued to hear that he has published over 80 books of photographs: a prodigious outpouring of images – not all his own.  

My research before the event threw up an interesting (for me) find:  in his book “Bending the frame”, Fred Ritchin quotes Martin Parr: ”I’m not going out doing campaigning photojournalism because nobody wants that anymore,   …  There is the old approach whereby you try to change the world.  Nobody is going to obliterate war, famine, AIDS, and all the other things that are the usual subject matter that more campaigning photojournalists would be attracted to.   I shoot interesting subject matter but disguise it as entertainment.  That’s what people want in magazines.” (p 22).

In her introduction to the talk, the museum director, Jennifer Scott, presented Parr as the Rowlandson of our times.  The museum had extended its exhibition of the satirical cartoons by Thomas Rowlandson (1756 – 1827) because of public demand and, I suspect, to coincide with the talk by a 21^st Century satirist.   The cartoons satirise the society of Rowlandson’s time much as William Hogarth (1697 – 1764) did before him.  The main difference is that Rowlandson’s artwork focuses on sexual proclivities of the society of his time whereas Hogarth & Parr have a more varied range of topics.  Throughout the talk, MP stressed that he makes fiction of reality: don’t all artists do that?  I think I missed what he was trying to say there.  Whereas the art buyers/viewers in Rowlandson & Hogarth’s times could distance themselves from the satire because the artist could use artistic license in their paintings, Parr’s viewers, in seeing themselves in photographs, find themselves linked to the images much more directly than their counterparts did in the artistic cartoons of the 17^th, 18^th & 19^th Centuries.

Before the talk, there was a slide on the screen of the front cover of Phaidon’s book  “Martin Parr”  on which there is the statement: “Martin Parr’s photos can make us feel very uncomfortable.  He has made a comedy about the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the places we go; he scrutinises the very way we live our lives.  Some might say that Martin Parr has exploited our lack of taste and good judgement by picturing it all latterly in the brightest of colours, exposing our petty vanities to the world. “   I wonder how many people in the audience in Bath felt uncomfortable?  The talk was sold out.  Did the paying public think that they were above being used for entertainment?  Ironically, in one of the images shown on the screen about a meeting in Bath, one of those present (in the ‘reserved’ front row) knew the people in the image.  Was she embarrassed?  MP was, because he giggled self-consciously and said: ”They might sue me!”  Could he extend his range of subjects to cover courtroom scenes?

I wonder if, when we buy magazines we do so because we want to laugh at ourselves?  I asked MP if he had to explain his images (which mock UK society) when he presents his work abroad.  He replied that the French love his work in this regard and laugh heartily because that is how they see the English too.     In answering another question, MP stated that when he presents his work in the UK the media ignore him.  Might there be a link between these two answers?

What I also learned from his talk was that MP likes to produce open-ended, ambiguous photographs which he feels leave the viewers free to make of them what they will.    What is the object of satire? The online Oxford Dictionary defines it as: “The use of humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.”  Martin Parr’s work adds ‘taste’ and ‘good judgement’ to the list.  Does that mean that he is the arbiter of such things?  William Hogarth revealed “a desire to go beyond the negative premises of satire … and to provide instead exempla of human conduct, to make his art ‘useful’ in a way that it had never been before.’ (P167).  Parr claims he wants ‘to entertain’ because ‘that’s what people want …’ (see above) & I suppose that could be termed ‘useful’.

Finally, Parr showed us a range of photographs taken of him by various photographers around the world in which I felt he was mocking them while we ostensibly laughed at what he looked like and at the foreign photographer.   We were certainly entertained by being brought face-to-face with the bad taste shown by the British public over the decades and by the photographs of Parr himself.   Far from being a Regency photographer, Parr is very much in tune with our times.  This guarantees that he will never run out of subject matter for his satirical portraits of individuals or social groups because, as is the case with ‘war, famine & AIDS’, nobody is going to obliterate stupidity, politics, vices or bad taste which are present in all of us without exception.

References:

Bindman, D.: Hogarth. Thames & Hudson.1981

Parr,M & Williams, V.: Martin Parr.  Phaidon. 2014

Ritchin,F.: Bending the frame. Aperture. 2010