John Gough Photography
Joshua K. Jackson is a British photographer based in London, Working in colour, photographing everyday life in the capital. His work has been published worldwide and exhibited in the UK, USA and Europe.
Check out this series of videos about street photography and the work of Joshua K Jackson, promoted by Adobe.
Show me a grainy black and white photograph from the 1960s and I am sold. Which is welcome, because the work of Bruce Davidson is now on sale at Huxley-Parlour in London
I love the documentary photography of that time. Especially the work of Tony Ray-Jones, Marketa Luskacova, David Hurn, and Don McCullin.
Bruce Davidson [Magnum Photos] came to the UK from the States in the 1960s. On an assignment from Queen magazine to go and photograph the British.
Driving around the country in a Hillman Minx for two months. He was able to capture the country as it transformed from pre-war to post-war. Gritty in many industrial areas that had not changed since the 1930s. A country still riven by class but changing rapidly.
“They gave me carte blanche because Cornell Capa told them, ‘If you want to get a beautiful set of pictures, let him take off. You will be surprised.’ And that’s what I did,” Davidson says.
His pictures were first published as Seeing Ourselves as an American Sees Us: A Picture Essay on Britain on April 12, 1961. “I was free to encounter life,” Davidson says. “I was open and didn’t have any agenda. There was a certain sense of sky and fog, of another place. That’s why those pictures are delicate – and I was delicate too. “
I have curated some of his photographs from that trip here.
You can visit the Bruce Davidson exhibition A United Britain. At Huxley-Parlour in Swallow St, between the 17th Jan and the 14th March.
This is a photograph taken by Ranald Mackechnie of the once and future queen and kings. For many of us, the fact that the feudal relic of a monarchy has lasted into the 2020s is a glaring anachronism, but since the Prince Andrew disgrace and Prince Harry’s exile in Canada. The royals have gone into overdrive to present an ‘its all alright’, continuity theme.
Last month they were pictured in exactly the same outfits stirring Christmas puddings in palace’s Music Room. The Music Room which obviously doubles as a kitchen in polite society. Featured a number of regal decorations, including a crown, corgi, a throne, and a soldier.
This picture was taken on the same day as a Christmas lunch hosted by the Queen for the rest of her family. We know Prince Andrew attended whilst waiting for a call from the FBI. We also know that Prince Harry was on the other side of the world, with Mrs Markle and Lord Archie
This is the background to a very awkward photograph.
Mackechnie is a portrait photographer, used to getting a single sitter in front of the camera. But as we know from wedding photography getting a royal group together is like herding lizards.
The Queen and the Duke of Cambridge smile obediently. The Prince of Wales can only manage a grimace. It has been a bad year, he is waiting for his lunch and is obviously in one of those “bloody reporters” moods.
His Royal Highness Prince George of Cambridge has picked up his grandfather’s vibe and has a disdainful smirk on his little face, aimed at the photographer. As Prince Philip used to say of Antony Armstrong-Jones, “just a common snapper”.
No photographer would have chosen a dark location with claret red walls and carpet. The stairs at Buckingham Palace were obviously suggested as a useful device to ensure that Prince Charles looked as tall as his son and heir.
The red background sucks in all the available light, which makes lighting the shot a nightmare. The background is also too fussy, why leave the chair to the left? It is just distracting. There is also a sculpture under Prince Williams elbow and a column growing out of his head. The chandelier does help to frame the composition, but the photographer has had to add a strong vignette to hold interest in the royal bloodline.
The whites are too white and the darks too dark. The Queen’s dress is one blown highlight, there is no detail, even her left arm blends into her body. Prince Williams suit is too dark with no detail at all. Prince George’s legs are stuck together and his shoes are fused to his trousers. The shadows are all very black.
There has been a lot of dodge and burn in Photoshop to turn this dull image into something that is less dull.
All these features combine to create something odd as well as odious
One of the best resources on the web for learning Photoshop is PHLEARN. Now they have a free 30 day course online, which they say takes you from the basics to more complicated stuff.
I thought it may be useful because I have learnt my Photoshop piecemeal, as I moved from solving one issue to the next. Perhaps, therefore, an overview was overdue.
So if you have resolved to learn more Photoshop in 2020, this is a good start. So get started here.
Perhaps I am behind the curve on this one but I have only just come across Fotografiska.
Fotografiska was founded in 2010 by two Swedish brothers and photography entrepreneurs, Jan and Per Broman. Fotografiska is fast developing into a global brand. There are now exhibition spaces in Stockholm and Tallin Estonia. A new gallery will be opening in New York. There is also one planned for Whitechapel in east London later this year. Which is billed as the world’s largest photography gallery.
The business model is somewhere between commercial and not for profit, driven by ticket sales to exhibitions and memberships.
Fotografiska has no permanent collections but organises exhibitions that rotate through their various locations. The exhibition spaces are designed to be more than just a gallery. “People come to Fotografiska not only to see great photography but also just to hang out, and we want to bring everyone into the experience. The building, the location and the restaurant are essential to what we want to achieve” says Jan Broman.
London Fotografiska will be located in the lower ground floors of the eight-storey, former Aldgate Union building. Converted by Fletcher Priest architects into The White Chapel Building. Destined to be the cultural hub of Whitechapel, East London.
“In London,” Broman says, “we are not in competition with The Photographers’ Gallery or Tate Modern. As we just want to do our own thing in the way we know best. The East End of London is a fantastic area, but for us it was essential we found the right building so that we can do what we want.”
Check their website to pick up the latest buzz in contemporary photography. Personally I can’t wait to be wowed by their new gallery.
There is an exhibition at the Martin Parr Foundation of work by Tony Ray-Jones.
The exhibition is on until December 21st 2019.
Ray-Jones was a pioneer and an inspiration to Parr.
“Tony Ray-Jones was one of my initial inspirations. His imagery showed me what was possible photographing my own country.” – Martin Parr
He is famous for photographing the eccentricities of English life. After studying in the US, he returned to England. Between 1966-68, Ray-Jones travelled around England in a VW camper van, capturing the customs and peculiarities of the British people, on the street, on holidays in seaside towns, and at social events. The ubiquitous class system so prevalent in 60’s Britain was a constant theme.
As he explained to Creative Camera in 1968:
I have tried to show the sadness and the humour in a gentle madness that prevails in a people. The situations are sometimes ambiguous and unreal, and the juxtaposition of elements seemingly unrelated, and the people are real. This, I hope helps to create a feeling of fantasy. Photography can be a mirror and reflect life as it is, but I also think that perhaps it is possible to walk, like Alice, through a Looking-Glass, and find another kind of world with the camera.
During his time in the States at the Yale School of Art, he knew and was influenced by young American documentary photographers like Gary Winogrand and Joel Meyerowitz.
Returning home in 1965 he was full of ideas with notebooks full of lists and what to do next.
“Get more involved (talk to people),” began one typical list of these notes to self. “Stay with the subject matter (be patient). See if everything in the background relates to the subject matter. NO MIDDLE DISTANCE.”
There followed six years of photography that defined him, where he searched for the essence of Englishness. As the Guardian shows here it was an England that was not so swinging. The Ray-Jones version was how the 60’s really looked
In 1971 he was back in the States with his wife Anna working at a teaching position at the San Francisco Art Institute. He was diagnosed with leukaemia in 1972. He returned to England to be treated at the Royal Marsden Hospital but died aged 31.
I have curated some of his work here
I have avoided dropping my camera so many times using a simple wrist strap like this one. Cameras and expensive lenses do not bounce!
When I walk I see pictures, I am not mad I am a photographer. My mind is filled with images. Look at the colour of those leaves against that dark tree trunk. Look at that old man sitting on a bench. The clouds are amazing!
We are photographers, and as we take more and more pictures we develop that sense of seeing. The camera is just an extension of ourselves capturing that moment.
Photographers live in the moment. Cartier Bresson called it the decisive moment. Capturing as he put it, ‘in a fraction of a second’, ‘the significance of an event as well as of a precise organisation of forms which give that event its proper expression’. As photographers, we are always looking, forever seeing.
It is all too easy to rush through life without stopping to notice very much. Preoccupied with our thoughts, concerns and anxieties. Professor Mark Williams, former director of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre, describes this as ‘“trapped” in reliving past problems or “pre-living” future worries’. He believes that living the moment, aware of the world around you and your own thoughts and feelings can improve our wellbeing.
Recently I saw an inspiring presentation by Paul Sanders a photographer with a mindful approach to photography. His website is Still which describes his philosophy.
‘I believe that photography has the power to influence our perception of the world around us, building a sense of appreciation and contentment simply by taking the time to notice what’s around us and how that makes us feel. Through photography, we can discover a better way to understand ourselves, our thoughts and our feelings, and to reconnect with a world we normally rush through’.
There was a lot to take away from his talk, but what impressed me was the notion that you don’t have to pick up your camera and go out to take a particular picture. e.g. “Today I will take street photographs in Soho”.
Instead, pick up the camera and see where it takes you. Following an evening listening to Paul. I started to venture out and photograph what I saw, and what expressed how I felt in that moment.
The results are not fantastic photographs, (see above) but it made me realise that seeing and living the moment, is one of photography’s greatest gifts.
Earlier this month at the Remembrance Day Service on Bedford’s Embankment, it was a privilege to watch the Bedford Pipe Band.
They were magnificent to look at in their colourful Scottish Highland regalia, and the sound of their pipes and drums was both haunting and uplifting.
These are some pictures I managed to grab on the day
Terry O’Neill has died aged 81. A spokeswoman for Iconic Images said: “It is with a heavy heart that Iconic Images announces the passing of Terence ‘Terry’ O’Neill, CBE.
“Terry was a class act, quick-witted and filled with charm. Anyone who was lucky enough to know or work with him can attest to his generosity and modesty.
“As one of the most iconic photographers of the last 60 years, his legendary pictures will forever remain imprinted in our memories as well as in our hearts and minds.”
In the clip above he looks back on his life and remarks that he can’t believe it all happened. Of course, we are all photographers now, but back then we weren’t.
In the next much longer video, Terry O’Neill looks back on his life in photography.
He was around at a unique time when access to celebrity was still possible. The world was also undergoing a cultural revolution led by younger people like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Twiggy, Micheal Caine and Elton John. Terry O’Neill photographed them all.
What Terry O’Neill had was a camera usually a Leica and the eye for a good photograph. His pictures of public figures and stars have become iconic. As we and the stars have aged, the photographs have retained all the crispness and relevance they had the day they were taken.
This is the Terry O’Neill Instagram account.
I have collated some of his work here
