iJourneys

John Gough Photography

The London Salon

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London Salon

The London Salon

Last Friday I visited The London Salon of Photography Exhibition. If you are a bit vague about what a salon is then this beginners guide is a good place to start. Essentially it is an open competition usually organised by a photography club, that is followed by an exhibition of the photographs that have been ‘accepted’. The London Salon is one of the most prestigious, with thousands of entries, and about one hundred and seventy acceptances, including nine salon medals.

The nine medal winners can be seen here.

Why Visit the Exhibition

For me, it is interesting to pick up the trends on how judges are interpreting the entries. What type of genre is on the way up? What type of images are they looking for? What is missing?. What is emerging and what the trends are.

What are the Trends.

This is my unscientific analysis of what is up and what is down.

  • Of the one hundred and seventy acceptances, over half are monochrome.
  • The colour images are usually heavily desaturated. There is a move to just include a hint of colour.
  • Nearly half feature people either individually or in groups. Most seem posed rather than candid. There is some street photography.
  • There are more fantasy images than one might expect.
  • There is a little wildlife. Probably about half a dozen.
  • There are a few traditional travel pictures again about half a dozen.
  • The traditional landscape is completely missing. There are more urban than rural.
  • Abstract images are trending. Especially landscape which has been layered.
  • There is a definite minimalist trend. A monochrome park bench in a bleached landscape. A lone figure against a desaturated background. A black railing on a white background.

However, all the images are wonderful, I wish I had taken any one of them. Congratulations to all who managed to get accepted. I loved Heather Woodhams, Wayside Flowers which deservedly won a medal. Congratulations to my friend Cliff Harvey with Into the Light.

 

 

Photo London

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Photo London 2018 / John Gough / Sony a6300

I can understand if you are a photographer, you might consider Photo London which is currently at Somerset House in London, as being more for art connoisseurs, and photograph collectors. There are around 100 galleries from smart destinations from around the world, selling photographic artwork that is priced in the ‘I Saw You Coming’ bracket. However, any cynicism is blown away once you get inside, and witness the quality of the photography on show, and realise that photography that commands prices of many tens of thousands of pounds has to be stunning.

The conundrum that the exhibition poses is why when there are tens of millions of photographs taken every day (40 million are uploaded to Instagram each day) how is it that some command such value.

Many of the images are iconic from famous photographers. Who would not want a Terry O’Neill photograph of Jagger, Bowie or Micheal Caine?  Who would not want a Martin Schoeller portrait?

However, there is also work from artists that we don’t all know. I was blown away by the abstract work of German photographer Andreas Gefeller especially his collection The Backside of Light [I don’t know whether something has been lost in translation here!] and if I had £14,500 to spare I could be tempted to buy one. NB limited edition of eight.

There is no denying that photography does not yet command the prices of some traditional art, and probably never will. However, the extent to which Photo London has grown in terms of the number of exhibitors, and standing in the art world, in the four years it has been in existence is amazing. There is now a real buzz around collecting photography which is hard to ignore.

If you want to get into the world of collecting photographs then the British Journal of Photography has put together an e-guide, The Beginners Guide to Collecting Photography which can be obtained here. 

Photo London is on for just one more day.

 

2018 Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition

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Sony World Photography Awards

Sony World Photography Awards / John Gough / Sony a6300

 

We consume so much of our photography online, that to go and see a magnificent photographic print is just a rare treat. For that reason, there is no bigger treat than the 2018 Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition, which is on at Somerset House until May 6th. I just loved being immersed in such stunning photography room after room. I wanted some osmosis to occur where some of the talent that had gone to make up these pictures would just rub off on me.

We are fed the line as photographers that we should be able to make a photograph from any view, vista or situation. This is not always true. I would love to be able to get to the places in the world where some of these photographers had been, stand in their shoes, and look down my viewfinder and see what they saw. So the learning I took away was……….get yourself there.

Many of the pictures from the exhibition are here.

Some background…………

David Hurn: A Life in Pictures

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David Hurn Exhibition

There was an under trailed programme on BBC television about David Hurn, a photographer who started in the 60’s with fashion then moved on to celebrity photographs notably Jane Fonda in Barbarella and Sean Connery in the Bond movies. The programme is a delight and you may still be able to find on BBC iPlayer.

It is charming because at the age of 83 Hurn is still as enthusiastic about photography as he has been all his life.

Before photography became art and pictures sold for thousands, Hurn would swap his pictures with other photographers. As a result, he has a vast and valuable photograph collection with images from all the great photographers of the 20th Century. Last year he exhibited at Photo London. The exhibition which was co-curated with Martin Parr marked the 70th anniversary of  Magnum Photos and included work that Hurn had swapped with Bill Brandt, Bruce Davidson, Sergio Larrain and Diana Markosian.

In the programme, he explains his rationale for donating his collection to the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff. There was an exhibition of the collection which has now finished, and there are no plans I understand for a further exhibition at present.

David Hurn, however, is primarily a documentary photographer:

and I have collected some of his work here.

 

Vision Nine Contemporary Photography

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Vision 9

Today I viewed the Vision 9 contemporary photography exhibition at the OXO Tower on the South Bank. Nine leading outdoor photographers are displayed showing seascapes, landscapes and abstract images.

Why go? My rationale is that it demonstrates the gap between the work I do and truly remarkable photography. If I have a personal mission, it is to close that gap.

The photographers exhibiting are:

Valda Bailey     Doug Chinnery   Cheryl Hamer  Marianthi Lainas  Astrid McGechan    Beata Moore   Paul Sanders  

 Richard Talibart  Linda Wevill

The exhibition is on until the 15th April. Admission is free.

International Garden Photographer of the Year

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IGOPTY

IGOPTY at Kew Gardens.

An exhibition of last year’s winners of the IGPOTY is now at Kew Gardens and then a few other venues around the country. I went along today and there are some terrific images. This photography contest has become big business and is very popular. To get a winning image is a big deal, and the standard is to die for. The winning images are here.

Interesting how ‘creative’ so many of the winners are, and how plant photography drifts so seamlessly into abstract. Try to catch it.

Elliot Erwitt

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Elliot Erwitt

Elliot Erwitt

At Huxley-Parlour, there is an exhibition of the work of Elliot Erwitt until Feb 17th. If like me you are a bit fuzzy about his photography, enter the gallery and walk straight ahead until confronted by a sublime portrait of Marilyn Monroe. Priced at between £4000 and £11,500 depending on the size, signed and a direct silver gelatin print from the original negative. You will be convinced you should buy it whether you can afford it or not.

I have collected some of the images in the exhibition here.

Erwitt was one of the first to join Magnum Photos in 1953 and was in the distinguished company of Capa, and Cartier-Bresson. Erwitt throughout his career carried a ‘hobby’ camera, a Leica M3 with a 50mm standard lens, loaded with Kodak Tri-X or Ilford HP4 film. He called these pictures his ‘snaps’, captured with humour, sarcasm and incongruity. He was a street photographer before the term was invented, just using the power of his own observation.

photography is an art of observation. It has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.

Elliot Erwitt

 

 

RPS International Photography Exhibition

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RPS International Exhibition

Shoreditch Street Art / John Gough / Canon EOS 6D

I visited the RPS International Photography Exhibition this week and there were a lot of strong images on display. So strong I wished I had taken many of them. A high level of envy on my part, is  sufficient criteria for a really stunning image.

The RPS International Photography Exhibition has been held almost every year since 1854. Now in its 160th year, it is the longest running exhibition of its kind in the world.

The RPS describes the exhibition as reflecting, ‘the varying interests and vibrant aesthetics of the photographic medium today, presenting work which demonstrates photographic skill and technique, alongside images exploring ideas and narratives rich in meaning and message. It encompasses single images and series work across all genres.  The work is executed in many ways from alternative processes to contemporary approaches’.

The RPS it seems is becoming more and more pompous. A prime candidate for Private Eye / Pseuds Corner.

The Awards

The gold award went to Margaret Mitchell. Her winning entry is here.  Her poignant environmental portraits of her sister’s children and others is part of a larger project, In This Place .

‘In This Place’ raises questions about choice—do we have choices in life, or are some predetermined and made for us?

Margaret took pictures of her nephew and two nieces as children, growing up in Stirling for a previous work called Family. More recently Margaret started photographing them again. Her sister’s children are now adults and have kids of their own. However their living conditions are the same, and it appears that the same outcome awaits each child. It is as if there were, some sort of self fulfilling cycle.

The silver award went to R J Kern. From this it is easy the current popularity of the environmental portrait. A glimpse of his exhibition The Unchosen Ones.

The Walk to the Station

The exhibition was at the Truman Brewery in Shoreditch, which was an excuse to walk the London streets with my camera. The street art is amazing.

Documentary Photographer of the Year

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Documentary Photographer of the Year

Lunch Break. John Gough Canon EOS6D

The Exhibition

I went along to the 2017 Documentary Photographer of the Year exhibition at Printspace in London this week. The exhibition is organised by the RPS Documentary Group. It was a bit thin to be honest, probably twenty five images, thirty at most. However, it was interesting to see how photographers had tackled a documentary subject in just five pictures.

Particularly impressive was the winner David Fletcher who’s photographs follows Ann, a New Forest commoner, and her purchase of eight calves in December. After a few weeks the calves began to fall ill and despite her efforts, and expense of the vet, only two calves survived the winter. The photographs were very moving, in just five images you sympathised with her plight and felt in there with her. See here.

The Street Walk

The Documentary Photographer of the Year exhibition was at Printspace in Hoxton London. So it was an opportunity to walk through the east end of London, down through the City to Blackfriars to catch the train home. The image above is just one of two keepers, from the 200+ shots taken on the trip with my Canon 6D. Still that 1% rule. If I take 100 pictures I am lucky to get one that is worth sharing.

Last night I listened to a talk by Tom Way a truly amazing wildlife photographer. His pictures were fabulous, because in my opinion he was not a naturalist taking pictures, but a photographer taking pictures of nature. He advocated putting your photographs away for two months and coming back to them to critique them.  He put critiquing your own work as the number one photography skill. He looks for just twelve images a year! If I did that however I would probably be down to just 0.01%.

( Tom Way sells his work as fine art prints. This is just a note to myself about the paper and frame he uses)