London Independent Photography Magazine

journal of

London

Independent

PhotographyMay 2001

London Independent Photography

2

LIProfile: Carol HudsonClare Glenister

PhotoEssayJeanine Billington

Small is Beautiful:The Photo BookAndy Moye

Eye on the Estuary:The Photographs ofJonathan BayerWilliam Bishop

QTipQuentin Ball

Copydate: Please send copy, photos, etc. forinclusion in the next edition to either Jenniferor Clare BEFORE 27 July

Co- Editors: Clare Glenister141 Bramley Close,London E17 6EGTel: 020 8523 [email protected](Articles and listings)

Jennifer Hurstfield102 Calabria Road,London N5 1HUTel: 020 7359 [email protected](Articles and news items)

Layout & Tony WallisGraphics: 21 Wrentham Avenue

London NW10 3HSTel: 020 8960 [email protected]

Websites: Countdown 2000:www.spelthorne.ac.uk/mp/LIP and RPS ContemporaryGroup programme:www.digital-imaging.net

Cover Photo: Carol Hudson

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Beginnings

My interest in photographystarted when a friend of

mine went to a photographyevening class. I thought that itsounded interesting so I went withhim. I did not have a camera atthe time so borrowed one from myfriend. I was really pleased withthe first film I developed but mypartner, Tony Mayne (formerphotographer and now cameramanwith the BBC) said, “You’ll neverbe a photographer”. That waswhen I determined to be one!

I was working for an environmen-tal health department - killing ratsand clearing drains and things ofthat kind. (Well, what else can youdo with a philosophy degree!)During the following year Ibought a second-hand camera,went to more evening classes (City& Guilds 740 and A level) and gaveup my job to do a foundation artcourse. I applied to a number ofcolleges for a full-time photogra-phy course.

Tony Mayne

For the sixth in our series,

Clare Glenister talked to Carol

Hudson, recentlyelected Exhibitions

Organiser

At that time Derby and Notting-ham Trent Universities offered ajoint course in Creative Photogra-phy and you had to elect whichone to attend. Knowing very littleabout the courses, I had no realpreference but as I was waiting formy interview I chatted to someonecalled David Gepp who informedme that he would be going toDerby “to work with JohnBlakemore”. I had never heard ofJohn Blakemore but thought “ Ifit's good enough for you...!” SoDerby is where I went. It turnedout to me a most fortuitous choiceand photography became andremains an obsession.

I used to think photography wasabout creating pictures by framingbits of the world : selecting care-fully those things that would makepictures, that would, if you like,bear witness. At some point,during my time as a student, Ibegan to play around with thingsin front of the camera, to construct

things. That was when I becameinterested in using a large formatcamera and making rather thantaking photographs. The images Imade at that time eventuallybecame an exhibition which wasquite well received. I also at-tended a bookbinding class at thecollege and made a number ofsmall books. It is interesting to seehow fashionable this has becomenow that desktop publishing hasmade it much easier

LIProfile

WorkAfter finishing the photographycourse I came to London andworked with a community groupin Barnet where I taught photogra-phy to young people with specialneeds. I really enjoyed the workwhich I did for a couple of years.In fact I didn’t really know what Iwanted to do. I did think seriouslyabout teaching (but thought that Iwas probably too old to be compet-ing with young graduates). So Ifreelanced for a while and had anumber of interesting commis-sions. I began some part-timelecturing at Brunel University andI am still, to this day, enjoying myclasses there. At around the sametime I started working at EalingCollege (now Thames ValleyUniversity) on a part-time basis.After a couple of years I wasoffered a position managing themedia services department and Ihave stayed there ever since.

Carol Hudson

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Personal WorkI have always been interested inphotographing the domestic, theordinary and everyday things oflife and have rarely felt the need togo in search of the exotic (except,perhaps, when I needed a photo-graph of lots of snow for a piece ofwork I was making a few yearsago). This may, in part, be afeminist issue. I am concernedthat the personal is political.Often, I photograph things fromthe garden but I am not so muchinterested in making prettypictures of flowers as in using theflowers as a vehicle for ideas.My photography has always gonehand in hand with an interest inphilosophy and one of my firstprojects attempted to speak aboutperception - though it consisted of

photographs of flowers.The work was about theway the eye sees as op-posed to the way thecamera sees. We do nothave stationary, one-eyedvision. The pictures werebuilt up with layers ofopacity so you had to lookat the photograph as apicture and not as if it weretransparent. The pictureswere also made in opposi-tion to the idea of perfection -finding the perfect mushroom andmaking sure that the light wasabsolutely wonderful!

In another set of work I photo-graphed a lot of dead birds. Thisseries began when I found a deadwren in the front garden. The littlebird, the victim of a road accident,

lay so silent and still (very differentto it’s active scolding life). I pickedit up to admire its plumage andwas struck by the similaritybetween the stillness of this deathand a photograph. Both stopped intime at one precise moment, bothallowing me an intimacy ( a kind ofvoyeuristic looking ) which wouldnever have been possible in life.Instinctively I decided to photo-graph the wren. I found more deadbirds in the steets around my homeand brought them back andphotographed them before buryingthem in my garden. It soundsstrange, but it was important to methat I should honour the birds andso I tried to make beautiful photo-graphs. As the project progressed,I realised that I was exploring allkinds of attitudes towards mortal-ity and death. I was aware of howthese images might fit within thethe tradition of still life. EventuallyI had a sufficient number of imagesto form an exhibition. Obviously,this project took a long time tocomplete as I didn't go out and killthe birds!

I have always had something of anobsession with dead things andright from the start I photographeddead cats or rabbits. I think lotsof photographers are fascinated bydeath. Perhaps they find asimilarity between dead things andphotography in the way I do.

After that project I didn't do a lot ofphotography; I would take picturesbut not do anything with them.Then, a few years ago, feeling theneed to motivate myself, I changeddirection a little bit and did an MAin philosophy at Birkbeck Collegefollowed by another in design andmedia arts at the University ofWestminster. All this hard study-ing gave me even more excusesfor not making photographs.

Carol Hudson

Carol Hudson

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Eventually, I decided to try andcombine photography and logic inan attempt to bring together thetwo disciplines I enjoyed. It wasquite tricky! What I made in theend became more a piece of artthan a photographic project. Itused photographs but also screenprinting and text.

Until this point I had believed thattext and pictures didn't go togetherunless it was for photojournalisticor editorial reasons. Although,upon reflection I realised that this isnot true.

There is a lot of political work thatuses image and text together verysuccessfully. I think you can doanything you want really. In theend it's about communication.Everybody should be encouragedto communicate through theirphotography instead of trying tomake pretty pictures or imitateother photographs. This may

mean venturing outside theboundaries of what is tradition-ally termed photographic,especially within the sphere ofpersonally expressive work. It isvery important to have anawareness of photographichistory . If people don’t under-stand the tradition from whichtheir work has evolved, they arejust going to imitate what theysee. Understanding and workingwithin a tradition allows you topush beyond the boundaries inways that are meaningful, notjust for yourself but for otherstoo.

Personal expression is always abit tricky because you could saya screaming baby is expressive,but we cannot compare its criesto a piece of music or art. Ourintention as photographers, orartists, or any kind of practitioner, is to make something thatother people can relate to. In theend it doesn’t matter in the leastwhat you intended to makeOnce the work is set free in theworld it has to fend for itself. Ifit doesn’t communicate whatwas intended, or says somethingelse completely, this may notmatter. The world willcontextualise it , if it sees fit.

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Sometimes we are not clear whatwe are trying to show or we fail toachieve what we hoped. However,I think it is a bit of a cop out whenpeople say it’s up to the viewer toread something into it. In order tounderestand any cultural artifact,we need a key otherwise it'smeaningless. A private language issimply that - private. Not a bit ofgood to anyone who wishes tocommunicate.

LIPI had some work in an exhibition atBrunel University where I metPeter Marshall. He invited me tojoin ‘Framework’ which was aprecursor of LIP. I went to thewonderful meetings that used totake place on Tuesday evenings atthe Photographers' Gallery . Theyacted as a magnet for all kinds ofpeople interested in photography.When LIP was founded I joinedand have been a member eversince. I’m not always active but I'vebeen involved in a couple ofexhibitions and have recently takenon the role of Exhibitions Organ-iser.

DigitalIn my last project, which I didwhen I was at Westminster Univer-sity, I used computers so I amhappy to use anything as long as itcan make something that is com-munication. A computer is a toolin the way that anything else is. Ican do darkroom black and whiteprinting reasonably well but I don'tenjoy it and would happily give itup if I could do it equally welldigitally. At the moment, I thinkthat very little good personallyexpressive work is produced oncomputers but this is not to say thatthere is no potential for it. Thecurrent emphasis is on printquality. I am sure that darkroomswill have the same fate asscreenprinting and etching presses.Perhaps that is regrettable in onesense, but there will always besome that are interested in thesetechniques. I would encouragepeople to try traditional photogra-phy. There is still a lot of potentialdespite the changes.

Perhaps the golden era of photogra-phy as documentary has disap-

peared. It never really had amonopoly upon truth despite thefact that it was often considered anautheticating medium. It has taken150 years for the public to ac-knowledge this. It is sometimessaid that the devil is in the detail.And it was certainly the detail(especially that of spacial relation-ships) that proved so convincingover the years. Now that every-body can very easily manipulateimages and delete the bits theydon’t like on their own PC, there ismuch more scepticism. Socialanthropologists of the future willlook back to the images beforecomputers came along as theheyday of authenticity. Printsmade after say 1980 will have adifferent historical value.

Current WorkThe snapshot aesthetic is veryfashionable. Some work I like andsome I don't. Some of it is innova-tive and I can see that it has somepurpose. I like the work of NanGoldin and foundRichardBillingham's first project verymoving . Perhaps I am being a bitnaive but I think there is an ethicaldimension to work that usesfriends or family to make intimatework which is then put on publicdisplay. It seems that the gallery-going public is voyeuristc and likesto look into these intimate worlds.When you are talking about the artworld you are talking really abouta commercial world. Prices forphotographs are shooting up nowand this means that thecontrol of photography is in the

hands of dealers. They can make orbreak photographers. If photogra-phers are taken into the stable of adealer they will be guided in theircareers and anything produced willbe important and, therefore,saleable. If they are not part ofthis world then no matter howexciting and innovative their work,it won't have the same worth interms of money. Art is a commod-ity and so are the artists. It is acommercial game and I am notsure it has anything to do withpersonal expression.

EducationPhotography (now called lensbased media) is being taught tothousands of students but I amunsure whether it is being taughtin a way that is useful to theindividuals. Many colleges anduniversities now teach businessand management skills alongsidephotography but it is still the casethat few students will get jobsrelated to the media industry. It issaid that there are more studentsstudying at the moment than thereare jobs available. The lucky oneswill end up teaching and theunlucky ones will work in a barsomewhere and try to pay for theirphotography as best they can.Media is still a sexy subject andcollege courses are expanding likecrazy. The experience of havingstudied photography is absolutelywonderful and it is good thateverybody has an opportunity todo this. If you can afford not toearn a living from it that's evenbetter.

Carol Hudson

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CommunicationIn photography you need a keyjust as much as you do forpropositional calculus. We all thinkwe can read photographs and we

terrible but using aesthetic criteria(picture qualityand craftsmanship)they would have to be right at thetop. Changing context changesmeanings and the best pictures aremade for a particular reason. They

are focused on a particular areathat they are trying to record.

MemoryThere are some pictures of myfamily that I like that I know arenot good pictures.They havecaptured moments that meansomething to me. One of thevaluable things that photographsdo is act as aides memoires.Having photographs has changedthe nature of our memory and itwill change again now that wehave digital ones. Apparently, wehave forgotten about 80% of whatwe ever knew but when we look ata photograph of an event we arereminded of it. We remember

events without photographsdifferently from ones with them.As time passes, the photographbecomes the memory because thatis all we have left! I have seenphotographs of the Taj Mahal so Ithink I know how it looks! When Isee it for myself and it doesn't looklike that I will still have that imagein my mind because it is so strong.Somebody said we have reducedthe world to a handful of postcardsand I think it is true!

Photography is very influential onour perception. We use photo-graphs as evidence that we werethere.We collect experiences andhave our pictures taken in eachplace to prove to ourselves that wehave been there. It's like looking inmirrors!

The FutureIn the most foolhardy way I havejust committed myself to some-thing. I contacted Professor PaulHill and asked him what hethought of the idea of my doing aPhD at De Montfort. He seemed tothink this feasible so I expect tobegin in September! I will have torearrange my life to make time forit. I hope to carry on from thework I began at Westminster,combining logic and photography.At the moment I am researchingthe possibilities connected withfuzzy logic. It has to do with classinclusion and is interesting photo-graphically because it means thatthings do not have to be just blackor white.The photograph I wouldtake to a desert island is the onetaken of the Earth from space. Thatwould give me a sense of whereand who I am. I don't know whotook the photograph (or if it was ahuman being!) but there is noother to compare to that!

can't. Many times I have beenasked "What's a good photo-graph?". It is an interesting ques-tion and you have to learn bylooking and making and lookingagain. It has nothing to do withpreferences. Pictures I like are notnecessarily good. There are somepictures of cats that I just adore butI know that they are trash photo-graphs! Some pictures that Ievaluate as being good I don't likeat all. For example, some of theMapplethorpes are excellent but Idon't like them!

I think that criticism is a positivething and that critics have avaluable role. They point you inthe right direction and give youinsights and allow you to makeassessments based upon otherpieces of work.They have to begood and give reasons for theirevaluations. There is a metaphori-cal level of interpretation. It is notjust a description of what is outthere. Good photographs havelayers of meaning. They can beevaluated according to the criteriayou are using. Using feministcriteria, I am going to think thatMapplethorpe’s pictures are

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My first trip to Indiawas for a gallery thatneeded some photo-

graphs as part of an exhibitionon Indian Art. For me there wasa double attraction: India'sendless source of imagery andthe gallery's offer to show myown creative work. I spent overtwo months on my own explor-ing the sub-continent, concen-trating my work on Benaresand the Thar Desert inRajasthan.

I was attracted by India'sethereal quality, by its culturerooted in a timeless past, andby its unique mixture of reli-gion, commerce, beauty anddecay. The intention was to

record a feeling about India'speculiar complexity. For this, Iconcentrated on the details ofeveryday activities. Often Ifound myself observing anambivalent spectacle that hadno single meaning or clearresolution.

The photographs were mostlytaken at dawn and duskthrough the ever present hazeof dust and smoke. And theimages were determined moreby colour and shape than byspecific objects. I used negativefilm to get a more faded, dustyquality. In the end almosteverything was shot on a Leicawith an 80 mm lens. Travellingalone made it easier to meet

people and be accepted. At thecamel fair or on the Ganges, Ialways started before daybreakwhen the fires are lit and tea isbrewed. After a few days thecamel traders invited me totheir tents to share those earlymorning cuppas.

My latest project is on the SouthCoast, waiting for the tide to goout in order to photograph thedead fishes left on the shores invarious states of decompositionand decay. I am interested inthe transience of their life andmoved by the melancholybeauty and extreme sadness ofthe scene.

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SMALL ANDBEAUTIFUL

Andy Moye reviewsThe Photo Book

The millennium providedpublishers with the perfect

excuse to launch a number ofretrospectives, compilations andgeneral histories of photography,three of which I felt compelled tobuy, in the way that you do. Theyrange from the absorbing and trulycolossal "Century - a history of thetwentieth century in photos"compiled by Bruce Bernard*-weighing in at an arm-straining 12lbs on the bathroom scales, throughthe merely very big "How You LookAt It: Photographs of the 20thCentury"* to the pocket-sized "ThePhoto Book"*.

I'd recommend all three but if I hadto choose just one of them it wouldhave to be "The Photo Book". Itmay be small (and it's not perfectlyformed) but "The Photo Book" is areal gem, a reference book thatinvites repeated visits and explora-tions. Containing 500 photographs(give or take a few multiple images)by 500 photographers, arrangedalphabetically from Aarsmann,Jacques-Laurent to Zachmann,Patrick, the book covers every

genre of photography and everyepoch from the early pioneers tothe present.

The book's strength is its organisa-tion. All 500 photographers getexactly the same treatment: onepage each with one photograph,uncropped, captioned and dated,given pride of place; with a brieftext combining a discussion of theimage with a few lines about thephotograper's work and somethingof the contexts -aesthetic, commer-cial, personal, technical - that haveinfluenced it.

Obviously you can't get to know aphotographer's work from a singlephotograph however representa-tive it might appear. But thecombination of photographs andwritten commentary opens up theimage in a way I found stimulat-ing. I don't agree with a number ofthe comments about the work ofphotographers I am familiar withand a few of the images chosen jar(a colour work to represent FayGodwin?) or disappoint (WilliamEggleston's least interesting photoever ). But then it would be odd ifeverything felt just so.

The photographs - black and white,colour or tinted - are reproducedwell. And great credit must go toIan Jeffrey for his succinct, in-formative and beautifully craftedcommentaries.

The publishers have clearly made abig effort to be as internationallyrepresentative as possible. Photog-raphers from 59 countries areincluded, and although the USAand Europe dominate this doesn'tfeel unbalanced. (However, as Iwrite this, I realise I'm simply notqualified to judge whether theclaims of others to be included, sayfrom Africa, have been fairlytreated or not. Suffice it to say thatAfrican photographers number lessthat 10 in this collection of 500.)

Most (all?) of the big names inphotography are here and many ofthe classic photographs of the last150 years as well, amongst whichthe news images grant inclusion tosome otherwise little-knownphotographers such as BillEppridge or Nick Ut.

Above all, this is a book to goexploring in, to make discoveriesin. Hands up who knows the workof, say, Ouka Lele (BarbaraAllende) or Guy Le Querrec orRaghu Rai? I certainly didn't - anda lot more besides. One of theprincipal discoveries I made wasnot of a particular photographerbut of the connections betweenthem. Simply by grouping all thesephotographers together andtreating them all equally it'spossible to see the associationsbetween their work emerge, notjust in the suggested cross-refer-ences (some of which I foundilluminating, others not) butsimply by turning the pages.

How about this example? I cameacross a French photographer whobegan working over a century agoand "specialized in the architectureof Paris", especially "the old streetsof central Paris before their demoli-tion". Eugene Atget, surely. But no,this is a description of the work ofone Charles Marville who, just likeAtget, produced his work as ahistorical record for the cityauthorities twenty or more yearsearlier (in the 1860s and 70s). Thephotograph of Marville's repro-duced here - "Château deL'Ambigu" c. 1875 - bears anuncanny resemblance to an Atgetwork: a still street scene empty ofpeople, full of the energy of itsabsent city dwellers, and in thecentre foreground the mostJa

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minimal metal pissoir leaking intothe street, topped by an elegantlamp. (Is this structure the'château' of the title?) Astonishing!

Of course 500 is a small number inthe global history of photogra-phers and many names I know arenot included, especially thoseworking now. But Boris Michailov,the recent Citibank prizewinner ishere, and so is Wolfgang Tillmans,the Turner prizewinner, as well asa surprising number of their (our)contemporaries.

I have a few quibbles, the mainone being the miniscule (I mean

George Hoyningen-HueneBathing Suits by Izod

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tiny) size of the print, a realproblem for those of us withdodgy eyesight -especially asI can't put the book downonce I've opened it... A greatlittle book - and all for £6.95.

*Century compiled by BruceBernard, Phaidon Press pp1,120, hardback; £29.95.How You Look At It: Photo-

graphs of the 20th Century, edited byThomas Weski and HeinzLiesbrock, Thames and Hudson,pp 528, 300 duotone (black andwhite) 104 colour images, hard-back; £29.95.

The Photo Book mini edition,Phaidon Press, pp 520, 500-plusphotographs (colour and black andwhite), softback; £6.95.

Sunny 16!One can find oneself in all kinds of situations taking outdoor photography.The light meter will generally think one is looking at 18% grey, and willgive one a ‘correct’ exposure - the meter doesn't know what you are seeing.Or one can find oneself without a meter. If the lighting is bright and sunny,use the 'Sunny 16 Rule' - set your shutter speed to equal the film speed,and expose at F16, ie, your film speed is ASA 125, you would set yourshutter 125th of a second and expose at F16. (There are obvious permutationsof the formula.) Works like a charm.QT

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EYE ON THEESTUARY: THAMES

LANDSCAPES

A Review byWilliam Bishop

One of the first things to besaid about this book is that

you will need a very deep book-case to house it since it is 40 cm inlength. But, as far as displaying theimages is concerned, this is a boldformat which works.

Jonathan Bayer, a founder memberof LIP, discovered that his particu-lar taste for colour photographyfound very little support amongthe membership in those hoarydays of LIP back in the late 1980s.He therefore has not taken anactive part but has remainedconnected with our self-support-ing institution.

The fact that he is American comesout firmly in his work: very wideviews, apparently using threedifferent panoramic formats. Thecolour is delicate and deliberatewith sometimes a feeling of someof those U.S. East Coast beachscenes in the book 'Cape Light' byJoel Meyerovitz and at other timesthe muted musical qualitiesachieved in colour by WilliamEggleston. And yet Bayer haspainstakingly used his own eyesand developed his own photo-graphic voice - for he is no noviceor innocent when it comes tophotogaphy.

Essentially these pictures havebreadth and space to breath - and

that is not entirely due to format,though that helps. They aremonumental and their stillness is ahomage to what is in the picture:the quality of things and the beingof place.

Other qualities to these images areelegance and elegy. There is eventhe sense, despite the wide format,of Raymond Moore's illuminatedgreyscapes but in colour, showinggreat delicacy in perception andphotographic handling. It is akin tomuted singing: an elegaic celebra-tion; a contemporary American eyefor the Thames estuary in the styleof Gray's "Elegy written in aCountry Churchyard" where cattlehave wound slowly o'er the lea andthe ploughman has plodded hisweary way homewards leaving theworld to Jonathan Bayer: 'Nowfades the glimmering landscape onthe sight, And all the air a solemnstillness holds.'

There is a sense of the graveyard tothis waterscape imagery and yet itis a graveyard full of life, yetrequiring a keen eye to see it. Thatis the point on which this bookturns to becoming a homage - ahomage to the life pulse of theestuary beating beneath theenvironmental impact of a civilisa-tion that has almost lost its soul.The book contains an introductionby Ian Jeffrey who ruminates from

his own cultural perspective andincludes an afterword by thephotographer to set the recordstraight. But whoever comes tothis book will make their ownjudgements. It is said that anyreviewer says more about themselfthan the work under considera-tion. And indeed, for the best, areviewer can only express theirimpressions as clearly as possibleand bring in any references thatthey think relevant or offload anyrelatively suitable cultural luggagethat they happen to be carrying.So, speaking for myself, I wouldsay that this is a book worthhaving and certainly worth takinga look at. It is one that comes fromthe heart, and such things arereally beyond price.

If you have ever consideredbuying a single photographicprint, then the price of this bookwith 45 remarkable reproductionswill seem like a give-away.

EYE ON THE ESTUARY:THAMES LANDSCAPES Photographs by Jonathan Bayer,JLB Publishing, London 2000. 96pp21 x 40 cm. 45 panoramic colourphotographs £25.

Available for additional £3 p&pfrom Jonathan Bayer, 29 BelsizePark, London NW3 4DX.

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Photographs byJonathan Bayer

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