london independent photographyat a time when most artists seem to scrutinize private concerns, it is...

LondonIndependentPhotography

Number 14Summer 2003

£2.50

London Independent Photography - Summer 2003

2

Tony WallisTel: 020 8960 [email protected], Design and Listings

Jeanine BillingtonTel: 020 8995 [email protected] and ideas

Printers: Leighton Printing Company Tel: 020 7607 3335

Website: www.londonphotography.org.uk

Message from the Chair 3Quentin Ball

Landscapes 4Jeanine Billington

Exhibitions Update 4Avril R. Harris

A Mari Mahr Workshop 6Roberto Leone

LIProfile: Yoke Matze 7Virginia Khuri

Prefabulous 12Elisabeth Blanchet

Photograms 16Birgit Dalum

Exodus: Sebastião Salgado 18Virginia Khuri

All Change 20Angela Inglis

Photo Events and workshops 22

QTip: Spray Mounting 23Quentin Ball

IPSE Workshops 23

Personal Ads 23

Members’ Exhibitions 24

Yoke Matze - page 7

Elisabeth Blanchet - page12

Birgit Dalum - page 16

Sebastião Salgado - page 18

Angela Inglis - page 20

Copy date: Please send copy and photos forinclusion in the next Journal to Jennifer or VirginiaAT THE VERY LATEST 15 October, 2003.

Cover Photo: Yoke Matze

Co-editors:Jennifer HurstfieldTel: 020 7359 [email protected] and news items

Virginia KhuriTel: 020 7370 [email protected] and news items

3

Summer 2003 - London Independent Photography

Landscapes Jeanine Billington

It was a real joy on a Marchmorning in Central London tofind three artists using the broad

canvas of landscape to explorevarious ideas. My first call was onthe David Hockneys at the AnnelyJuda Gallery and then on to thePhotographers’ Gallery to see thework of Simon Norfolk and JitkaHanzlova, both finalists in thisyear’s Citibank Photography Prize.At a time when most artists seem toscrutinize private concerns, it isrefreshing to hear David Hockneydeclare: “I have never shied awayfrom making images that are prettyor beautiful. We do, after all, live inan amazing beautiful world.”Hockney’s monumental and vibrantwatercolours of the fjords in Icelandgo far beyond their picturesquesubject. Working fast and with boldcolours, he creates haunting imageswhich are both lively andsophisticated. For instance, inGodifoss he uses 8 sheets of A2paper to sketch out a playfullandscape of waterfall, rocks and aviewing platform with minutefigures. He captures both theexperience and the scale of thislandscape.

Jitka Hanzlova’s colourphotographs are of a NorthernEuropean landscape, a wood and ameadow on the edge. They aresmall, exquisite images depictingthe seasons, from snow falling inthe woods to the summer meadowfull of wild flowers where one canalmost hear the buzz of insects. Itreminds me of the sounds of naturein The Cunning Little Vixen byanother Czech, the composerJanacek. Hanzlova’s photos are alsoabout renewal. In one image thesun shines through the fresh newleaves whilst on the ground lastyear’s dead leaves remain. One ofher most arresting compositions isof a wood in deep snow with thedark bark of a tree cutting theimage vertically similar to the waythe abstract expressionist BarnettNewman divides his canvasses.This creates a tension betweennaturalism and abstraction, andtakes the image beyond its purelypicturesque impact. The intimateway in which the images weredisplayed also worked well: one feltsurrounded in a journey throughmist, light and darkness.

Simon Norfolk too has not shiedaway from making beautiful imagesin stark contrast to his subject, thelegacy of wars in Afghanistan. He

used the earthiness of the countryand worked in the twilight whencolours are intense, and skies full ofhues to produce ravishing tones.These large photographs taken witha wood and brass plate camera,have stillness and monumentality.What is also remarkable about theseimages is the way they draw onphotographic tradition.Immediately, we think of RogerFenton’s The Valley of the Shadowof Death with the cannon ballslittering the land. But what I foundinteresting is his direct approach,similar to the early Victorianphotographers such as Francis Frithand Samuel Bourne who went Eastand photographed the ruins ofantiquity as if the images couldreveal secrets about those lostcivilisations. Norfolk’s images tooare a search to understand. Theimage of a man holding brightballoons, forbidden under theTaliban, and posed by the concreteskeleton of a former tea house, canbe seen as an allegory to thefragility of this enforced peace andin the process the destruction of anative culture. But Norfolk’s artdoes not give simple answers to thequestions it raises, below the beautyof those landscapes lies aminefield of contradictions .

ExhibitionUpdate

Last year’s LIP Annual Exhibitionhas its Private View at Kendal

on the 16 May. I hope that it is metwith the same enthusiastic approvalthat it received at the CottonsAtrium and at Smethwick.

It is now time to turn our thoughtsto the exhibition for 2003. TheCottons Atrium has been booked forthe 18 October until 2 November.The selectors will be, for our 15th

year, Paul Hill and MickWilliamson. Most of you will knowthem or of them by reputation andwe are very pleased that they haveagreed to participate in the selectionthis year.

Smethwick requested that they havethe exhibition for a month next year.

This is advantageous to us all, asmany of the RPS groups meet thereand photographic groupsthroughout the country haveseminars at Smethwick. This helpsto raise LIP’s profile.

With this edition of the Journal isenclosed a submission form for thisyear’s exhibition. Please read itcarefully and bear in mind that onthe 26 June we are holding aquestion and answer workshop atthe Steiner House. It will take placein the Lecture Hall on the 2nd floorfrom 7.00pm until 9.00pm. If youhave any queries please come to theworkshop where we will hopefullybe able to resolve any problems.

In addition to the normal days ofcollecting prints we have alsodecided that those who wish maydeliver their prints to the SteinerHouse on the 9 September from

7.00pm – 9.00pm when we will beholding the AGM. Prints will betaken in towards the end of theevening. Do please attend and offeryour suggestions about how LIPshould be run and perhaps you mayfeel there is a place for you to helpwithin the organization.

Last year’s exhibition was a greatsuccess and this is due to you, themembers. Can we make this yeareven better? We will have the spaceto hang around 170 images, and thequality of the exhibition dependson how many images we receivefrom which to select those that arefinally hung. Remember this isYOUR Annual Exhibition.

Avril R. HarrisExhibition Organizer.


4

These book reviews are written by freelance writers Laura Noble and Sarah Fordham,who staff The Photographers’ Gallery bookshop in central London.

Many more reviews can be found on the Photographers’ Gallery website, www.photonet.org.uk

Laura Noble and Sarah Fordham present the pick of recently published books. LIP members receive a10% discount on these. You need to show your LIP membership card when purchasing.

The Photographers’ Gallery Bookshop Choice

The History of Japanese PhotographyPrice £45 (LIP Members £40.50)From the end of the Edo period through to the present day, photography has played animportant role in Japanese history. On the 150th anniversary of the birth of Japanesephotography the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston and the Japan Foundation haveproduced a catalogue which stands as a vital resource, containing a fantastic array ofphotographs coupled with essays and historic chronology to reflect the work beingproduced throughout this time to accompany its touring exhibition. From portraiture,landscape and photomontage, to surrealist and still life photography, this collection is fullof surprises.

Adam FussAdam Fuss with essay by Thomas KelleinPrice: £21.50 LIP Members £19.35)With over a hundred images, this collection fully explores the transcendent world ofAdam Fuss. The insightful introductory essay by Thomas Kellein traces the beginnings ofthe themes which have crept into Adam Fuss’ work beginning with childhood memories.The work is full of the opposing forces of life and death alongside beauty and horror.A baby floats in water; we are watching it come up to the surface to be called upon togreet the world. The sense of the ‘other’ is ever present in the Invocation’ series whosetitle itself suggests the visual requisite to acknowledge the spiritual element of life as wellas the physical. We are invited to follow the circular path of nature from darkness to light,

observing the elements needed to nourish in order to grow from water, light and food, always remembering thatsuch things contain a beauty as well as necessity. Abstract qualities are rendered through sensitive imagery. Waterrings ripple, sunflowers glow, clusters of mushrooms resemble butterflies’ wings, ghostly christening dresses andskulls. The presentation is intimate and perfectly compliments his perceptive work. Laura Noble

This book introduces us to lesser-known Japanese photography through the whole photographic canon. It allowsus to retrace the steps leading to current photographic imagery covering every aspect of Japanese life and history,punctuated by the poetic and sublime images running through the decades.The spirit, philosophy and reserve of the Japanese people can be seen through these photographs and as the Westhas become more familiar with Japanese culture, so too has our appreciation of their national tradition. This bookis a triumph of perseverance and research and not only a beautiful collection of photography but also afascinating read. Laura Noble.

Manufactured Landscapes: The Photographs of Edward BurtynskyLori Pauli (Ed.)Price: £45.00 (LIP Members £40.50)‘The passion caused by the great and the sublime in nature, when those causes operate mostpowerfully, is Astonishment, and astonishment is that state of the soul, in which emotionsare suspended, with some degree of horror…Astonishment…is the effect of the sublime in itshighest degree’ Edmund Burke A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublimeand the Beautiful, 1757.In their visual representation of the industrial sublime, Edward Burtynsky’s large formatcolour photographs inspire awe and wonderment in a similar way to nineteenth century

landscape paintings. Both Burtynsky’s images, such as Uranium Tailings #12, Elliott Lake, Ontario, 1995, or CarraraMarble Quarries #20, Carrara, Italy, 1993, and Thomas Cole’s series of paintings The Course of Empire, 1834, elicit adual response in the viewer: on the one hand we are struck by the vastness and incredible beauty of what isdepicted, yet on the other we are alarmed at the harmful effects of human technological advancement on thenatural environment. Each artist’s work acknowledges the inevitability of human progress, but the differencesbetween the two is that Cole’s deliberately produces an emotional response in the viewer, whereas Burtynky’s coolobjective style is more ambiguous and complex. In this sense, his work has much more in common with otherphotographers such as Lewis Baltz or Robert Adams and the other New Topographics photographers of the 1970s.This beautiful catalogue was published by Yale University Press in association with the National Gallery of Canadain Ottawa to accompany the exhibition held there from January to May 2003. It is a great introduction to thisCanadian photographer’s work, and includes an excellent interview and some very insightful essays by MarkHaworth-Booth and Kenneth Baker. Sarah Fordham

5


A Workshop byMari MahrRoberto Leone

Considering myself lucky tohaving been able to attendthe workshop with photo

artist Mari Mahr on Saturday 16November at the Camera Club, I feelkind of obliged to share such aninspiring experience with all thefellow photographers that could notbe present.

Diminutive, reserved and softlyspoken, Mahr is the exact oppositeof what you’d expect from such awell known, celebrated artist. Politeto the extent of seeming almostapologetic, when pulling out hertray of slides she actually asked USif we would mind (!) or even like (!!)to see some of her work.As soon as the first slide appearedon the screen, though, thingschanged. It was like being at aconcert, listening to wonderful tuneswhilst being mesmerized by thepowerful presence of the director.

When you hear Mari Mahr talkabout her work, you know exactlywhy she is what she is. Passion andcreativity are the words that cometo mind now.Following what seems a dream-likeinspiration, she composes herimages with such a lyrical eye thatthe viewer is immediately struckby the sense of calm but intensebeauty that radiates from them. Butthe poetic harmony of her picturesdoes not only come from inspiredvision. It is the result ofpainstakingly accurate planningand amazing technical skills too.Sometimes complex, sometimesminimalistic, her monochromesoften constitute collages of people,objects and backgrounds. If youjust think that this style has becomeher trademark long before theadvent of digital technology, youwill probably understand thedifficulties she had to overcome in

order to get the results and theimage she wanted. Every ‘layer’ ofthe collage (object, person and/orbackdrop) had to be shot, thenprinted enlarged or reduced torequired proportions and then thefinal composition shot again. Nowonder she confessed a genuineenthusiasm for the possibilitiesoffered these days by digitalmanipulation! When we wereshown the resulting images takenwith her new digital camera,though, even the ‘purist’ traditionalphotographers among us had toadmit she had not ‘betrayed’photography. The look and feel ofher recent ink jet prints were still 100percent Mari Mahr’s: work of artwith an unsurpassed charm andtechnical quality. Exciting andinspirational is a bit of anunderstatement to describe theexperience. Thanks Mari, and Ihope to meet you again soon.

Mar

i Mah

r


6

An interview withVirginia Khuri

LIProfile: Yoke Matze

Yoke is a founder member of LIPand was the exhibitions’ organizerfor ten years. She lives and works inSydenham and hosts a satellitegroup from her home

During July 2003 Yoke will behaving a retrospective of her workabout nature, created over a periodof 25 years. The exhibition, ‘Lightwithin the Land’, is being held atBarbican Centre in the Foyer of theBarbican Library from the 3rd Julyfor 4 weeks. The images on displaycover work carried out in theNetherlands and United Kingdom.

The exhibition will be accompaniedby a book, Tactile Light, and willbe launched at the opening. Yokesays that: ‘the photographs in theexhibition are expressions of myresponse to light, the essence of life.The Life Cycle, nature’s everlastingflow of continuity, the positiveforce. Nature provides me with itsrich elements, which give shape andform to my photographs’.

How did you get involved inphotography?

I was born in TheNetherlands, in Haastrecht, afarming village surrounded by thebeautiful flat polder landscape. Itwas under the eaves of thefarmhouse in which I grew up that Idid my first drawings and formedthe dream of pursuing a more‘creative’ life. Since education wasnot readily available to farmingyouth, I paid my way throughschool in Gouda by working as anassistant in a photographic shop. Ilearned the basic darkroom skills ina small photo-lab behind the shop.It was also in this shop where Ibought my first camera.

From that time on I knew Iwould become a photographer.Photography gave me theopportunity to explore my creative

abilities and learn about the worldaround me. At the same timephotography provided me with aliving and it has done so ever since.

What was the major influence in yourwork?

The land has alwaysplayed an important role in my lifeboth as an environment where I feelat home – safe – and as my majorphotographic project. It was myfather who showed me the land.Also, from very early on Idiscovered paintings. I went on aholiday by myself exploring TheNational Park De Hoge Veluwe inthe east of the Netherlands wherethe Kroller-Muller Museum islocated. There I discoveredpaintings by the Frenchimpressionists, Monet, Cezanne,Renoir and Gauguin but I wasparticularly struck by the work ofVincent van Gogh, particularly thequality of light, which since hasbecome so important in myphotography.

Then, whilst staying inEngland, I was introduced to DavidRoss. I did my apprenticeship withDavid, who had a studio just acrossthe bridge from Hampton CourtPalace. He kindled my interest in

the photographic portrait, whichbecame my second major subject.Each new person in front of thelens is a challenge for me.

Did you then stay in England?No, in 1967 I returned to

Gouda where I worked in aphotographic lab and was trainedin color printing. In order to getme out of the studio, themanager sent me to Amsterdamwith a Hasselblad and twoelectronic flash heads to takepictures of people. This startedmy fascination with people andtheir lives.

As I became moreconfident I moved intophotojournalism. I knocked ateditorial office doors and wasoffered regular work having myphotographs published in localand regional newspapers andmagazines. The portrait becamethe central theme of my work andthe Municipal Museum CatharineGasthuis in Gouda purchased mycollection of artist’s portraits.To widen my horizons anddevelop my photojournalismskills I travelled from coast tocoast in America on Greyhoundbuses. I travelled through the vastand beautiful landscape andspent time in national parks. Inthe cities I photographed peoplein their local settings. andarchitectural structures, bothshaped those Cities.

It was in America that Ibecame aware of photography asan art form when I saw the workof Edward Steichen in the city ofSan Francisco. The beauty in his

Yoke

Mat

ze

7


work astonished me andrepresented something to aim for.

Didn’t you run a gallery in Gouda fora while?Yes, but first, I opened myphotographic studio in 1973. Atthat time I worked freelance forindustry and art institutions. In1975 I opened the JM Gallery. Forfive years I organized and curatedmany contemporary artexhibitions including photography.In this way I learned how to lookat art. The longer you look at awork of art the more it revealsitself. You must be ‘open’,‘intuitive’, and undo yourcertainties. I never studied arthistory but I learned throughlooking at paintings, sculpturesand photographs.Alongside my daily work as aphotographer, I started to developmy ‘personal’ work. My firstsubject, extending over 12 years,was the polder landscape, thepeople and their work, which Iknew so well. In the same way Iphotographically explored myhometown Gouda. I continuedlearning in this way while workingas a photographer in residence atthe Municipal Museum CatharinaGasthius in Gouda.This wasfollowed by working for the

Prentenkabinet – Print Room - of theUniversity of Leiden with its printcollections including photography.Part of my work was to makereproductions of etchings anddrawings by artists such asRembrandt van Rijn and Vermeer. Ifelt very privileged to look at thosewonderful pieces of work that arerarely seen by the general public. The University of Leiden was thefirst university in the country whoaccepted an important photographiccollection within its walls.I had the opportunity to print fromthe original negatives of the latePaul Citroen, a well-known Dutchportrait painter who took a greatinterest in photography. I wasinterested in his portraits, inparticular what he ‘left out’ of thecomposition. Paul had studied at theBauhaus and had been part of thatfamous art movement between thetwo World Wars. I am fascinated bytheBauhaus movement and how itbrought about a change in the ‘look’of architecture, design andphotography. For me, The Bauhausrepresents the energy of change.One of Paul’s famous images is acollage of city buildings. I visitedPaul regularly in his studio inWassenaar in the Netherlands. Aseries of photographs made in hisstudio are now included in the

Prentenkabinet’s collection and theMunicipal Museum in The Hague.

But you gave that up to come back toEngland, didn’t you?Yes, first in 1979, I came over to aunique little ‘haven’ ofphotography The Photographers’Place and continue to do so for threeyears running. Paul and Angela Hillran this place in the small village ofBradbourne in Derbyshire.There I met photographers likePaul Caponigro, Aaron Siskin,Lewis Baltz and the late RaymondMoore. They opened my eyes andencouraged me in their differentways. Paul Caponigro with hisimages about ‘the stillness of thestones’ that he photographed atStonehenge and other places. AaronSiskin with his eye for the abstractform in the city. Lewis Baltz withhis strong sense of design, andRaymond Moore with his surreal‘eye’ and his unexpectedobservations of very day life.In 1982 I finally moved to Londonwhere I studied for a BA inPhotography at The University ofWestminster encouraged by PaulHill. From then onwards I workedas a photographer, exhibitionorganizer and lecturer. Ten yearslater I completed my MA in Design

Yoke

Mat

ze

and Media Arts at the sameuniversity.

Living in London Idiscovered various connectionswith Vincent van Gogh throughreading his letters. My fascinationwith his paintings and his life mademe want to learn more about himand the time he spent in andaround London. I found andphotographed the places where hehad lived and worked. It is stillwork in progress, although some ofthe images have been published inseveral books on van Gogh andused in TV documentaries inEngland and America.

Over time I specialized inarchitecture and portraitphotography. I was invited to workas a staff photographer for theBuilder Group, one of the oldestpublishing houses in the buildingindustry. In the late 80’s and early90’s I photographed the majorbuilding developments in the cityof London, in particular thechanging environment of the Isle ofDogs and the construction ofCanary Wharf. I traveledthroughout the UK and abroad.Each job was a new challenge andafter each trip I had to return withphotographs for the variousmagazine covers. Then in the mid1990’s the building industrycollapsed and so did my job. Ireturned to freelance photographyand developed my teaching work.

What was your personal work duringthis time?

Apart from my landscapework there is another project closeto my heart – that of burial rituals. Ifound this subject by accident. Thisstarted by me becoming interestedin the victorian graveyard KensalGreen, which I photographed aslandscape as well as the peoplewho worked there. I had myreservations at first, but I continued

and went on to photograph at anundertaker.

The embalming part wasthe most difficult part to handle. Ihad to overcome my own fears.Gradually I accepted that Life andDeath are part of the human lifecycle – of nature. Finally Iphotographed the funeralsthemselves. I became aware of thediversity of rituals of the diversecommunities in London.This work led on to a major MAproject, which was about deathrituals in the Hindu community. Iwas allowed to observe a Hinducremation and more importantlythe Sharad (the 12th day afterCremation). I met the most amazingand generous people. It was a realeye opener and a beautiful anddeeply touching experience and ina way linked to my own sense ofloss - losing my own father whodied when I was a young teenager. Ibelieve in order to really completethis work I need to go to India, toVaranesi, to the source of the Hinduritual.

Do you teach photography?I have always been

interested in teaching photographyand had taught part-time since1988. For the last seven years I havetaught photography and graphicdesign at a 6th Form and FurtherEducation College. I have nowdecided to explore new ways toteach photography and share myexperience.

I continue to run courses atWest Dean College of Arts andCrafts and work part-time for anEducational Trust in London. Formany years I wanted to set up myown center of learning based on theidea of exchanging and sharing ofskills and knowledge. I have nowrealized this dream at my newpremises. The YM PhotographicCourses are up and running.

I work with people who either wishto learn and improve theirphotographic skills or wish topursue a personal project, either ona one-to-one basis or in smallgroups. There are also plans to turnmy new living/work space into aGallery for future art events.

How did you get involved with LIP?I saw an article about Paul

Caponigro in Print letter aninternational art magazine onphotography. I wanted to learnfrom him but he lived in the US.A few months later there was anarticle about Paul Hill and thePhotographers’ Place mentioning thatPaul Caponigro was going to beteaching there. I went and it wasreally fantastic to be with other like-minded photographers.

LIP developed throughpeople in and around London whohad been at Paul’s place. I becameinvolved and because of myexperience with my own gallery, Ibecame the exhibitions’ organizerwhen the committee decided thatwe must have annual groupexhibitions.

How do you define where you are inphotography?

In the last couple of years Ifeel comfortable with thephotographic image. Somethingevolves from within, a confidenceand knowing about the visualpower of the image. It is as if theintellect, the intuition and theemotion all meet in that decisivemoment. They exist within theimage – a precious moment of‘knowing’.

email:[email protected]’s website: www.yokematzephotography.comSee Members’ Exhibitions (page 24 )for details of Yoke’s Exhibition at theBarbican

Yoke

Mat

ze

Yoke

Mat

ze

“The photographs in the exhibition are expressions of my responsesto Light, the essence of life.Life, life cycle, nature’s everlasting flow of continuity, a positive force.Nature provides me with its rich elements, which gives shape andform to my photographs.”

Yoke Matze

Yoke

Mat

ze

Yoke

Mat

ze

10


10

Yoke

Mat

ze

11

11


PrefabulousElisabeth Blanchet

After the second WorldWar, 150,000prefabricated homes

were built in most towns in theUK. Focussed on homelessfamilies with young children,these “palaces for the people”(as they were called at the time)were synonymous not only withcomfort and luxury but alsofreedom. The war led thousandsof young couples to live withtheir in-laws or to rent a room ina boarding house. Having one’s“home sweet home” was thedream of a generation. Mostlyworking-class people, theprefabs’ residents shared thesame and the same choice ofentertainment. In the prefabsestates, a strong communityspirit could be found,emphasised by the post-waratmosphere: everything was tobe rebuilt.

Thought to be a temporary

solution to the housing crisis, theprefabricated houses weresupposed to last only ten years.But sixty years later, hundreds ofthese are still lived in. FromSouth London to Newport(Wales) via the suburbs ofBirmingham, I met some of thelast residents. And everywhere Iheard the same story: “for noreason any of us would everleave his prefab”. However, theword “prefab” can soundnegative to the person in thestreet: temporary, waiting forsomething better. But all theprefabs residents I met told methey already had the best: asmall house whose concept wasfaraway from the traditional redbrick houses. The prefab isdetached, rooms are bright andcomfortable, with no staircaseand is surrounded by a largegarden.

The prefabs residents have been

struggling for years to save theirbungalows from destruction.Prefabs are local authorities’regular targets: the prices oflands are getting higher andhigher and renting a prefab to anelderly tenant does not seem tobe lucrative enough. Time andmoney will win over these oldprefabs and their aging residentseventually.

Going from prefab to prefab, Imet amazing and touchingpeople. I mostly found agedpeople settled in their bungalowfor decades. Their past isdisplayed through their home. Iwished to tell a little bit of theirstory before none of these is left.

Elisabeth has exhibited widely inFrance, Belgium and London, andshe has published many articles andportfolios, including the BJP, forwhich she gave an interview on herwork in Africa (January, 2002).

Her work on prefabs is included inthe book Palaces for the People :Prefabs in Post War Britain, byGreg Stevenson - BT Batsford,£12.99.

Elis

abet

h B

lanc

het


12

Elis

abet

h B

lanc

het

Elis

abet

h B

lanc

het

13


Elis

abet

h B

lanc

het


14

Elis

abet

h B

lanc

het

Elis

abet

h B

lanc

het

15


Photograms - Birgit Dalum

I am a Danish born artist working in the photographic media and have been a member of LIP sinceNovember 2000. Attracted by the international atmosphere, I came to London to pursue an educationin Fine Art at the John Cass department of London Guildhall University, now London Metropolitan

University. When I arrived, I considered myself a painter, but I wanted to combine my painting activitywith other media and found my way to the Photography Department. Here I was trained in the basicskills of photography under the supervision of Mick Williamson.

After this first period we were given more and more freedom to follow our own interests. My favouriteworking method became the photogram technique. Very soon I found myself working on the floor in thedarkroom with large format images. My first attempt was a series of dancing torsos. From drawings ofballet situations, I created collages of wood and textiles on the surface of the photographic paper andexposed them to light. Ten pictures 90 x 50 cm formed the series Funny Gregor.

Funny Gregor, series of 10 dancing torsos- each 90 x 50 cm B/W

Violins, series of 10 - each 90 x 50 cm, B/W

Another series of 10 was based on black and white photograms of violins.


16

Later my experiments jumped into colour. By means of 60 x 60 cm gels I developed a method tomanipulate the colour of the light in the whole darkroom. I danced with wet feet on colour paper, whichended up as Dance‚ a 150 x 150 cm artwork in 4 pieces

Warm Transparency, 100 x 60 cm. Brown, orange,

green and white colour photogram

Dance, 4 pieces each 73 x 73 cm, detail. Colours: brown, green, red

I carried the collage techniquefurther in a project called

Transparency. Folded papersculpture made out of tracingpaper was placed on colouredpaper and exposed to several

different colour casts in theroom. Additional light from a

small light source with othercolour filters gave a delicacy tothe edges of the sculpture. This

variation in colour is not ofcourse visible in the black and

white reproduction.

For me it is an endlessinvestigation to find out howlittle variation in colour and a

small amount of structure isenough to make an interestingpicture, and it is like exploring

the beginning of life.

17


ExodusSebastiãoSalgadoA review of Salgado’smajor exhibitionby Virginia Khuri

I wrote this review onSt.Valentine’s Day, having justcome from viewing Sebastião

Salgado’s exhibition Exodus at theBarbican Art Library, and I have tosay that the discrepancy between aworld of imagined love and onepotentially devoid of it has neverbeen more starkly brought tomind. Salgado has said that hehopes this work will change thoseviewing it and spark a debate onthe kind of world we inhabit – andwith yet another war in Iraq withall its consequences, I dearly hopethis exhibition does wake peopleup and that it will provoke seriousdiscussion about the humancondition.

A total of 350 black and whiteimages made in the final years ofthe 20th century chronicles thedisplacement of people on anunprecedented scale whichcontinues inexorably into this one.The new global economic ordercombined with wars and famineresulting from political instabilityhas seen massive migration inAfrica, Asia and Latin and CentralAmerica involving 80% of theworld’s population The centralquestion looming over theexhibition is: “Are we all in dangerof losing our humanity?”

Overwhelmingly depressing in itstotality, there is yet, as always inSalgado’s work, a beauty in theindividual images which raisesthem above ordinary reportage,and, as the title of the showsuggests, a kind of Biblicalauthority in which the camerabecomes the eye of God. Thisquality of Salgado’s work has beenproblematic for some viewers,myself included, but in this casethe care and attention given to thecraft of photography simplyintensifies the scope, depth andurgency of these images, and istestimony to the integrity and

humanity of both the photographerand of the people hephotographed. The word ‘Baroque’perhaps explains the beauty ofSalgado’s images. Salgado grew upimmersed in the Baroque heritageof Portuguese Brazil. The theatricallighting and composition, theluminous looming skies, the‘heavenly’ light on faces andfigures, the sensuous, intricate yetformal arrangement in the frame,for all of which he has beencriticized, can be found in Baroquereligious paintings which doindeed beautify ugly and evildeeds, but this same beauty alsorivets the viewer’s attention. Inaddition, I might add, that Salgadohimself defends the idea of beautyin his images saying simply that, inspite of all the human suffering,planet Earth is itself very beautiful.

Amidst overall views of masses ofpeople walking or milling about,living in camps or filling urbanspaces, finding shelter even incemeteries, one wonders who thesepeople are? What are their feelingsand thoughts? One longs to givethem words. And then in themiddle of it all we find theportraits of the children, two roomsof them, and their voices are intheir eyes. They look directly,intently at you, expectant, hopefulperhaps, saying in the optimism ofa childhood not yet destroyed, “Iam, I exist”. They reach right to theheart of our humanity – or lack ofit.

While most of the pictures were thestandard exhibition size, a fewwere made wall-sized. One of themis a stunning image of AmazonianIndians gathered in the Brazilian

rainforest living in theirtraditional way despite theimminent threat posed by thespread of cattle ranches. Theimage is pervaded by a magicallight, which at one point turns awater bowl into a golden chalice.It was the ‘odd picture out’ in theexhibition and in its seeminginnocence and idyllic tranquillity,it reminded me of the images inThe Family of Man, which solong ago was my firstintroduction to photography. Theimages portrayed a commonhumanity in all variations ofexpression. Both the originalexhibition at the Museum ofModern Art in New York and theresultant book, have beencriticized as not presenting a truepicture of the ‘real’ world, but ifso, they had, at the very least, anaspiration toward a sharedhumanity. But while the Familyof Man was conceived of as acelebration of perceived unityamidst diversity, Exodus issues awarning about the destructionthrough globalization of both theunity posed by the idea of ashared ‘humanity’, and of thediversity inherent in intact localcommunities. Has this warningcome too late? Hopefully not.

In his recent book of essays, TheShape of a Pocket, John Bergersays, “we have to re-find hope -against all the odds of what thenew order pretends andperpetuates.” Berger finds suchhope in worldwide pockets ofresistance to the new order bothpolitical and artistic. Salgado hasproduced a such a pocket - aglobal one full of powerful andmoving images.

Seba

stiã

o Sa

lgad

o


18

Seba

stiã

o Sa

lgad

o

19


The photographs are of gasometers andof houses and tenement blocks, such as

Stanley Buildings.. They are historicaldocuments of buildings that have now beendemolished, or, like the gasometers, storeduntil some of them can be resurrected in thenew development.

How this will be done is a debateable point,and is being considered by Argent St.

George, after some consultation with thecommunity. Camley Street Natural Park alsoplayed a very important part, enhancing the beautyof the architecture. Many of the buildings wereexamples of Victorian industrial inventiveness.

I hope that the new development will incorporatesome of the gracious old brick and metal designs toremind us of the vibrant and important past of thisarea.

ALL CHANGEAngela InglisImages from an exhibition by Angela Inglis recording the transformation of King’s Cross and St. Pancras, 1990-2000

Ang

ela

Ingl

is


20

The Gasometers - King’s Cross

Your makers sculpted you to rise as highas King’s Cross Station’s arch. Your circles spunin air, latticed frames, like eyes abovethe Camley Park, Old St. Pancras Church,Culross, Stanley Buildings where Fred Astaireand Ginger Rogers danced on the wall, bargesafloat on the Regent’s Canal, pipes that snakedyour gas away, railway lines, barbed wirecaging you, running wild along brick walls.

I often wandered past to see your wheelsof steel intricately wrought like lace stained pink,held by annulets, lovers’ rings with blacksquare stones. At evening I watched the sun splashyour pink with red, and conjure your hoops to join,circling chains twining and intertwininglike dancers in the air. White vapours skimmedbehind your capitals, then disappearedto leave deep blue sharpening your silhouette.

This was the place for studying skies, where cloudsgrew black and pushed your rings so close to earthyou frowned, though, often when the sun broke througha rainbow ran between your arcs, and madethe raindrops flicker on your metalwork.But now dismantled, stored away, only oneof you is left, bereft, like Boadiceawho might have met her fate at Battle Bridge,this ancient place where roads and rivers met.

Angela Inglis

Ang

ela

Ingl

isA

ngel

a In

glis

london independent photographyat a time when most artists seem to scrutinize private concerns, it is...

Documents