Chris Killip Interview

As you may have gathered from my posts a couple of weeks ago, i do adore the photography of Chris Killip enormously. Killip really should be a far bigger figure in UK photography but he isn't and its difficult to work out why. Maybe, as the photographer himself states in the video, the photography from the north east of England during the 1980's has too much baggage when viewed in Britain. 

On the other hand Chris Killip has never been the showman that Martin Parr has been. I tend to think of these two photographers, both of whom were in the limelight when i took up photography in the late 1980's as the opposing ends of the documentary photography spectrum. I've always liked Chris Killips's warmth towards his subject matter opposed to Martin Parr's cold and critical eye.

Whatever the outcome of the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize this year, it's just great to see this important work from the north east being shown and discussed. Killip's work had political overtones when it was first shown and its relevance to current UK economic and political events still makes it essential viewing.

The Better Camera

The Thatcher post from earlier this week provided me with a reason to smile. It wasn't anything to do with the iron lady herself but one of the photographs i had used in the post. A memory came to mind.

Student life had many fun moments but one aspect that isn't often talked about is the boredom. During the week you would have course work and other distractions to entertain you, yet i found filling the time over the weekends could be tricky. You can only read so much. To counter this, I created a circular walking route that I would do most weekends. During my years as a student I had routes in each of the towns I lived in but the Middlesbrough walk always remained my favourite. It was dark, gritty and industrial but beautiful too.

The River Tees runs past Middlesbrough and I had a walk that went through the centre of town, followed the river from the iconic Transporter bridge to the Newport bridge, and then cut through the terraced streets back to my house. I imagine that the walk must have been around three miles in length (note: just measured it using Google Earth - it was five miles so I was well off with my estimate). Often the route was quiet apart from the occasional dog walker or runner, but one hot June day i came across the family seen in the photo above.

The photo was taken just off the rather glamorously titled Depot road that I had to follow between the two bridges. The location hasn't changed very much at all in twenty years, but the once open space now has a security fence that makes access near impossible. The rail track itself ran down to the dockside, although by the look of it, a train hadn't run along those tracks in years. Making their way along this overgrown bit of railway line came a man with his young son and daughter.

"Look Dad, he has a camera" remarked the young girl pointing to the Pentax Program A i was carrying. "Yeah" replied the Dad in a rather confident tone of voice "but my camera is better than his!" I just smiled and carried on walking my route. What camera he had I don't know. Unlike me, he didn't have it with him.

Change of Face

This is a great video showing how lighting dramatically alters the face. It's a simple enough idea, and certainly not a new one, to have a revolving light going around the subject but the results are quite brilliant nonetheless. The music is pretty darn good too.

Winners and Losers: The Thatcher Years

Thatcher. One name that conjures up love or loathing. Her recent death has whipped up many of the old emotions about her. Those people outside of the UK have been surprised to find out how hated she was. No other British politician has ever really inspired these emotions as much as Margaret Hilda Thatcher does.

I've always had a fascination with dereliction. It stems from my childhood and the visits to my grandparents in the north east town of Hartlepool during the 1970's and 1980's. For years we used to pass the shipyard at Haverton Hill where huge ships towered above. It seemed biblical in scale to me as a six year old boy. Then one day the yard was quiet. Empty. Barren. The shipyard site was so huge that it didn't really fit any other purpose so it stayed quiet and empty until 2008. It could be said that I was politicised from then on. I saw the consequences to the actions. Thatcher didn't close the yard  - it closed in February 1979 - but the damage done through a lack of investment and re-development during her time in office haunts the area to this day. During my early student years I was able to see more of this derelict industrial sites around the north east town of Middlesbrough. I even got a pass from the harbour authority to photograph sites. These places and their workers had powered the empire, supported the country through wars and done exactly what had been asked of them. All it earned them was a quick, but totally painful end.  The workers, their families and the communities, like the derelict work places, were left to rot and decay after the industries were finally closed. No help. No investment. No compassion. No hope. No wonder there is still anger.

If you really want to see monuments to Margaret Thatcher's time in office then I would recommend having a wander around certain former industrial areas of the UK. The Midlands, South Wales, Scotland and the North East were just some of the places that found themselves in the firing line. All was definitely not equal in Thatcher's Britain. Far from it. A series of tough monetarist economic polices took an immense toll on many industries and their communities. Some areas like Hartlepool only started to recover after receiving serious investment from the European Union re-development fund starting in the early 1990's. It was true that the industrial decline had been going on for some time and that it was inevitable that many industries would close, but the real bitterness and hatred aimed towards Mrs Thatcher stems from how the closures were done. The fact that some militant unions had caused havoc in Britain shortly before Thatcher's rise didn't help matters. Maybe she saw the closures as dealing with two problems at the same time - killing two birds with one stone as it were. The end certainly came quickly for many industries but the communities ended up facing a damned existence. As a child growing up in Thatcher's Britain during the 1980's,  I saw the effects first hand as a wave of decay and disintegration set in. Chris Killip's images, featured the books 'In Flagrante' and 'Seacoal', look very familiar to me and reflect many of my childhood memories.

In the UK, the Conservative party is sometimes referred to as 'the nasty party'. They are often seen as cruel, harsh and lacking compassion. It is a reputation they are still trying, rather unconvincingly I might add, to shake off.  Much of this feeling stems from the Thatcher era and the political attitudes many Conservatives had during the 1980's. This radical thinking took its clearest form with the ruthless de-industrialisation of areas around Britain, a process that had been slowly happening for a number of years before the conservative victory of 1979. The new Tory government stopped the subsidies to certain industries and sped up the closure process. The idea was that the free market would fill the void left by ship building, steel works and other industries. To a certain extent this did happen but it took a generation or more for many towns to even start the slow process of recovery. Regeneration of an area is an extremely slow and costly process that can take decades to complete. The town of Consett in County Durham still clearly visibly bears the scars of the closure of the steel plant back in 1980 - even after years of  regeneration via Project Genesis. The heart was just ripped out of the town in one knock-out punch. Workers went onto the benefit system and mostly stayed there. Unemployment in Consett during 1981 peaked at 36%. It is still higher than the national average in the town over thirty years later.

The title 'winners and losers' for this post seems apt. There were plenty of winners in Thatcher's Britain. Many of those who venerate her, gained either socially, economically or both. She gave hope to some and snatched hope away from others. Those who lost out through no fault of their own  - through having the wrong job or living in wrong part of the country - understandably have a different view of the 'iron lady'. A great leader is someone who unifies a country rather than divides it - especially during a time of national crisis. Mrs Thatcher was certainly no Churchill. The North/South divide widened during her reign and still remains a major problem that modern politicians just don't want to be bothered with. When Mrs Thatcher was entering Downing Street after her 1979 general election win she said 'Where there is discord, may we bring harmony. Where there is error, may we bring truth. Where there is doubt, may we bring faith. And where there is despair, may we bring hope'. Many would say that she failed on all counts; especially the last one. A friend of mine, at college with me in the mid 1990's, utterly despised Mrs Thatcher because of the experiences he'd had as a young man. His unemployment, and that of many of his generation, were seen as a sacrifice worth paying for the smooth implementation of various monetarist economic policies. Three million unemployed. My friend never forgave her for it. Hope? What hope???

Today the funeral, which is a state one in all but name, took place and there will be plenty of people praising the politics and vision of the late Prime Minster of Britain from 1979-1990. I won't be among them. I will be thinking of certain images created by Chris Killip and the Amber collective in Newcastle upon Tyne documenting the other side of Maggie's Britain. Martin Parr photographed the Britain Maggie wanted to see - Chris Killip did not. With the request to be respectful towards Margaret Hilda Thatcher often mentioned, it would seem that many journalists and politicians have forgotten that the Iron Lady had very little respect for large parts of Britain. Many parts of Britain certainly haven't forgotten her. They still bear the scars.

Images

• Top: Wallsend, Tyneside - Chris Killip
• Top left: Ship Launch at Haverton Hill 1972
• Middle Right: Haverton Hill shipyard 1992
• Middle Left: Disused Railhead - Middlebrough 1992
• Bottom Right: Political posters - Middlebrough 1992

The Magnificent One

It's not often that we get an great insight into a photographer but this superb film 'The Magnificent One: Philip Jones Griffiths' does just that detailing the man and photographer that was Philip Jones Griffiths.

This moving documentary features great interviews with photographers like Elliott Erwitt, Eugene Richards and Gilles Peress that reveal Philip Jones Griffiths passionate attitudes to photography and life. The section covering the Vietnam Inc work is especially fascinating.

There are plenty of wonderful moments such as the poem about welsh rugby and i especially liked Philip's rather clever, if not extremely powerful, use of a Boeing 707 landing light. Its definitely recommended viewing. So grab a brew and watch this great film about a truly great photographer.

The Rising of Jessops

Zombies. Walkers. Rotters. The dead coming back to life have been rather popular of late with TV shows like 'The Walking Dead' even appealing to those who aren't fans of the zombie genre. Just like those TV shows where a character dies and comes back, the photo retail chain Jessops has returned from the dead; thankfully looking in a leaner and fitter shape than it did before it passed away.

Originally the comeback, only made possible by the efforts of entrepreneur and businessman Peter Jones, was to be an online only operation, but it has now been revealed that 40 stores, possibly rising to 48 at a later date, will be opened around the UK. One store will open every day during April. An order online and collect in store service appears to be one key area that the new Jessops company are keen to promote so the location of the stores will be key to the use of the order and collect service.

The new stores opening is great news but they do need to be relevant to the broad demands of the modern day photographer. Whether it be digital, video or film, the stores should reflect the diverse nature of 21st century photography. One reason for the death of the old Jessops brand was it focused on a very narrow market - a market that quickly moved onto using smart phones for their photography! The retail needs of other photographers tended to be ignored. Hopefully this new Jessops enterprise will be a true photographic retailer where digital, video AND analogue photographers can shop in the same retail space.

So will i use it? Well yes, in fact i will be placing my first order next week using the website, buying photographic chemicals and a few other bits and bobs. What the future has in store for this new enterprise is another matter, but with reduced costs and a better business plan it could have a bright future. Maybe.

The new Jessops website can be found at www.jessops.co.uk

Tumblring Onward

Over the past weeks or so, I've been watching with some interest the Tumblr activity connected to the photograph above. The photo was taken last year at Strome Castle in the Highlands of Scotland and posted onto Tumblr later that day - so it has been on my blog for around seven months. Over that time the image has been liked and re-blogged nearly 150 times. The other Strome castle image has managed just 10.

OK, so 149 isn't a very high number, but the interesting factor has been the whom behind the re-blogging of the image. Virtually all of the affection has come from what i respectfully call the 'Tolkien brigade'. These are individuals with an interest or passion for the 'olde' world that ranges from Celtic and viking culture through to Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones fans. Is the general subject matter of the castle, lochs and old stone walls the appeal or is it the actual photograph and an almost timeless view through an old castle wall? It's probably a combination of both. Whatever the appeal, the image seems to capture people's imagination.

The likes and re-blogs also have another interesting trait. They tend to come in waves usually starting with an individual finding the photo, liking or re-blogging it and the cycle starts again as their followers do the same. It's like the photo is caught and blown along by the wind. How long this will continue is anyone's guess but if the photo can still be found seven months on then i see no reason why it can't keep tumblring onward.

Astro Nighttime

Have you ever looked up into the clear night sky, stared at the stars and thought how insignificantly small we are as a planet? We are just a fleck of dust in the cosmos compared to the majestic star fields that stretch out across the dark sky. As you watch this great video you get the same sort of  feeling.

If your internet connection is up to the task then i'd recommend viewing in HD and full screen. I especially love the movement of the stars as the night progresses. It gives a rather intense visual feeling of the speed of 'our' little planet as it spins and moves its way through space.

Raising the Colours

Reenactment at Gettysburg, PA. 2012 | Photo by Michael Falco

There are a few photographers covering the current anniversaries of the American Civil war but the superb colour images by Michael Falco especially stand out by having quite a unique haunting quality.

Michael has been using his own large format pin hole cameras to capture the action at various civil war reenactment events that will be going on until 2015. The resulting images have quite an authentic feel to them but i especially like the blurred movement contained within the images. The flags on the battlefield take on a life of their own, often looking tattered and worn from intense battlefield wear and tear.

We tend to want everything sharp and clear in this digital photography world. Usually that's OK, but modern images can sometimes be seen as rather too clean as other photographers have mentioned. Falco's work has character, feel and most of all atmosphere. You can almost hear the flags fluttering in the wind.

It would be interesting to do some English Civil war reenactment images in a similar style, even if it was historically totally inaccurate. Photography in the England of 1644 would probably be regarded as witchcraft so you'd have to be careful.

Michael Falco's excellent pinhole colour photography can be found on his website HERE

From the Eyes

The eyes say all you need to know in this image of the chaining of a young pig-tailed macaque as it is displayed for sale in Padang Pariaman, West Sumatra, Indonesia.  Fear, uncertainty and even a sense of 'please help me' can be seen in those eyes. Of course if it were a cobra being chained up the image would lose all of its power. Cobras don't have that awww factor about them.

This image by Rivo Andries of Associated Press was featured in last week's best images on the Time/Lightbox website. It can be tough going through the images each week but strangely this one stood out. Maybe it represents so acutely the darker side of human nature. Looking at this image i thought of Agent Smith's rather accurate appraisal of the human race. Maybe he has a very valid point.