Tim Walker: Storyteller at Somerset House

So I have been MIA the past two months; law school mixed with a few other things have made my life the past eight weeks reminiscent of an Eastenders' plot line. 

Fear not though. I visited  number of exhibitions on Tim Walker, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Rick Guest. I was going to write quite lengthy posts on each exhibition, but frankly I was so very disappointed with the Cartier-Bresson exhibition that I don't think I will really write much about it. 

Greeting text upon entering the exhibition

Out of all three exhibitions, Tim Walker; The Storyteller impacted me the most. It has been open to the public since October 18 and closed on 27 January, so it had been open for a while.  

 

 If anything, it was disappointing to leave the East Wing Galleries when it ended because I didn't want to leave the fantastical world that the exhibition created. The exhibition was super. The way in which it was set out was perfect as well as the way in which each section of the exhibition was grouped together. Seeing many of the props, such as the blue spitfire on entrance and the giant doll on exit was amazing. My favourite prop was probably the giant swan boat. I didn't expect it to be the size that it was, but it was beautiful. Seeing some of the props alongside the images they were used in showed how in Walker's works, things are not always proportional, which added to the fact he is a dream-maker and storyteller. 

As a fan of Walker's photography, I was familiar with many of the images. There were, however, some that were new to me. The exhibition placed a lot of emphasis on his portraiture work, but what struck me was the simplicity of the images. Most of them, if not all, were set against a white backdrop with a white table in the foreground. The brightness of the white made you focus on the subject matter and really look into the images. My favourite, was probably the series of photos with John Cleese, Michael Palin and others, which were made for the 40th anniversary of the broadcast of Monty Python's Flying Circus. 

I don't really like insects and try to stay clear of imagery involving them, so walking through the section of the exhibition with the props of the bumble bee playing the cello and snail slightly creeped me out-especially the snail! The bumble bee reminded me of James and the Giant Peach and so made me wonder to what extent is Walker's work based on his own imagination and how much is he influenced by films and novels, given that he is obviously heavily influenced by his own childhood.  

Grace Coddington and hair brush

Xiao Wen Ju for Givenchy Haute Couture, 2011

Alber Elbaz with bunny ears

With quotes by Walker scattered across the walls of the exhibition, I imagined myself swooning over him, as I imagined him saying them out loud, as I left the galleries and waved goodbye to the giant doll....

Image of the giant doll, from All Things Go.

Photography Is Coming To Town: Current Exhibitions in London

Currently, in London, there is a significantly large number of photography exhibitions being showcased. Of course, the moment I heard about many of them, I jumped up from my seat in utter excitement. Photography exerts a force over its audience, encapsulating the past, the present and summating continuously 'sensitive' themes like feminism, antiquity, modernity and consumerism. Moreover, photography is a powerful device that attracts large audiences due to its immediacy, which makes it a perfect artistic tool when in a politically, socially or economically sensitive area. The well-known Brazilian film, Cidade de Deus ('City of God'), does well in highlighting this with the use of one of the protagonists  being hired as a photographer for a journalist as he lives in the Cidade de Deus suburb, in Rio de Janeiro, which is arguably both economically, socially and politically depraved.  

Returning to the current exhibitions in London, many are the first major exhibitions on their subject matter.

I've drawn up a list of some of the exhibitions that grabbed my attention: 

Cecil Beaton at Imperial War Museum

Light from the Middle East at Victoria & Albert Museum

Seduced by Art: Photography Past and Present at The National Gallery

Taylor Wessig Photographic Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery

The Rain Room and Photography from the 60s and 70s at the Barbican 

Tim Walker: Story Teller at Somerset House

Being A 'Live-in' London Tourist

Starbucks. Costa Coffee. Prezzo. Pizza Express.
These were a few places that gradually came to form the typical places for rendez-vous with friends, until one day I became apathetic towards the existence of such places. A few of my friends decidedly formed a pact that almost every time we met up, we would meet in either an area of London that we didn't know so well, or/and eat at a place that was new to us. It has been a truly interesting experience and we have learned so much about London; little things, that you might expect a born and bred Londoner to know. For example, walking from Waterloo to Liverpool Street really doesn't take that long! More importantly, I am really beginning to discover the food world that exist in London, and I haven't even needed to dig deep into the city to find them!

Photography-wise, I have increasingly observed the difference between London at night and London during the day. The views, colours  and angles of everything that determines London changes as the sun rises and the sun sets.

Herb Ritts: The natural form



Herb Ritts, Digital Journal

I am a great admirer of Cindy Crawford. She has aged with such tremendous beauty over the years and is a role model for many women as she demonstrates the ability to be both mother and businesswoman. When I 'liked' her Facebook page, I noticed she often uploads photographs of herself, taken by a certain Herb Ritts. This got me intrigued and so I one day took the time to begin my exploration of the photographic world that belonged to Herb Ritts.

Now what I can say? Herb Ritts' photography has a signature look. Black and white portraits were most definitely his signature style. Arguably, his models appeared to imitate the style of classical ancient Greek sculptures. Images of toned male and female bodies posing in such manners that a rythmn appears truly make the photographs stand out. The fabrics seem organic and appear like water flowing. Women and men appear in their most natural states. These photographs remind me of a recent article in The Sunday Times Magazine where the question was put forward as to when have we Brits become so prudish in regards to (and I quote) 'boobs.'

What I find even more fascinating, is his literal use of black and white colours.Take the last photograph in this slide. A caucasian woman dressed in a black dress with the rest of the fabric structurally flowing around her, set against a white background. This is in fact my favourite photograph by Ritts; the echo of the feminine curves on her back made by the fabric, the contrast of the curves set by the black and white colours, the use of shadows on her neck etc. There is, to an extent, symmetry throughout the image. And, it is beautiful.

Meeting Diana

This summer, my wondrous obsession with analogue photography became realised when I finally got my hands on Lomography's Diana F+ Deluxe Set. And, what a camera Diana is.

Lomography has a store near Spitalfields Market. It holds numerous workshops and events to help you learn about different aspects to lomography. During their recent spate of September workshops, I attended their Diana F+ back to basics workshop. For £10, we were given an A-Z talk about the different aspects of Diana, how to achieve various effects as well as   providing us with a camera (with flash) for the evening and film. After the talk, we all ventured onto the streets of London and snapped away.

When I first discovered the Diana F+, I viewed her as a toy camera that would not only produce that soft-focused effect I so greatly like, but also as a camera that harked back to the past; it is so important in a constantly evolving consumerist and technological society to remember what modern technology stemmed from.

Diana F+ is a simple analogue camera compared to digital cameras with only a few settings.  Setting up the film roll is as easy; unwind the tape, slot it in one end of the camera and then slot the 'tongue' of the film roll into the other end, wind the film roll until "start" appears in the middle of the camera. Once the back of the camera is placed back onto the camera, using it is relatively easy.

With digital photography, one really does become aware of their surroundings with the likes of ISO. Digital photography is more complex than analogue, well, most definitely more complicated than the Diana F+. 

Once you have met Diana, using the camera is a breeze. The exposure settings consist of the likes of sunny, partially cloudy and cloudy. Moreover, what I must say, and which you probably all know is that it can take multiple exposures. This is one of the super cool things about the Diana F+. The only down side seems that the first few films are not so good, but, after you get used to the camera, Diana becomes a worthwhile purchase and becomes attached to you.

The Diana F+ adds a bit of Spitalfields Market-Brick Lane hipster to each and everyone of our lives. It is a plastic camera capable of bringing the past to the present and creating all sorts of fabulous effects, which digital cameras normally do not do without the aid of Photoshop.

Toy. Fashion accessory. Wondrous camera. Whatever you call the Diana F+, one cannot deny that it is frankly spectacular. 

http://www.emmajanenation.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/diana-oldschool.jpg

Post Olympic Blues

My summer has been a tremendously busy one as I have completed various summer placements. Despite this, I did manage to go to the Olympics twice (VIP seats at Women's Hockey and the Athletics-100m final!) so my cameras were far from being kept in the dust. 

These are a number of photos that I took across the days I went to the Olympic Village. The Red Arrows fly past images are from the night of the Opening Ceremony, when I went to watch it in a park. What I would suggest is clicking on the first photo and a slideshow will appear and you can view them properly.