British wedding photographer and photo trainer, Damien Lovegrove, launched his first art book on March 30th, 2011 with a champagne party on Charing Cross Road, in the heart of London’s book district.

The book, “Chloe-Jasmine Whichello”, is a collection of the photographer’s images of model Chloe, accompanied by her words. It is designed and published by Damien and his team.

The launch party was attended by photographers, models and makeup artists from the UK pro photo community, as well as Damien’s own family and team. Signed copies of the book were available to buy, and a beautiful edition of prints from it covered the walls of two floors of the venue (The Gallery, Soho). Music was provided by a live jazz combo — and by Chloe herself, who sang to her father’s accompaniment on the piano.

[ Damien has a written a great blog post about the book publishing process here: http://www.prophotonut.com/2010/12/13/self-publishing-an-art-book-the-easy-way/ ]

Photographer Siobhan Bradshaw with her portrait of Alton Ellis (left).

The framed print was unscrewed from the wall where it hung, while the Cafe was open, by a sneak thief or thieves, who ignored other works hanging nearby. Management at the Jazz Cafe are said to be “very upset”.

“It was fitting for his picture to be hanging in the venue where Alton Ellis last performed.”

The value of prints by art photographer, Siobhan Bradshaw, who’s also known for her jazz shots, has risen considerably since the Alton Ellis photo was taken in 2008, pushed up by a number of successful exhibitions in London. Her performance photograph of Ellis was especially significant, as he died so shortly afterward, without ever performing again.

It was fitting for it to be hanging in the venue where he last performed, and disrespectful for it to have been stolen from there. Jazz Cafe management are understood to be considering acquiring a replacement print.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auQeEuxGu6Q
Siobhan Bradshaw is an emerging British art photographer, perhaps better know at present for her stage portraits of leading international artists appearing at London’s Jazz Cafe music venue. She exhibited successfully at We Are Cuts, in London’s Soho, at the beginning of 2010. Her work attracted the attention of veteran British jazz and music photographer, David Redfern, head of BAPLA (the British Association of Picture Libraries and Agencies). Simon Towler interviewed her for NewPhotoDigest in Regent’s Park, London.

>> NPD: I’m talking to Siobhan Bradshaw

You are the photographer at the Jazz Cafe.

So, this year, what have you been doing?
You had a show in London?

>> SB: Yeah, at Cuts, in Soho.
And that went really well.

>> NPD: And that was portraits from the Jazz Cafe?

>> SB: Yes.

>> NPD: And did you sell well?

>> SB: Yes.
I exhibited Maceo Parker, Mica Paris, Mos Def,
I did some small black-and-whites downstairs.
Noel McKoy, Reuben Wilson, Meshell.
Cuts is in a new place now,
it used to be on Frith Street.
I’m sure people are more familiar with it than they realize,
Cos it was quite an integral part of Soho,
and lots of what was happening in the kind of early 90s
and throughout the 90s.
I’m sure lots of cool people got their hair cut there.
And it was always a really lively atmosphere to go and visit
like, to hang out there, you’d always hear really interesting conversations, and em…
>> NPD: And it’s a pretty cool place, there’re quite a few well-known…
>> SB: It’s a cool place, and the people are really [pause] nice.
>> NPD: It’s quite a big part of the London scene really.
>> SB: Yeah.
>> NPD: And it’s a hairdressers!
>> SB: And it’s doing really well selling art…
>> NPD: Yeah!
>> SB: …starting with mine! Well, not actually, there was someone before me.
But, yeah, it’s doing really well, the last few shows they’ve done.
>> NPD: Who did you get turning up at the Private View,
anyone we’d know?
>> SB: Oh, yeah, David Redfern…
>> NPD: Yeh.
>> SB: [pause] …and, em, all my friends.

>> NPD: So what else have you been doing?

>> SB: I’ve been working on a large piece.
I want to do, like, a large frieze of my work,
keeping the same format as the work that’s up in the Jazz Cafe
mounting it onto die bond [pause]
with it being about fifteen feet long.

I’m putting some stuff using this idea up,
I’m going to be doing it in a window, somewhere in the West End,
you will hear shortly.
And I’m going to be doing a commission as well.

>> NPD: And you’ve got something going to Japan too?
>> SB: Yeah.
>> NPD: Tell us about that.
>> SB: It’s for DJ Ichikawa, he has a band, and, em… [pause]
He’s been a DJ for about twenty years, in House music
and he has a bar, I think it’s in Kyoto, and it’s very nice
I’ve seen photographs of it,
and he’s going to put my work up in there as an exhibition.
>> NPD: And you were doing DJ slideshows as well, weren’t you?
>> SB: Yeah, I was working, I did something once a month at Sequence
but that stopped after six months.
>> NPD: OK, so you’re not doing any more of that?
>> SB: No.
>> NPD: And you stopped shooting film recently?
>> SB: No. I’m still shooting film.
>> NPD: But you went digital?
>> SB: Yeah, I went digital, but I’m still shooting film, black and white.
>> NPD: So what digital camera did you go for?
>> SB: D700.
>> NPD: And your film camera was your?…
>> SB: F3.
>> NPD: F3. Which you’re very fond of.
OK. And how did you find the transition?
>> SB: Well, for a long time I was just pointing and shooting really, and that was good
but then there comes a point where you can’t do any more
and understanding all the camera can do is quite a lot to take on
when I’m not really a “manual” type of person –
I look at a manual and I almost drop it –
but if you show me how to do something I get it straight away.
So now I’m reading the manual, and it’s an amazing camera, it can do amazing things.
For music photography you cannot really be relying on film any more,
I mean, it just doesn’t make any kind of sense,
and once you’ve switched over to digital, you’re pretty much going to stay with digital.
But like I said, I’m still shooting black and white film as well. And it’s nice,
you’ve got the best of both worlds.
>> NPD: Apart from earning a living, your art is your main thing, isn’t it?
>> SB: Yeah.
>> NPD: What sort of stuff do you shoot for art photos?
>> SB: Well, I’ve been shooting “the city” for easily over a decade now
cos I used to live in Soho, that’s where my work really started
when I started using cameras and I stopped painting and drawing.
And while I’m in the city, I think I will always photograph the city.
I find it really rich in its symbolism.
I’m not so interested in the people, photographing the people,
but the spaces that they inhabit, and like the empty spaces at night,
that still fascinates me. But it’s changed a lot, it’s much more dangerous now,
you’re not so safe walking around at five in the morning just shooting in really desolate places,
it’s much more dangerous.
>> NPD: Your two main stomping grounds of the past decades have been London’s Soho and Camden Town?
>> SB: Well any city, any city I would visit I would photograph,
so I have L.A., New York [pause] anywhere I went. The city in general fascinated me.
>> NPD: And you shot Quentin Crisp in New York?
>> SB: Yeah. He was actually my first portrait.
>> NPD: So how did the Quentin Crisp session come about?
>> SB: I phoned him up! His name was in the directory!
I always kind of admired his live-as-you-wish lifestyle, you know?

He chose how he wanted to be and he was it, and I liked that, I kind of respect that.
>> NPD: So where did you do the session?
>> SB: In his cafe that he used. I can’t remember the name of it,
but he was a regular fixture in this cafe.
>> NPD: That’s one of your favourite portraits, isn’t it?
>> SB: Well, the interesting thing about doing portraits is…
He was a professional portrait. I mean, the man knew what he was giving.
He was composing, he was giving you… he knew exactly what he was doing.
That was amazing in itself, just to watch him do his thing.
>> NPD: You’ve never tried to sell that one, that’s right isn’t it?
>> SB: No. But I’ve got lots of people I think in my portfolio that probably…
[pause]
maybe not quite the same as Quentin Crisp, but in their own way, equally as magnificent.
>> NPD: Who else have you got good stories from your shoots with?
>> SB: I think that probably most of the portraits that I’ve taken,
most of the musicians that I’ve photographed are really interesting people, and…
I couldn’t tell you on the spot, but you know, the snippets of conversation that you have
often stay with you for a long time, [pause]
and especially as you’re strangers. I mean obviously you get to know them as time goes on
but initially you’re strangers.
>> NPD: You got a great shot of Ginger Baker once.
>> SB: That was my most scary shot.
Usually I have a nice thing going on, but that one was pretty scary.
>> NPD: Tell us about that.
>> SB: Well I was allowed one shot. The door opened. There he was.
And he wasn’t very happy that I was there to do the shot.
>> NPD: Did you get your one shot?
>> SB: I took four. [laughs]
>> NPD: And how many of them were good?
>> SB: All of them! [laughs]
>> NPD: What light?

>> SB: Well, it was quite awkward lighting where I took it, but it was fine,
it was on the D700. –But my film came out nice too.

>> NPD: And so what’s the future?
>> SB: The world? [laughs] I really want to go to Berlin, Paris, and America and New York.
>> NPD: And you’re not represented, are you?
>> SB: No.
>> NPD: And you don’t have a gallerist?
>> SB: No.
>> NPD: And you’re looking for one?
>> SB: Yes.
>> NPD: How hard are you looking?
>> SB: At the moment I’m not looking so hard. But I will be.
>> NPD: If there are any gallerists watching, what do you want them to know about Siobhan Bradshaw?
>> SB: I want to put together the different subjects that I’ve been doing,
I think they work quite cinematically. I’m really interested in not only exhibiting them as photographs
but also making them into films, and putting music with them, and yeah, moving over a little bit into sort of cinema.
>> NPD: And you went back to St. Martins recently for more education?
>> SB: Yeah, to learn more about Photography, because I studied Fine Art before.
>> NPD: Where did you do Fine Art?
>> SB: At St. Martins.
>> NPD: And you’re moving on from that, you’re learning commercial studio practice soon?
>> SB: I wouldn’t say “commercial”. But yeah, I’m interested in doing portraits.
The person that always said “I would never do people!” is now doing people.
>> NPD: So you’re going to do musician portraits?
>> SB: Yeah. I think that I have to have some kind of rapport with the people that I’m photographing,
So it makes sense that I would do photographs of musicians, artists, dancers,
Cos I find them interesting.
>> NPD: So Siobhan Bradshaw, resident photographer at London’s famous Jazz Cafe,
long-time face in London’s Camden Town and Soho, thank you very much.
>> SB: Thank you.
>> NPD: Was it a nice day here in Regent’s Park?
>> SB: It’s beautiful.
>> NPD: That’s lovely. Thank you very much, Siobhan.

Willard Van Dyke’s beautifully crafted 1948 documentary about “The Photographer”, featuring Edward Weston. This was to be the year Weston made his last photograph. For the remaining ten years of his life he struggled with Parkinson’s disease.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4aE2f07ON4

“Man Ray developed a few simple rules. He set the lighting before the clients arrived, to reduce session times to a minimum. He recommended that clients shouldn’t smile. He asked them to close their eyes, and then open them suddenly. Sometimes, to relax his ‘patients’ — as he called them — he would give them a prop to hold, so that their expression became serene and profound. The background was usually sober: hessian, chequer-board designs, plain white or grey background paper, on which he played with shadows. Sometimes he featured an object too. He took only a few shots, never more than twelve. He set up his camera at least three metres from the subject, to avoid distorting the face. He cropped his prints carefully. If necessary, he retouched the photos to correct any defects, adding a few pencil strokes to refine a face, or a hip. He didn’t like taking his equipment out of the studio, but he did so sometimes. He knew how to capture in the setting for his subjects some significant details of their personality. Even in his early New York portraits Man Ray understood that what makes a good photograph is the play of contrasts. It could be two faces, or even three; a silhouette and it’s shadow; the light and dark of an outfit; a face and a mask. It’s a lesson drawn from chess. As he put it, ‘The opposition between a white and a black square is fundamentally beautiful’. There are always two, almost equal, parts in a Man Ray portrait. Hands and faces are distributed symettrically. His fashion photos demonstrate his mastery of such contrasts.

Another type of contrast is called ‘solarization’. Man Ray said he discovered this technique by chance, accidentally switching on a light while developing a film. Maybe. In any case, it’s an effect that fitted wonderfully with the development of his aesthetic. Solarization accentuates the contours and intensifies the whites by inverting the values between the whites and the blacks. With this method photography becomes like drawing. The bodies appear to be outlined with a pencil, a sublime pencil which transforms matter, while a mysterious inner light radiates from the subjects. ‘The Primacy of Matter Over Thought’: this title is a manifesto proclaiming solarization as a sort of photo-chemical miracle.” –Jean-Paul Fargier

Documentary on Man Ray by Jean-Paul Fargier. YouTube video in seven parts. This documentary includes treatment of Man Ray’s commercial and editorial portraits, and fashion photography, and the techniques he brought to these.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

“Man Ray’s commercial success was due to the fact that he put as much care and research into commissioned work as he did into his so-called art photography. Whatever the objective of a commission he took the opportunity to explore his effects. In fact, he used fashion to further his art. Every material has its own lighting; each model is modeled in her own shadow. Although most of the sumptuous decors were dictated by clients, he took great liberties in how he used them. Every line has its own staging. The sophistication of the lighting emphasises the opulence of the clothes. He understood how one shape rhymes with another. He used friend’s artwork — here a Brancusi, here a Giacometti — or his own work, to introduce subtle harmonics. The decor amplifies the sophistication of the poses, which flatter the gowns: straight lines against curves; Chinese ink on rough paper. The painter’s hand guides the hand of the photographer: these touch-ups are the touch of Man Ray. Thanks to income from his fashion work, his portraits of rich Americans and his photos for advertising, Man Ray was never short of money.” –Jean-Paul Fargier

“I am so grateful that I have the capacity and the ability to make a living, support my family — which is the definition of being a man for my generation — support my studios, support my special projects, by doing advertising.” –Richard Avedon ( http://www.richardavedon.com/ )

“Avedon was the first person to come into photography as a fashion photographer, as a commercial photographer, and then, in a sense, declare himself an artist. And that was not well received. And he declared himself an artist quite vociferously. He didn’t get all shy about it and say ‘O please accept me’. He said ‘Here I am, get out of the way!’. And it goes on till this day. People excoriate him for his ego and for his own self-agrandizement or self-selling. And if he hadn’t done that we might still not know about him. He wouldn’t be getting the museum shows, because that isn’t something people would have come to him to ask him to do. The nature of the photographic world was just simply too tense and too boundaried for that sort of thing.” –Owen Edwards, critic

Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light. On YouTube in nine parts:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

“In 1962 Jacques Henri Lartigue, was travelling across America by Greyhound bus with his wife, Florette. With him he carried two albums of photographs that Florette had been repairing, to while-away the journey. In a chance encounter with a photographic agent at the end of the trip, these family snaps he’d taken as a child were uncovered. For Lartigue, this changed everything. Within a year he had his first solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.”

Publicity for Lartigue’s photographs was boosted by a chance event: “The asassaination of J.F.K was so shocking that the world’s leading photo magazine, Life, shelved most of its November stories to cover the tragedy. But they kept a story on the newly dicovered French photographer, Jaques Henri Lartigue.”

‘The world got to know about Jaques Henri Lartigue, and I think it was probably one of the biggest selling copies of Life ever.’

“Lartigue was soon rubbing shoulders with some of the greatest names in photography. Fashion photographers like Hiro, Avedon and Bailey were inspired by the freshness, innocence and movement in his work.”

“At the age of 70, when most people have already retired, Lartigue began work as a professional photographer for fashion magazines like Harpers Bazaar and Vogue.”

J.H. Lartigue: The Boy Who Never Grew Up: documentary in four parts on YouTube:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

“Diane Arbus was my mother.
[...]
In July 1971 my mother committed suicide and shortly after that Marvin Israel, a very close friend of hers, and I felt that we wanted to do a book of her work together. So we began collecting not just the pictures but whatever material we could find. In 1970 she had given a class in Westbeth, which was where she lived. And we found out that one of the students in that class was a Japanese photographer named Nikko Nakahara who admired Diane’s work enormously. The problem was that he barely spoke any English at all, so what he had done was to go to the classes and bring along a tape recorder to record everything that was said so that afterwards he could go home and see if he could try and understand it. So he leant us those tapes. The tapes were of very poor quality, so we asked Mary Claire Costello, who was a friend of Diane’s, to read Diane’s words over glimpses of her photographs.” — Doon Arbus.

A half-hour documentary on Diane Arbus, posted on YouTube in four parts. Made in 1972 after her death that year.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Review some of her work here: Diane Arbus: the photographic work

Photographers Graham Diprose and Jeff Robins from London College of Communication, have worked for the past ten years to revisit and recreate images from Victorian Henry Taunt’s ‘New Map of the River Thames’ (1885). When it was agreed that their digital photographs would be taken into English Heritage’s National Monument Record archive, they became concerned that Taunt’s silver based prints from 130 years ago might have a longer life than their new digital images. With the help of Fujifilm and HP, they have now been successful in re-printing over 60 pairs of ‘then and now’ ink-jet images of the Thames, which, thanks to advances in digital technology, and should last for at least another 300 years. 30 of these pairs of stunning new shots and restored images of some of Taunt’s finest photographs were launched at the River and Rowing Museum in Henley in October 2007 and are presently on a national tour. They can be presently be seen at Abingdon Museum until the end of February 2009.

Graham, lead tutor in photography in the School of Graphic Design at LCC, and professional photographer Jeff embarked on their ambitious project to recreate Taunt’s series of images taken alongside the River Thames in 1999. Graham says: “Henry Taunt’s early use of ‘wet collodion’ on location made him a cutting edge landscape photographer for his time and we have always admired his work. When we began this project we were using the highest resolution Phase One digital camera backs available in the UK, so we have much in common with his pioneering spirit”.

“Having visited over 100 of Taunt’s ‘tripod spots’ between Thames Head Spring and Westminster, we then searched the archives of English Heritage’s NMR, Oxfordshire Studies and River and Rowing Museum. While these organisiations are responsible for protecting Taunt’s original prints, Jeff and I decided to use digital technology to retouch and restore his images, so that the remarkable detail could be seen and distractions of any damage could be removed. Taunt shot over 50,000 images in his lifetime and 13,000 can still be seen on English Heritage’s Viewfinder website. We felt that he had been grossly under-rated or neglected by comparison with other photographers of the era, such as Frances Frith and hope this project will rectify that.”

Graham and Jeff were helped in their extensive research into the best way to preserve Taunt’s restored photographs and their new images by Mike Seaborne, Senior Curator of photographs at the Museum of London. “One of our biggest concerns was considerable risk of loss when images are only stored as data, however good the archive. Thankfully, Mike knew of some research by the Wilhelm Institute which suggested that Fujifilm’s Baryte 300gsm media in conjunction with an HP Designjet Z3100 large format printer would produce superior quality images that could last for more than 300 years. Once again, Jeff and Graham were keen to use the most advanced technology available for this project and so approached the two companies to see if they could help.”

They were in luck. HP provided them with a loan of the Designjet Z3100 printer and Fujifilm provided them with a supply of 300gsm Baryte paper to help with their exhibition output and prints for archive. Offering a spectrum of unique features, the HP Designjet Z3100, which is being marketed by Fujifilm, delivers extreme high-end colour and superb quality results, all beautifully rendered with accurate detail and efficient processing print after print after print. Available in 24” and 44” models, it boasts a host of unique benefits, including a built-in Eye-One spectrophotometer from X-Rite for automatic colour adjustment and easy ICC profiling – a world first for this class of printer.

Fujifilm’s 300gsm Baryte paper offers a digital alternative for fibre based silver hailde prints and offers stunning results for black and white or sepia toned images thanks to its high density rating (d-max). When used in conjunction with the HP Designjet Z3100 printer and vivera pigment inks it produces results with a permanence that, according to tests carried out by the Wilhelm Institute, will outlast traditional film prints. Three years ago, digital photographs were only expected to last for around 30 years, with the lifespan of traditional images estimated to be 90 years, so the findings are expected to mark a significant turning point for those still using conventional photography methods.

Graham continues: “Both the printer and the paper have been pivotal to our project. While the process was long, the results that we have been able to achieve with the Designjet and the Baryte paper have been amazing and have the ‘look and feel’ of traditionally made C-type colour prints but with a much longer life.
We were also able to use the system to print our captions and 8ft x 2ft banners for the exhibition, using ‘In Design’, again with perfectly controlled colour management”.

“Large enough to accommodate the 24” paper that we were using, with the added benefits of efficient processing, amazing colour depth and detail, the HP Designjet printer has helped us to create some truly impressive images. One of its key advantages is that it can switch quickly between black and white and colour with no need to change the inks. It also produces a continuous tone that stays true when using black and white inks, which achieved perfect results when trying to achieve maximum depth and detail, particularly in the shadows. Combined with the quality of the Fujifilm Baryte paper, which offered a superb level of reproduction and sharpness, we were able to produce a collection of beautiful prints that will help Taunt’s work, and our project, live on for a very long time.”

“The workflow also gave us complete confidence in our colour management for proofing and checking the book of the project ‘River Thames Revisited …in the footsteps of Henry Taunt’. This was published by Frances Lincoln in October 2007 and is one of their very first ‘digital photography only’ books that was to be printed in China. Jeff and I are delighted that the photographs in the book and exhibition both match exactly and are precisely how we intended them to be reproduced”. The project has appeared on ITV Meridian and in January 2007 was a topic discussed with John McCarthy in BBC Radio 4’s Excess Baggage programme.

“We understand that this project is a ’first’ in terms of living photographers having their digital images and prints taken into archive by English Heritage National Monuments Record, and are confident that our collaboration with Fuji and HP has given the project images the very best possible chance of being enjoyed by scholars of photography, Victoriana or the River Thames in 250 years from now”. Peter Hayward at Fujifilm said: “We are delighted to have been able to assist Graham and Jeff with this groundbreaking project. Their work clearly demonstrates the merits and capabilities of the HPZ300 when used with this type of paper and proves just how far technology has come in recent years.”

For more information on the HP Designjet Z3100 large format inkjet printer or Fujifilm’s extensive range of media please contact the Photofinishing team on 01234 572 057.

Notes:

• Henry W Taunt was a Victorian photographer who worked out of premises in Oxford between 1860-1922. His main interests were Oxfordshire and surrounding counties, the River Thames, customs and local history. He produced the first guide book to the Thames in 1872 using photographs and maps and had a huge influence on the Victorians, sparking their interest in the Thames and leisure activity. As well as being a landscape and architectural photographer, Taunt was a keen observer of human nature, recording the activities of ordinary people at work and play. Books such as “Three Men in a Boat” or “The Wind in the Willows” might never have been written or have been as successful, were it not for Henry Taunt.

• Graham and Jeff’s images are published alongside those of Henry Taunt in a new book entitled ‘The River Thames Revisited: In the Footsteps of Henry Taunt’, (Frances Lincoln Limited). An exhibition of their work, in association with English Heritage, launched at the River and Rowing Museum in Henley in October and is at Abingdon Museum Museum until 28th February 2009. Their prints have been be presented to English Heritage NMR, Oxfordshire Studies and River & Rowing Museum, Henley to be added to their permanent collection and archived in perpetuity.

• For further information on the Wilhelm Institute please visit www.wilhelm-research.com

• Further details of the project and touring exhibition can be found on the project website
www.henrytaunt-footsteps.co.uk

A half-hour TV interview profiling fine-art photographer and printer, Ansel Adams. YouTube video in four parts.

“The thing that excites me is that in not too many years we’re going to have an entirely new medium of expression: the electonic image. I’ve seen what can happen to a print reproduced by the laser scanner and how that is enhanced, and that’s just the beginning. I’ve also seen some magnificent electonic images direct – direct electrical images, not pictures of pictures – and I know the potentials are there, I know it’s going to be wonderful.” – Ansel Adams

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

A documentary about Henri Cartier-Bresson. The photographer talks us through the photos in his albums, intercut with commentary from notables including Norman Mailer. On YouTube in ten parts:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10

Cartier-Bresson featured in The Genius of Photography