Agenda

Terry O'Neill Award - A Reader Writes

From the Ag postbag:
The shortlist for the first Terry O'Neill Award has been published. Being open minded I never thought I would do this; that is, criticize the work of others in competition, but enough is enough.
Before anyone asks, no, I didn't enter and yes, I understand how subjective photography can be; each to his own and so on.
This award carries the name of Terry O'Neill for whom my respect and admiration knows no bounds and yet, viewing the images, why does the word Schweppes spring immediately to mind? Mr O'Neill is quoted as saying 'Photography in the UK is going through a hugely innovative and exciting period' and I'd like to think that's true. It's just that I'm personally not seeing it in these awards; just more of the same.
Most, but not all, of the images carry the characteristics of what I would consider to be 'art' photography. This has been going on for some time now and I've been waiting patiently for someone to move this strand of photography forward but it just doesn't seem to be happening.
I've always had a problem with the need of the photographer to 'explain' their work. For example; there is a technically accomplished image of a young woman with a crow on her head, that purports to deal with 'women and their image in the eyes of men and society'. Here we go again. The male gaze. Stereotyping. Haven't Barbara Kruger, Cindy Sherman et al already been there and done that?
I'm mindful of the fact that the single images published may not represent a whole project. Projects always work best when seen in full, or at least in groups of photographs. But if, as it appears, this competition is based on single entries then I'll continue. Here are some other examples: An image of clothing on a stick apparently 'signifies the absent body while evoking more abstract ideas relating to loss or memory'. Well, I'm sorry, but no it didn't, even after I'd read the text.
Another asks: ' What is home and what is homelessness?' and yet I did not get an answer from this rather bland image especially as so much good work has already been done on this subject, even as far back as the nineteenth century with Thomas Annan and Jacob Riis. What's new?
I believe that often the problem lies in the colleges and art departments where there seems to be a lack of promotion of the originality of thought. It's as if students are offered a list; this is how to do it today and that images broadly in the 'Schweppes style' are the only way forward.
Fortunately it isn't all bad news. Zak Waters 'Birdman' is in the true spirit of documentary; James Tye's boxer (although reminiscent of Rinike Dijkstra's bullfighters) and Ahmet Unver's Stockholm landscape did not have, at least in the text provided, or require any explanation and both are excellent. Which brings me to Indre Serpytyte's 'State of Silence'. Indre does explain that the image (part of a project which) 'conjures a powerful atmosphere of intrigue and is inspired by the death of her father, a Lithuanian government official in an apparent car accident'. I looked at this deceptively simple image and immediately formed my own opinion that it indeed suggested a faceless bureaucracy that generated it's own pointless work, as represented by the blank paper, and I don't mean in Lithuania. This should win but probably won't.
I wonder if, in the pages of Ag, David Lee will have an opinion. What am I saying? Of course he will.
Geoff Maxted

Nick Waplington double act

Publisher Trolley announces the arrival next month of Nick Waplington's latest book You Love Life. They go on to mention that the author was born in 1974 on the Ivory Coast (or Cote D'Ivoire as they prefer). There are clearly two Waplingtons: the one I know was born in England in 1965; we met in 1990 when he was on the MA at the Royal College of Art - and 16 is a little youthful for postgraduate study. And 17 is remarkably precocious to have a book (Living Room) published with accompanying texts from Richard Avedon and John Berger. The coincidences don't end there: the two Waplingtons have published books with identical titles, the publishers indicate. One wonders if the older Waplington turning 40 this year has anything to do with this? You Love Life will be published 30 May, £24.95, in a limited edition of 1000, ISBN 1-904563-42-2.

Seemed like a good idea at the time

One of Nikon's UK distributors has been crossed off the company's Christmas card list after enthusing in an advert in Shooting Times that a Nikon rifle scope would prove a useful tool for shooting foxes after hunting with hounds is banned. While few of the magazine's readers will have batted an eyelid, anti-hunt campaigners failed to see the joke and a brief internet and email campaign saw the ad pulled. Nikon UK issued the requisite apology and customers are no longer encouraged to stay 'one step ahead of the game' as their distributors' ad had suggested.

Another snip from Leica

To mark 50 years of the Leica M-series rangefinder cameras the company has announced a limited edition titanium version of the M7. Very limited, in fact, with only 50 sets (body plus three lenses) available worldwide. For UK customers it is probably already too late as only one set has been allocated to our shores. So you'll have to go and spend your £13,550 elsewhere. Instead, why not have a bit of fun designing your own personalised M7 or MP at the Leica website - among the 4000 (yes, four thousand) options/combinations available is a choice of 12 different leather finishes, although highly fashionable leopardskin does not appear to be one of them. Trick missed there one feels.

Further signs of photo boom

Despite companies such as Kodak and Ilford making announcements which sound like photography is going down the pan, quite the opposite is true. Their bad news is the result of restructuring their businesses too late to align with changing markets, changes which, ironically, companies such as Kodak have been driving hard. Although photography as a hobby has been declining since the 1980s, thanks to the ubiquity of digital imaging analysts now expect the market to grow by almost a quarter over the next four years. One UK business that has clearly been on the ball is the specialist photo retailer Jessops. Bought from the founding family in a 1996 management buyout, the company has since increased turnover by almost 270 percent and profits by almost 300 percent. Jessops is now about to float on the UK Stock Exchange and is likely to achieve a market capitalisation of around £200million. Not bad for a chain of camera shops.

Kodak caught out?

Listening to news reports, it seems the consumer is to blame for Kodak's shedding of 250 jobs at its plant in Harrow in the UK. It's all the result of too many people opting for digital photography in place of film, a possibility that Kodak seems to have overlooked. Why can't companies talk straight sometimes? There is now a boom in photography as a popular hobby - the biggest since the 1960s and '70s; and that's thanks to companies (such as Kodak) investing millions in R&D and getting it right for once. But all the bad news, that's your fault, apparently.

Richard Avedon, 1923-2004

Richard Avedon, one of the original doyens of fashion photography, died aged 81 on 1 October. He had suffered a stroke while photographing in Texas in September. Among the many awards he won during his lifetime was the Hasselblad Prize, received in 1991; the protrait here (© Ling Li) was issued by Hasselblad to mark the event. Among the many lengthy obituaries to Avedon, check out those on The Guardian and Independent websites, by Amanda Hopkinson and Val Williams respectively.

Salgado is the greatest - official

The cover boasts: 'The world's greatest photographer joins Guardian Weekend' (11.09.04). I hope that Sebastião's toes curled. I look forward to sharing a pint with him of a lunchtime on Clerkenwell Green. Hang on, he's only an 'acclaimed photographer' according to the contents page. Then, few readers (of any paper) could even name a photographer - usual suspects aside. And SS ain't one of (either of) them.

The camera never lies

And just to prove that Molesey is every bit as picturesque as I boasted when introducing you to the local photographic society this morning, here are some snaps I took during my lunchtime constitutional bike ride along the river. Click on a thumbnail for a larger version.
Above is my former studio on Platts Eyot (pronounced ‘8’, it means island) – the upper floor with the balcony.
Above right is one of the many riverside homes on Cigarette Island. There are many houseboats too.
Right is Turk’s boatyard near the lock at Sunbury.
All along the same river as Tate Modern, but without the redundant power station. And the sun's shining too - for once.

It will all end in tears

A couple of years ago I calculated that at any one time there were as many people studying photography in UK colleges as there were folk working in the industry. If you assume that a good proportion of these students hoped to follow a career in photography, then this would not have been a statistic they would want to be appraised of.
The situation had arisen because new courses attracted additional funding for colleges and bums on seats meant more money – particularly with overseas students who pay much higher tuition fees.
Worrying news then that, despite this year’s A Level results being bigger and better than ever, as of today there are still 410 courses countrywide with vacant places. And this despite a full week of the clearing process that finds places for students whose results didn’t live up to the conditional offers they had in advance.
Clearly the process is self-perpetuating. The steady increase in the number of courses is to ensure that there are enough graduates to teach on the steadily increasing number of courses. They sure as heck aren’t going to be working as photographers after college.