John Bulmer: The North
John Bulmer helped pioneer British photojournalism and his work for the Sunday Times in the 1960s and 1970s has been collected into a book entitled 'The North'. The exhibition blurb tells us that Bulmer was a leader in colour photography in the 1960s and, in this, was far ahead of such photographers as William Eggleston and Martin Parr. For this project he deliberately chose to photograph in winter or wet weather, something I am considering in order to further develop my body of work on the River Witham.
The work in this exhibition is a mix of colour and black and white images simply and uniformly displayed against white mounts and in narrow black frames. It documents life in the north of England during the 60s and 70s. There are some very familiar fashions, especially the platform shoes worn by one of the men. They portray the 'gritty north' in the raw. I like the fact that they are taken in wet and wintry weather as it enhances the feel of that grittiness, as does the fact that some of the black and white shots are very grainy - real grain not digitally enhanced grain or noise.
I particularly like the black and white image of a bent old lady in clogs and the small boy going to the toilet in the gutter of a cobbled street. The women's beehive hairstyles and curlers are very evocative of the era.
Food Photography
Innes Photography
Innes Photography was created by Donald Innes in 1947 in Hessle, Hull. Donald's son, Ivor joined the company in 1971 and the team are still working in the same building. They specialise in food photography, focusing on packaging for major supermarkets, companies and household brands.
Some of their work features in the exhibition comprising large scale canvases of mouth watering foods and kitchen utensils. One could be in an M&S food advert - excellent still life work.
Agnieszka Szczurowska
Agnieszka takes a different approach. Her work is inspired by that of group f64, in particular Edward Weston's images of peppers and nautilus shells. Her 'Westonian Series' stimulates the imagination in a new way by presenting food items unconventionally. The subjects are simple, yet their presentation attempts to give them new life and new meaning.
The images are very rich black and white with no mount and in simple, narrow black frames. I think this enhances the atmosphere and mystery of the photographs. They have been photographed on a shiny surface so there is a faint but definite reflection of each subject as part of the image.. They are all fruits or vegetables but some of them could be anything from gnarled hands to rocks. I really like the low key detail and the depth of field, especially in the garlic bulb has been well employed. A clump of mushrooms has absolutely fantastic detail with a rich deep black background. A gourd, or is it a fruit, could be a deep sea creature.
I thought these photographs were amazing, reminiscent not only of the work of Edward Weston, but also the still life images of Robert Mapplethorpe. They have inspired me to experiment myself.
Great to compare your comments to mine. Am on the HIP email list for further exhibitions.
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