Critical Review of the article Ha Ha Ha: Ray's a Laugh

Jan Estep is an artist and an associate editor of New Art Examiner.  In his article he discusses and depicts the work of Richard Billingham’s ‘Rays a Laugh’, he also talks about a film called fishtank (1996), which is in a sense a filmed version of ‘Rays a Laugh’, and lastly he makes a connection between Billingham’s later work to ‘Rays a Laugh’.

Putting the emotional tonality to one side, Estep questions the artist intent and purpose of publishing such private images.  Family secrets are usually not exploited at all; never mind in this sort of manner and I concur with Estep on questioning why would you allow the privacy of your own family to be exposed?

He talks about the familiarity of photographing ones family and friends but how awkward they could come across to Billingham as well as the viewer, they are somewhere between empathy and cruelty, love and hate, which I half agree on because I think it comes down to the individual and their family background.  I believe that it’s one or the other, not in between like Estep suggests.

With Billingham moving on to urban landscape work Estep suggests, “they feel less specific, and less driven by personality” and are overshadowed by earlier work which I believe is true but however, I think this is fairly obvious because how can there be anything as personal as family and the family home?

I believe that Estep’s article is thoroughly done, and raises lots of interesting questions about the motives of the artist and the book, however I do believe that he rambled on too much in certain areas of the article.

Reference:

Estep, J. New Art Examiner, September 1999, Vol. 27 Issue 1, p28, http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=d840dd7d-f2ed-4fdb-b944-0094e335296c%40sessionmgr112&vid=1&hid=119&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aft&AN=505827343

A Book Review of Stephen Shore's Uncommon Places: The Complete Works

‘Uncommon Places: The Complete Works’ by Stephen Shore was originally published in 1982 by Aperture and has long been unavailable.  This version of the book is essentially a director’s cut, there are ninety-four additionally images on top of the original forty-nine.  Stephan Shore was one of the first artists to take colour to another level, beyond the realms of commercial based photography.  His large format colour work of the landscape has become a foundation over the past thirty years for a vital photographic tradition.

The book is essentially a documentation of Stephen Shore’s trips around North America between 1973 and 1979.  Taking the original ‘Uncommon Places’ into account and expanding upon that work to represent a more modern day America, as if to carry on this continuation of time, a passage of time.

The title of the book “Uncommon Places” is a very controversial heading because the series suggests otherwise.  Showing familiar places in America, taken using an ordinary viewpoint, but what I think Stephen Shore is trying to show is that everyday places are taken for granted and the beauty that is within them is often gone unnoticed.  His images are often bleak and isolated, there doesn’t seem to be much going on, suggesting a lack of movement in the landscape.  Nevertheless, they are also pensive and observational with the use of colour composition, which is a fascinating contrast all at the same time.

The layout is thoughtful and shows a great range of juxtaposed images on a double page, whether this would be the comparison between motels, parking lots or even just simple roads.  You can’t help but compare the images side by side and point out the differences.

To conclude I believe that ‘Uncommon Places: The Complete Works’ is a brilliant documenting piece of art that focuses precisely on North America cultures in the 70’s.  Stephen Shore is an artist I wasn’t too familiar with in the past, but the way he encapsulated the American culture and the way its presented in this book is nothing short of phenomenal, I would recommend this book to any passionate photographer.

Fifth Street and Broadway, Eureka, California, September 2, 1974, Uncommon Places: The  Complete Collection, Stephen Shore

Reference:

Stephen Shore. Uncommon Places: The Complete works. (2004) Thames & Hudson 

Diane Arbus - A young Brooklyn family going for a Sunday outing, N.Y.C. (1966) By Liz Jobey

Diane Arbus - A Young Brooklyn Family Going For a Sunday Outing, N.Y.C. (1966) By Liz Jobey

A Young Brooklyn Family going for a Sunday Outing, N.Y.C. 1966, Diane Arbus

Liz Jobey starts her essay by talking about Diane Arbus’s photographs and how they raise a multitude of questions, in particularly she comments on this image of a young Brooklyn family and how fictions are always made on photographs.  She goes on to depict the image, giving her own in depth questions revolving around the family and a detailed description of the family in terms of their expression shown through the image which is summed up well by Diane Arbus herself “They were undeniably close in a painful sort of way”.

This quote delves deeper into the relationship of this couple and Jobey goes on further by finding out about the story of this family and each individual within it.  This quotation came from the letter Arbus wrote to Crookson, who was the magazine editor for the Sunday times.  He modified Arbus’s comments, which shifted the feeling of pain from the couple to the photographer, which Arbus wasn’t happy about.

The text carries on by describing Arbus’s rise in fame; her photographs were exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, alongside two of her contemporaries, Lee Friedlander and Winogrand.  Jobey then talks about what made the photographs disturbing, the style in which she engaged with her subjects.  The appearance and attitude of people would draw her to them because she saw something that people wouldn’t necessarily see if she didn’t photograph them.

Her daughters were left to look after her estate and kept an eye on the release of her images after her suicide in 1971.  There was a chronological aspect to her work, as she took another shot of the Brooklyn family later on in her career.

Arbus was a liberal American, questioning “all-American” values and she was somebody who was for the freaks, people who were different from society, she hailed them because they held their own away from the mainstream and showed a true sense of American.

Reference:

Howarth, S. and Alexander, M.  D.  2005.
Singular images: Essays on Remarkable Photographs.
New York: Aperture
A Young Brooklyn Family Going For a Sunday Outing, N.Y.C. (1966) By Liz Jobey

All That Is Solid Melts Into Air by Jeremy Deller

All That Is Solid Melts Into Air by Jeremy Deller

The Jeremy Deller exhibition was a show, showing the impact of the Industrial Revolution.  It showed a vast range of contemporary pieces, music, film, photography and objects, which have shaped and influenced Britain through the industrial Revolution.  It also shows the relationship between technology to the regimentation of time, the change in towns and cities, traditions, class and wealth and poverty, which moulded Britain to its modern state.  One of the interesting things I liked about the show was that there seemed to be a sequence throughout, as if it was on a timeline from the beginning to the end showing how Britain has evolved.  This helped really underpin the Industrial Revolution.

An image I liked was Dennis Hutchinson’s image of Adrian Street and his Father depicts a great juxtaposition between the both of them, with Adrian dressed in flamboyant glamorous drag compared to his father whose in traditional dark clothing for working in the mines.  The stance and expression of his father is key because whilst his facial expression is reluctant his body language is pointing to his left, up at his son.  This suggests that Adrian is the hierarchy and the future whilst his father and the miners are the ones being left behind in the times and not taking that leap of faith.  This compares to another example in the show of the “miner with Candle, Climbing Ladder” which also has that leap of faith element, a hope of a brighter future, which is depicted by the glowing of the candle.  The darkness represents the harshness of the mines, where there was a high mortality rate.  Both the Ben Hutchinson image and the miner painting both seem to have a romantic aspect, with the ascending of the miner up the ladder in comparison to the story of Adrian Street which is like a fairy tale story in itself.

Adrian Street with his father at the pinhead of Brynmawr colliery, Wales, Dennis Hutchinson (1973)

Miner With Candle, Climbing Ladder (1805)

Reference:

Deller, J. 'All That Is Solid Melts Into Air'. (2014). Hayward Publishing.