woensdag 30 november 2011

Suddenly Gray turned into Color & Drugs the Sixties Philip Townsend Photography


Beer-chewing R&B oiks, screen idols, doomed motorcyclists, society darlings - all were immortalised by Philip Townsend in the 1960s - The Word.

The Philip Townsend Archive collects the body of photographs taken by seminal 60s photographer Philip Townsend, documenting Sixties London in full swing and capturing some of the most iconic faces of the era. His unique collection of shots includes, rock stars, society darlings, models and the political movers and shakers of the day. 


Philip Townsend, who is renowned for taking the Rolling Stones’ first ever photo shoot when they were seeking their first recording contract.

In a decade like no other, with an explosion of new music and fashion, Philip Townsend was at the beating heart of the revolution and captured unforgettable images in an imitable style which speaks down the years about the people and events that made the Sixties swing. This vibrant exhibition documents the people, the style and the musical revolution of the sixties, with over fifty images capturing some of the most iconic faces of the Sixties including Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Twiggy, The Beatles, Harold Wilson, Maria Callas and private fashion shows at Mary Quant’s headquarters. Also on display for the first time will be Townsend’s memorabilia from the 60s including the camera he used to take his photographs, objects from his studio, newspaper cuttings and letters.

Philip Townsend, who studied Photography at the Bourne mouth and Poole College of Art – now the Arts University College at Bournemouth between 1957 and 1959, recently became an Honorary Fellow of the University College. He commented “It’s great to be back in Bournemouth and it’s an honour to be the second exhibition in the new gallery”.

'Opeens werd grauw door kleur en drugs vervangen'

Rolling Stoneskalender bevat twaalf portretten en foto's van optredens van fotograaf Philip Townsend

Jan Vollaard
artikel artikel | Maandag 28-11-2011 | Sectie: Overig | Pagina: 18 | Jan Vollaard

Fotograaf Philip Townsend legde sterren vast toen ze nog niet afgeschermd werden. Pas later had hij door dat hij in die tijd meer had gedaan dan de kost verdienen.

Brave jongens leken het. Toen fotograaf Philip Townsend in 1963 de Rolling Stones voor het eerst voor zijn lens kreeg, hadden ze nog weinig van de ruige rockers die ze later zouden worden. De Stones, met bandleider Brian Jones voorop, droegen keurige geruite jasjes en gepoetste schoenen. Hun sigaretten hielden ze weg voor de camera.
De jasjes, vertelt Townsend, kregen ze van een bevriende mode-ontwerper. Manager Andrew Loog Oldham had de gratis kleding losgepraat met het vooruitzicht dat de Stones ze bij hun eerste tv-optreden zouden dragen. Zo ver kwam het niet, want na de fotosessie werd het brave imago letterlijk afgeworpen. Ze waren zo arm als kerkratten, herinnert Townsend zich. Het eerste wat Mick Jagger aan me vroeg is of ik een portie gebraden kip voor ze wilde kopen. Dat heb ik gedaan, want ze zagen er uitgehongerd uit.
Philip Townsend werkte als freelance fotograaf voor het tijdschrift Tattler, toen hij in Monte Carlo aan de praat raakte met de jonge avonturier Andrew Loog Oldham. Hij vertelde me dat hij op zoek was naar de beste rock-'n-rollband ter wereld om rijk en beroemd met ze te worden. Een maand later belde hij met de mededeling dat hij ze gevonden had, ergens in een kelder waar Brian Jones en Mick Jagger het vak aan het leren waren van de bluesveteraan Alexis Korner. Ik kreeg een exclusieve fotosessie met de Stones, in ruil voor de afdrukken die ik bij Oldham inleverde.
Het was zijn geluk, vertelt de 71- jarige Townsend aan de telefoon vanuit Londen, dat hij het recht behield op het copyright van de foto's. Onlangs verschenen twaalf van zijn portretten en livefoto's op een Stoneskalender die hij speciaal voor de Nederlandse markt samenstelde. In Londen heeft Townsend een archief dat zijn werk exploiteert. Hij houdt regelmatig exposities, op dit moment in Zweden en Israël.
Behalve de Rolling Stones fotografeerde hij sixtiescoryfeeën als fotomodel Twiggy, The Byrds op hun Engelse tournee en de eerste ontmoeting van The Beatles met de Maharishi Yogi. In zijn archief bewaart hij portretten van de jonge Maria Callas, actrices Jacqueline Bisset en Charlotte Rampling, ruimtevaarder Yuri Gagarin en staatslieden Harold Wilson en Winston Churchill. Zijn werk vormt een fraaie kroniek van de jaren zestig, mede omdat Townsend een goed oog had voor trends en omgevingsfotografie. Tussen alle beroemdheden schoot hij veelzeggende plaatjes van mods in parka's op Portobello Road, meisjes in feestjurken op een debutantenbal en een privé-modeshow bij Mary Quant.
Voor Townsend begonnen de 'swinging sixties' op het exacte moment dat Oldham hem belde met het voorstel om de Stones te fotograferen. Voordien waren de saaie jaren vijftig eigenlijk nog niet afgelopen. Londen was grauw en jonge mensen ontwaakten uit de impasse die de tweede wereldoorlog had veroorzaakt. Opeens waren er kleur, muziek, bonte kleding op Carnaby Street en experimenten met verdovende middelen. De snel om zich heen grijpende drugscultuur onder rijke popsterren was meteen het begin van het einde. Na de Summer of Love van 1967 vielen veel van die aan LSD en heroïne verslaafde types terug in een dromerige lethargie, terwijl er overal haaien opdoeken die een graantje mee wilden pikken van de lucratieve popcultuur. Voor mij was de lol er snel af.
In 1970 stopte hij met fotograferen. De openheid van de sixties maakte dat je toegang had tot de belangrijke sterren van die tijd. Of ik nu Marlon Brando fotografeerde of de Stones; ze stonden open voor de gedachte dat het in hun eigen belang was als er mooie plaatjes van ze geschoten werden. Later werd die toegang tot de sterren verpest door persagenten en platenmaatschappijen die allerlei regels oplegden. Toen The Beatles voor het eerst bij de Maharishi op bezoek gingen was ik de enige fotograaf. Daarna bevond ik me steeds vaker in een situatie waar ik me met tientallen paparazzi stond te verdringen om allemaal hetzelfde plaatje te schieten.
Townsend bleef actief als nieuwsgaarder en schrijvend journalist, onder meer als rechterhand van de aanstormende mediagigant Rupert Murdoch. Zijn negatieven verdwenen in een kast en kwamen daar pas in de jaren negentig weer uit, toen er bij veilinghuizen nieuwe aandacht gecreëerd werd voor artefacten uit de jaren zestig. Behalve voor gitaren van Jimi Hendrix of een handtekening van John Lennon werden er opeens goede bedragen geboden voor vintage popfoto's. Toen in een krantenartikel werd aangestipt dat mijn werk een historisch belang diende, ben ik anders aan gaan kijken tegen de plaatjes die indertijd niets meer voor me betekenden dan mijn dagelijkse boterham.
Een rocker van 71, noemt hij zich. De Stones zijn er ook nog steeds, hoewel ik het er nooit mee eens ben geweest dat ze Brian Jones weggepest hebben. Toen ik ze leerde kennen was hij de onbetwiste leider van de band; de man met de visie dat uit hun rauwe blues een nieuwe stijl geboren kon worden.

Het 'sixties'-gevoel De Britse fotograaf Philip Townsend (1940) portretteerde in de jaren zestig vele toenmalige beroemdheden en was de eerste die de Stones - toen nog onbekend - vastlegde. Door de focus op geportretteerden én hun omgeving schetsen zijn foto's een sterk tijdsbeeld van de jaren 60.
Info: De 2012 Stones Kalender is uitgebracht door Art Unlimited.
Foto-onderschrift: De Rolling Stones in de Londense wijk Chelsea, 1963 Stones-zanger Mick Jagger in 1963 
Op dit artikel rust auteursrecht van NRC Handelsblad BV, respectievelijk van de oorspronkelijke auteur.






zondag 27 november 2011

America: a journey through injustice Enrique Bostelmann Latin American Photobook Photography

The Latin American Photobook

Horacio Fernandez (Author)


A growing appreciation of the photobook has inspired a flood of new scholarship and connoisseurship of the form--few as surprising and inspiring as The Latin American Photobook, the culmination of a four-year, cross-continental research effort led by Horacio Fernandez, author of the seminal volume Fotografia Pública. Compiled with the input of a committee of researchers, scholars, and photographers, including Marcelo Brodsky, Iatã Cannabrava, Pablo Ortiz Monasterio and Martin ParrThe Latin American Photobook presents 150 volumes from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru and Venezuela. It begins with the 1920s and continues up to today, providing revelatory perspectives on the under-charted history of Latin American photography, and featuring work by great figures such as Claudia Andujar, Barbara Brändli, Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Horacio Coppola, Paz Errázuriz, Graciela Iturbide, Sara Facio, Paolo Gasparini, Daniel González, Boris Kossoy, Sergio Larrain and many others. The book is divided into thematic sections such as "The City," "Conceptual Art and Photography" and "Photography and Literature," the latter a category uniquely important to Latin America. Fernandez's texts, exhaustively researched and richly illustrated, offer insight not only on each individual title and photographer, but on the multivalent social, political, and artistic histories of the region as well. This book is an unparalleled resource for those interested in Latin American photography or in discovering these heretofore unknown gems in the history of the photobook at large.

(BOSTELMANN, ENRIQUE). Bostelmann, Enrique. Preface by Carlos Fuentes. AMERICA: UN VIAJE A TRAVES DE LA INJUSTICIA. Mexico City, MEXICO: Siglo XXI Editores, S.A., 1970. First Edition. Oblong Small 4to. 1/4 Cloth Over Boards. Photography Monograph. No Jacket - As Issued. np (170pp), profusely illustrated in gravure. Text in Spanish. Designed by Marti Soler. Cover design by Leopoldo Lozano. 


In a protective clear acetate dustwrapper. "America: un viaje a través de la injusticia (America: a journey through injustice)" is Mexican photographer Enrique Bostelmann's gritty, socially conscious 1970 photo essay chronicling the primarily impoverished indigenous campesinos of Latin America. 


Issued in Mexico City in the wake of its Olympics and late sixties student and political upheaval, it has become widely viewed in recent years as one of the defining photographically illustrated "protest books" of that decade of unrest. Its preface is in the form of a five page holographic reproduction of an original contribution by noted Mexican literary titan Carlos Fuentes. 


(page 110 of Martin Parr and Gerry Badger's "The Photobook: A History Volume II" and pages 106-107 of Horacio Fernandez' "The Latin American Photobook")


 “México” A Century of Indigenous Photography


FIRST PERIOD
Foreign photographers start arriving to Mexico from the mid nineteen century, period during which the European capitalism expanded throughout the world. The first photographers were influenced by the spirit of the times, exploring, conquering, and adventure. Their images capture the exoticism, the unknown, that which attracts the attention of metropolitan societies.

The end of the century sees the arrival of photographers influenced by anti-colonialism currents, who also follow a romantic stream, finding in Mexico a “virginal” landscape which is beginning to be destroyed in Western Europe, but those who have an anthropological view try to interpret the indigenous reality by preserving the image of social groups threateded by colonialism and industrial expansion.

Mexican photographers take the stand of the politician in power, Porfirio Díaz, towards the natives: the regime saw itself as a Westernized Mexico in which the Indian had no place. That is why they picture the Indians in bourgeois sceneries, isolated from their natural entourage in time and space. It is not the image of an instant, but the posed image of a period.

SECOND PERIOD
The Revolution in Mexico marks the onset of the XX Century: a thousand-times time, thousand-faced country. It is a time for search and definition, for attaining a single national entity.

Social movement extols an intransigent nationalism; some revolutionary groups oppose the value of the native cultures to what is foreign.

This transitional period is reflected in the art work, in the way of making photography. Revolution and its participants turn into the object being documented in photographs, visual witness of the outcome of the new face of Mexico

By breaking the ancient social order, photography estranges itself from the prototype of images established by the romantic pictorial art of the XIX Century and starts to develop as an independent art.

The technological advance in photography finally permits the capture of the instant. The native is now the belligerent actor of armed fight around him, or poses for the lens of those hunting for the face of Mexico.

THIRD PERIOD
Trenches have been left behind, and so is the rumor of war. The varied image of Mexico now persists. This is the moment for the appearance of the creativity period (1920-1940) in search of the Mexican soul. The native past is recovered as a pristine symbol of nationality; artists represent the redeemed Indian, but condemn the living Indian to acculturation.

The Indian soul of Mexico attracts photographers who turn their backs to the modern spirit of the country, devoting themselves to develop the uniqueness of photography as a means of aesthetic expression. By using this legacy of a new task for photographers, the Mexicans create new modalities, searching the essence of the nation by looking inside the country trying to define themselves; they crate a new visual memory of indigenous times, denouncing the misery and injustice in which communities live.

Commercial photography also expands, wrapped in the paternalism that turns what is substantial into folklore, offering Mexico’s soul in faces, bodies and costumes, but remaining on the surface alone.

FOURTH PERIOD
This period comprises the years of growth, the years of the Mexican miracle, in which similarities and historical co-existing aspects are recognized: Mexico can structure a utopia and be everything: Indian, half-breed and western, without focusing on fatality.

But it is also the decade of the sixties and the rupture of a complaisant vision: these are years of consciousness, questioning and a search for transformation. An image is no longer looked for: the pretense is to liberate oneself from it.

Photography is then taken as a path for social knowledge, a solidarity and denouncing weapon. And in this atmosphere the space is given for an artist’s very personal expression.
And thus facing the Indian Mexico, the multiple hues reflected by the lens do not turn the Indian into an object to be symbolically possessed as another collectible, but quite the opposite, the pretense is to share with him the construction of its own space and his own image.














vrijdag 25 november 2011

SPEAKING WITH JODI BIEBER Photography



Photographer Jodi Bieber's best shot

Last year, I was asked by Time magazine to go to Kabul to take portraits of 18 different Afghan women, to accompany an article being written by Aryn Baker. She interviewed everyone prior to my arrival and told me their stories, including that of Bibi Aisha, whose husband had cut off her ears and nose. She had left him; he and a group of Taliban tracked her down.


  1. World Press Photo
  2. Southbank Centre,
  3. London
  1. Until 29 November
  2. Tour details
We met Aisha at the Women for Afghan Women shelter, where the director told us more about her psychological state. She couldn't determine how Aisha would respond to a photo-grapher: if at any point Aisha became uncomfortable, we would have to terminate the shoot.
Before I start, I try to make a subject feel comfortable through small talk, and already I could see that Aisha was quite extraordinary. Then I began and it wasn't working so well, so I put the camera down and said: "Would it be possible to not think about what happened to you for a few minutes and just focus on your inner power and beauty?" So she did and I took the picture.
I thought that Time was going to be disappointed because I didn't show Aisha as a victim, or include her ears, but they were over the moon and ran it on the cover with the headline: "What happens if we leave Afghanistan?" In the west, the left said that it was war pornography. A rabbi said of it: "Look how all Muslims are." Everyone used it for their own agenda. But the charity loved the publicity, for highlighting the plight of Afghan women.
Aisha now lives in New York and is adapting to her new life there. She is a fiery, young woman, very confident with or without her prosthetic nose. She is now in consultation with an amazing surgeon.
For me, the photograph, which won the 2010 World Press Photo award, speaks about violence against women: a domestic war. It doesn't happen in every country quite like this, but anyone who has been violated might identify. Most people who suffer are portrayed as victims rather than as powerful: this shows Aisha as a survivor.
CV
Born: 1966, Johannesburg.
Studied: The Market Photography Workshop, Johannesburg.
Influences: People on the street.
High point: "Winning the World Press Photo award."
Low point: "As a freelance, when nothing is happening."
Top tip: "Have passion and work hard."





SPEAKING WITH JODI BIEBER Photography



Photographer Jodi Bieber's best shot

Last year, I was asked by Time magazine to go to Kabul to take portraits of 18 different Afghan women, to accompany an article being written by Aryn Baker. She interviewed everyone prior to my arrival and told me their stories, including that of Bibi Aisha, whose husband had cut off her ears and nose. She had left him; he and a group of Taliban tracked her down.


  1. World Press Photo
  2. Southbank Centre,
  3. London
  1. Until 29 November
  2. Tour details
We met Aisha at the Women for Afghan Women shelter, where the director told us more about her psychological state. She couldn't determine how Aisha would respond to a photo-grapher: if at any point Aisha became uncomfortable, we would have to terminate the shoot.
Before I start, I try to make a subject feel comfortable through small talk, and already I could see that Aisha was quite extraordinary. Then I began and it wasn't working so well, so I put the camera down and said: "Would it be possible to not think about what happened to you for a few minutes and just focus on your inner power and beauty?" So she did and I took the picture.
I thought that Time was going to be disappointed because I didn't show Aisha as a victim, or include her ears, but they were over the moon and ran it on the cover with the headline: "What happens if we leave Afghanistan?" In the west, the left said that it was war pornography. A rabbi said of it: "Look how all Muslims are." Everyone used it for their own agenda. But the charity loved the publicity, for highlighting the plight of Afghan women.
Aisha now lives in New York and is adapting to her new life there. She is a fiery, young woman, very confident with or without her prosthetic nose. She is now in consultation with an amazing surgeon.
For me, the photograph, which won the 2010 World Press Photo award, speaks about violence against women: a domestic war. It doesn't happen in every country quite like this, but anyone who has been violated might identify. Most people who suffer are portrayed as victims rather than as powerful: this shows Aisha as a survivor.
CV
Born: 1966, Johannesburg.
Studied: The Market Photography Workshop, Johannesburg.
Influences: People on the street.
High point: "Winning the World Press Photo award."
Low point: "As a freelance, when nothing is happening."
Top tip: "Have passion and work hard."





donderdag 24 november 2011

Dutch Eyes in Deutschland im Fotobuch Photography


Deutschland im Fotobuch

Thomas Wiegand, Manfred Heiting


Welche Fotobücher haben auf besonders überzeugende und charakteristische Weise Einblick in »Deutschland« gegeben? Deutschland im Fotobuch zeigt sie: Bücher aus den letzten Tagen des Kaiserreichs und der Weimarer Republik, aus dem »Dritten Reich«, der Bundesrepublik, der DDR und dem wiedervereinigten Deutschland. Viele wichtige Fotografen sind mit gestalterisch geschlossenen Werken zum Thema vertreten: August Sander und Albert Renger-Patzsch, Abisag Tüllmann und Edith Rimkus, Leonard Freed und George Hashiguchi, Dirk Reinartz, Chargesheimer, Will McBride, Heinrich Riebesehl, Christian Borchert, Willem van de Poll, Sem Presser, Aart Klein, Shinkichi Tajiri, Kim Bouvy, Nico Jesse u.v.a. Deutschland im Fotobuch versammelt 273 Werke, die mit Beispielseiten, einem kurzen Text und bibliografischen Daten vorgestellt werden. Der Band ist in thematische Gruppen gegliedert: Landschaften, Städte, Menschen, Arbeit, Architektur, Zeitgeschehen, Grenzen, »Typisch deutsch« u.a. Jedes Kapitel wird von einem Essay eingeleitet.



[SHAEF MISSION]. POLL, WILLEM VAN DE - Nazi hel. (Uitgave van oorlogs foto's met mede werking van de P.W.D. Shaef Mission Netherlands, bijeengebracht door Willem van de Poll.)

Amsterdam, Van Holkema & Warendorf, (1945), Or. boards., browned, 32 pp. Black and white photographs. Most photographs are from Bergen-Belsen, liberated by the British army. Others from Buchenwald, Dachau, Mauthausen. The final photograph is of a young Dutch woman, killed on the day before the liberation of Deventer. The SHAEF mission (The Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force) was established on February 13, 1944, as an integrated U.S.-British organization responsible to the Combined Chiefs of Staff. On July 14, 1945, SHAEF was discontinued, and its civil-affairs and military government functions were taken over by the Allied Group Control Council, in Berlin.



KLEIN, A / PRESSER , S / HESNA, HANS - Zoo Leeft Duitschland Op de Puinhopen Van Het Derde Rijk

Amsterdam, Scheltens & Giltay, 1946. First Edition. Hardcover without dustjacket (as issued). 24x17.  Images depicting the apocalyptic atmosphere and living conditions in defeted post woII Germany . Reports on Neurenberger Processes, Marshall Aid, and the relationship with the Soviet Union.



THE BERLIN WALL

by Shinkichi Tajiri





NIEMANDSLAND
NIEMANDSLAND - Berlijn zonder de Muur / No Man’s Land - Berlin without the wall - 160 p., full color, ed. 1250. Design: Claudia van Rouendal / Kim Bouvy.
Published dec. 2002, De Verbeelding Publishers.



Menschen in Berlin.

Jesse, Nico: Siegbert Mohn, Gütersloh. 1960. First edition, first printing. Important photobook about germany in fantastic photogravure printing! (Thomas Wiegand, Manfred Heiting, Deutschland im Fotobuch, page 330/331). Hardback without jacket (as issued). 240 x 196 mm. 120 pages. 116 photos. Introduction by Franz Tumler. Layout: Siegfried Kortemeier.