Directing the Actor: Look Up, Look Down

I recently watched The World of Apu, Satyajit Ray's wonderful film where the delicacy of touch and pacing  is so naturally crafted, it leads you into a space of love, heartache and, ultimately, a kind of redemption. The female lead is Sharmila Tagore, who was 14 when she made the film. The clip above is one of the great domestic scenes of film and shouldn't really be watched outside the context of the full movie.

Ray directed Tagore in the simplest manner possible - he didn't talk about the motivation of the character or how to get into the role, but simply told Tagore to look up, look down, look left, look right. The interplay of glances and gestures, the opening up of the scene as the film progresses is so gentle and unforced - but the way in which Tagore reached his goal is direct and unpretentious. It seems that this simplicity is just as apparent in photography, where the best work is the sum of a few simple parts, where pretension, artifice and disguise have no role to play.

The UK DVD of The World of Apu includes a rather special Mamoun Hassan Masterclass. I couldn't find it online, but  his Masterclass on Tokyo Story is at the BFI site.

This Portrait is not a Portrait: Oh yes it is

"The photographs are not meant to be portraits, which is why they have no titles. It is not my intention to give expression to their personality or state of mind. Nor do I want to sketch a sociological image of contemporary youth or girls at the moment of puberty. I look for a certain mood in the pictures, in which the girls almost figure as actors. As a matter of fact I treat my models as objects which you can direct and guide. They are simply material for me."

So says Hellen van Meene, but it was a long time ago so perhaps she's changed her mind. Still, it is a bit like Magritte's pipe. The pipe's not a pipe, but the picture... the picture of the pipe is not the pipe. It's the same with the portrait. Saying the portrait is not a portrait is fine, but it doesn't mean it is the case at all.. The girl is not a girl, but the portrait is a portrait.

Are you paid nothing for your work? Are you an intern?

Ben Lyons has been running Intern Aware with a particular focus on Whitehall and political internships. At the same time, Intern Awar is campaigning in other areas and is working towards getting the UK minimum wage paid for all interns, including those in photography, the media, working for agencies or individuals. I know photography is a grey area where the rhetoric of volunteerism is rife, but that is no excuse for no-wages or sub-minimum wages - wages that ensure that access to the media, arts or photographic fields is only open to those with massive bank accounts or trust funds.

So if you are working for any organisations or photographers where no wages are paid, especially for organisations where you think wages could be paid, do get in touch with Ben and the team at Intern Aware. It could help make all the difference.

email info@internaware.org.

The Four Stooges

The times they are a-changing back!

But at least Margaret Thatcher didn't dismantle every part of the British support structure. She started the job, but was held back at least part of the way. There were too many one-nation Tories who realised the effect that would have on Britain, and not just on the poor, but also the rich and on themselves, the people who made the decisions.

The same can't be said of Cameron, Clegg, Osborne and Alexander - what names could we call them? This is a polite blog, so I won't call them names, but I will comment on how alike they look and how, now, anybody who does not look like them, anybody non-male, non-white, non-privately educated non-healthy, non-heterosexual, non-wealthy, is a minority group, an equalities group. And that is a poor state of affairs to be in.

Randall Munroe's Map for Social Networks

Check out the latest edition of Randall Munroe's map for social networks. Down there in the Southwest corner, you'll find the Photo-Blogs, surrounded by the Bay of Drama and Sea of Opinions and Zero Comments.

RIP Maurice Broomfield

Maurice Broomfield, the great photographer of British industry died on 4th October. When I have a few hundred pounds spare, after I have bought a replacement for my broken camera, I will buy a copy of his man spraying asbestos. Truly wonderful. This is from Jon Levy's obituary at Foto8.

Behind each of his images is a story; I delighted in his tales of lighting trickery and his admiration and praise for the workers he photographed. Take, for example, the milk factory in Wiltshire (1966), where he decided to paint the employees’ boots white to make them stand out from the background, always regarding it as his job to elevate the subject and pay homage to the workers. On this occasion the plant managers adopted his idea permanently and white boots became compulsory. In another image, of the T Ward works (1958), he made high art and drama out of a cold steel drum on a winter’s day. Employing dramatic lighting he cast the scene with warmth, while creating an image imbued with gravitas.

Camera Envy: Oh yes!

I was never that mad keen on Chris McCaw's Sunburn pictures - they seemed to follow a well trodden path of extreme burning-out of the negative by the sun, or something else that is bright. But now that I see the cameras he has been using, my opinion has changed somewhat. Is camera envy a good reason to change one's mind? No, not really. I know that process is terribly important, relevant and pertinent, but I can't help feel that it is a rationalisation for something else. Still, McCaw's beast is impressive.

This is from the Photo-Eye Blog, where McCaw is interviewed by Anne Kelly and talks about his work.




Building my own camera was a really liberating process as a photographer. Sometimes you get into that rut of having big dreams of owning high-end camera gear. The reality is that if you use your imagination and a practical sense of what you want to accomplish, you can do most anything. I feel confident that I can pretty much make any camera I need (I'm currently up to 30x40" mounted on a garden wagon). I also just made one on the base of a wheelchair to hold a 125 lb aerial camera lens! 


The wheelchair camera (my friends call it 'the sad robot') was just built last month. So far it is only an 8x10" camera, but it has a 600mm f/3.5 lens that projects an image about 16x20". I was told the lens came off a U2 spy plane -- it is a beast. I use a car jack to raise and lower the lens. I even needed to get a handicap ramp to get it into the van!