Photographer Tony Ray-Jones 1941-1972
google search for images by Tony Ray-Jones – (the central image on the bottom row is Ray-Jones himself)
My tutor, suggested I look at Tony Ray-Jones images as way of describing what he meant by trying bring a more observational and dispassionate feel to my images for assignment 5. He is described by the Science Museum group as:
“Fascinated by the eccentricities of English social customs, Tony Ray-Jones spent the latter half of the 1960s travelling across England, photographing what he saw as a disappearing way of life”.
This remarkable photographer was only working for about 10 years as he tragically died from Leukemia at only 30 years of age. However, the instant I saw these images they resonated with me on so many levels.
Firstly, I am of an age whereby I remember my parents and grandparents wearing these kind of clothes in the 60’s / 70’s and found them provoking many nostalgic moments from my childhood
Tony Ray-Jones’ images are reminiscent of my own childhood depicted in these old family photos
Secondly, although brought up in the landlocked Midlands, I now live on the South Coast in the midst of some of the Seaside towns depicted by Ray-Jones. So many of his images could be taken today and would look so similar. My husband who was born and brought up in Bognor Regis recognised buildings and seafronts immediately. We both sat up late into the night reminiscing about these images and the quirkiness of the English! The image below is of Worthing, the Dome cinema is still there and Macari’s are still a local cafe chain!
Tony Ray Jones. Worthing Seafront, c1968
Finally, and probably most importantly for this course, I understood exactly what Clive was trying to get at with these images. What they depict is not the relationship between the photographer and the subject but he is observing how people interact with each other and the things they do together or even separately within the same space. In some instances groups totally oblivious to the exploits of those around them.
In the video below Martin Parr talks about how Ray-Jones inspired this work, but also comments that he doesn’t think you could take images like this today, because people are so much more aware of cameras and themselves as being watched.
I found the section on Ray-Jone’s notebook very interesting giving the following advice:
- talk to people
- stay with the subject mater
- be patient
- vary composition and angles
- be more aware of composition
- don’t take boring photos
- ‘get in closer’ (Robert Capa quote)
- If the photographs aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough
- don’t shoot too much
- no middle distance
Parr also commented that there was a spacial quality to Ray-Jones work which he had tried to copy in his study on Non-conformists.For my this indicates that Ray-Jones really looked and composed his shots before taking the images.
I would really love to emulate this kind of work. particularly as I live in this area, it would be great to revisit some of these views and see how they look today, are the English people still exhibiting the same quirky habits. I’d wager we are 😉
click the link below to: