Tag Archives: Tony Ray-Jones

Assignment 5 – Photography is simple (reworked)

Brighton Day Out:  A sky view

(click on any image to see full screen gallery)

click here to view black and white versions of the images

click here to view contact sheets

The brief

Take a series of 10 photographs of any subject of your own choosing. Each photograph must be a unique view of the same subject; in other words, it must contain some ‘new information’ rather than repeat the information of the previous image. Pay attention to the order of the series;  here should be a clear sense of development through the sequence.

In your assignment notes explore why you chose this particular subject by answering the question ‘What is it about?’ 

 

“There are two fundamentals in all picture taking – where to stand and when to release the shutter … so photography is very simple.”                 (Jay & Hurn, 2001, p.37)

 

‘What is it about?’

In the late 1960s, early 1970s, Tony Ray-Jones toured English seaside resorts documenting the quirkiness of English culture, which, according to the quote below, he thought was disappearing. 

“My aim is to communicate something of the spirit and the mentality of the English, their habits and their way of life,  the ironies that exist in the way they do things, partly through their traditions and partly through the nature of their environment and their mentality. For me there is something very special about the English ‘way of life’ and I wish to record it from my particular point of view before it becomes Americanized and disappears”

Source: http://shooterfiles.com/2016/01/master-profiles-tony-ray-jones/

He is considered to be one of the original street photographers and brought a style of photography to the UK that hadn’t been seen before.  His images documented social anthropology in an often multi-layered complex way that could be both nostalgic and humorous. Click here to read my review of Tony Ray-Jones work.

As soon as I discovered Ray-Jones’ work, I felt an immediate connection with my own work and felt inspired to create a set of images that echoed his ‘Day Off: An English Journal’ set.  As I live on the South Coast of England not far from Brighton where many of his images were taken it seemed like 50 years on it would be interesting to revisit the subject.

I have visited the British Airways i360 on two separate occasions, once for a sunset flight and once on what turned out to be hottest and sunniest day of the year (2018).  I have used these to observe and document how people use their time off and, (returning to my earlier work in assignment one), how they occupy a space.  What struck me more than anything was the juxtaposition of people having paid to take this ‘flight’ in order to experience a unique view of the city, they then spending much of the time looking at their mobile phones, or taking selfies with their backs to it.  This was particularly noticeable on the sunset flight when the sky was the most amazing colour.  I’m not sure we’ve become ‘Americanized’ as Ray-Jones feared, more that we have become ‘technolised’!.                                                                                            (295 words)

Click on the links below to see:

Bibliography

Ray-Jones, T. (1974). A Day Off: An English Journal (First ed.). London: Thames & Hudson Ltd.

Walker, F. D. (2016, January 25). Master Profiles: Tony Ray-Jones. Retrieved from shooterfiles.com: http://shooterfiles.com/2016/01/master-profiles-tony-ray-jones/

Assessment criteria: Context

click here to see exercise 5.2 on context

Tony Ray-Jones, Photographer

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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:

go to Assignment 5 – Photography is simple (reworked)

Assignment 5 – ‘Hangout’

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Having submitted my final assignment, I was finally able to talk with Clive (my tutor) face to face.  Work commitments have meant I’ve only had written feedback up until now so it I felt it was really important to actually speak with him this time and I’m really pleased I was able to.  Certainly a learning point for future courses; to speak with my tutors more often.

Clive had looked at my assignment and my blog and gave me some great feedback. 

He felt that I need to get away from the ‘day out with my kids’ theme and try and put some distance between myself and subject to give them a more observational and dispassionate feel. More of a comment on what a family does on a day out rather than this particular family.

He suggested I take a look at the work of Tony Ray-Jones as he felt my work was somewhat reminiscent of his and Martin Parr, although Martin Parr is a little less flattering of his subjects. Having now done so, I totally get what he means.  My write up Tony Ray-Jones can be read here.

On the individual images Clive felt that image #1 was weak and very ‘postcardy’ which I completely agreed with him on.  I had included this image to try and set the scene, but to be honest it doesn’t inspire me so why I thought it would anyone else is a silly.  I only have 10 images to make an impact and I chose that one!!!! 

he picked out image #2 as interesting and #9 as a good ‘stock’ shot but not adding much to this project.He thought #7 was a strong image.  Having looked again at that and Tony Ray-Jone’s work I think I understand what I should be looking for now.

I suggested redoing the whole assignment, which Clive thought was a possibility but also that having looked at the contact sheets there may be enough, with some re-editing to refocus this set of images.  Having had another look through, I do think this is a possibility so am going to try that first. Especially with the inspiration from Ray-Jones and Parr I think I have the basis of what could be an interesting study.

In relation to my blog, Clive advised to change my banner photo to something more appropriate to work I have been producing as he felt that it might give the wrong impression of the kind of photographer I am to an assessor.  I have taken that advice and changed it.

I was reminded about buying a clam shell box, which I’ve already done and about printing my images ready for assessment, making sure to leave a decent sized boarder on the sheet.

Thanks again Clive, it was great to talk with you

My actions from this:

  • look up Tony Ray-Jones’ work and relate it to my own
  • rework my assignment from a more observational and dispassionate viewpoint
  • let Clive know when I’ve redone it so he can give feedback
  • start preparing my work for assessment in November

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