A powerful blow on the tube today
I very much welcome the current London Street Photography Festival, as anything that creates something of a buzz about photography in a capital that largely seems to ignore it is a good thing. We need more photography events in London, and we need better photography events, and the publicity that the LSPF has got may help. Of course it’s on nothing like the scale of London’s largest photography festival, the East London Photomonth in October, which has been going around ten years and is perhaps ten times the size, and even that is a minnow compared to the month every other year in Paris.
I’ve already written about the work of Vivian Maier, which is the highest profile show in the festival. It’s a nice story and she certainly wasn’t a bad photographer, but unfortunately I think it’s simply untrue to suggest (as the festival program does) that she “captured daily life with a vision and sensitivity to rival any of the great street photographers of the time.” The work we have – and you can see it on the web – simply doesn’t back that up, though it is of interest.
Back in the cafe at the British Library are a set of pictures from their collection by Walter Joseph, which for me were perhaps the most interesting of the festival. Taken in 1947-8 in London street markets even the poorest of them (and there are a few poor ones) has a historical interest that most work in the LSPF lacks. I don’t know what other work Joseph took in the years between his release from internment at the end of the war and his death in 2003, but it seems a great shame that only 80 of his pictures appear to have survived. Displaying 30 of these was perhaps too many – there is a certain amount of repetition and a few weak images – but the best have a humanity and warmth and show a keen eye for the moment.
We (I’ve not gone all Royal – accompanying me was one of London’s best street photographers) made our way out of the side entrance on to Midland Street and up to the Minne Weisz Studio to see ‘Adventures in the Valley‘, a collaboration by Polly Braden and David Campany. The LSPF booklet says that they “push the boundaries of street photography“, but it would be rather more accurate to say that this work really has no connection with street photography – which makes it no less interesting or worthwhile as photography but did make me wonder why it was included in the festival.
As someone who has photographed the Lea valley for over 30 years I had a particular interest in this work, and there are some pictures in it that I really liked, although the text on her web site rather contradicts that in the show handout. On her web site it says:
Adventures in the Valley is an ongoing project. It was shown as a 150 image, 15 minute digital slideshow at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London as part of the programme London in Six Easy Steps, Summer 2005
The web site quotes Sarah Wise from The Guardian in a piece that starts:
A beautiful photo essay, Adventures in the Valley filled one wall of the group show Real Estate; it was the most powerful piece in the show. Polly Braden and David Campany spent a year in the Lea Valley, part of which is to become the 2012 Olympic Village.
Adventures in the Valley showing at Minne Weisz Studio
There were a few prints on both floors of the gallery, but the real show was a projection of a large number (possibly even the 150 stated, although it seemed rather less) images. Viewing conditions – as you can see on my photograph – were not ideal, even on a rather dull day. The 17 images on Braden’s web site give a very good impression of this work. Looking at Waltham Abbey, Christmas Day, 2005, a canal mooring on the Lea navigation with pylons and a light mist, a large Santa on the roof of one of the narrow boats, I do wonder is this is really Ponders End, with the Ford car park on the left and the bridge across to the Ford Enfield works in the distance at the right, the site of the bitter Visteon dispute and worker’s occupation in 2009. But hers is a nice picture. Here is one of mine taken not too far away as I walked away from the factory in 2009.
Visteon (Ford) at Ponders End (but no Santa) in April 2009
It took us some time wandering around inside St Pancras International to find Entente Cordial, a set of double sided pillars with work on one side by Nick Turpin and the other by Nils Jorgensen, as we entered the station from the wrong side. If you are an international traveller you will probably miss it, as both the Eurostar exit and entrance are some distance away. They are at the ‘main entrance’ from Pancras Road, immediately opposite the German Gymnasium where the Maier show is taking place, and so hand for those who are attending that. But unfortunately the architect put the entrance at the wrong end of the station for most passengers (and I speak as a regular traveller from there.)
Both of us were too familiar with this work to spend much time there, having hoped that both photographers would have more new work to show. We had much the same feeling later in the day at Exmouth Market where ‘Street Photography Now‘ was on show. But of course those new to this work will have a very different reaction. And doubtless there are people who have not yet seen it, even if some of us are rather tired of seeing the same few pictures again and again.
One picture from Street Photography Now in the Rue de Marseille, Paris 10e
After the innovative showing of the best of this work in Paris last November, for me it felt rather tame here. I hope that this will not be the last London Street Photography Festival (and I was told there are plans for more) but I hope too that any future years will feature at least one major show by one of those “great street photographers of the time”, along with rather more street photography than the current manifestation – and rather less of the same now rather old “contemporary” work and more truly new work. And I also hope there will be more getting photography out onto the streets, as with both the show at St Pancras station and also the eight Camden bus shelters with work by George Georgiou in this year’s festival.
Most of the shows in the LPSF end on 17 July 2011, with the Maier show continuing until 24 July and that in St Pancras until 31 July. The bus shelter pictures remain until 5 Aug. The London Street Photography show at the Museum of London, surprisingly not included in the festival, continues until 4 Sept 2011.
