Author: PDBarton

Minox sub-miniature camera.

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Minox was designed and first made in pre-war Latvia by Walter Zapp , a Baltic German. The company made cameras during the war finally moving to Wetzlar, Germany post war. Though originally designed as a camera for everyman, the high manufacturing cost moved it into the luxury camera market. Of course, we see it more now as a spy camera. Indeed it featured in many a spy film and in reality it was heavily used by  secret services across the globe. It was a very small camera for its day with an excellent lens and close focus ability, making it perfect for document photography. The negatives being only 8mm X 11mm are tiny and could be easily hidden. The perfect spy camera in fact. The model shown here  was made in the mid 50’s. It’s missing its carrying chain. The chain was a vital feature as it’s length was set at the perfect focusing length for document photography. The film comes in a cassette. It’s easy to load and unload. Because of  the small size …

Masterji of Coventry

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Jason Scott Tilley, a photographer from Coventry, first properly heard of Masterji from his daughter Tarla Patel, though he had seen him around previously as they shared the same processing house. Subsequently, working with Masterji and his daughter what Jason discovered was a photographer, previously little known outside of his own community in Coventry, together  with a fascinating collection of pictures providing an insight into the migrant South East Asian community in Coventry reaching back into the 50’s. Maganbhai Patel, better known as Masterji migrated to Coventry from his native Gujarat, Indias most western state,  in the 50’s. Keen to follow his passion for photography he set up a studio in his house and started to produce images of his family and friends within his community. You can read here the full background on Masterji written by the curator and producer of this exhibition, Jason Tilley. It’s a heartening story about one man’s passion for photography. The exhibition I visited -now closed – showed 100 or so prints, some in colour, of people in this …

Did it all really start from here…

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It’s hard to imagine but the magnificent digital cameras of today started out from this very humble Casio of  1995. Yes! 1995. Only 20 years ago. Odd too isn’t it the manufacturer of the first consumer digital camera  with an LCD screen was more synonymous with calculators than with optical equipment. The Casio QV10, by todays standards was an appalling device. Many people accused it of being very badly designed with bad software and even worse results but, at the time it was the proof of concept that was required to take digital imagery forward. Yes, even by standards of the day the result compared very badly to even those from a cheap film camera. And the cost! I remember buying one and wondered at the time why I was wasting my money on something so bad and expensive. For it’s day, so formative and important was this camera that Japan’s National Museum of Nature and Science branded it as being… “Essential historical material for science and technology”. I remember being scoffed at by a …

Book review: Humphrey Spender’s Humanist Landscapes

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Title: Humphrey Spender’s Humanist Landscapes Author: Deborah Frizzell ISBN: 0-300-07334-8 Softcover: 70 pages of introduction plus 100 plates Images: 100 Publisher: Yale centre for British art Language: English Product Dimensions: 28 x 1 x 23 cm Landscape format. As a precursor to Spenders images Frizzell, the author, discusses where the images sit in the panoply of images of the time and of the era in which they were made, providing, as she does, social and historic reference for the works.  Some 70 excellent  pages are taken up with this explanation. To set the scene: Spenders images span the decade 1932 – 1942. He came from a a middle class family in fashionable Kensington. His father, Harold was a Journalist and his mother Violet Schuster was a painter and poet. His brother Stephen, later to become Sir Stephen Spender, became a poet and essayist who concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle in his work. Stephen Spender was close friends with many famous literary figures from the time i.e. WH Auden. Clearly the …

India 2007

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If I were to have only one of my images of India this would be it. I know it’s not too sharp and a it’s little grainy, but, this picture of modern schoolgirls around the pool of a Sikh Gudwara in Delhi encapsulates India for me. Yes there is tradition; Yes there is religion; Yes there is a vibrance of colour, but there is also modernity. Girls at school, in uniform, with schoolbags. I took the picture in 2007 on our first trip to India. It was made with an inadequate camera – at least judged by the fashion for ultra sharp images of today,  but still it has an enduring quality. It tells a story, even in its singularity, of a nation moving forward. It tells of the importance of religion in this country of over 1.3 billion people, and, it gives a sense of the visual excitement I felt as a westerner. I know it’s not perfect but hey…it’s my wife’s favourite picture. Say no more.

Book review: Street The Human Clay. Lee Friedlander

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This excellent review by John Meehan kicks off a series  of posts by guest publishers. Hardcover: 224 pages Images: 209 duotones Publisher: Yale University Press (4 Oct. 2016) Language: English Product Dimensions: 28.7 x 2.5 x 24.9 cm Price paid: £40.50 (from Amazon, UK) _________________________________________________________________ Lee Friedlander’s Street The Human Clay is the third in a projected six book series entitled ‘The Human Clay’ published by Yale University Press started in 2015. Each title in the series gathers together images of people grouped thematically. So far we have seen a volume on Children and one of Portraits.

Exhibition Review: Feminist Avant-Garde of the 1970’s

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The Photographers Gallery 16-18 Ramillies St London W1F 7LW W: The Photographers Gallery  E:   info@tpg.org.uk T:   +44 (020) 7087 9300 Opening hours:  Mon – Sat 10.00 – 18.00, Thu 10.00 – 20.00 during exhibitions, Sun 11.00 – 18.00 Admission to Exhibitions: Exhibition Day Pass £4 (£2.50 Concession) Advance Online Booking £2.50 Free admission before 12.00 every day Title of Exhibition: Feminist Avant-Garde of the 1970’s Exhibition run:  from October the 7th 2016 until  15th January 2017 Website for the exhibition: Feminist Avant-Garde of the 70’s To get a clear idea of just what this exhibition is about you can watch an interview with Gabriele Schor, Director of the VERBUND Collection and Anna Dannemann, Curator, The Photographer’s Gallery here…  In this interview, Schor talks about her thinking behind the collection. She makes it clear the Verbund chose the budget and she chose the art. And Dannemann talks about how she curated the exhibition and her decision process related to the layout of the art in the galleries. Dannemann says of the exhibition… “Focusing on …

Opening night at the Argentea Gallery, St Pauls Birmingham

New photo gallery opens in Birmingham.

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  The Argentea Gallery opened for business in St Pauls Square in the heart of Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter. Not, as you might think to sell jewellery but to exhibit contemporary photography. Set at the top of this refurbished 18th and early 19th century square with St Paul’s church at its centre the gallery fits in with re-purposing of the square’s fine buildings. It’s perfectly positioned to bring added culture to this fine square.

Snapped by a street photographer

I am not a street photographer.

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In an e-mail conversation with John Meehan, a founding member, contributor and the editor of the f50 collective, I was rambling on, attempting to explain why I am not a ‘Street Photographer’.   John asked me to flesh  out my view a little and publish, so here it is. I’ve never been happy calling myself a ‘Street Photographer’. There’s something about the term that makes me shudder – especially when the short form ‘togs’ is used. I’m old enough to remember street photographers at seaside towns and in cities across England. See the image above. My great Aunt and her family ‘Snapped’ by a street photographer at a seaside resort.