Sunday, 31 July 2016

Brian Duffy


Brian Duffy photographer.jpgBrian Duffy (15 June 1933 – 31 May 2010) was an English photographer and film producer, best remembered for his fashion and portrait photography of the 1960s and 1970s.
Brian Duffy was born to Irish parents in London in 1933. During World War II he was evacuated with his two brothers and sister to Kings Langley where he was taken in by the actors Roger Livesey and Ursula Jeans. After a few weeks, his mother, unhappy about her four children being split up from the family insisted they all return to London. When the bombing in London became intense they were evacuated for a second time to Wales but returned to London having lived on a remote farm for a month.
Once back in London Duffy, ‘had the most wonderful war’, breaking into abandoned houses and running wild. Only when it was over did he start school, first attending a liberal school in Chelsea where the London County Council had adopted a policy that treated difficult children with a programme of cultural experiences to broaden their horizons.[2]Duffy was involved in several bouts of trouble and was moved onto another school for difficult boys in Kentish Town where once again emphasis was placed on treating troubled youths through cultural inclusion which involved school trips to the Opera, ballet, art galleries and cultural institutions. It was here that Duffy unveiled his own creative tendencies and upon finishing school he applied to Saint Martin's School of Art. In 1950 he started art school with the intention to be a painter but soon realised that his peers were more talented and moved onto a dress design course ‘where all the pretty girls were’. He finished St. Martin’s in 1953 and immediately began working as an assistant designer atSusan Small, after which he worked for Victor Steibel, the preferred designer to Princess Margaret. Following this, on a visit to Paris, he was offered a job at Balenciaga but was unable to take it up as his wife June was pregnant with their eldest son Chris

In 1955 Duffy began freelancing as a fashion artist for Harper's Bazaar where he first came into contact with commercial photography. Inspired by the photographic contact sheets he saw passing through the art director's desk he sought a job as a photographers assistant. Unsuccessfully, he applied for a job with John French and was subsequently employed at Carlton studios and then at Cosmopolitan Artists. Duffy went on to work as an assistant to the photographer Adrian Flowers and whilst working for Flowers he received his first photographic commission from Ernestine Carter, who was the fashion editor of The Sunday Times.
In 1957 Duffy was hired by British Vogue working under art director John Parsons where he remained working until 1963. During this time he worked closely with top models Jean Shrimpton (who he introduced to David Bailey), Paulene Stone, Joy Weston, Jennifer Hocking and Judy Dent.
With fellow photographers; David Bailey and Terence Donovan, Duffy was a key player in the ‘Swinging Sixties’ - a culture of high fashion and celebrity chic. Together the 'Black Trinity' as affectionately named by Norman Parkinson (and only ever referred to by their surnames), redefined not only the aesthetic of fashion photography but also the place of the photographer within the industry. Socialising with actors, pop stars, royalty and the notorious Kray Twins, they represented a new breed of photographer and found themselves elevated to celebrity status. Duffy commented on the culture shock the three were to the industry:

Apart from Vogue, Duffy also worked for numerous publications including Glamour Magazine, Esquire, Town Magazine, Queen Magazine, The Observer, The Sunday Times and the Telegraph Magazine. He worked for Swiss Art Director Peter Knapp and later Foulia Elia for French Elle for two periods the first between 1963 and 1968, and then again between 1974 and 1979. Duffy claimed that he did some of his best work working with French Elle. Duffy was also a highly successful commercial advertising photographer shooting award winning campaigns for both Benson & Hedges and Smirnoff in the 1970s as well as designing the concept for Silk Cut which he sold onto Paul Arden at Saatchi & Saatchi
In 1965 Duffy was asked to shoot the second Pirelli calendar which was shot on location in the south of France. He was commissioned to shoot the calendar again in 1973 (one of very few photographers commissioned to shoot two) which he created in collaboration with British pop artist Allen Jones and air brush specialist Philip Castle. In 1968 he set up a film production company with Len Deighton called Deighton Duffy and went on to produce the film adaptations of Deighton's book Only When I Larf (1967), and of the musicalOh! What a Lovely War, which was released in 1969. Continuing Duffy’s lifelong interest in the First World War in 1985 he directed ‘Lions Led By Donkeys’ for Channel 4 TV.
Duffy had an eight-year working relationship with the artist David Bowie and shot five key sessions over this period providing the creative concept as well as the photographic image for three album covers, including the 1973 Aladdin Sane (often nicknamed ‘the Mona Lisa of pop’) when Duffy interpreted Bowie's original title of 'A Lad Insane' as 'Aladdin Sane', 1979 Lodger and 1980 Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps). Duffy's input had a significant influence on the creation of Bowie's chameleon like public image and in 2014 Chris Duffy and Kevin Cann co-authored a book chronicling these shoots titled ‘Duffy Bowie: Five Sessions’
In 1979 Duffy abruptly gave up photography attempting to burn many of his negatives in his studio yard but fortunately neighbours objected to the acrid smoke, the council were called and much of his work was saved. Although a large number of his images were lost the ones that remain stand collectively as a comprehensive visual history of twenty-five years of British culture and fashion. Duffy moved onto television commercials and in 1981 joined the film production company Lewin Matthews and in 1983 Duffy directed the music video for Spandau Ballet's ‘Gold’, ABC’s ‘All Of My Love’ and two pop videos for The Human League. Between 1984 and 1986 Duffy worked for Paul Kramer Productions in New York. Upon his return he set up his own film production company 3DZ with his two sons Chris and Carey and pioneered the Super16 film format shooting TV commercials and pop videos including the British Steel flotation in 1988. By 1990 Duffy retired from all image making and followed his lifelong passion for furniture restoration and became an accredited BAFRA (British Antique Furniture Restoration Association) restorer.

Duffy died on 31 May 2010, after suffering from the degenerative lung disease pulmonary fibrosis.
In 2008 Duffy's son Chris started The Duffy Archive  and in October 2009 Duffy's work was exhibited for the first time at the Chris Beetles Gallery in London (now known as Beetles & Huxley). Interest has grown year on year in Duffy's work and in 2012 Duffy had twelve international exhibitions including three solo museum shows at the Alanari Photo Museum in Florence, Monash Art Gallery in Melbourne Australia and the Centro De Historias Museum in Zaragoza Spain. Duffy’s work was also exhibited in the National Portrait Gallery (Beetles to Bowie exhibit), The Tate Liverpool (Glam exhibit) and the V&A (British Design 1947-2012).
In June 2011 Duffy's son Chris, authored a monograph of Duffy's images which was published by ACC Editions titled ‘Duffy - Photographer’ and featured over 160 iconic images from the 1950s, 60s and 70s and in 2011 the V&A Museum London requested Duffy prints for their permanent collection.
In 2013 the Duffy Archive was approached by the V&A to supply an image for the ‘David Bowie is’ exhibition and a previously unpublished David Bowie ‘Eyes Open’ image from the Aladdin Sane contact sheet was chosen as their key promotional image. This exhibition and image has been shown worldwide and is almost as famous as the original Aladdin Sane album cover. The exhibition is currently on a worldwide tour.
Duffy was included in the 2013 Professional Photographer list of the 100 most influential photographers of all time.
In 2014 the National Portrait Gallery hosted Bailey's 'Stardust' exhibition and featured Duffy under two categories ‘artists’ and ‘icons’. Duffy was Bailey’s friend and sparring partner and Bailey was famously quoted as saying ‘Aggravation and Duffy go together like gin and tonic’.
At the end of 2014 in conjunction with French Elle Chris Duffy co-authored a book with Emma Baxter-Wright on Duffy’s work with French Elle (currently only available in French) Mode sixties and seventies: Dans l'oeil de Brian Duffy.

Tuesday, 19 January 2016

Jay Maisel

Jay Maisel (born January 18, 1931, Brooklyn, New York) is an American photographer. After studying painting and graphic design at Cooper Union and Yale, Jay Maisel began his career in photography in 1954. While his portfolio includes the likes of Marilyn Monroe and Miles Davis, he is perhaps best known for capturing the light, color, and gesture found in every day life. This unique vision kept him busy for over 40 years shooting annual reports, magazine covers, jazz albums, advertising and more for an array of clients worldwide. Some of his commercial accomplishments include five Sports Illustrated swimsuit covers, the first two covers of New York Magazine, the cover of Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue (the best-selling jazz album of all time), twelve years of advertising with United Technologies, and a litany of awards from such organizations as ICP, ASMP, ADC, PPA, and Cooper Union.
Since he stopped taking on commercial work in the late ’90s, Jay has continued to focus on his personal work. He has developed a reputation as a giving and inspiring teacher as a result of extensive lecturing and photography workshops throughout the country. He also continues to sell printsl , which can be found in private, corporate, and museum collections.
“You see shape, and how the light hits things, how the color changes from one end of the photo to the other, and how movement affects the mood of the photo.” -Jay Maisel
Jay Maisel’s earlier background is actually in painting rather than photography. He went to a high school that emphasized fine arts and that is what ignited his passion. When he graduated he was lucky enough to get a scholarship to study painting with Joseph Hirsch, who, although he was a painter, he thought and taught in photographic terms. He was always asking questions of Maisel about light: Where it was coming from? What is the subject? What is its worth? How do you draw that out?
After that year of studying, Maisel got into Cooper Union and Yale where he studied painting, drawing and 3-D design. He says at Yale they wouldn’t let him into the photography studio because that wasn’t his course of study. He was able to get in, thanks to a helpful night watchman and he worked in the darkroom every night. There, he had found something that he loved.
That love of photography did not alter his school plans, though. He did not decide to become a photographer until he had gotten his degree in painting. He says it was more of a cowardly decision, that he was not confident in his abilities as a painter to make a living. He started doing commercial work in the beginning doing jobs for Dance magazine and album covers for Columbia Records. One of the more famous covers he did was Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue.
Coming from an artist’s background and going straight into commercial work where every job is assigned might seem like a difficult jump to make. Maisel has always made a point, though, to shoot pictures for himself, something he stresses in the workshops he teaches in the gorgeous bank building that has been his home and studio since he purchased it in 1964. Whatever job he was on he would walk around looking for things that were interesting to him. At times, these were even the shots the clients would pick. The pressure of shooting commercially eventually lead Jay to retire from it. Now that he only shoots for himself, you rarely see him without a camera in his hands. I think shooting photographs is like breathing to him. Photography is not something he does, but rather something he is. Thankfully, we are all able to share in his journey and his vision.
10 things Jay Maisel taught us.
1-Always carry a camera.  Unless we have the  camerawith us at all times we may lose the opportunity to capture that great decisive moment when it presents itself because most decisive moments are also elusive moments. If we just wait until we “go out shooting” to capture those moments then we will miss many of them because they may happen when we were out,  but not “out shooting”, so we didn’t bring a camera. The key is to train ourselves to take our camera wherever we go, the grocery store, the movies, a bar etc, so you’re always prepared for the unexpected moment.
2- Nothing in the image is neutral, it either works for you or against you.  It’s important to always be aware of everything that we capture in an image because we are responsible for every square mm.  of the frame. As Jay says, nothing in the image is neutral, it either works for you or against you. The background, the signs, the branch coming out of the head,  the extra person etc.  I am learning to pay attention to everything I see through the viewfinder before I take the shot. In street photography is not always possible to correct or change what we see but is important to train the eye to see what might be detracting from getting a better image.
3-Gesture over graphics. If the gesture is powerful then nothing else matters. Even if there is a lot  of clutter in the frame ( see # 2) always go for the gesture instead of trying to “clean up” the frame. Gesture is what makes the picture emotionally involving and always overrides form.
4-Show something that the viewer has never seen. Is easy to just take pictures of what’s happening in front of us, but is it something that no one has seen before? This question forces us to look for the unusual, the extraordinary . The special gesture, the weird light, the complex combination of things, the funny juxtaposition of subject and background. I sometimes use the following question:  if I google what’s in the picture I just took how many image results will I get?.
5- Don’t imitate. Jay says that the goal is revelation not replication. We need to shoot until we find our own style. We could  have elements from someone who we like and admire but in the end the viewer has to know that the picture they are looking at is undoubtedly ours. 
 6- If it looks bad in the viewfinder it won’t look better in the computer. This is the old “garbage in, garbage out” rule. If the picture is mediocre when we are taking it then no amount of cropping or post processing will make it great. It may improve it but it will still be mediocre. This is where the art of street photography resides.
7- Great pictures don’t just tell you things, they ask questions The challenge is always to look for situations that will make the viewer want more. If we show everything then the fun is over.  If we entice the viewer to create a story around the image then is probably a good image8-Shoot where all the others aren’t. This is such a simple rule and changed my pictures dramatically. Is obvious that if everyone is shooting the same thing then most likely the pictures won’t be very original. This goes with Jay’s 180 degrees rule, which basically says if someone is shooting in one direction, turn around and shoot the other way, there might be more interesting things there. An example would be shooting the sunset. The most interesting pictures are sometimes looking 180 degrees away from the sunset ( and you can google sunset images if you want to see one).
9-Lettering becomes content even if you don’t want to. Whenshooting in the streets is almost impossible to avoid some sort of lettering: street signs, ads, posters etc. We have to be aware that the brain always gets attracted ( or distracted ) by words because the first thing it wants to do is to read them, taking away the attention from the subject. The challenge here is to avoid distracting signs or words ( remember nothing is neutral) or if we can’t avoid them then make it part of the story.
10-Life is in color. Jay shoots only in color because life is not black and white and if we are trying to capture life then we have to capture it the way it is. The tendency in street photography is to shoot only in BW but I think one of the reasons for that is because shooting in color is a lot more difficult.  Any image can look a little better by making it BW just because it gives it a classic nostalgic look but the content remains the same so if it was a predictable image in color it will continue to be after the change.  The key here is to develop our own style ( see #5 don’t imitate).
Due to copyright infringement I cannot share some of his work on my blog as i do not have the permission.. So I will leave a link to some of his beautiful work