Looking For A Way Out

There comes a time in every ex-pat’s life when a trip to the motherland is called for. Apart from the hideous amount of funds this can absorb, I find it less traumatic than many other ex-pats with whom I have spent time jousting Blighty from afar. My time is now. (In a factual rather than prophetic way.)

Somewhere near the top of my list of things that I feel I miss out on while out of the oh so developed world, are photograph galleries. I tend to buy very few magazines these days, as photograph magazines are, by and large, full of regurgitated articles on digital sharpening; and non-photography magazines tend to just make me want to spend money. My one exception is Black and White Photography magazine. Apart from being an exceptionally good ol’ mag, it includes a comprehensive listing of exhibitions, shows and galleries, which every month makes me think how nice it would be to go and see some photographs how they are meant to be; printed big and hanging on walls. Naturally this trip would be my chance to get in some gallery action.

After surviving the journey that just seems to last forever, and never gets any easier, a quick trip to the local magazine pusher landed me a fresh copy of B&W. I immediately turned to the exhibition pages to plan my attack of the galleries. It turned out Mr. Murphy, the patron saint of mucking things up, has been up to his old tricks again. During the times that I am thousands of miles away from any possibility to take a quick peak at the ever so interesting exhibitions sprawled across the pages of B&W magazine, there are oodles of compelling shows doing the rounds. Now that I am within a 10 minute tube ride the offerings are somewhat less appealing. It’s not that I am not interested in going to see some unknown (to me) photographers work, but I was hoping for maybe just one big name to go and pay homage to. Still, there is plenty on offer to see what’s doing the rounds.

First on the list (read closest) was “Nonsuch”, an exhibition of photographs by Steffi Klenz, presented at Photofusion in Brixton. Now, I am going to digress a little here, so bare with me. I would classify myself as quite well travelled, having visited and lived in most corners of the world, some of which have less than perfect reputations for safety. So I found it rather difficult to swallow that of all these places, including those where bandits with machine guns are commonplace, Brixton would rank up there in terms of unease. I guess that it is a little unfair to wash Brixton with this statement and I am sure that, just as any district, I was just unfortunate to walk the street having the bad hair day. I did find it rather ironic though, to feel on edge so close to my home after returning from locations so widely viewed as dangerous.

OK, digression over. Back to “Nonsuch”.

The background information sheet states the following regarding this Steffi Klenz exhibition: “At first glance, these seemingly unexceptional images could be mistaken for a documentary portrayal of an ordinary town.” I would have to agree with that statement, and would say further that the opinion stays firm after the second and third glance. However, when you are looking at these photographs, printed fairly large, you feel that something is missing; and it is. There are no people or even signs of human existence in these photographs. The subjects of these photographs are the buildings of Poundbury, which is a newly created town in rural England. It may be that many of these buildings remain empty, as it is clear from the photographs that the construction has only recently been completed. With this type of subject, especially when printed large, I would really liked to have seen a good technical approach, but for my eye these photographs left something to be desired. The depth of field is quite shallow, and the fine detail in the prints is left wanting. I am not sure what type of camera was used, but these do not appear to have been taken in a large format which would have permitted movements to provide front to back sharpness and also provided the fine detail seemingly missing. So what I was left with were some fairly average photographs of residential dwellings, minus the people. I assume the message here is the lack of human evidence but, for me, that alone was not enough. It would be interesting to see some further development on the theme, with residents being photographed with their new homes. I believe this would make an interesting statement on how all the buildings were made equal, whereas their occupiers are an eclectic mix. It maybe that Poundbury attracts only people of a similar type, again this would be interesting to see. Empty streets do not say much to me – except that they were probably taken in the early morning, which the lighting bares out.

After rather quickly legging it back to the train, I got caught up in the mass exodus that is rush hour. It should be noted that having so recently come from such a different social environment, that the extreme contrasts make any observations all the more prominent, whereas in reality the differences are probably not so stark. That said I find city life here quite formulaic. Life seems to be a means to an end and to be travelled as efficiently as possible. Of course I know that this is only an image portrayed by the way the underground train forces its passengers to act as if under a spell, the trance like state in which they embark and disembark the train, the temporary hibernation as they are gently rocked and the up-tempo march towards the exit upon arrival. It makes you wonder how many are looking for a deeper way out than the sign suggests. No? Well it made me wonder, so I took the photo.