joy gregory

Joy Gregory is presenting a new body of work that has been created as part of an Artists Residence celebrating 60 years of the NHS at University Hospital Lewisham. The work is a series of light boxes featuring a major figure in the history of the hospital and accompanied by readings of new work by Poet in Residence, Gale Burns. 

purpose

The latest edition of purpose - an elegant French webzine - has dedicated it's latest issue to childhood - which is of particular interest to me. The issue is a curious mix of extremely well known and lesser known work accompanied by an original soundtrack.

daniel lillie

We are the Maesglas boys

We ain't got no money

We drinks lots of beer

We drink Double Diamond 'cos it's full of good cheer.

When you'r walking down Maesglas Road

doors and windows open wide

The you'll hear ol'Sheppy shout

Get your fuckin' woodbines out!

We are the Maesglas boys

I saw Daniel Lillie's project 'I'll see you on the far post' presented at the Folio Forum at the Photographer's Gallery in January and was impressed by his sensitive portrayal of working men and their families on the Maesglas estate Newport, Wales. 

The images are intimate and appealing, they give a strong sense of day to day life in a tight-knit community where different generations of the same family support and sustain one another. Such close relationships are central to survival when faced with the insecurity of low-paid transient employment.

'Historically, socially and culturally the workingman has been a figure of strength and integrity, a foreboding presence both in the family and in the community.' Is how Lillie describes the inspiration behind his work. 'These images are about what men do with their time, be it with their family, friends or alone. They are about working and not working.' A sentiment prescient of the current dismal climate where working men's jobs hang in the balance. 

Lillie's presence as documenter is ghost-like, there is clearly a sense of mutual respect and trust, both on behalf of the photographer and the subjects he is spending time to record. Although an 'outsider' it is clear that he has been accepted into the community as an insider able to witness and document the intimacies of ordinary life.

The photographer was angered by Andrew O'Hagan's recent George Orwell Memorial lecture  'What went wrong with the working class?' which argues that 'the English working class is dead - it's traditions and values have been replaced by sentimentality and the false promise of celebrity and credit cards.' 

'With my project I intend to show that, while not the political force it once was, the working class exist and are not a Jeremy Kyle watching, McDonald's eating, Vicky Pollard-esque, catalogue dependent, benefit scrounging, powerless body of people.'

Lillie's images were received with praise at the Folio Forum lead by Joy Gregory, who encouraged him to return and continue documenting the community. I feel that this is a timely body of work that records life on the estate in a social realist tradition - reminiscent of work by Chris Killip and Graham Smith, and explored by filmmakers, Mike Leigh and Ken Loach - and looks at how a community faces and addresses the prospect of a bleak future. 

It will be interesting to see if traditional working class values will rise to sustain and strengthen when times are bad.

jean dieuzaide

'People often think that it is necessary to go to the far end of the world to act as a photographer. But photography is not synonymous with being removed from one's usual surroundings; it also has to do with rediscovering the common things of everyday life that we can no longer see, things we do not take the time to see.The thousands of objects that share our intimacy have something to tell us, but our eye does not listen to them: they play with light to draw our attention, and they are surely sorry for our indifference, as they feel they are part of ourselves.'

Jean Dieuzaide, French Photographer b 1921 d 2003

Val Williams' obituary of Jean Dieuzade 

sweet nothings

vanessa winship

I am very drawn to Vanessa Winship's work which I have been following with interest over the past few months. Winship was awarded the World Press Photo Award and the first Sony Award for her celebrated project, 'Sweet Nothings'. Currently featured at the National Portrait Gallery, Host Gallery , The Photographer's Gallery and in various publications. 

The sensitive portraits of rural school girls from the borderlands of Eastern Turkey are poignant and alluring. The young girls are photographed on the cusp of great change - both in themselves and what they represent for the future of women in Turkey. 

'I had been living and working in the region for almost a decade, and in Turkey itself for more that four years. I was drawn by ideas of borders and belonging.' comments Winship on the work. 'One enduring image that had always struck me wherever I travelled was the schoolgirls in their little blue dresses, the same in every town, city or village. These dresses with their lace collars and sweet messages embroidered on the bodices, were the symbol of the Turkish state, but the girls who wore them were simply little girls.'

The photographer describes the school girls as representative of the many who live on the borderlands between Iraq, Iran, Syria and Armenia all wearing 'similar dresses' and inhabiting a land that is harsh and unforgiving. 

'Knowing their status I wanted to give a space for the girls to have a moment in front of the camera,' describes Winship who opted for a slower more formal way of making the portraits with every frame composed at the same distance to give an equality to each girl.

Sweet Nothings is a quietly powerful body of work. The images resonant in front of the viewer as Winship has captured, very beautifully, the awkward innocence of these little girls who are unwittingly taking their place in photographic history.

The quotes by Vanessa Winship are taken from an article by the photographer on her work at  lensculture

new year great hope