WBL: Exhibition At Victoria Art Gallery in Bath:
On Roger Mayne: aspects of a great photographer
Today (Friday 22nd February) I visited the gallery on the great work of British photographer, Roger Mayne and was fortunate to experience a tour and a talk of the exhibition held by the museum manager. A large portion of his work was photographing children playing on the streets using a large format camera as his main source. He would capture these children unawares but most importantly capturing them as themselves. I strongly agree with his approach to this side of his photography, because i also feel portraiture images or images of people are a lot more effective and powerful when the emotion is natural, and not forced, staged. His images are beautiful and unique, the moments he has captured are rare and imagery like this won't be quite as extraordinary if they were to be recreated today. Streets now are deemed unsafe and children are more likely to stay indoors - entertained by modern technology almost completely separate from civilisation which is a big contrast between these images where being social was portrayed as 'normal'
About the exhibition and photographer: (taken from the museum website)
Free admission (Donations welcome to keep the gallery open)
This is the first museum show for 22
years of one of the UK’s major photographers.
Born in Cambridge in 1929, Mayne became
interested in the development of prints whilst studying chemistry in Oxford. He
made his name as a photographer with his extended project devoted to the street
life of North Kensington in the 1950s, an area that was destined for slum
clearance.
Working with a lightweight Zeiss Super
Ikonta camera and bolstered by gaining the trust of his subjects, Mayne was
able to capture the vigour and poverty around him. His pictures have added
poignancy as they chronicle the end of an era when it was still safe for
children to play in the streets.
From the 1960s onwards, Mayne turned his
eye to similar outdoor scenes in Leeds, Sheffield, Glasgow, the Mediterranean,
Japan and China, latterly focusing on the development of his own children and
grandchildren.
Mayne’s many friendships with leading
artists of the day influenced his approach and resulted in telling portraits –
Henry Moore, Terry Frost, Roger Hilton, Gillian Ayres and others. In 1957 he
undertook a photographic essay on the Bath Academy of Art, focusing on the
student experience. Later he took up a teaching position at the Academy under
Clifford Ellis (1966-9).
Images: Roger Mayne © All Rights Reserved
