Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/12/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]The world, at least my world, is not (generally) tilted, so why go around tilting it on purpose? This bloke has had a chance to get some really gritty stuff across to the viewers and has cocked it up completely with his stupidly - and unnecessarily - tilted camera angles. It could so easily have been a wonderful photographic essay about a depressed area, but he made it into a "swinging-sixties"-style snapshot album. That said, when he does actually manage to hold his camera more or less straight, he shoots some pretty mean stuff. At first sight, it looks like social commentary, but at second, it's possible to shoot the same set in almost any large city in the UK. The demise of the "Council Estates" and 1950s suburbs in Newcastle, Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield or almost any larger northern city, has left places looking very much the same as shown here. This his been shown often enough in Brit-Movies like "The Full Monty", "Billy Elliot", "Brassed Off" and "Little Voice" - the latter shot in what is still an up-market holiday resort, but showing the depressed areas of the place. The true grittiness of the area has revealed to perfection in low-budget films by Amber Films from Newcastle - if you ever get a chance, take a look at "Shooting Magpies", "Eden Valley", "In fading Light" (brilliant!!), "Sea Coal" (I've met sea-coalers on the beaches up there in Lynemouth - a grim community) and many others. Here's a sample of their photography, too http://www.amber-online.com/sections/photography/pages/side-photographic-collection This gallery is particularly good: http://www.amber-online.com/exhibitions/byker This is what the Limerick series could have been like. Excellent, down-to-earth black & white photography Douglas