The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.....

I am a bit of a sucker for drama. I love dramatic moments in life, they are what make you feel really alive and moments you always remember. It is the same with photography, art and design, the dramatic compositions that grab me the most. 

Whether it is Tim Brett Days fashion photography or Nan Goldin's documentary photography, it is the power in the composition that draws me in, more so than the colour or the aesthetics of the people within the picture. I would almost rather look at something ugly if it were more interesting than something beautiful, it isn't the prettiness of something that makes me want to look at it, it is what it is and why it is? 

It probably all comes down to nosiness, I just want to know what is going on in that scene, and why.

Here are some examples of Nan Goldin's documentary photography which tend to revolve 

around issues of sex, gender, love relationships, pain , desolation and desertion. This is actually a photograph she took of herself after being beaten by her partner.

Her work revolves around the gritty, and her subjects are always portrayed in a very real and raw way. Her compositions tend to be neutral in colour making the subjects more of a contrast and heightening the level of drama. looking at her photos is almost like looking in on something you know you shouldn't. They are intimate scenes that should be observed but they also have their own purpose and story.

Richard Billingham is another of my favourite realist photographers, unlike Goldin and her portrayal of the pain of relationships, Richard records his family life in a series of photographs entiltled "Ray's a laugh"  which was turned into a book in 1996. 

The pictures are set in his families west midland council flat and document the behaviour of Ray his alcoholic father, his overweight mother and his unruly brother. They offset the typical family photos of ceremonious moments such as weddings, birthdays, christmas etc. They are everyday photos, of nothing in particular, just his observations, like snapshots of a moments 

in time. 

It is as though he is looking on from an external perspective. The subject is very personal but he is almost turning "personal" on its head making the private very public, you now know what goes on behind closed doors. 

There is something confessional about these images, with no explanation or justification, they are simply as they are. 

Billingham aspired to be painter, using his father as the subject matter, but because of  Ray's alcoholic tendencies, it was difficult to get him to stay still for long enough to be painted, so Billingham took these photos as a basis for his painting and is now a celebrate photographer.

Billingham isn't ridiculing his family in these photos but merely documenting them and their situation in working class Britain. 

I don't know what it is about them, but I am transfixed. There is a level of the grotesque within each very "real" composition, with no exaggeration or pretense these photos are purely a fascinating depiction of a certain part of society. Like Goldin each photograph evokes the feeling that you are looking upon something you shouldn't, which is in itself completely captivating.