James Ravilious - A very English Photographer

ashfaque said:
Spiegel im Spiegel is a perfectly fitting tune for this docu. I'll have to check my docu archive to see if I've recorded it when it aired on BBC Four.

Thanks for the reminder Peter. 🙂
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There are plenty of recordings of this on Youtube. its beautiful. While you are at it you could try more of Arvo Part's compositions - many of which are equally engaging and lovely.
 
Watching this video some months ago made me buy the book "An English Eye". Mr. Ravilious is undoubtedly a great photographer unfortunately not widely known as he had never encountered with photojournalism or the magazine world. His unique signature is above every praise, for so few photographers were able to express their subjects shot in 35mm format but with such a soft and long gradations. His style was a perfect fit for his detailed, true-to-life but in a way warm and gentle vision to depict the British rural life some eyes would find even depressing. I wish I had known him far before.


BTW, a talented forum member here, "rodt16s" is not only an admirer of James Ravilious but his style also reflects many merits of the famous photographer.
 
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Thank you OP for expanding my mind... 🙂

Interesting how the folks tell his and their story...you know here in Oklahoma where I live it wasn't so very long ago that similiar rhythms of life were still strong but unfortunately they are pretty much gone now. For many years in the early seventies I played with a pair of turkeys all summer when visiting my great grandmother only to dine on them in November! Drank goat's milk that I obtained with my own hands and ate a lot of homegrown rabbit too...made balloons out of pig bladders...but I could never bring myself to eat raw squirrel brains for breakfast and neither could my grandmother - that deal died out with her generation...LOL My children don't believe me...all they really know is WalMart. 🙁
 
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OurManInTangier said:
Probably my favourite photographer; to my mind he produced pictures that combined humour, sheer beauty and an obvious passion for his subject with an ability to really document the skills and way of life of those he photographed.

When so much documentary photography is similar in it's vision and style I find James's work to be outstanding in it's need to be beautiful. Perhaps not always the most "true" as is mentioned in the film, he avoided some of the more unpleasant aspects according to some of those interviewed in the film, but then he was also very open about his desire to show the beauty that he saw in the world; or at least that part of the world he photographed.

I have this on DVD and watch it quite regularly, inspiring and slightly depressing in as far as I wish I had his talent, ability and gentleness. His father's work just happens to be some of my favourite watercolours too....a very talented family.

Good idea to post this Peter. Maybe we should have a video section that we can link to for the benefit of all, I know very few well known photographers and always enjoy watching this type of thing.
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There still is something very calm and serene in James's photographs. Some of it comes with his treatment of film that lets all the tones flow, no harshness, and the major part is his feeling of closeness to the community he is working with.
 
Unfortunately the original 25 minute video on James' life seems not to be available on the internet anymore. Only this short 2 minute intro to his work (an extract from the full video).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sq2iZmEmF8A

But this alternate video is also available

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-DlRQ6xFp4

Somehow Alan Bennett's narration seems to match the mood of the original video perfectly. (Incidentally if you have not seen it, watch the movie "Lady in a Van" which was written by Bennett about his odd, engaging and sadly funny experience of an old lady who parked her van in his driveway and stayed on for 15 years until she passed away. Bennett claims he was always too polite to ask her to leave.)
 
peterm1 said:
Unfortunately the original 25 minute video on James' life seems not to be available on the internet anymore. Only this short 2 minute intro to his work (an extract from the full video).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sq2iZmEmF8A

But this alternate video is also available

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-DlRQ6xFp4

Somehow Alan Bennett's narration seems to match the mood of the original video perfectly. (Incidentally if you have not seen it, watch the movie "Lady in a Van" which was written by Bennett about his odd, engaging and sadly funny experience of an old lady who parked her van in his driveway and stayed on for 15 years until she passed away. Bennett claims he was always too polite to ask her to leave.)
Click to expand...

I saw that movie written and starred with him (Bennett's): great. I know; I have seen the video too bad it is gone now. I guess art experts could find a meaning for James' work, but to me he was a pure photographer. He photographed with no agenda other than a love for his friends and his Devon.
 
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