Tom Hunter talk in Hackney

A last minute cancellation meant that last Saturday I was able to attend the Tom Hunter talk in Hackney organised by the OCA.  After initially been told that all places had been booked I was pretty disappointed as this was one of the more interesting events lined up by OCA this year.  I have enjoyed the study visits I have attended but there is something special about listening to a photographer talk about their life and work.  I feel that this gives you a more intimate connection with their work which in turn becomes more personal to you.  I found this when I went to the David Goldblatt talk last year at the Barbican.

The prospect of Tom's talk appealed to me for a number of reasons.  My parents emigrated from Ireland and ended up in Hackney in the 1950s.  I have grown up listening to my mother talk fondly about the place where they set up their first home, about the hardships they endured and about a time where you made do and were content with your lot even if it wasn't much.  The borough was run down (many parts still are) and it was far from the green hills and countryside they left behind.

A number of years ago I started working for the NHS with my first job based in Hackney.  Here I was able to see life in all its glory.  I found it fascinating, the diversity in the area, the people that lived there in poverty just a stone's throw from the City with all its wealth and architectural feats.  The people that worked there from the nurses to market traders and the streetwalkers to the street sweepers.

I like looking at pictures of places I do not know.  However I feel that photographs of places you are familiar  with have more of an impact on you as the viewer.  I suppose it is a little like photographing places.  If you shoot in somewhere you are familiar with your images will be very different to a place you do not know.

I think the first thing that struck me about Hunter was that he was a good storyteller.  He went through his life from when he took his first image aged 7 in his parents garden to having his work displayed in the National Gallery.  He has an interesting story to tell and this we can see in his work.  His life appears to be colourful which glosses over the fact that he lived in one of the most run down places in London.  Squatting as he pointed out was and still is frowned upon by many.  Usually those that feel hard done by about their tax being used to keep these 'squatters' in the life of luxury.  However, it seems that Hunter made the most of his life and the opportunities presented to him.

I think what I found particularly interesting was the insight he provided into his work and where he got his ideas and inspirations.  He was heavily influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites and the work of Vermeer.  This can be seen in his image Woman reading a possession order from Persons Unknown which was based on and looks like a modern day A girl reading a letter by an open window by Vermeer.

Dorothea Lange and her representation of the poor was something that also played an important influence in the way Hunter set out to portray  the poor in Hackney.  Although they were poor there is a beauty in their surroundings and in themselves.

As a source of inspiration Hunter bought the Hackney Gazette on a regular basis which provided him with a detailed source of information about what was happening in the borough.  He explained that he got this idea from Thomas Hardy who used his local paper to source ideas for his novels.  His series of images Living in Hell is based on real events and headlines from the Hackney Gazette and they provide interesting if not disturbing images at times.  I particularly find the image of the boy fishing in the river Lee with a dead body floating beside him quite hard hitting.

I think from this talk the idea that images as a form of art and as something that is made became quite clear.  This is something that I have been reading a lot about lately in Gerry Badger's book on the history of photography.  I have started seeing my work as something that is made over a period of time and not just a day out shooting somewhere.  I have found that there is more the creative process than simply taking a picture.

I also found it interesting when Hunter spoke about how he takes images of people, how he goes about asking them and how a simple no is seen not as the end of the conversation but as a starting point for negotiation.  This is an area that I feel I need to work on a lot more.  I feel I have reached the point where my shyness is hindering my ability to take better shots and this in turn is leading to frustration.

For more information on Tom Hunter and to view his images go to his website.