THINK GLOBAL, ACT LOCAL - DIANE SMYTH
http://www.tomhunter.org/think-global-act-local/
Tom Hunter explores themes that depict his local neighbourhood, wanting to show Hackney in a different or better light to how its normally portrayed in the papers.
Three years ago Paul Wombell curated a group exhibition in Madrid drawing the attention to a small but growing band of photographers who were responding to the world at a local, neighbourhood level.
Arguing that they offered an important counterpart to the 'totalised view of the world' .
Because Hunter had spent 10 years in his local area it offered more depth to his work.
Hunter agrees with Wombell on two counts, undoubtably his work is local, an attempt to 'think global, act local. - shooting friends and local hackney people. And secondly, he concurs about the failed promise of technology - he prefers the more traditional approach and uses a Wista 4x5 and a large format pinhole. He says its not about the camera equipment, its about capturing the light. You don't
need to spend thousands on a camera to get a good picture ( better not tell my husband this or he might get a refund on my Christmas present ).
He says he likes to take his time and take three really slow thought out pictures, rather then rush around snapping loads.
Tom Hunter was born in 1965 in Dorset, leaving school at 15 and working as a labourer, which he hated. He then became a tree surgeon which allowed him to travel, he took his camera and discovered photography. On his return he decided to take a photography degree. He graduated with a first class honours degree.
He began taking pictures of his neighbours of Hackney where he was living in a squat. He was sick of seeing similar pictures taken in black and white and nearly always giving off a bad image. He decided to take his pictures in colour and try and give a new feel.
His work was shown at the museum of London but his breakthrough came when the picture (shown Below ) won a photographic Portrait Award in 1998.
With regard to his work he said "its nice to be in your own backyard, rather than being the great white explorer, Anthropologists going off to deepest Africa to see other cultures don't realise whats going on on their own doorstep."
Hunters art historical references are designed to lend gravity to the people and scenes he depicts.
He feels the medium is a part of the message, and he is happy to use elements of fiction in his work. At the very least posing his subjects, and at most staging the whole scene.
He argues that his fictions aren't necessarily less truthful than straight documentary.
He says.. Newspaper stories are historical narratives of our time..
He favours photography because it has its feet in reality - where as painting is always an abstraction. All his work is taken on location, so no matter how staged some of the elements are, they retain an historical veracity.
The image below of the girl he see as an historical document. Photography does that, it captures time. You can slightly alter the scene, you can bring in a fiction in a way, but underlying it the core foundations are reality.
There are advantages and disadvantages for having your work in exhibitions. You don't have people editing your work without your permission. A downside is that I becomes a product for the wealthy, both viewing and buying but you want to give your message to all. He now has control over where and when his work is shown, and the text that goes with it is his own not someone else's.
Tom Hunter aims to act locally and then get the message out to as many people as possible. He wants to talk to everyone so that the same mistakes are not repeated.
TOM HUNTER
http://www.tomhunter.org/
http://www.tomhunter.org/html/news.php
ttp://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00zt7ky
TOM HUNTER Video can be seen here..
I listened to Tom Hunter on the BBC 3 recording. The name wasn't familiar to me but I seem to have a recollection of him once he started talking and telling his story.
He left school at 15 and worked various jobs, he settled on as a tree surgeon.
He lived in a squat in Hackney and he study for a photography degree in 1994, he was a very keen student. His main inspiration was Johan Vemeer. His first photographs were 5"x 4" transparencies, they showed all lovely colours when on a light box and he was completely transfixed. The images he took of his street and surrounding areas looked like a cathedral in his imagination.
His photographs 'The Ghetto' he showed to his lecturers and they suggested that he look at the artist Vermeer - The Golden Age of Dutch painting.
When he came across Vermeer he was transfixed by his use of colour and lighting. He was intrigued and inspired by his life and art. He wrote in his appraisal for his degree show quoting Vermeer as his influence.
He had a couple of years travelling before returning to London and the squat. Which he was subsequently evicted from, along with his friends. The picture above is of a girl with her baby who have received an eviction notice. He took the photo in the style of Vermeer.
It took a long time for him to find his voice in his work.
He studied Vermeer further finding out more details and facts. A lot of his work was open to interpretations and he used the camera to study optical images and effects, he used for his compositional arrangements.
Hunter likes that the camera never lies - photographs are real but can be manipulated by the photographer to create an image.
Vermeer worked closely with the local communities, intimate scenes and minute details.
People expected Hunter to produce harsh black and white images probably because of his subject matter and how he was as a person, taking pictures of squatters, travellers, drug taking, fights with bailiffs but his work was always influenced by Vermeer. He too stayed local in his environment of Hackney. Photography the local people and surroundings, which he has done for 25 years.
He likes to make the Ordinary, extraordinary.
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