Broadcast 25 Oct 2010. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey7ijaXv6UQ

Birmingham film maker and photographer Pogus Caesar knows Handsworth well. He found himself in the centre of the 1985 riots and spent two days capturing a series of startling images. Caesar kept them hidden for 20 years. Why? And how does he see Handsworth now?.

The stark black and white photographs featured in the film provide a rare, valuable and historical record of the raw emotion, heartbreak and violence that unfolded during those dark and fateful days in September 1985.

Since then he’s stayed true to using basic cameras to photograph all over the world.

His latest exhibition at UK symphony hall shows Joburg and Capetown through a Canon Sureshot lens.

Of course the argument could be that anyone can use these cameras, but not all capture the moment. The debate will run and run.

I enjoy the style, rawness of the work (black and white 35mm) and how the subjects engage with the photographer.

Look at this, it might inspire some of us.

http://www.birminghampost.net/life-leisure-birmingham-guide/postfeatures/2009/03/20/photo-exhibition-of-black-music-legends-in-birmingham-65233-23187558/

This is why I back Terry Richardson.

The world does not run on ‘pretty’

Basically Terry Richardson created the freedom to do whatever he wants and still be able to pay his checks. I like the rawness of his photography…. perfect photography gets me bored really fast. I need some rawness…. and I feel these kind of photographers can provide that.

Richardson and Teller can be exploitative in there work but so are many photographers and what about the gay ones? You just do not see those images in such a large scale.

Its not about woman or man. People will always want power over others. It is a human thing.

Can I also add those adds are not aimed at you so it does not matter that you dont want there goods.

My best

Evan Monaco

Keep doing the geek talk and buy the best gear you can. Take great meter readings and keep every detail in the higlights etc etc…etc… Be more perfect!

Well, you cant put soul into an image with technique and you hate that cos you do not know how they do what they do.

It drives you nuts!

LOL

Any monkey can learn lighting ratios and purchase production value. Very few can make interesting photos with a strong point of view. There’s no hoax with Teller and Richardson. It’s not hype.

Yeah, I saw that.

It never ends with that lot and there’s more to come.

I’ll be flying down to Florida next month to photograph Dee Dee’s ex-wife, Vera Ramone. She’s currently writing a memoir that is gaining a lot of interest. Possibly film.

All the best,
Keith Green

And did you see this:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070921/tc_nm/walmart_apple_ramones_dc_2

I’m sure you would agree that the history of photography, in general, has revealed a plethora of exploratory methods of artistic creativity involving all sorts of ways of seeing and capturing imagery. In all honesty – aside from photo illustrations- would we really like to see a “standardization” of sorts that would define what constitutes professional photography based on the cameras that are used?

At the end of the day, for most of us, it all boils down to a matter of personal taste. In the fashion/luxury goods industry as well as the editorial magazine field, it’s a matter of business and taste; that’s where the Terry Richardson aesthetic really comes in to play. How or why it came to this point really doesn’t matter. Photographers quite often undergo an artistic metamorphosis and Mr. Richardson is no exception. We must not forget that Terry was a well accomplished photographer long before his “twig and berries” gained fame among the photo-book literati.

I met him about 13-years ago in the east village when he debuted a short 16mm black and white film/music video that he shot and produced for my friend’s band, which was quite good. Even then, elements of his current style were painfully evident. He spoke with me, with expert knowledge, of 8mm-16mm film stocks and shared information and techniques used in making the film; even offering the names and places of labs and film stock sources. The current point-and-shoot aesthetic is simply an extension of an earlier personal vision that he was successfully able to franchise.

Keith Green

Do you really not think any professional worth their salt couldn’t reproduce the same scene in a New York minute? Its not exactly technically hard to point a point and shoot is it.

But getting the “celeb” that’s 99% of the photo sorted. And that’s all about
connections. This industry is all about who you know not what you can do.

That’s why talentless Teller and Richardson get on.

Create a ‘hype’ for yourself and get people thinking your the next best thing because ‘its so bad it must be good/cool’ and then editors are falling over themselves to hire you – because their competition used you so you must be good.

Its a self-perpetuating myth.

Its certainly not photography.

Mark, I find these videos interesting when famous people are the subject but otherwise agree with your assessment of the value to the photo community. Video taping your catalog shoot is akin to Mr. Richards shooting his dick.

While it’s always curious to see how other photographers work, and I always think they’ll have some secret sauce up their sleeve, in the form of some crazy lighting scheme, or some way that they bond with the subject, it’s amazing how most every photo session looks the same, on video. (And sometimes they can look borderline silly).

And to see him holding that little camera, and see them just slap that mirror on the floor, and see that same-old “pose face” on the model, and the silly crawling, well, to me, it just somehow loses some of the allure.

I love his finished images, for the most part, but after seeing this video, I think it’s better to see ONLY the finished image. Like in The Wizard of Oz, sometimes, it’s better to keep some thing behind the curtain, out of sight of the public. Sometimes, less truly is more.

Just one opinion.

Is the Teller/Richardson style not just the Emperors New Clothes? Art sh*te for the sake of it?

The more people laud them with praise (because that’s what you are supposed to do right – to be ‘cool’) the more others hire them.

They’re not photographers – they’re snake oil salesmen.

My 6 yearo old could do the same with a point and shoot.

Pretentious rubbish of the highest order.

I love the Laura Dern story, and not just because I love Laura Dern (watched Inland Empire four times so far). Anyone remeber the Venezia story Teller shot for the Feb 07 issue of W? Definitely one of my favorite editorials I can remember.

http://whatsthejackanory.blogspot.com/2007/08/magazine-under-review-w-0907.html

I know someone who worked with Terry recently and will get a full report posted.