Thursday, December 15, 2005
The world according to Wig
Ok Ok Ok H, I know, I'm a pretty slack blogger and I apologise. Been watching too much Space Cadets. What the HELL is with that show? I reckon, as the Guardian said, that they are ALL actors and we are the ones being taken for a ride. Us and bloody Johnny Vaughan. That man has the facial expressions of a chimp.
Frank, thanks for your cannablog link although I'm a little unnerved at how you knew I would be interested in that, and whether or not you are aware of just how important this new and OUTRAGEOUS Dutch legislation is to me in the near future........ do I know you FRank? Well thanks anyway, I'm going to go email some of my fave coffee shops now in Dam and check the situation. THat article, and the others I've read on the subject, say the pilot scheme in January will be in Masstricht to stop the bloody Germans from being "weed tourists", need to check if the Amsterdammers are going to follow suit. Maybe I could con the paper into sending me over there to do an investigative piece on the situation... hmmm.... excellent idea....... Bloody Germans they ruin everything for everyone: wearing swastikas, smuggling drugs, sunbathing. Ask Prince Harry - he knows. Honestly, you can't even say something anti-semitic these days without getting harsh stares from your peers. I'm JOKING. Obviously.
Jim did you know that VJ DAVIM is whats called a spoonerism where you swap the accented consonants of a word round like in the sentence "she will leave the university by the town drain" which I think is supposed to be "down train" but that doesn't make much sense either....... anyway John Walsh, estimed Independent columnist great collleague and literary genius just told me that so it must be right. A spoonerism, one must note, must not be confused with a Malapropism which is named after a women callled Edna Malaprop who was in some show once (!) and who used to say cleverly daft things like "she was as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile" which I think is really really funny. ANyway I just like the word spoonerism and I think if you are to be VJ DAVIM the fact that you will also be a spoonerism is uncannily apt so I wanted to tell you that. Also it makes me sound clever.
NOw that I have answered the calls of my commentators - my audience, if you will - I will proceed to once again bore you with the events of the last few weeks:
1) went to see Ian Brown at the biggest gig he's ever played at the MEN arena in Manchester with best good friend and similar Roses fanatic Wilks and we both totally lost our voices and our minds at how great he was. AND, the paper ran my review of it! YOu can check it out here:
http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/music/reviews/article333131.ece
How exciting! It really was a monumental gig.
2) went ice skating and possibly to the best place in the capital I've been yet - a wicked kick ass Karaoke bar in Soho where you rent a room for two hours, get given a radio mike, a full sound system and a touch screen computer with alphabetical access to about a squillion crooners aaaaaaaaand you're off! NOte to self though: next time Karaoke is on the menu DO NOT let Carla take her video camera as there are no two things more shameful than firstly, watching, sober, oneself do a genuinely heartfelt rendition of Take That's "It only takes a minute", and secondly, watching the footage of yourself shouting frustratedly at your friends when they dare to enter the song at a non-designated point (song in question: "The Time of my Life" from Dirty Dancing - O DEAR.)
3) spent much time considering just how fast this year has gone and just how much has happened, which is mind boggling, so I have to stop after a while and turn up the volume on Holby City, which, as many of my friends will attest, is the best legal version of crack cocaine for the dulling of the senses available anywhere. Ah come on Helen, you know it is.
4) interviewed chauvanistic swinging 60s photographer David Bailey (also in the paper, http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/article333338.ece) who was less interesting than I would have liked, and a hell of a lot less intruiging than his book of photos of butt-naked people, including a guy with literally an entire ironmongers shop in his scrotum and face, is covered in really badly done tattoos of Marylin Monroe, whose name is Prince Albert "John" and who is listed as "retired". Retired from what, may I ask? The circus? The civil service? The primary education sector? Goodness only knows. In fact, not even Bailey knew because I asked him. I mean, what kind of person does not ask that question when there's a dude with a ballsack 20cms in circumference and full of metal stood naked in front of you? Only one who is distracted by the enormous camera-come-penis under his control I think. Yak. Most of rest of people are beautiful skinny models and book is called "Bailey's Democracy" which is living proof that that man has, for at least the last 40 years, lived in a way way more gorgeous country than most of us. Certainly those of us from Rochdale or Hull. Not a hooped gold earing in sight. Democracy. Tsk.
5) put up £9.99 Woolies fibre optic Xmas tree and its actually very sweet! So far we have, as a house, got two Xmas cards: one from Australia, which I think it mightily impressive, and one from some of Nic's friends which is sweet but the message reads: "hope you manage to have a good Christmas" which I thought was a rather strange way to impart Yuletide greetings since I would consider getting encrusted egg off a pan and carrying three weeks worth of shopping home through Brixton's busy streets in the category of 'manageable', rather than celebrating a global festival of compassion and humanity and buying loads of stuff. Just my thoughts, anyway.......
And, once again, I have gone on too long. Must try to keep these things more regular and shorter. Off to post similarly rambling, but MUCH shorter, comments on my audience's blogs and then back to work. Got to get Les Dennis for the page as my editor had an epiphany yesterday when I asked him what he thought about Neil Sedaka and he made the "our survey says EH EH" noise off Family Fortunes and then a light descended from the polystyrene ceiling and the order came forth for me to find Les Dennis, by God, and ask him some questions. And so I shall. Until then earthlings, nanoo nanoo. K8 ;)
Frank, thanks for your cannablog link although I'm a little unnerved at how you knew I would be interested in that, and whether or not you are aware of just how important this new and OUTRAGEOUS Dutch legislation is to me in the near future........ do I know you FRank? Well thanks anyway, I'm going to go email some of my fave coffee shops now in Dam and check the situation. THat article, and the others I've read on the subject, say the pilot scheme in January will be in Masstricht to stop the bloody Germans from being "weed tourists", need to check if the Amsterdammers are going to follow suit. Maybe I could con the paper into sending me over there to do an investigative piece on the situation... hmmm.... excellent idea....... Bloody Germans they ruin everything for everyone: wearing swastikas, smuggling drugs, sunbathing. Ask Prince Harry - he knows. Honestly, you can't even say something anti-semitic these days without getting harsh stares from your peers. I'm JOKING. Obviously.
Jim did you know that VJ DAVIM is whats called a spoonerism where you swap the accented consonants of a word round like in the sentence "she will leave the university by the town drain" which I think is supposed to be "down train" but that doesn't make much sense either....... anyway John Walsh, estimed Independent columnist great collleague and literary genius just told me that so it must be right. A spoonerism, one must note, must not be confused with a Malapropism which is named after a women callled Edna Malaprop who was in some show once (!) and who used to say cleverly daft things like "she was as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile" which I think is really really funny. ANyway I just like the word spoonerism and I think if you are to be VJ DAVIM the fact that you will also be a spoonerism is uncannily apt so I wanted to tell you that. Also it makes me sound clever.
NOw that I have answered the calls of my commentators - my audience, if you will - I will proceed to once again bore you with the events of the last few weeks:
1) went to see Ian Brown at the biggest gig he's ever played at the MEN arena in Manchester with best good friend and similar Roses fanatic Wilks and we both totally lost our voices and our minds at how great he was. AND, the paper ran my review of it! YOu can check it out here:
http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/music/reviews/article333131.ece
How exciting! It really was a monumental gig.
2) went ice skating and possibly to the best place in the capital I've been yet - a wicked kick ass Karaoke bar in Soho where you rent a room for two hours, get given a radio mike, a full sound system and a touch screen computer with alphabetical access to about a squillion crooners aaaaaaaaand you're off! NOte to self though: next time Karaoke is on the menu DO NOT let Carla take her video camera as there are no two things more shameful than firstly, watching, sober, oneself do a genuinely heartfelt rendition of Take That's "It only takes a minute", and secondly, watching the footage of yourself shouting frustratedly at your friends when they dare to enter the song at a non-designated point (song in question: "The Time of my Life" from Dirty Dancing - O DEAR.)
3) spent much time considering just how fast this year has gone and just how much has happened, which is mind boggling, so I have to stop after a while and turn up the volume on Holby City, which, as many of my friends will attest, is the best legal version of crack cocaine for the dulling of the senses available anywhere. Ah come on Helen, you know it is.
4) interviewed chauvanistic swinging 60s photographer David Bailey (also in the paper, http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/article333338.ece) who was less interesting than I would have liked, and a hell of a lot less intruiging than his book of photos of butt-naked people, including a guy with literally an entire ironmongers shop in his scrotum and face, is covered in really badly done tattoos of Marylin Monroe, whose name is Prince Albert "John" and who is listed as "retired". Retired from what, may I ask? The circus? The civil service? The primary education sector? Goodness only knows. In fact, not even Bailey knew because I asked him. I mean, what kind of person does not ask that question when there's a dude with a ballsack 20cms in circumference and full of metal stood naked in front of you? Only one who is distracted by the enormous camera-come-penis under his control I think. Yak. Most of rest of people are beautiful skinny models and book is called "Bailey's Democracy" which is living proof that that man has, for at least the last 40 years, lived in a way way more gorgeous country than most of us. Certainly those of us from Rochdale or Hull. Not a hooped gold earing in sight. Democracy. Tsk.
5) put up £9.99 Woolies fibre optic Xmas tree and its actually very sweet! So far we have, as a house, got two Xmas cards: one from Australia, which I think it mightily impressive, and one from some of Nic's friends which is sweet but the message reads: "hope you manage to have a good Christmas" which I thought was a rather strange way to impart Yuletide greetings since I would consider getting encrusted egg off a pan and carrying three weeks worth of shopping home through Brixton's busy streets in the category of 'manageable', rather than celebrating a global festival of compassion and humanity and buying loads of stuff. Just my thoughts, anyway.......
And, once again, I have gone on too long. Must try to keep these things more regular and shorter. Off to post similarly rambling, but MUCH shorter, comments on my audience's blogs and then back to work. Got to get Les Dennis for the page as my editor had an epiphany yesterday when I asked him what he thought about Neil Sedaka and he made the "our survey says EH EH" noise off Family Fortunes and then a light descended from the polystyrene ceiling and the order came forth for me to find Les Dennis, by God, and ask him some questions. And so I shall. Until then earthlings, nanoo nanoo. K8 ;)
# posted by K8 Wig @ 6:06 AM 
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hey! you should have asked Bailey bout his potraits of artists for the Frieze Festival, who he met what he got up to.....
My London David Bailey
ALISTAIR DUNCAN
What advice would you give to a tourist?
Don't stand on the pavement and get in my way!
Who is in your secret address book?
I go to Charing Cross Road for photographic books, Tate Modern for art books, and I love Selfridges, although the music is too loud.
What have been your most memorable London meals?
I've been a vegetarian since I was ten but I like Le Caprice, as the staff are always friendly. Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's is good also. Every meal is a last supper when you get to my age.
What do you miss most when you're out of London?
The mystery and history of the city. I love New York, but it looks as if it was built yesterday. I'm always discovering new bits of London.
What are your favourite home comforts?
I read a lot of books. The last one was Dirty Havana Trilogy by Cuban journalist Pedro Juan Gutierrez. I've just done a photographic book on Havana, so it was interesting to read his account of the city.
What was the last play you saw in London and did you enjoy it??
The Vagina Monologues with Jerry Hall. I enjoyed it. Generally, I'm in the studio until eight, so I don't get a chance to see plays.
What would you do if you were Mayor for the day?
I'd make sure Ken Livingstone gets run over by a bus. He's too lenient on bus drivers they go across lights, zebra crossings. But because he's politically correct, they get away with it.
What is your life philosophy?
Get lucky. I still try to keep myself as busy with work as possible. One day I might get it right.
What do you listen to on your iPod?
Blues music, which annoys the hell out of everyone. I listen to every artist from Robert Johnson to BB King.
Do you have a favourite pub?
I hate pubs. The prospect of drinking beer in a pub with five men is my idea of hell. I'm not much of a lad.
How long have you lived in King's Cross?
Five years. I used to live in Primrose Hill but I prefer King's Cross. I hope it doesn't get too poncey, though, with all the modernisation.
Which aftershave do you wear?
I'm not Tim Jefferies, you know. I only shave once a fortnight. I don't wear any.
What are your current projects?
I've got a book coming out called Bailey's Democracy; it's a collection of photographs of ordinary people shot naked. I've also got an exhibition in December at Faggionato Fine Art on Albemarle Street.
What were the last books you bought?
I went to the Frieze Art Fair the other week and bought a load of art books.
LaLa Land Parody Paradise by Paul McCarthy, Young Chet, about Chet Baker by William Claxton, and a book by Damien Hirst and Richard Hamilton. Frieze is a great art event for London to host.
What are your extravagances?
Art. I've got a lot of African art. I swap a lot with other artists, like Damien Hirst (above). I always buy prints by photographer Irving Penn.
Where were the last three places you went on holiday?
I don't generally go on holiday, but in February I went to Miami to stay with my friend, the photographer Bruce Weber. My son wanted to go diving and swim with the dolphins and Bruce said he'd take him.
What was the last CD you bought?
Careless Love by Madeleine Peyroux, a great French jazz singer.
What items are in your winter wardrobe?
Corduroy trousers and a black leather jacket from Ralph Lauren. I always buy Carhartt trousers when I'm in New York. I need clothes that last.
Where do you live and why?
I live in King's Cross, because it is ten minutes' walk from my studio. I like the Dickensian feel of the area. We'll see how it changes. Hopefully they'll do it up really well and not go for cheap options.
Bailey's Democracy is published on 25 November (Thames Hudson, Pounds 24.95)
(c)2005. Associated Newspapers Ltd.. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.
ALISTAIR DUNCAN
What advice would you give to a tourist?
Don't stand on the pavement and get in my way!
Who is in your secret address book?
I go to Charing Cross Road for photographic books, Tate Modern for art books, and I love Selfridges, although the music is too loud.
What have been your most memorable London meals?
I've been a vegetarian since I was ten but I like Le Caprice, as the staff are always friendly. Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's is good also. Every meal is a last supper when you get to my age.
What do you miss most when you're out of London?
The mystery and history of the city. I love New York, but it looks as if it was built yesterday. I'm always discovering new bits of London.
What are your favourite home comforts?
I read a lot of books. The last one was Dirty Havana Trilogy by Cuban journalist Pedro Juan Gutierrez. I've just done a photographic book on Havana, so it was interesting to read his account of the city.
What was the last play you saw in London and did you enjoy it??
The Vagina Monologues with Jerry Hall. I enjoyed it. Generally, I'm in the studio until eight, so I don't get a chance to see plays.
What would you do if you were Mayor for the day?
I'd make sure Ken Livingstone gets run over by a bus. He's too lenient on bus drivers they go across lights, zebra crossings. But because he's politically correct, they get away with it.
What is your life philosophy?
Get lucky. I still try to keep myself as busy with work as possible. One day I might get it right.
What do you listen to on your iPod?
Blues music, which annoys the hell out of everyone. I listen to every artist from Robert Johnson to BB King.
Do you have a favourite pub?
I hate pubs. The prospect of drinking beer in a pub with five men is my idea of hell. I'm not much of a lad.
How long have you lived in King's Cross?
Five years. I used to live in Primrose Hill but I prefer King's Cross. I hope it doesn't get too poncey, though, with all the modernisation.
Which aftershave do you wear?
I'm not Tim Jefferies, you know. I only shave once a fortnight. I don't wear any.
What are your current projects?
I've got a book coming out called Bailey's Democracy; it's a collection of photographs of ordinary people shot naked. I've also got an exhibition in December at Faggionato Fine Art on Albemarle Street.
What were the last books you bought?
I went to the Frieze Art Fair the other week and bought a load of art books.
LaLa Land Parody Paradise by Paul McCarthy, Young Chet, about Chet Baker by William Claxton, and a book by Damien Hirst and Richard Hamilton. Frieze is a great art event for London to host.
What are your extravagances?
Art. I've got a lot of African art. I swap a lot with other artists, like Damien Hirst (above). I always buy prints by photographer Irving Penn.
Where were the last three places you went on holiday?
I don't generally go on holiday, but in February I went to Miami to stay with my friend, the photographer Bruce Weber. My son wanted to go diving and swim with the dolphins and Bruce said he'd take him.
What was the last CD you bought?
Careless Love by Madeleine Peyroux, a great French jazz singer.
What items are in your winter wardrobe?
Corduroy trousers and a black leather jacket from Ralph Lauren. I always buy Carhartt trousers when I'm in New York. I need clothes that last.
Where do you live and why?
I live in King's Cross, because it is ten minutes' walk from my studio. I like the Dickensian feel of the area. We'll see how it changes. Hopefully they'll do it up really well and not go for cheap options.
Bailey's Democracy is published on 25 November (Thames Hudson, Pounds 24.95)
(c)2005. Associated Newspapers Ltd.. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.
http://www.galeriesphoto-fnac.com/Presse/Dossiers_presse/MailOct04/images_telechargement/im_hautedef_bailey.jpg
Today’s world communicates through images. More than any time since the invention of the camera, a photographer’s image speaks more eloquently, and vividly, than the word. Advertising’s emergence as one of the world’s fastest growing industries, with a combined marketing annual turnover of over a trillion dollars, has ensured that, regardless of where we live, those highly paid purveyors of imagery known as photographers have the aura of celebrities. Dave Saunders recalls his encounters with four beacons of brilliance that helped define their genre, and their era.
David Bailey
David Bailey leapt into the London limelight over 40 years ago when he transformed the popular image of a photographer into the idiom of the 1960s. Gossip columns thrived on exaggerated stories of his flamboyant lifestyle.
“When I was 16, Picasso changed my life. He didn’t take himself too seriously and I realized then that things needn’t be what they seem; they can be anything you want to make them.”
In 1956 Bailey discovered his passion for photography while serving in the Royal Air Force. “Every week I pawned my camera to pay for processing, then claimed it back later. I decided then to make a career in fashion photography. It allowed me to pursue my three interests: taking pictures, money and women! The dresses never interested me too much; it was what was in the dresses that interested me.”
“I’ve always gone for the emotional element in a picture rather than the graphic. I like all types of photography, though I’m not mad about still life - there’s no one to talk to.”
For a short time, Bailey was assistant to fashion photographer John French before being lured into the Vogue studios in 1960. Single minded and streetwise, his hard-working professionalism went together with disarmingly human touch. “It’s no good being well known if you can’t back it up with material. If you’re going to be any good in this business, you have to be fanatical about it. There’s just too much competition out there.
“I first noticed Jean Shrimpton in 1961 when I walked into the Vogue studios where Brian Duffy was photographing her for a Kellogg’s ad. I fell in love the moment I saw her, though Duffy thought she was much too posh for me.”
Bailey worked with Shrimpton almost every day for nearly three years in the early 1960s. “I always tend to work with the same girls. My fashion pictures are like portraits of girls wearing dresses, rather than of models.”
Bailey has also always enjoyed photographing personalities. Somerset Maugham was his first published portrait, appearing in Today magazine in 1960. Now, his portraits of Dudley Moore, Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney have become important social and historical documents.
“There’s a lot of nonsense talked about portraits and getting the soul of a person. That’s actually very difficult unless you spend a lot of time with somebody. I’ve found that the more talented someone is, the more co-operative they are. People realize that if they’re giving up their time they want to have a good result. When you’re doing a portrait for a magazine, you’ve really got to come up with something quickly. Often you’ve only got five minutes. You really need to make an arresting image rather than produce something that’s deep or meaningful."
“I can’t afford to give up my commercial work to concentrate solely on my own projects. Too much freedom is dangerous anyway. I quite like the discipline of having to do commercial work. You need that fight; it gives you some sort of dignity.”
When he shot a drinks campaign for Pernod, Bailey was given carte blanche by the ad agency and treated it as a location fashion shoot., recapturing the joie de vivre of his early work. “It’s pointless hiring an expensive photographer if the art director is going to tell him how to do the picture.”
“The best fashion advertising is produced in-house. The Gap was a good one to be asked to do. They wanted portraits and let me choose the people to photograph. They didn’t even want to see the clothes as long as the people were wearing them when the pictures were taken.”
In the 1980s and the 1990s Bailey seldom accepted commissions to shoot print ads, except for charity ads for children as well as the anti-fur and AIDS campaigns. His powerful, bloody catwalk anti-fur commercial was translated into a classic poster.
He has directed television commercials since 1966, but is best known as a stills photographer. “Most of my life has been spent trying to tell a story in 125th of a second, so a 30-second commercial was quite a luxury. And 60 seconds seems like War and Peace to me. I like working with big film crews. You can use that energy and put it back into what you’re doing. Being a stills photographer is a bit like being a sniper up a tree, all alone. Being a director is like being a military general with people all around and you’re the catalyst, trying to bring things together.
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David Bailey
David Bailey leapt into the London limelight over 40 years ago when he transformed the popular image of a photographer into the idiom of the 1960s. Gossip columns thrived on exaggerated stories of his flamboyant lifestyle.
“When I was 16, Picasso changed my life. He didn’t take himself too seriously and I realized then that things needn’t be what they seem; they can be anything you want to make them.”
In 1956 Bailey discovered his passion for photography while serving in the Royal Air Force. “Every week I pawned my camera to pay for processing, then claimed it back later. I decided then to make a career in fashion photography. It allowed me to pursue my three interests: taking pictures, money and women! The dresses never interested me too much; it was what was in the dresses that interested me.”
“I’ve always gone for the emotional element in a picture rather than the graphic. I like all types of photography, though I’m not mad about still life - there’s no one to talk to.”
For a short time, Bailey was assistant to fashion photographer John French before being lured into the Vogue studios in 1960. Single minded and streetwise, his hard-working professionalism went together with disarmingly human touch. “It’s no good being well known if you can’t back it up with material. If you’re going to be any good in this business, you have to be fanatical about it. There’s just too much competition out there.
“I first noticed Jean Shrimpton in 1961 when I walked into the Vogue studios where Brian Duffy was photographing her for a Kellogg’s ad. I fell in love the moment I saw her, though Duffy thought she was much too posh for me.”
Bailey worked with Shrimpton almost every day for nearly three years in the early 1960s. “I always tend to work with the same girls. My fashion pictures are like portraits of girls wearing dresses, rather than of models.”
Bailey has also always enjoyed photographing personalities. Somerset Maugham was his first published portrait, appearing in Today magazine in 1960. Now, his portraits of Dudley Moore, Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney have become important social and historical documents.
“There’s a lot of nonsense talked about portraits and getting the soul of a person. That’s actually very difficult unless you spend a lot of time with somebody. I’ve found that the more talented someone is, the more co-operative they are. People realize that if they’re giving up their time they want to have a good result. When you’re doing a portrait for a magazine, you’ve really got to come up with something quickly. Often you’ve only got five minutes. You really need to make an arresting image rather than produce something that’s deep or meaningful."
“I can’t afford to give up my commercial work to concentrate solely on my own projects. Too much freedom is dangerous anyway. I quite like the discipline of having to do commercial work. You need that fight; it gives you some sort of dignity.”
When he shot a drinks campaign for Pernod, Bailey was given carte blanche by the ad agency and treated it as a location fashion shoot., recapturing the joie de vivre of his early work. “It’s pointless hiring an expensive photographer if the art director is going to tell him how to do the picture.”
“The best fashion advertising is produced in-house. The Gap was a good one to be asked to do. They wanted portraits and let me choose the people to photograph. They didn’t even want to see the clothes as long as the people were wearing them when the pictures were taken.”
In the 1980s and the 1990s Bailey seldom accepted commissions to shoot print ads, except for charity ads for children as well as the anti-fur and AIDS campaigns. His powerful, bloody catwalk anti-fur commercial was translated into a classic poster.
He has directed television commercials since 1966, but is best known as a stills photographer. “Most of my life has been spent trying to tell a story in 125th of a second, so a 30-second commercial was quite a luxury. And 60 seconds seems like War and Peace to me. I like working with big film crews. You can use that energy and put it back into what you’re doing. Being a stills photographer is a bit like being a sniper up a tree, all alone. Being a director is like being a military general with people all around and you’re the catalyst, trying to bring things together.
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