Wedding

A good photograph is one that communicates a fact, touches the heart and leaves the viewer a changed person for having seen it. It is in a word, effective.

Irving Penn

I wish I had met Irving Penn. I have met many great photographers and many famous people over the years as a result of my photographic work and having been a keen collector of vintage photographs. Irving Penn’s talent and influence on the world of photography is enormous and all photographers are influenced by him regardless of what area of photography you may work in. His work has created almost a template by which we subconsciously work from. Much still life photography is shot with some due reverence to the manner in which Irving Penn represented objects. Pick out a still life in any magazine even now and you can see his influence on that image. For a while I was fortunate enough to own one of his original prints. It was a massive photograph and it used to dominate my bedroom a few years back. It was part of my collection along with works by photographer greats such as Elliot Erwitt, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Eve Arnold, William Klein and more. I am sad to say that I had to sell it some time back and yes I absolutely regret that sale.

In the movie 9 ½ Weeks there is a brief moment when Elizabeth (played by Kim Basinger) is going through John’s (Mickey Rourke) cupboards and drawers in his stylish Manhattan apartment. She opens a bedside drawer and briefly happens upon a black and white photograph of John with a beautiful woman. Maybe she’s not a lover from the past but she could be a current lover or perhaps even his wife. But it’s the sort of image that I imagine couples would want to have in their possession. It’s a photograph that captures a moment in time when there was total happiness, love and desire. Proof that there was at that time a real genuine connection. It’s a small black and white photo but it’s so powerful and it holds meaning. I must have been about 18 years old when saw the movie and it was in Hong Kong and I was sat with my date (my dad’s secretary in fact). The memory of that brief moment in the film has never left me. Elizabeth picks up the photo and holds it for a moment. It has a real weight to it. It looks like a fibre-based print. It’s a simple but effective image. The woman is leaning into John and looking affectionately at him and John is grinning confidently at the camera. They are a handsome couple who are at ease with themselves and not shy to celebrate their love. I have to acknowledge the power of a single image and realise how that brief moment in the movie, and a movie with so much going on (for such young eyes) has stayed with me. It’s not just the beauty in the simplicity of that image but the effect it has on Elizabeth as she struggles to make sense of this new enigmatic mysterious lover. She is curious and no doubt jealous that her lover who she is so drawn to has loved before and keeps this meaningful image in his bedside drawer still. I am not just fascinated by the power of that image but also at its longevity and continued currency.

I too have such images in my possession. Photographs of past girlfriends that I look at from time to time. I wonder at how at that moment in time we felt so together and in love and everything around us had fallen into place so that we could not only find each other but also share harmony and love. Against all the odds we had discovered each other and there in that one photo we have proof that even if only for a brief time those emotions did exist. There we are in our youth and innocence smiling shyly to the world, holding each other sweetly. But I’m old enough to have quite a few of those photographs and now at this point in time I’m actually single it’s a very strange thing to look at them. For sure there is sadness as perhaps I am no longer close to that person anymore and our relationship ended on sad or heartbroken terms. But despite that the image still has a powerful currency and now a new type of currency perhaps. It is still effective but in a different way now. I am moved to sadness and regret when I look at some photos of myself and a particular past girlfriend. Real sadness that I cant reconcile what happened. Sadness that something so wonderful and meaningful can be so utterly destroyed. Looking at those images of us together urges me to reach out to that person even now and try and make peace, find closure and fix the problems that plagued us. I am fascinated by this never-ending currency and power of such images. Then there are those images that leave me with a feeling of total contentment as I fondly reminisce about all the madness and fun we shared back then. We left on good terms or time has perhaps helped erase the pain, dull the memory of the demons and now as I gaze at our smiles I am filled with a poignant happiness.

In the movie Betty Blue there is a powerful moment in almost the very last scene where Zorg is looking at two Polaroid’s taken of himself and his girlfriend Betty. They are Polaroid’s taken in the early stages of their relationship when they were tasked with painting hundreds of holiday shacks by his cruel boss. Zorg and Betty are so happy, smiling to the camera and display all the energy of a couple madly in love. He holds the photographs as proof that such a time did exist and the photograph wont ever change. They will always look that way; the smiles and energy in the photographs wont ever diminish in time and change somehow. Their relationship has changed forever now but it’s the images he holds onto lovingly and it’s their power that has this affect on him. He feeds off the power of these little photographs and they are the key that unlocks that part of his broken heart and spirit. He grips them tightly and you know he will never part with them.

I can so relate to the quote above and wonder at the numerous photographs in my possession that touch my heart and hold a special place. What photographs around me are as Penn states ‘effective’? Well there are quite a few images and not all of those images are of people. But for sure there are so many portraits of people that hold some special significance for me dotted around my home and I pass those images countless times each day. I never tire of that little spark of connection as I see their face. All these photographs in my possession are so totally loaded with such power. I can open boxes or turn the pages of an album and these faces jump out at me and sting me for a moment. Some I cant bear to look at as it’s a painful reminder and the memories are not kind. Others are a brief injection of happiness and a drug that leaves me reeling with fond memories of happy days. The framed portraits around my home are all reminders how exciting life can be and bring back the happy memories of those intense relationships. Whether they were people I knew well and had meaningful relationships with or perhaps people who I met and photographed only briefly; they all have an on going affect on me. They are the tonic to the drain of the stresses of life and particularly now as I write this under lock down. Moments captured on a sunny days long before we were all forced to say at home and reminisce about a world of freedom. But for sure the photographs are as effective as Penn states and the images leaves me the viewer; a changed person as a result of looking at them. The incredible memories all resonate inside me and give me energy and a power that lifts my spirits.

I am reminded of the photographs taken of dead soldiers in combat who lie with the contents of their pockets strewn around them and invariably there is a small black and white photo of a loved one. It might be their sweetheart back home, the child they miss or their close family. They could only bring to war just a few personal items and almost always a photograph is one of the chosen items. Irving Penn talks of a great photo touching ones heart and there is no doubt these soldiers must have spent much time staring at that the photo of a loved one. The power of that tiny image must have been so huge and significant in that time. I am also reminded that it doesn’t always work out and the image once again takes on a new meaning. There is a shift in its currency. I believe it’s the movie Platoon where the soldiers have built a shrine of photos of wives and girlfriends back home in the States who have all cheated on them whilst they serve in Vietnam. Here the photos take on a whole new meaning and there is still power but its taken on a new and different form.

But it’s not just in times of stress and hardship as we see such photographs act as lucky charms or comforting reminders of loved ones. We have such images on our office desks and now more likely as a screen saver on our phones. I am completely fascinated by this emotional power that the image of the loved one holds. I truly wonder if all those years ago watching that movie in Hong Kong has stayed with me. The moment Elizabeth finds the photo of John and the split moment that resonates with her. How upon seeing the brief scene when I was just 18 years old has stuck with me. And thus throughout my life I’ve felt the need to capture the beautiful energy of a relationship I’ve been in. To know that if I grab this moment I can look back on it in years to come. I can for a brief moment reconnect with that feeling. To reflect on the most beautiful moment of that relationship and to have proof that we were in love and be able to have that emotion caught and captured forever on paper. And to then keep looking back at these images later in life like reading the pages of an old diary and reminisce and ponder all that took place. I am so totally caught up in the effectiveness of an image and its power and ability to touch my heart. And how it beholds a currency and over time that power will almost certainly shift and change as the circumstances of the relationship changes.

In December 2020 I was asked to be the photographer for George Frost and Katherine Mill’s wedding. Once again against all odds with the restrictions of Covid I was suited and ready to hopefully capture skilfully this beautiful celebration. I was so excited to be working and threw myself into this commission with real passion. As with other weddings during Covid there were less guests and this created a more intimate environment. The couple were married at the Chelsea Registry Office and then retired to the family home for supper. I sincerely hope that amongst all the photographs I took that day there is at least one that can be counted as effective and touches the heart and leaves the viewer changed for having seen it. I may not have the skills of Irving Penn but I can at least try and capture something beautiful that will stay with George and Katherine forever.