With Respect By Greg Hobson
Jason Wilde’s Guerns!
Portraiture is the flesh and bones of photography, animating and humanising it. It was the first commercially successful photography practice and following the announcement of the invention of photography in 1839, Daguerreotype portrait studios proved phenomenally successful. The popularity of the process raced ahead of Talbot’s conceptually superior but aesthetically lacking process and its success impacted not just on the a public desperate to have their portraits taken, but on the supply chain of materials, studios and photography portrait artists. The process was so successful, it led to a frenzy described as ‘Daguerreotypania’, which is artfully described in Théodore Maurisset’s 1839 illustration entitled ‘‘La daguerréotypomanie’.
Théodore Maurisset’s 1839 illustration entitled ‘‘La daguerréotypomanie’.
Complicated and somewhat bitter rivalries between Talbot and his evolving process and the French government, who purchased the Daguerreotype patent from Daguerre, meant that rather than being free to use - as it was in the rest of the world - it was necessary to purchase licenses to use the daguerreotype process in Britain. This would result in the commodification of photography and portraiture in particular, in many ways establishing portrait photography as a business dependent practice, rather than one that would be associated with a freedom of creative expression.
Shackled to the dependencies of the studio or commercial commission, portraiture grew into a genre that, with rare exception could only be partial in relation to what it told us about history. This linear historical perspective would endure and be particular to photography in Britain, the legacy of which would be photographs of royals, celebrities and fashion models, rather than a truer reflection of the character of the times, as August Sander in Germany, or Lewis Hine in the USA would show in their work. Continuing into the late 1960s and despite occasionally startling portrait projects such as David Bailey’s 1965 Box of Pin-Ups, portrait photography in Britain appeared dreary and without purpose.
From ‘Guerns!’ by Jason Wilde
In the early 1970s a new generation of photographers, inspired by the energy of the 1960s countercultures and influenced by new American photography by Diane Arbus and Lee Friedlander, and the MOMA New York 1967 exhibition New Documents in particular, began to overturn the photography establishment. An independent British photography culture flourished, which in turn gave rise to a new kind of portrait photography; one that conflated documentary and portrait practice to make photographs that had both social meaning and historical value. These new practices eschewed the traditionally condescending viewpoint of some documentarians - who were more interested in the spectacle of squalor - and embraced a more respectful, engaged methodology.
From ‘Guerns!’ by Jason Wilde
Daniel Meadows was a central figure in these new practices. He attended Manchester Polytechnic with a group of now influential and important British photographers including Peter Fraser, Brian Griffin and Martin Parr, with who he collaborated with. In 1972, Meadows established a free photographic studio in a former barber’s shop on Graeme Street in Manchester’s Moss Side. Opening on Saturdays through a period of two months, Meadows photographed the inner city population of the local area, giving free copies of the photographs to his sitters and exhibiting the photographs in the shop window.
The Graeme Street portraits established a template for Meadows’ groundbreaking Free Photographic Omnibus project. For this, between 1973-74 Meadows travelled around England, running a free photographic studio from a double-decker bus which also served as his temporary home and gallery. The photographs he made on his journey are very special. Timeless, yet rooted firmly in their time; subtle, yet profound; they have grown from a genuinely heartfelt affection for the subjects. In these two bodies of work, Meadows redefined the possibilities of portrait photography and set new standards for how the subjects should be depicted.
From ‘Guerns!’ by Jason Wilde
Curiously, despite the power of Meadows’ work, it is not an approach that has notably endured. Issues surrounding class, political agendas and the vagaries of Arts Council funding meant that work that was gentle and respectful of those at the margins of society was seen as insufficiently proselytising. Tough and edgy became synonymous with revelation and truth. Considered, collaborative and involved work was pushed to the margins in favour of a more brash depiction of the less privileged and poor.
Very rarely, a body of work surfaces that addresses this imbalance and shows how portrait photography can be liberating, meaningful and of lasting importance. Jason Wilde’s Guerns! realises all of these through a combination of his warmth for his subjects and deft use of the camera.
From ‘Guerns!’ by Jason Wilde
London based Wilde was commissioned in 2015-16 by Guernsey Museums and Guernsey Photography Festival to make new work on the island of Guernsey. Stereotypically associated with high levels of wealth, the banking industry and as a tax-haven, the realities of the constituency of Guernsey are quite different. Wilde was born, grew up and still lives on a council estate and his experiences inform much of his work. For the Guernsey commission he proposed to make his work with the islands social housing communities to address the under-representation of these communities in the photographic history of the island and, to focus on the women in particular. Wilde’s experience was that women formed the backbone of these communities, binding them and giving them form, while their contributions remained overlooked and unrecorded. Furthermore, he sought to involve the communities in the process of their representation, establishing a free photographic studio as well as photographing individuals and families in their home environments and frequently in the private domains of their bedrooms. In the spirit of collaborative exchange, all the subjects were offered a free portrait from their sittings.
Wilde’s photographs are a remarkably fresh and optimistic portrait of the communities. He has avoided the cliches of destitution and chaos, showing instead the binding properties of family and community. The work is joyful and there is a sense of ownership of the photographs from the subjects as much as the photographer. In this respect, the photographs are an important testimony of the islands states housing communities and history of Guernsey, as well as making a hugely important contribution to the tradition of documentary portraiture. Furthermore, by treating his subjects with respect, Wilde shows us the power of photographs to be revelatory, as well as a celebration of life in a cynical and suspicious time.
Greg Hobson, November 2017
From ‘Guerns!’ by Jason Wilde