Enjoy

http://caughtbytheriver.net/2009/10/justin-partyka-the-east-anglians/

http://www.spectator.co.uk/arts-and-culture/all/5402008/art-of-darkness.thtml

I won’t be around for the “live” with Martin Parr this evening, but I look forward to reading the conversation.

May Friday night be a great success at Burn HQ.

Best to all,

Justin

i do intend to have a long talk with you about your work, your style, your authorship, your book…my suggestion is by skype since we seem to have no concurrent meeting points in person..perhaps early next week?? or in early november….by the time i break free here in new york these days , you are most likely sleeping…early morning is usually best for me in terms of the kind of mental energy i need for a good critique….and right now, i have no early mornings free….please be patient and do not be afraid to send me e-mail reminders or skype chat messages….i know you have put a lot into East Anglians, so to properly respect your efforts i want to make sure we have the time to go over everything in the best possible online setting…

cheers, david

I agree with the authorship of an image, I too have many dark images that I sell as prints and appear on my site, I too get questioned about the darkness, but I am happy to stick with it. It takes time to develop the confidence to stick with your convictions. I just am puzzled by the difference between the prints and what is appearing here.

I still must insist that from my view there is at least one stop difference between the prints in the exhibition and what is appearing here. Please understand i am not questioning your style, that is your choice/authorship.

I have spent many years shooting velvia 50asa and still do when I can get my hands on it. I am familiar with the latitude issues.

I am also convinced I have seen your work on promotional material from the Sainsbury centre a few years ago.

Re the exhibition, I have no dispute over the varying sizes of prints I agree it is essential and a good tool, in my previous post i was merely mentioning it to help other readers here appreiate what the exhibition is like in the flesh.

Regarding the promotional material associated with your exhibition I have not questioned that, I know all too well that things can go wildly out of control once things have passed through the cmyk print process. I too think they have done a good job of the catalogue.

I am glad to hear that you have never tried to conform to the technically perfect picture, rules are made to be broken after all.

The nature of documentary or indeed most photography, is that you have one chance (the only exception I can currently think of is Still life). I return many times to the landscapes I shoot, each time is different.

I am still confused by the time.

many thanks, maybe we could meet for a beer sometime.

Cheers

Ian

Thanks for your comments, and I’m pleased you made the effort to go and see the show, even if it left you disappointed.

I’ll try and answer some of your questions the best I can:

This is my first involvement with the Sainsbury Centre, so the things you have seen over the years were not connected to me. Who knows for sure why they have invested in my work, obviously they must like it.

It is not quite true to say that they do not usually support photography. They show such a mix of work there that photography does not feature in every show, but photography is shown there. They had a show from the V&A photography collection not too long ago, and in the 1980s they had a large exhibition of P H Emerson’s work. And there has been other things in between. From talking to the curators, photography is very much part of their mandate as a public art museum.

I did not quite understand what you meant by saying that the exhibition is very different from the slide show featured on Burn. They are different ways to present work and therefore will obviously feel and look differently.

I think that the ability to feature different size prints is one of the benefits of exhibiting work and help tell the story. That was intentional.

I agree that some of the publicity material for the show has not presented the images at their best. I tried to keep control of that side of things as much as I could but the machine proved to big, with too many people involved. In the end I realised that I have to let the marketing and press people and the designers etc do their job. Sometimes you have to let go of the work….

As for the prints. All I can say is that I worked very closely with Metro and the prints are how I wanted them and are as close a match as possible to the original 35mm slides. My work is dark. That’s how I photograph. I know that not everybody appreciates that and you’re not the first to say so, but it is how I want to work and I’m standing by that. I like the way that details are hidden in the darkness of the prints and sometimes you have to look closely to see it. For me is helps create an intimacy with the work, forcing you to get in close. But not all the work is like that. Mainly only those made in low light.

I have not made any changes to the scans and the files I submitted to Burn are from the scans for the exhibition prints. Perhaps some are a bit lighter but that must be down to the difference of viewing images on the screen compared with prints and moving the images from different colour balanced worksflows. I think the images reproduced in the small catalogue were pretty close to the exhibition prints.

What the print shows is what the screen at Metro showed. We did various rounds of contact sheets and test prints so I can assure you that care was taken. If you see a problem with the prints, it is not with the work of Metro, but with my vision of the world.

There is one print in the show (a farm yard scene which was next to the leeks print) which I think could perhaps be a little bit lighter. The farmers praying around the tractor is shown as intended. Obviously when working with slide film at dusk the exposure latitude is very fine and it would have been easy to over expose the sky in that situation. The slide is dark and the print is dark.

I realise that my work does not fit within what a technically perfect photograph should look like, but I have never attempted to conform to those expectations.

Obviously I feel I should defend my time working on the project, but I do not agree that DAH or anybody else could produce this work in 2 weeks or a month. The time has very much reflected my vision of how I wanted to photograph and portray this world. As DAH hammers away on Burn, it is a question of my authorship. Some of the situations I have photographed have only occurred once. I’ve worked very carefully to work in the best light. That requires going back again and again, sometimes each year. For instance the sugar beet harvest scene with the man standing near the red tractor. In the whole time I have worked on the project, I have only photographed the sugar beet harvest that one time with light like that. It is perhaps not one of the best images from the project, but I’m using it as an example of how I work.

I know that if this work was for a magazine assignment I would not have the luxury to wait for the perfect light. And I have the thousands of images I’ve made which were done on days when the light was not so special. So it reflects the editing process too: what I’ve chosen to show. I could have presented this work in many different ways, but I have a vision and I have stuck with it.

In addition to this, there is also the process of gaining access as you touch on. I have photographed many farms and situations which eventually did not make it in the exhibition, simply because they have a different aesthetic feel and would not fit in with my vision.

As for the comment by the designer, I am interested that people are having this reaction. But what can I say: the Sainsbury Centre has two temporary exhibition spaces, which are both prominent in size. So I can only say that the work is be shown in the space they offered me.

I hope this has helped to clarify the work and the show a little bit.

DAH: the question of authorship raises it’s head again. Do you have any thoughts to add on this: not about my work specifically but about the process of finding your authorship and establishing it regardless of what others thought about the work. I seem to recall you saying something about also preferring dark images. What other experiences have you had regarding this?

Best to all,

Justin

I have lived in Norfolk since 1999, so I can no way be called a local, I believe that comes after several generations…..

I have seen some of your images over the years in literature printed by the Sainsbury centre, I think you might have been involved with meet the artist type things in the past. The pictures I saw in these press releases picqued my interest and they stuck in my mind. I will be frank here because that is the only way I know. The images stuck out for me because there are not many photographers supported and associated with the sainsbury center, the photographs that were reproduced were often very dark (underexposed) and had a blue cast (as John Gladdy pointed out earlier) so to me technically there were issues, these things can always be explained or excused if circumstances didn’t allow or the story is strong enough to overide these issues.. So I was very pleased to hear that you were having an exhibition so I would get a chance to discover the sainsbury centre’s belief in you and your imagery.

You have a large exhibition in the main exhibiting space of the centre, the show is impressive, the setting is impressive,the publicity is impressive the support by the centre is impressive, so I must congratulate on that, that is a great achievement.

The exhibition itself, is much larger than what you have shown here.

There are a few gems in the above slide show 3,18,19,26 and the running order is good.

I was really looking forward to the exhibiiton but it really is very different from the slide show above, there are many prints of varying sizes and some extremly large prints.I completly know that what you see in print is never going to look the same as seeing over the web. The prints are heavy and dark so in some instances the details are barely legible, all of the images above are much lighter than the prints and vastly improved for it, take for example images 2,18,20,24,26,27 alot of the nuances are lost in the prints they are so dark. The guys praying/swearing at the tractor, you can hardly see them in the print. This only compounds the questions I have with the techinical issues mentioned above. I appreciate darkness, blur etc add atmosphere to images, take Chris Bickfords surfing essay, fantastic. but I am afraid for me it doesn’t work here, and I think you must feel the same as you would not have severely enhanced the images above to be different from the exhibition prints.

To me an exhibition of this size and stature, every print should be a star, this is not what I found, the exhibition has a few great prints, with many that are distracting and annoying because the best has not been brought out of them through the printing. This takes us back to the master printer debate. I would be interested to know if you were in the darkroom guiding the printing by Metro or if you left to others.

I like the story of the agrarian, it is a great project, to document the hidden world of the tradional/small farmer/landworker. To do this I understand you have to build trust, develop the story,adapt the story, find the subjects. I see that you have treated your subjects with respect. I know the countryside round here, there are plenty of small lanes, plenty of ominous/spooky looking farmsteads and it can be difficult plucking the courage to approach these and ask permission, (especially since the Tony Martin case (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Martin_(farmer)) I have had to do it myself.

You say you have taken 9 nine years on this project, that is an impressively long time and I admire your dedication and commitment. I have one question, Why? This is a project that in the hands of say DAH could have been done in a couple of weeks to a month, maybe with return visits stretched over a year, to get the seasons. i would be interested to hear why it took so long.

I like the project, but I have the above doubts. I feel like the bad apple in the pile amoungst all the above glittering praise, so I have had to fight to keep my convictions on this. I was also approached unsolicited at the weekend, by a designer who also had questions as to why this exhibition was taking such a prominant position within the sainsbury centre. I guess the answer will be in the visitor numbers of concurrent exhibition Subversive spaces and The east Anglians.

I look forward to your response to gain a further understanding of your work.

ian

Thanks….

Interesting to think of you looking at the world of The East Anglians as you speed across the USA.

Is your trip in the style of Dean Moriarty or the Bandit?

Sounds like you’ve got interesting things planned in Greece.

Safe travels and keep that Leica at the ready.

Justin

I do not see those things as you do, and neither do the people whose lives they are part of. I would not spend 9 years photographing the East Anglians to call them “bumpkins.” I attempt to photograph them with great respect, not insult. They are my friends now, and they welcome me into their homes as if they were my own.

Yes, they live different to me, and clearly different to the way you do, but if you look closely at the work you will hopefully not see the things you describe in the images. There is nothing horrible, filthy or grotty here.

Cheers,

Justin

just saw your Streit link…..terrific work…crosses a lot of lines…thanks

If you have the luck to come back, just shot more inside pictures. Having luch, having tea, etc… I mean, you’re closer of them, I suppose they have no problem at all. Just try that.

Cheers, Pat.

Thanks for the comments so far. I’ll briefly reply to some below:

Steve M: I’m guessing you must be in Lincolnshire? “Multi-million pound harvester and the Range Rovers” – that’s a very different story in my eyes. That’s the other side of the hedge and a different world. “The East Anglians” in my work are the marginalised agrarians of the region. Range Rovers and Multi-million pound harvesters are in opposition to an agrarian mentality. See the quote by Wendell Berry in Bob Black’s post.

Sidney Atkins: Thanks for your thoughtful response to the work. I think there is probably some truth in what you write about the different sensibilities in “city dwellers and country folk”. Obviously not everybody is able to see beauty in the bleak or non majestic landscape. From your first paragraph it seems you have a good understanding of what this project explores. I’m pleased it “speaks” to you.

AndreaC: there are very few women in this agrarian world unfortunately. In the early stages of the project I struggled a bit with how to deal with that, but in the end after talking with various people I decided not to be concerned by it and all I can do is show what is there. Some of the text which I’ve written to feature in the final book of this work touches on departing of women. But remember: a photographer could very easily work on a project in a largely female domain in which there would be few, if any men.

jandak: I have not had the opportunity to visit Eastern Europe but I have a strong sense that similar rural worlds exist there. One day I will explore them….

Gordon L: the same with Alberta. Never been, but I’ve talked to various people from there about the landscape and way of life and it sounds like my kind of place. I had a grand idea to work on a series of life time projects, one for each Canadian province. My experience is Saskatchewan was very special and greatly informed some of the East Anglian work. Who knows….

jasmine.lux: unfortunately when I studied in St. John’s I did’t get much opportunity to see the rest of Newfoundland. But I’d like to return. It is a special place.

bob black: thank you. “the two quiet beds as if tombstones”. That has allowed me to see that photograph in a new way and given it even greater significance! Yes, 57 images in the show.

Ramon Mas: I have no idea what dynamic range is, but none of these images have been “photoshopped.” This work is made on slide film (Fuji Provia).

Patricia: Thank you. I place as much importance on the writing as I do the photographs. As you and others have pointed out, both play an equal role in telling this story. John Berger wrote something in the preface to I Could Read The Sky – a book by Timothy O’Grady and Steve Pyke – which had a great impact on me. He said this:

“And so they work together, the written lines and the pictures, and they never say the same thing. They don’t know the same things, and that is the secret of living together.
The photos are a reminder of everything which is beyond the power of words…. And the words recall what can never be made visible in any photograph.”

I think anybody working on a serious project should remember this, as you are with your book. There are some classic examples around to study: Agee and Evans, Kerouac and Frank, Larry Towell, Eugene Richards, Bill Allard, to name a few. I hope a publisher will pick up the work too!

Andrew Gray: just as women, this is not a world of children. That’s why the traditional agrarian way of life may not continue. Of course this work is my own subjective view of this region. I have never called myself a photojournalist. I never set-up a photograph in anyway, or manipulate an image; what the photographs show is there and it happened before MY eyes, but I can only photograph it in the way that I see it. Perhaps if you photographed there it would not be so bleak, but I would wonder if you really got to the heart and the soul of the place: what makes it unique.

Off to give a talk at the exhibition. More soon….

Cheers,

Justin

I felt I gained a real sense of how these people live, I loved the images you gave us to examine. You were obviously asking us to spend a little time getting to know these people and their way of life, just as you did.
I found myself feeling real emotion as a watched the slideshow serve up image after image, surley that has to be good!
I did miss perhaps a couple more portrait shots, or close-ups, but that’s just my personal tastes rearing their ugly heads…

Congrats on a wonderful body of work.
Andrew

Yea it needs a bit of comic relief as Streit does http://www.jindrichstreit.cz/