The Advertising Standards Council wouldn’t let that title pass. I guess it was my intent when I cello-taped it to the cover. There are a few old New Yorker ads in there, but the majority are English, from the early seventies. It’s odd collection, looking at it now is a bit like wandering through a car boot sale. There’s the finds that have famous attached, so may be worth something: 1. Illustrator/Artist Glen Baxter’s Gilbey’s Gin ads. 2. Photographer ArtRead more
Posts tagged: #Irving Penn
GREEN BOOKS: New Yorker Ads 1.
‘‘Alright fatty, what you after?” How do you react? I’m guessing it would taint your opinion of that particular bookshop, making you less inclined to buy. Nobody likes being disrespected or patronised. What about if that bookshop owner had said “Oh, just to let you know; the new Proust collection is just in”. Sure, you’d look behind you to check that they were talking to you, but you couldn’t help but be pleased that they’d presumed you were intelligent. ItRead more
PODCAST: Graham Fink. (Part 1.)
Context. It’s the word that comes to mind every time I think about writing one of these intros. What seems familiar today was once considered very left-field, risky or just plain crazy. Each pushes the peanut along for the next generation. Take the 1988 D&AD Annual, it’s hard to believe now, but all but one ad in the press and poster section had black headlines, the one that didn’t was Graham Fink’s Metropolitan Police campaign. I was a generation behindRead more
IN-CAMERA 8: Geof Kern. (Part 1.)
Like most people I’m a fan of the likes of Cartier-Bresson, Don McCullin and Martin Parr, photographers who go out into the world and record it in a ways we may not have seen or imagined. But I LOVE photographers who go out and create their own world using their own unique, idiosyncratic set of aesthetics. I recently posted lots of my old green scrap books and one name that kept coming up again and again; Geof Kern, one ofRead more
Hands up who’s heard of STEPHEN O. FRANKFURT?
“I try to find a way to get into the head of a child.” – Stephen O. Frankfurt. His quote sounds spooky, but I guess it’s just another way of saying keep it simple and interesting. Virtually unknown today, he was a big deal in the fifties, sixties and seventies. His Mum was the secretary to the head of the Twentieth Century Fox film studio. (Sounds irrelevant, it isn’t.) He spends three years at the Pratt Institute, being ‘molded’ by Alexey Brodovitch. He leaves and visits every majorRead more
IN-CAMERA 5: Graham Ford.
Where did you grow up? South East London When did you take your first picture? When I was eleven. Then I asked for a camera for my fifteenth birthday. One of my brothers showed me how develop a film and to make a contact print. I was completely absorbed by photography for the next 40 years. What was your first job? Aged 18, I spent two weeks in an ice cream warehouse, at minus 20 degrees. It paid for my newRead more
IN-CAMERA 3: John Claridge.
I did this ad for free. My theory was; get freelance work, do it free in exchange for a free hand. I thought it would allow me to get together better work than I could in my day job. At the time asking John Claridge to shoot your layout was like asking Jay Z to write your jingle. The chances are he’s going to say no, but if he said yes, you’d almost certainly have a good ad. He said yes. The result wasRead more
IN-CAMERA 2: Rolph Gobits.
“To me, people are like lighthouses in a very big ocean, with wind and rain and waves trying to break them and make them go under.” – Rolph Gobits. Did you come from an arty family Rolph? I did not come from an arty family at all. Do you remember being aware of photography whist growing up in Holland? I was aware of photography at a very young age when growing up in Amsterdam. I was about five or six years old whenRead more
IN-CAMERA 1: Brian Griffin.
You grew up in the land of the Brum? I was actually born in the Children’s Hospital in Birmingham, although I grew up in the Black Country in a town called Lye. Art College? I worked in engineering until I was 21, so as a mature student I studied at Manchester Polytechnic School of Photography. Did they teach you anything useful? How to lose your virginity and smoke. When did you take your first picture? As an amateur around 1965,Read more
GREEN BOOKS: Photography 2.
Tim Berners Lee; what an absolute rascal. Not only did he shaft the chaps at Yellow Pages, the manufacturers of Fax machines and the purveyors of XXX filth in the Soho district of London, he’s made scrapbooks virtually extinct. Their numbers are dwindling, reportedly below those of the Snow Leopard. Before you could simply call up a hundreds images for any photographer or illustrator you care to mention, you could only reference those images if you owned them. Which meant; a) BuyingRead more