The Political Class

April 4, 2012

tags: Bernie Grant, House of Commons, Jack Straw, John Prescot, Ken Livingstone, Labour Politicians, London, phil maxwell, photoblog, Press conference, Tony Benn

During the 80’s & 90’s one of my regular freelance jobs was with a magazine called ‘Labour Party News’. This involved taking photographs of politicians as well as other things. I always had some difficulty with the politicians as they liked to pose. It could be difficult to get behind the pose and reveal the person behind the mask. Another difficulty was that even if you managed to produce a study that revealed the real person it was unlikely to be published as the editor would want a photograph that spoke of confidence, strength and sincerity (as well as other things depending on the subject of the article). As an antedote to the predictability of these assignments I enjoyed experimenting with the many images I collected of senior Labour politicians during this period. The images here are prints made from black and white negatives using a printing method I designed during this period. First of all I would spray the exposed print with a thin mist of developer; after a few minutes this would reveal the outline of the portrait. This outline, viewed in the red light of the dark room, enabled me to continue the developing process in a deliberate and selective style. Using a paint brush loaded with developer I would ‘paint’ areas of the print with the brush. These selected areas would raise the depth and black content of the print painted. Using this method I was able to emphasise certain features and draw out the character of the subject. I feel the images were more successful than those printed ‘normally’ but, of course, they were never published.