David Hurn Talk...
On Tuesday evening I was lucky enough to secure a ticket to a talk on collecting photography by David Hurn at Magnum’s London office. He’s a wonderfully inspirational person to listen to and I was really looking forward to hearing him again.
The last time I met him was in November 2007 at the two day Magnum Masterclass that I attended in 2007, (http://cloudwalker-3.livejournal.com/2007/11/12). Unfortunately my photos were critiqued by Mark Power and Martin Parr, (the other two photographers who were involved) but I did get a chance to have a few long chats with David which was brilliant and very useful.
His talk was wide ranging and covered his early influences and inspirations; his life as a photographer; tales of swapping prints, (how he met Weegee before he died, got given a couple of prints, to find out that almost the entire archive was burnt by his landlady after his death); his favourite photographers, (including one of mine, Phillip Jones Griffiths). A really interesting idea that he suggested during the talk was to swap prints with peers who’s work you admire, which is something I feel I will definitely consider. He ended his talk (again) with a shot of the cancer that almost killed him and with the words “this is a shot taken up my arse”. He had a twinkle in his eye, (as he so frequently does) as he said it.
After he’d delivered the talk I went up to chat to him and amazingly he remembered me from the workshop. Wow! I was really flattered, (although a little embarrassed too!) as I’m sure in the last 11 months he must have met so many people that he’d spent more time with.
We chatted for a while about the current situation regarding the right of photographers to take pictures in the public arena and the attitude of the Police to journalists. He made some really good comments and was very informed about the current climate.
Once again I feel really honoured to have had a chance to listen to him speak, and feel like I’ve learnt more from listening to him explain how he works than from a dozen instruction books on technique.
I think, since I’m going to have some prints made of my best photos for my portfolio, I’m going to do an extra one of this shot and send it to him as a thank you. I’m sure it will never be worth what his are, but I figure it’s a nice gesture.
The last time I met him was in November 2007 at the two day Magnum Masterclass that I attended in 2007, (http://cloudwalker-3.livejournal.com/2007/11/12). Unfortunately my photos were critiqued by Mark Power and Martin Parr, (the other two photographers who were involved) but I did get a chance to have a few long chats with David which was brilliant and very useful.
His talk was wide ranging and covered his early influences and inspirations; his life as a photographer; tales of swapping prints, (how he met Weegee before he died, got given a couple of prints, to find out that almost the entire archive was burnt by his landlady after his death); his favourite photographers, (including one of mine, Phillip Jones Griffiths). A really interesting idea that he suggested during the talk was to swap prints with peers who’s work you admire, which is something I feel I will definitely consider. He ended his talk (again) with a shot of the cancer that almost killed him and with the words “this is a shot taken up my arse”. He had a twinkle in his eye, (as he so frequently does) as he said it.
After he’d delivered the talk I went up to chat to him and amazingly he remembered me from the workshop. Wow! I was really flattered, (although a little embarrassed too!) as I’m sure in the last 11 months he must have met so many people that he’d spent more time with.
We chatted for a while about the current situation regarding the right of photographers to take pictures in the public arena and the attitude of the Police to journalists. He made some really good comments and was very informed about the current climate.
Once again I feel really honoured to have had a chance to listen to him speak, and feel like I’ve learnt more from listening to him explain how he works than from a dozen instruction books on technique.
I think, since I’m going to have some prints made of my best photos for my portfolio, I’m going to do an extra one of this shot and send it to him as a thank you. I’m sure it will never be worth what his are, but I figure it’s a nice gesture.