Artist Stories

Michael Kenna discusses his love of Japan, and the stories behind three of his most celebrated works made between 2002 and 2004...

In the third of a series of four articles tracing the career of Michael Kenna, Michael discusses the work of French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004), one of the most original, accomplished, influential and beloved figures in the history of photography.

In the fourth and final article in a series tracing the career of Michael Kenna, Michael discusses the influence of Czech photographer Josef Sudek, dubbed the ‘Poet of Prague’, who was best known for his lyrical and poetic black-and-white images of Prague, and intimate still life’s taken in and around his studio.

In the second of four articles tracing the career of Michael Kenna, Michael discusses the influence of the Hungarian-French photographer Gyula Halász (1899-1984) or Brassaï  (the pseudonym by which he has become much better known)

In the first of four articles tracing the career of Michael Kenna we hear Michael reflect on the work of Italian photographer Mario Giacomelli (1925-2000), whose work is widely regarded as some of the most original photography of the twentieth century.

There can be doubt that Florence is one of the most beautiful and romantic cities on the face of the earth. I have had the good fortune to have made sporadic visits there since the seventies.

World-renowned photographer Michael Kenna, one of the most collected artists of his generation, has been given a top arts award by the French Government and has donated his lifetime’s work to France.

Hengki Koentjoro makes all of his archival pigment prints himself personally, at his studio in Indonesia.

I still enjoy collecting old photographs of Bosham and thought you might be interested to see two recent additions to my archive below, which I have licensed from the National Archives in Kew for a book of Bosham photographs, and am slowly compiling. The two prints were originally deposited into the National Archives in December 1896, and I have included the copyright entries that I was sent by their Image Library Manager for your interest too...

I have recently finished setting up a significant photography archive for Westons Cider in Much Marcle, Herefordshire and I thought you might enjoy seeing a few of the photographs...

A glass plate negative of a photograph titled 'Fisherman Mending Nets, Bosham, Sussex, England 1890' followed by the inverted scan...

A 19th century magic lantern slide photograph of Bosham...

In order to make silver gelatin photographs today using the original glass plate negatives in the Beken of Cowes archive, which are over 130 years old, first the glass plate negatives needed to be cleaned and then scanned to produce a digital file. Here's how the arduous task of digitally restoring the Beken of Cowes photographs was completed by Paul Brett in 2015, by way of an example using Alfred John West's iconic photograph of Meteor II Aground in 1899.

Projects sometimes develop without prior research or specific intentions. Curiosity can lead to a keen interest, which may in turn transform into an avid infatuation. Such was the case with a series of photographs I made in England between 1983 and 1986, of which Deckchairs, Bournemouth, Dorset 1983 is included.

Longer read...

 

Prior to 1900, Bosham had been a thriving commercial port for freight transport along Britain's coastline for over 300 years. This photograph captures two trading ketches tied to Bosham Quay being unloaded by horse and cart at low tide. On the left, two mariners can be seen leaning against the oak piles of the Quay, chatting.

Bosham Sailing Club is the oldest sailing club in Chichester Harbour and was formed in 1907. It wasn’t until after World War I that other clubs were established within the harbour and since then, the harbour has mainly been used for recreational and competitive sailing. What was once a busy, working Quay for Bosham’s fishermen and mariners, with customs tolls payable to the Lord of The Manor of Bosham, has since been used to launch and keep sailing boats that are raced in the harbour, or tenders that are used to row out to the deep-sea moorings.

The tide comes right into the village at Bosham. During a high spring tide, the sea covers the road at Street End, and rises up Bosham Lane and into the High Street. At the peak of the incoming tide, the village is entirely transformed as it looks as though Bosham stands on the borders of some great lake, with the old cottages along the High Street appearing to float on the water. The tide rises right up their front walls, shimmering and reflecting in the sea with countless subtle patterns and colours, and waves lapping under their windows.

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Bosham’s fishing industry enjoyed a boom in the second half of the nineteenth century. The arrival of the railways in 1846 allowed the fishermen to expand their markets, and Bosham’s boatbuilders began to build larger fishing boats that could stay at sea longer, and hold larger cargoes of fish. Young oysters were dredged up in the shallow waters of the English Channel and off the French coast, and left to mature in nursery beds within Chichester Harbour. Scallops were dredged up in deeper waters (below 25 feet) of the English Channel, where herring, mullet, crab and bass could also be fished with ease. Mackerel, shrimp, and cockles were in plentiful supply in Chichester Harbour, and Bosham’s fishing fleet sailed to Shoreham to fish for mussels, and to the North Sea for cod.

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At the end of the nineteenth century, Bosham's oyster fishery was booming, and there was a huge demand for oysters in London, where it is estimated that a staggering 144 million were sold each year. The oyster ponds were located along the foreshore of Bosham's two creeks, either side of the Quay. The oysters needed a great deal of care to protect them from growing over each other, and smothering the smaller ones, which caused suffocation, and the fishermen would continually walk or row out to the ponds to monitor their growth. They were constantly sorting and grading them, and removing mud and seaweed from the ponds, which could also suffocate them.

 

Bosham's oyster boats, pictured here, were built in the village. They were wide rowing boats with low sides to allow the fishermen to easily dredge and use a net. A cross between a fork and a rake was used to scoop the oysters out of the ponds, into buckets or bags. They were brought ashore and packed into baskets and taken by horse and cart to the railway station, one mile to the north. The majority of Bosham's oysters were sold in fish markets in Portsmouth, Southampton, Brighton, Winchester, Hove, Guildford and various boroughs of London.

 

As well as using these rowing boats to manage the oyster ponds, fishermen would have used them to fish for shrimp in shallow waters within Bosham's creeks.

Longer read...

 

Perhaps the most interesting passage of Chichester Harbour's oyster history is the story of the fishery during the nineteenth century when we saw the emergence of oyster merchants such as James Duncan Foster in Emsworth and William Yetman in Bosham, who established an early form of factory farm fishing to take advantage of the arrival of the railways in 1846, which significantly expanded markets for local fishermen, and shortened delivery times dramatically. Their fishing fleets built much larger oyster boats that could stay at sea longer and carry larger cargoes of fish, and produced better quality oysters by using oyster ponds to manage their growth and allow the oysters to cleanse before they were sent to market. By the end of the nineteenth century, oysters had been elevated from a subsistence food for the lower classes to a prized delicacy of the upper classes. The story of Chichester Harbour's oysters through the centuries is fascinating...

Up at 5am on a still April morning to capture this moment of peace and tranquility in the Bosham Creek. I walked along Shore Road and sat on an old wooden jetty for an hour waiting for the light to strengthen. Bosham can feel a very spiritual place at first light, and a calmness came over me that I have never experienced before.

Over the years Charlie Waite has become famous for his iconic studies of avenues of trees, which satisfies his deep sense of order, and provides pleasure in repetition and the aesthetics of arcs and diagonals. In this article we read the story behind Lucca, Tuscany, Italy 1990 and hear how he finds the opportunity to photograph a corridor or cloister just as irresistable as an avenue of trees.

Charlie Waite tells the story behind one of his popular works from Cantabria, made during a book project on Spain in 1990, and shares the despair of waiting patiently through prolonged periods of rain, and the photographic ecstasy of capturing this very special image in a brief moment of flat lighting with no direct sunlight at all.

Charlie Waite's love affair with trees dates back 40 years and in this piece we hear from the artist about his relationship with a dear tree in the West Country that he has photographed for more than 25 years, and remains very close to his heart.

We are delighted to introduce a stunning new photograph by Charlie Waite titled Mere Study 4, Wiltshire, England 2021 which will feature in a forthcoming documentary 'My Greatest Shot', filmed by Sky Arts and expected to be published this autumn or early 2022.

Michael Kenna has travelled the world to create his distinct black and white images of unpopulated landscapes. It was in the mid-1980s that Kenna first began to visit Japan and became influenced by an Asian sense of aesthetics. 

He is one of the most celebrated landscape photographers in the world and art critics have described Charlie Waite's instantly recognisable prints as 'rare perfections of light, colour and composition which offer the viewer a luxuriant portrait of a planet at peace and one where mankind and his activities are in harmony with his surroundings'. But did you know what a charming and eloquent writer Waite is too? Here we enjoy the story behind one of Waite's more unusual photographs within his archive, East of Gibraltar, Spain, 2017, and his clever use of a limited colour palette. 'I acquired an early edition for my own collection and have loved living with this stunning print in my hallway at home. I adore this sea blue!' Luke Whitaker.  BUY