The Story, the Image - Capital Culture at the Affordable Art Fair
18 February, 2010
by: Tom Jeffreys
Tom talks to James Sparshatt of Capital Culture photography gallery ahead of their participation at the Affordable Art Fair this March.
Photography is often largely about stories. There are the stories, as it were, behind the image: the theories, the thought processes, the little personal anecdotes that tell how the image was produced. Then there are those that come after. People bring their own thoughts, memories and ideas to any viewing experience. The work of art may be bought and sold, lost, found, rediscovered – it can be both central character and bit-part cameo in a whole anthology of tales. A photograph then is a kind of hinge, an often magical hinge upon which hang stories, and lives.
James Sparshatt – photographer and co-founder of central London photography gallery Capital Culture – has plenty of stories. One of his best known images is called El Viejo Maestro – The Old Master. Taken in Buenos Aires in 2003, the image depicts an old man in coat and hat dancing with a younger woman. The image captures a moment of intimacy, the passion with which each looks into the other's eyes. The focus is on their focus.
James tells me about the effort that goes into capturing an image such as this. “In Argentina,” he explains, “they have these things called Malonga Clubs, which take place at all different times of day and night. I'd been out in Buenos Aires for ten days, going out 'til 5 or 6 o'clock in the morning every night. Sometimes I'd go to seven of these dance clubs in one evening, specifically to take photos. But with film you never know what you've got. There's no flash, it's 4.00 in the morning, it's very dark, and you're pressed against a wall. But you can't go home because every so often something happens... When that film came back, there were eight shots. Seven were slightly out of focus, but that one was perfect. It's an unbelievable thrill.”
James is an expert on Cuba and Latin America. His work seeks to capture the incredible vibrancy, energy and freedom of the people there. But his images are also about identity, economics and cultural difference. Of course an image should be beautiful, should stand on its own as a thing of beauty, but there is also a message in much of James' work. One such image – of an old Cuban woman, eyes obscured by a thick smog of cigar smoke – has become a metaphor for the way in which Cuba and the Western world look at each-other, but without seeing. “There's this smoke that hangs between us,” he says.
In a similar way, the other photographers represented by Capital Culture share this twin focus on the aesthetics of an image and its message: Ernesto Fernandez also photographs Cuba, but with more emphasis on unrest and political tension; Monica Denevan documents the harsh reality of life in rural China and Burma, but through calm, composed images [above]; and the multi-award-winning David Zimmerman creates huge, blank, near-abstract photographs of deserts in New Mexico. The desolate beauty he portrays serves to highlight the delicacy of these vulnerable ecosystems.
Some of my favourite work at Capital Culture is by John Kenny. Kenny visits remote African tribes in Mali, Niger and the Kalahari. In some of his most recent work [top], he managed to track down the same woman he'd photographed years earlier. The resulting image – in full colour this time – is incredible: all symbolic jewellery and life-affirming grin. 
James Sparshatt's more recent work [above] aims, he says, “to capture the spirit of youth”. By lowering the shutter speed, James both creates a sense of vitality and removes the specificity of the subject-matter. These are stories of a universal youth.
Back to El Viejo Maestro though, and James has another story: “we exhibited El Viejo Maestro at the Affordable Art Fair a couple of years ago now. And about 6 months later,” he continues, “a woman came into the gallery and said, 'I saw this image, and I absolutely loved it, and I can't stop thinking about it. About six months after she bought the work, we got a letter saying that the image still brings a smile to her face whenever she feels down. She has it hanging above the fireplace, and often when she's going to bed, she looks through the hall and sees it above the fireplace, and that gives her a huge lift. It's about passion and intensity – for her this image, I imagine, serves as an affirmation of the strength of her own relationship and how such a bond can exist between two people.”
Capital Culture are exhibiting at the Affordable Art Fair again this March, and with new work by all the gallery photographers on sale for under £3,000, it's an opportunity simply to read some of these wonderful photographic stories. And perhaps, if something clicks, write the first few lines of your own, personal, tale...
The Affordable Art Fair is at Battersea Park from 11th-14th March 2010.
Capital Culture is at 3 Bedfordbury, London WC2N 4BP.
Click here to see all London exhibitions.
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Image credits:
Top left: John Kenny, 'Hamer Girl I', C-type print diasec mount, Edition of 9, 100 x 100 cm, £1,950, Capital Culture
Top right: John Kenny, 'Hamer Girl II', C-type print diasec mount, Edition of 9, 100 x 100 cm, £1,950, Capital Culture
Middle: Monica Denevan, 'Suspended, Burma', Selenium-toned silver gelatine print, Edition of 25, 50 x 60 cm, £975, Capital Culture
Bottom: James Sparshatt, 'Dark Materials I', C-type print diasec mount, Edition of 7, 100 x 150 cm, £2,950, Capital Culture
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