Glasgow

A few weeks ago I read about Margaret Watkins (1884-1969), a Canadian photographer who lived, worked and taught for several years in New York before travelling to Glasgow and getting stuck on the flypaper of domesticity. In New York she found success in advertising and in offering a new kind of abstract “kitchen sink” composition. The three eggs was the photograph that gripped me: the curves, the dark space – just wonderful. Strong geometry and sometimes a painterly style. (The dainty tea cup photograph is advertising cuticle cream.)

So off I went to Glasgow on a freezing day trip to visit the Hidden Lane Gallery off Argyll Street. En route I discovered – and was taken aback by – the City Free Church. I didn’t think Presbyterians went in for that kind of thing. It’s by Alexander Thomson and is currently unused – and what would you use if for now?


A quick visit to the Burrell Collection afterwards, where my steal would have been a Persian rug to bring the garden indoors in winter. I realise from my choice of photos here that I am longing for spring and the sense of nature re-awakening.

Courtauld

To the Courtauld to look at the London street photographs of Roger Mayne from the 1950s. They were great in capturing the texture of life at that time, but it was that context that made them so engaging. I found his other photographs of family and Spain very dull – they lacked the charge of say, Chris Killip, or the compositional mastery of Vivian Maier.

There was also a small exhibition of works by Vanessa Bell, including designs for the Omega Workshop. She was also included in yesterday’s exhibition at the Tate; I still don’t “get” her any more than I do Paula Modersohn-Becker – the colours are too muddy and the shapes too blobby. But what do I know?

With the shift in mood caused by the arrival of summer, I was inspired to photograph little things to represent how that feels to me. Shadows, sunlight, blue sky – that kind of thing. What I would also like to include – but obviously can’t – are jumbles of tattoos on arms and legs now that skin is exposed. Some of them are a random collection of inkings, as if they’ve had one done after the other without regard to the overall effect. The effect is bit like an old haversack that you stitched badges onto each time you went somewhere new.

Sergio Strizzi: The Perfect Moment

An exhibition at the Estorick Collection of film stills and other photographs by Strizzi (1931-2004). He captured, amongst others, Monica Vitti and Marcello Mastroianni in their Antontonioni/Fellini days. And how beautiful Alain Delon was!

Various things came to mind as I browsed. How Italy personified modernity, beauty and style in the 1960s (Vitti looking sultry at the top of the Torre Galfa in Milan). The “male gaze” thing we’d been talking about in the film session. (Spaghetti straps for her, smart suit for him.) An astonishing photograph from 1954 of Sophia Loren signing autographs for fans (nearly all of them male) that made me think of the scene in “L’Avventura” when the American actress is besieged by men or Anita Ekberg in “La Dolce Vita”. Those scenes have always seemed akin to human sacrifice to me, but perhaps they weren’t overdone at all.

And now I want to watch all these films again!