Il suo genio
si è scontrato con una vita troppo breve (1941-1972). Eppure Tony Ray-Jones è
stato uno dei grandi fotografi inglesi più decisivi nel racconto della società
inglese. Ironico e dunque trasgressivo, triste (come il grande comico americano
Harold Lloyd) ma soprattutto sociologo. Se si vuole capire la società inglese a
metà degli anni Sessanta, oltre ai libri bisogna guardare le foto di Ray-Jones,
uno dei pochi capaci di restituire attraverso lo sguardo lo spirito più intimo
dell'Inghilterra. Dal lord che sorseggia una bevada mentre sfilano le ragazze
di un concorso di bellezza, all'uomo con abito "fumo di Londra" che
prende il sole sulla sdraio al mare e copre gli occhi con fazzoletto sistemato
sotto gli occhiali. E c'è la solitudine delle donne, e scorci del tempo libero
dell'epoca. Un lavoro certosino e di estrema classe. Una sorta di film muto,
collage di storie, situazione ed emozioni. In questa galleria una parte degli
scatti dagli archivi Getty Images.repubblica
--------------------------------
Tony
Ray-Jones, whose photographic career spanned only one decade, defined a new way
of looking at his own society — with irony, nostalgia, compassion and humor. He
was prolific in his short 10 years, and his point of view exerted an enormous
influence on the development of British documentary art photography from the
1970s through the present.
His photographs are documentary, almost anthropological by nature, and make keen observations on contemporary British society.Ray-Jones stated that his aim as a photographer was to capture the specific British aura, the nostalgic potential and surreal humor in ordinary situations.
A five-year period in the USA and his studies at Yale University of Art were of great importance to his artistic development. During a year-long stay in New York he frequented the laboratory of Alexey Brodovitch, and had the chance to meet and draw inspiration from street photographers like Joel Meyerowitz and Garry Winogrand. In their company, his Leica in hand, he learned to melt into the multiethnic New York crowd, and to capture candid and telling photographs. He took this way of understanding documentary photography back with him to the British Isles. At the time, his photographs were considered "exotic".
In 1968 his attempts to publish his England by the Sea album, which served as a basis for the A Day Off (which was published after his death), came to nothing – the publishers claimed that the album would raise no interest.
Even at the present moment it is not easy to call Ray-Jones a popular photographer. It was only in 2004 that his work received a full retrospective exhibition at the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford, England.
— David Allan Mellor, curator, Starmach Gallery
His photographs are documentary, almost anthropological by nature, and make keen observations on contemporary British society.Ray-Jones stated that his aim as a photographer was to capture the specific British aura, the nostalgic potential and surreal humor in ordinary situations.
A five-year period in the USA and his studies at Yale University of Art were of great importance to his artistic development. During a year-long stay in New York he frequented the laboratory of Alexey Brodovitch, and had the chance to meet and draw inspiration from street photographers like Joel Meyerowitz and Garry Winogrand. In their company, his Leica in hand, he learned to melt into the multiethnic New York crowd, and to capture candid and telling photographs. He took this way of understanding documentary photography back with him to the British Isles. At the time, his photographs were considered "exotic".
In 1968 his attempts to publish his England by the Sea album, which served as a basis for the A Day Off (which was published after his death), came to nothing – the publishers claimed that the album would raise no interest.
Even at the present moment it is not easy to call Ray-Jones a popular photographer. It was only in 2004 that his work received a full retrospective exhibition at the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford, England.
— David Allan Mellor, curator, Starmach Gallery
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