James Ravilious

James Ravilious 

James Ravilious was born in Eastbourne, England. He studied as St Martins school of Art, London which led him onto teaching painting. In the early 1970's he took up photography after being inspired by the work of Henri-cartier Bresson, Ravilious was self-taught. In the neighbouring village of Beaford, an arts centre asked James to contribute work that photographed an unspoilt, vulnerable rural area. This project turned into a 17 year obsession of taking images like this. James' images show the quality of light, he managed to achieve this through experimenting with pre-war Lecia cameras and uncoated lenses. As well as the Beaford project, Ravilious took on many other projects and photographed in places such as France (Normandy and Cevennes) as well as Italy, Greece, Ireland and other British Isles. 

This image was taken in 1982, in Florac, Cevennes, France. The image is described on James' website as 'tree-lined street with riders' a description of what is literally seen in the image. However, there is more to the photograph than what is said there. As my project is about recording the changing of seasons I am interested in the landscape within images. This photograph represents the earlier period of landscape where there were subjects that were the main focus of the image, which I really like. The photograph has the leading line going through the middle which is brought to the viewers attention due to it being lined by trees. You then see the riders in the middle with a dog running across behind them. This shows more of a document within landscape photography. There are details of what people are doing the time, the old fashioned cars and bike that line the street all adding to the meaning and story behind this landscape image. This is something I would like the introduce into my own work. 

This photograph was taken in 1999, in Bradstone, Devon, England. It is off a farrier shoeing a horse. As previously mentioned the landscape in this image is used as background to the main subject rather than the landscape being focused on alone. This gives me an indication of the time this was taken as in my research I found that landscape wasn't romanticised until later in photography. This image is interesting as it holds a lot of detail. Behind the woman and the horse is the church, a historic building that is representative of the town the image was taken in. This could be classed as recording images for historic reasons as in the modern day this church may not be there. I think the position of the horse and the women in the foreground is really complimenting to the rest of the image, they are dirtily central to the church, as your eyes realise they are there you are then drawn up the building, taking the viewer through the image. 

This image was taken in Langton, Dolton, Dorset, England in 1978. James has described the image as  Alf Pugsley moving a shed in case of flooding. This description is very typical of what the photograph shows, it is exactly what is happening, a very mundane activity however the way it has been captured makes it very interesting. I think the aspect I like the most about this image is the composition. The shed has a curved shape that creates a semi-circle, this displays the dog that is running behind the man. It almost frames him perfectly at the speed he was walking in comparison to where the man was walking. This is called the decisive moment, when James Ravilious decided to take this image it was the perfect time because of the amazing position of both subjects. I believe the part of the shed that the man is moving splits the image into two pieces, when first looking at the image I almost viewed it as two. My eyes moved between each side taking in the detail and story of each subject. 

The photograph above was taken in Millhams, Dolton, Devon, England in 1982. It is described as Archie Parkhouse with his dog Sally. The fact that James Ravilious names the people in his image makes me wonder whether they are people who knew and asked to photograph or whether he spoke to them after their photo was taken to display the images on a personal level. I feel that this reflects the stereotypical village life as it is commonly perceived as everyone knowing each other or being friendly and saying hello to passersby. I feel that the landscape to this image is very interesting due to the path leading not very far into the image but disappearing around a sharp corner. The main subjects of the image are the man and his dog, he appears to be petting the dog and showing her affection whilst she sits tentatively looking at him. This displays a bond between man and his pet that many people have a personal experience with, making them sympathise with the image. I can tell that this photograph was taken with the sun facing directly to the camera due to the lack of detail in some area such as the mans suit and the direction of the shadows on the ground. 

This photograph taken in La Vernede, Cevennes, France, 1982 shows cows coming home to be milked. This image jumped out at me when scrolling through James Ravilious' work as although its simple it is very effective. The fact that the cows are walking almost in a uniform queue shows the decisive moment again as a scene like this, with the cows in these exact positions is very rare. Therefore, it being caught on camera with such great detail and lighting makes a very amazing image. It is also interesting that we see no humans in the image, although we can presume that there is at least one herding the cows and leading them to where they need to go, it almost looks like they are taking themselves.  The soft lighting of the image stands out to me as it is something I would love to achieve in my own work. It is perfect lighting for showing the details of the scene however doesn't create any glare of loose and detail. It shows the shadows of the objects giving the image depth without it being too harsh. Overall, I think this is one of my favourite images by James Ravilious and is a piece of such high quality that I would love to achieve in my own work. 

Influence 

Shoot 8 and Shoot 10 of my project were influenced by the work of James Ravilious. A british man who photographed the landscape in his neighbourhood, incorporating people and animals within this. As my project went on, I wanted to start telling more of a story within my images therefore when coming across the work of Ravilious I wanted to try his style. I don't think the images above relate massively in appearance however conceptually they do. Both images show a man and his dog, the relationship and trust between the pair and the tentative nature with which the dog looks at the man. Both images convey this message whilst also portraying the nature around them in a beautiful and aesthetically pleasing way. James Ravilious has influenced me throughout my work, a few of the shoots I done in the second half of the project 

Summary 

Out of all the photographers I have looked at I think James Ravilious influenced my work conceptually the most. I think his work persuaded me to include people towards the second half of my project as I liked the added dimension that telling a story introduced. I have been especially concerned with the natural way in which the photos are taken, none of them are posed. The images are all of people going about their daily life doing nothing spectacular but telling the story of their neighbourhood. I done this in my own work by taking the images when the moment raised raster than planning what I wanted people to do.