Final Analysis

Benedict Brain considers...

I’ve eaten an omelette at this table. It was sometime in the early ’90s while I was studying photography at the Derby School of Art. It was cooked for me by the wise old sage of the photography world, John Blakemore. John was my tutor at Derby. The omelette was good. But I also remember the light and the tulips. At that time, John had moved away from working in the landscape, for which he had become well known, and immersed himself in the world of tulips, making sublime images for series such as Tulipa Dissections, Tulip Celebrations, and Tulipa Still Life. I remember him showing me a recently made print called (I think) ‘Garden of Earthly Delights Number 2’ – the sumptuous tonality was intoxicating. Using an MPP 5x4 camera, natural light, and mastery of the zone system he created images like nothing I’d ever seen. Nothing does them justice other than seeing them in the flesh.

A creative escape

It was also at this period that John began studying a post-graduate course in film studies. ‘The frequent production of essays generated a need for displacement in order to escape the tyranny of the blank page,’ he states, ‘I began to photograph the space in which I wrote. The Tulip Kitchen Series was born.’

Moving from the slow, deliberate process of making large format images with a 5x4 camera John started using his Leica M2 and old Nikkormat, giving him liberating agility to capture the interior light of his domestic space. All the images included the presence of tulips as they withered and wilted, and cast haunting shadows on the kitchen table and walls.

The act of slowing down

During lockdown in these strange times, I too am working from home and escaping the tyranny of the blank page and other frustrations. However, I’m also blessed to live in a flat with amazing late-afternoon light, a light which has transfixed me over the last few months, I’ve become attuned to its subtle nuances as it’s filtered through the trees outside and the flickering shadows dance delightfully on my walls. If there’s one good thing to come from this period it is that the enforced geographic boundaries and the act of slowing down have compelled me to refine my process of looking and of paying attention to the world around me. It is also during this time that I’ve reflected more on the wise words of my old tutor.

While there’s rarely a day in my photographic life that doesn’t in some way link back to Blakemore, I feel that now, more than ever, his visual explorations of his space can teach me and indeed all of us how to appreciate the simple visual pleasures and possibilities closer to home, even on the kitchen table, without gallivanting all over the world hunting for elusive visual enlightenment.

‘All the images included the presence of tulips as they withered and wilted’