Brent Carr at Exposure Leeds

Exposure Leeds was started in 2009 by all-round good egg Jon Eland as a way to “promote the development of better photography in Leeds and the surrounding region” and it turns out that next month will be the second birthday of the first event held by ExLs. It is quite interesting that in that short space of time the group has rapidly become very well-established in the wider community; it isn’t just a photo group – it’s a community events group, a project supporting body, an exhibition facilitator and has great respect amongst the cultural and social arena in Leeds and beyond. Without Exposure Leeds many people wouldn’t have been able to take part in photo sessions at Temple Newsam, for example, or have their work displayed prominently in public as part of the many projects run under the ExLs umbrella. I am very happy to say that it is a great group to be a member of, and the membership are a great bunch of people.

Anyway, ExLs has a regular Talk&Social event, on the first Wednesday of the month. This is a place where people involved in projects can talk to the group about them, and we have a guest speaker who talks about their particular focus of work, and then we go to the pub. In previous months this has been at Old Broadcasting House, but February’s was instead, thanks to the kind support of East Street Arts, held at Dyson’s Chambers on Lower Briggate; the former Jobcentre, if anybody remembers that far back.

The speaker was Brent Carr, a fashion photography director who works all over the world – you will have seen his shots in catalogues and magazines – but who had a particular passion, a desire to take less staged, less complicated photos. The obvious answer to this is to go into Street Photography. This is a somewhat risky business and has been the subject of many talks at Exposure before, but what set Brent’s talk apart from the others is that he didn’t really talk about the risks or the dangers of exploitation. Instead, he set himself rules – no photographing the homeless, no unfortunate circumstances, that sort of thing – which helped him make choices as to what might make appropriate subjects for the body of work.

And what a body of work it was, too: from seeing cycle races from an insider and spectator perspective (a subject Brent was obviously very engaged with – this part of his talk was excellently presented) to the two sides of Miami; from a shot of a covered stretch limo in a council estate in the North East (which I hope becomes part of a more substantial project that he lightly touched upon) to geometric patters as shown by walking dogs. Some of Brent’s work was very funny – he had what seemed to be a particular fondness for juxtaposition, with dogs apparently steering vans, or a man cycling along with a cat perched on his shoulder – and some was poignant, and some was – to me, at least – not really that interesting. But this is a world where interest is in the eye of the beholder, and occasionally there is no intended audience. And sometimes, although there is an implied story in the photo, you need the ‘tog to point out where it is; two ladies talking to each other through a bus shelter with a poor reflection between them isn’t interesting, until you understand that the two are practically identical. The notions of what constitutes “street” photography are widely debated and are often dismissed as being “snapshots” by the more traditional followers of Cartier-Bresson and Doisneau (who regularly set up or staged shots).

What was very interesting, and something other street photographers rarely, if ever show was a series of photos which clearly showed the difference between what is a “street photograph” and a “street portrait”. A small collection of people who knew they were being photographed and struck a pose, or looked directly at the camera and grinned, followed by a great shot of a mean-looking guy in a vest, smoking, taken upwards from waist-level and with the subject completely unawares. There’s a fourth wall in street photography, the important boundary between audience and subject, and when it is broken the results are utterly different.

Clever use of light, remembering or noting down where pools of light can appear, and knowing a potential scene well all help make a great street photographer, and it is these little tips – along with “always carry your camera” and keeping things as simple as possible – which every great snapper should try to know in their bones. Brent is a great snapper, and he showed his potential that evening. A great speaker, a fantastic body of work, and an excellent evening in a totally different and unusual location, with as much tea & coffee as we could drink, all for £3. Bargain.

I should point out that I learned a lot about East Street Arts (from the very informative Ken Stratford) whilst there; I had no idea it had been going for so long or ran so many different projects in so many different locations. There are levels of access going on that I had no idea of – although I’m not an artist from the usual route – which will make me seriously consider becoming a member. If there was a hot glass kiln kicking around somewhere I’d sign up tomorrow!

Finally, Exposure Leeds has an exhibition up in the ground floor of Dyson’s Chambers; it’s best seen at night – the results of the 21st Century City event. Well worth a look – these images look incredible at full size. It’s still in situ now, although it was supposed to close on Monday; take a look, before it goes!