Gerrard Gethings Introduces 'Ordinary Creatures', Studio 1.1, 29th Sept - 2nd Oct
'Ordinary Creatures', which opens in Shoreditch on the 28th September, is my new photographic exhibition. On a personal level it is a nostalgic look back at the beautiful, inspiring animals that surrounded my youth, but in a broader sense, I hope it can serve as a reminder of just how close we are to all this stuff. I live in Hackney, where you can find cows on the marshes. They are so accessible and yet so ignored. They have become such a part of the landscape that we hardly notice them. I've spent years missing the point. Being blown away by parrots, elephants and monkeys. Incredible creatures, full of character, but no more impressive than a good old friesian cow. I'd never even touched a cow until I started this project. I'd touched an elephant.
I've always been fascinated by those awful animal heads you come across in museums, antique shops and strange hotels. The tradition of collecting heads is a bizarre one. "There's a beautiful thing over there, we should take it's head off and put it in the lounge." I don't understand the brutality, but I totally understand the fascination and obsession with the creatures. Wanting to be close to them. This is why so many of my pictures are simply animal heads in profile. I hope that by isolating them on a plain backdrop, photographing them in great detail, and then blowing them up beyond life size, they will have a similar effect. They will never have the same impact but at least no one has to suffer the inconvenience of having their head chopped off. In many ways my entire portfolio is a collection of heads.
My first job in photography was with Terry O'Neill. A great photographer with absolutely no interest in animals. I assisted him for eight years. I was a painter when I started and Terry actually let me move all my equipment into his Mayfair studio where I could paint between jobs. He shot on film, and as a result of his easy going attitude to my oils, he now owns many contact sheets covered in painty fingerprints. He was a great boss and had really interesting friends. He lunched with Michael Caine every Thursday. I expect he still does. He was fun, interested in people. and in the greatest traditions of 60's photographers, liked women.
Terry used his photography as a tool to escape the East End and meet interesting people. I use it as an excuse to hang out with animals. Photography is always a means to an end, as much as an art form. I think Terry's photographic technique relied entirely on his personality. It was more of a conversation than a photoshoot. No complex lighting set ups. Just conversation and compliments. It is the polar opposite to what I do. My subjects can neither understand me or tell me how they feel. It's the thing I find most exciting about shooting animals.
It's very physical. You have to communicate with them in an instinctive way. Lighting them is different too. I want to capture all the texture and every stray hair. Trying to get enough light into their always dark eyes, at the same time as keeping the lighting subtle is a real challenge. You have to move around a lot. Put lights on poles and have assistants tracking the animals movement. It's exciting. I wish someone had told me when I was at school that I could do what I do now.
Gerrard Gethings
Ordinary Creatures
29th September - 2nd October.
Studio 1.1
57a Redchurch St
Shoreditch
London
E2 7DJ
Open daily 12-6pm
Free Admission
