Red Saunders: A Report by Laura Parkinson
Today, with a number of my classmates, I went to visit the Red Saunders exhibition at the Peoples History Museum in Manchester as part of our development and research into the subject of narratives and stories through photographs. Red Saunders is a British photographer and worked for the Sunday Times magazine before concentrating on the Hidden project, which is what the exhibition was based around. His work concentrates on the reforms and rebels in society in the times before the camera was invented, and documents them on a large scale. His photographs are classed as tableau vivants, or living pictures, for their staged, 18th century inspired, surreal layout. He focuses “on the contributions of ordinary men and women, Saunders seeks to shed light on the parallel, 'hidden history' of revolutionaries and radicals” (waysoflooking.org, 2011)
The first photograph I was drawn to was a portrait of a woman, from the 7th century, who was the “pioneer of women’s education” (Professor John Gillingham, Daily Mail, 2011). The photograph looked like a painting, which a classmate later informed me was the look he was aiming for. The lighting is strong, lit from the right hand side and making the model look almost doll like. After watching his documentary that was playing on the television in the gallery, I understood that the photographs were photographed in different sections; background, people and objects.
The photograph that I mentally analysed the most whilst being at the exhibition was the ‘Peasants’ Revolt of 1381’, not for the grand scale of the photograph, but for how much it reminded me of a commercial advertisement for the London Dungeons or a printed advertisement for the childrens’ educational show ‘Horrible Histories’. The scale of the photograph is epic, and I can appreciate the time and detail it must have taken to produce a photograph of such massive scale, however, I couldn’t help but spot the flaws in the photographs. Some of the people look out of place, for example, the man in the foreground looking directly at the camera and brandishing his sword appears to be copied and pasted on, so to speak. Professor John Gillingham describes him as a “thick set brute, his face glistening with sweat from the battles recently won and his sword drawn ready for those that lie ahead” (Professor John Gillingham, Daily Mail, 2011). I agree with this statement, the character that this person plays is the main person I see when glazing at this photograph, a man set out from the crowd. It is a mix between the lack of shadows behind him making him stand out through postproduction, and his stance that makes him so important.
I was also frustrated that some of the people who were photographed for this project, as I saw in the documentary, were good enough to be presented as singular photographs. The man clutching his partner’s baby bump almost singled out from the noise and riot that is going on around them. They seem to be in a state of complete blindness by each other’s presence that they don’t seem to be registering what is around them. I can appreciate their involvement in the photograph, it tells a story deeply intertwined within the foundations of history, but I cannot help but wonder how successful a photograph would be if it just contained the two of them.
In conclusion, the photographs that Red Saunders are completely admirable, the scale of them and the time that has been put into producing the art is epic and is something I could only dream of producing. However, the photographs are not my cup of tea, which is a reason why I spend so long thinking about why I didn’t like them and coming up with the reasons I did in this report. If the photographs looked real, like we were there stood in front of them, I would be more impressed, but I think there has been too much postproduction in the aftermath of capturing these photographs by the editing team which has lead me to feel the photographs are fake, copied and pasted on Photoshop to give a unlifelike effect.
Professor John Gillingham, Daily Mail, 2011, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2043576/London-Riots-1381-Blood-soaked-Peasants-Revolt-changed-England-forever.html
waysoflooking.org, 2011, http://www.waysoflooking.org/programme/red-saunders-hidden
