I wanted to look more into these two as I have studied the work of Tom Pope and found it really interesting and unique. I find the chosen photographs of Peter Finnemore’s really interesting and engaging, they are strangely unique linking to the work of Pope. I find the two have very unique styles and the idea of performance really shows through their work. Finnemore was Pope’s teacher who he looked up to and was influenced by in photography.
Tom Pope’s website: http://www.tompope.co.uk/index.html
Peter Finnemore website: http://www.peterfinnemore.com/main.html
About Tom Pope
Tom Pope was the photographer in residence at the Jersey Archisle in 2015. He is a performance photographer and is currently living in London after graduating with a Ma in Photography from The Royal College of Art back in 2011.. Pope’s work is very unique and has strong political and social messages behind it. Much of Pope’s work is based around his project of Weak Anarchy and challenging the way we think as a society and what is right and wrong in the eyes of the community surrounding us.
Interview with Tom Pope:
About Peter Finnemore
Peter Finnemore is a photographer born in Llanelli, Wales. He was one of the first students at the new Fine Art Photography Course, set up in 1984 by Thomas Joshua Cooper, at the Glasgow School of Art, Scotland. Finnemore gained an MFA in Photography at the University of Michigan, USA. Finnemore is a visiting professor in Photography at the University of Derby. He also lives and works in Llanelle, Wales. Finnemore’s work consists of many landscape images, environmental images that show the natural world.
Comparison | Tom Pope and Peter Finnemore
Q. How has Peter Finnemore influenced the style and genre of Tom Pope’s photography?
In this essay I am going to compare and contrast photographers Tom Pope and his chosen artist, from the Quintessence exhibition, Peter Finnemore. I really love the style of Finnemore and wanted to explore it further and find out more about the location of his work as well as how Pope relates to him and how their work differs.
I find that Pope and Finnemore have similar styles of photography. They tend to take the element of performance to the next step and really get into their role and what they want to do. One thing that they differ in is that Finnemore seems to prepare a lot of his work and knows what he wants to do and will usually make all of his images in his back garden whereas Pope tends to have a basic idea of what he wants to do and leaves it all up to chance in one image taken on a film camera and will perform in public and not stop if there are any passersby. Their work differs in the sense that Pope is very classic with the types of cameras that he decides to use and Finnemore is more modern using newer digital cameras as you are able to tell in the different ways that the images above look, with the way they capture the light and everything in the frame of the image.
I chose the two images above as they interested me the most. I really love the photograph by Finnemore, there is just something about it that is really intriguing and makes me want to find out more about what is going on in this image and possibly a deeper meaning behind it. It reminds me of war and how during the war, in Jersey, they had to cover up an underground hospital with grass and dirt to make it just look like more land when the enemy flew over looking down and not actually being able to see that something is there. This image really interests me as the subject in the image, a man, blends in with his atmosphere and at first glance I didn’t even notice him at all. I really do find this image engaging as it is so odd and random yet it seems to remind me of war and how the world was at one stage in our recent history. To me it looks as though the subject just jumped at the shed and is clinging onto it to try and hold himself up. It’s also interesting to know that this was all taken in his back garden. Something that I really like about this image is that I am so interesting in it and really would like to find out more about it and if the meaning that I have generated from looking at it is actually the meaning and the message that Finnemore is trying to put across.
Contrary, I find Popes image very different. It doesn’t really make me think of anything political at all, I like the image but I am unsure as to what influence it has over me. I guess I could say that it makes me think we should all just be as carefree as Pope is and do things in public without worrying or being overly aware of the other people around, to be the real you. This image also reminds me of going on holiday as the lane and the brick flooring just reminds me of a place like Portugal or Spain or even the South of France. I do find this image interesting and almost amusing because of the way Pope is positioned in this image. I also like that he uses film cameras in his work to make everything authentic and when he does do his performances it is all down to chance that the camera will capture the moment that he wants it to really get.
The reason that I chose to compare these two images is because of the way both photographers approach photography as a performance and they do it for themselves and if someone happens to walk past then that performance has been seen by someone else but primarily they will just do it for themselves. I feel like Pope has been influenced by this through Finnemore’s work. Finnemore’s work is more of a poetic symbol in that it is about showing the world his home, his territory and his paradise. He wouldn’t want anyone else to steal his home or to invade his personal paradise. Contrasting to this I find that a lot of Pope’s work is very abstract and unusual but can also be poetic and symbolic of a deeper more political meaning.
