Born in Bristol, UK in 1986 Tom Pope’s artistic practice is primarily based within performed photography. Pope’s playful and whimsical approach orchestrates situations and performed gestures of social interaction. Within these settings the public become willing participators and collaborators where the act of taking photographs is a social event. Spontaneity is embraced and chance encouraged.
HERE IS SOME OF TOMS WORK –
Over The Edge-Tom Pope
Tom Pope studied Photography in the Arts at Swansea Metropolitan University and received his Masters in Photography from the Royal College of Art in 2011 where he was also the recipient of a Deutsche Bank Award. His works are in the National Museum of Wales and National Portrait Gallery. Pope won the Night Contact/Photoworks commission 2014. The resulting filmSilent Fore to Aft made in collaboration with Terry Smith premiered at Brighton Photo Biennial 2014.
In psychogeography, a dérive (French: “drift”) is an unplanned journey through a landscape, usually urban, on which the subtle aesthetic contours of the surrounding architecture and geography subconsciously direct the traveller’s, with the ultimate goal of encountering an entirely new and authentic experience.
In relation to tom pope, he made a paper aeroplane, and visited a gallery. a typically quiet and classy place. Tom then threw the aeroplane across the room and went to wherever it landed and looked at the closest piece of art to its landing.
Our recent trip to St Malo with Tom Pope and the Archilse team was an interesting and very enjoyable experience. We visted all over the town, practising the many concepts that we have learned over the last few weeks, including ‘drifting’, subversion, performance photography and situationism.
When arriving in St Malo, we were put into groups of 10 where we took it in turns to work with 3 different mentors; Mr McKinley, Mr Toft and Tom Pope. Our group went with Mr McKinley first and we marked out our route by taking it in turns to turn either left or right, a concept known as ‘drifting’. The route took us down to the beach where we began to practise our ‘performance’ photography. I decided to tie my shoe to the edge of a ladder which I then photographed. Also I marked out the slogan ‘DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER’ in chalk, a theme which I had selected to do beforehand
During lunch I decided to quickly explore the city, gaining a sense of the atmosphere which I then took a few photographs of. When we arrived back to the meeting point I gave one of my friends a tennis ball and soon a large group of people were playing a game involving throwing a tennis ball against the wall and catching it. This was a good opportunity to take some photographs of the action, and I captured some really interesting moments which explore to idea of fun, spontaneity and child-like play.
For the second activity of the day we worked with Tom Pope. Tom, using the drifting technique, navigated us down to a nearby playground. In the playground there was a gaint sized chess-board. Tom therefore spontaniously decided that it would be a good idea to have a game of ‘human draughts’. This game was a great deal of fun and involved us to work effectively as a team. I found that it was interesting that acting subversly in the ‘playgroudd’ environment went far more unotoced then it did for example in the town square. This observation drew me to the idea that acting ‘childish’ is more acceptable in a playful area then in a more formal public setting. This has made me conclude that the act of being subversive is not in fact the main thing the people judge but however the appropiateness of the act in relation to the setting and the automatic boundaries or freedms that it subsequently presents.
For the later part of the day we worked with Mr Toft, navigating our way form the town centre back to the harbour. Firstly our group wrapped Shannon in bubblewrap and pushed her down the hill. This extremely random and perculiar act was naturally very funny and the public reaction of shock, intrigue, confusion was equally amusing. This act created a very unruly atmosphere which seemed to decend into choas the longer it went on for. When making it back to the harbour I spontaniously decided to get someone to film me dribbling a tennis ball. The raw, authentic style of the video I believe works very well.
Overall I really enjoyed the day, and it was a great experience to work in an unfimiliar environent with nothing but inscint to guide us to wherever we wanted to photograph. What I found most fun about the day was simply to see different people’s reactions to the behaviourr and unussual activities that we got up to. Also the spontaneous things such as me dribbbling the ball, and also the game of catch at lunch-time was very enjoyable. An important thing that I learned about the day is that it is important to be creative and take risks. Some of my best, most meaningful outcomes came when I tried out a range of different, unusual activities that I had little knowledge in what they would be like.
For our first photography study we went on a trip to St. Malo. The trip consisted of 4 main shoots, during the shoots we split up into 4 groups of around 10 people accompanied by 1 adult.
For my first group shoot we started off by walking around inside the walls of st.malo up towards the north wall. Early on we found a set of steps that thought would be aesthetically pleasing to do a performance photography shoot. i stood at the base of the stairs and angled my camera to face the peak, I then positioned the girls to stand in a zig zag, unexpectedly a ball was found so i asked the girls to throw the ball between them. Tom pope the artist we were with then suggested the idea of rolling the ball down the banister so the video could be easily looped. we therefore did so and the result was excellent. After we did this shoot we then carried on walking up the stairs and came to an area that was a busy public walk way, there were some old empty boxes nearby so we had the idea to ask one of the girls to hide inside the box and pop out when a member of the public walked close by. we did this in order to see peoples reactions.
we then positioned ourselves across the street in order to not let the public know they were being recorded to get a natural reaction.
we came to an area just up the road from the walk way that had traffic cones laying in the road, two of the girls without comand picked up the cones and put it on their heads, this was a chance act and as i wasnt recording i asked them to reinact what they did exactly.
Just up the road from this coned area was a multiple walled area shown below, i had an idea as a performance photography piece for the girls to position themselves behind different areas of the wall and ‘pop up’ randomly, the video which is currently being edited was then looped to create an infinity affect. This then concluded the end of the first shoot.
SECOND SHOOT
Shorty after a brief rendezvous at the meeting place, the second shoot started. directly next to the meeting place there was a merry go round, we all decided to go on it and video the experience from the horses. The video is still being edited but here was the making of it.
We then had the idea to go and buy some yellow roses from the supermarket and hand them to random people as random acts of kindness. This shoot was by far the hardest to conduct and capture as some people didn’t understand and thought they had to pay for the flowers. Capturing peoples reactions was hard as well, some people noticed the cameras and became shy or would smile and wave at the camera, this therefore was not a natural reaction but one provoked by the cameras presence.
We then thought of the ball we had found earlier on in the day and thought of an odd idea to use it in a public place, we originally wanted to conduct a fake rugby game in the middle of the street. As this was to difficult for multiple reasons, we decided to pretend that the ball was very heavy. this was the result of the piece.
Our trip to St Malo on the 17th of June 2015 with guests Gareth Syvret and Tom Pope, developed or aim to succeed the expectations of the locals in a foreign arena. In our small groups, we came up with several ideas to incorporate this enigma. Our first idea was using Sian. Sian bought 24 yellow roses at the local Market and our idea was to hand out the flowers in order to receive the reaction of the public. This was very successful in a way I felt encapsulated the senses of community and relationships.
Sian holding the yellow roses.
One of our targets for receiving the roses.
This experiment suggested positive, as many people where up to the challenge of exceeding this performance. In awe to Tom Pope, this idea of performance has given challenge by testing the public’s response. Chance has been established through the duration of the performance as many people changed their mind about receiving the flower. This then enabled the way we change our approach to people and the way we dictate our performance in order to receive a more positive outcome.
A woman happily receiving her yellow rose.
I was really happy with this photograph partly because you can clearly see the reaction upon this woman’s face. I am glad that our aim was established and that the roses gained a positive and interesting experience. I felt this interaction was key and I’m glad i challenged this.
Our next task was to use a blow-up ball through a mundane environment. The main aim was to characterize a movement which would represent a normal and sophisticated stance that we would use to challenge and chance the public community passing through this area and time. This movement was simple, the ball would roll down the metal railings and eventually, be passed back up to the top in which the movement would start over again. This action was repeated, and half way through, members of the public passed through and reacted in a surprised, un-realistic way. However, because we didn’t take much notice and reacted as if there was no abnormality, the action was suppressed as normal. This was also dictated through the way we kept quiet; regarding nothing abstracted or influenced our performance.
This technique proved very successful. I felt the aim was fulfilled due to the ordinariness, and the pace was very smooth and interactive. I feel an element of change was anticipated due to the challenge towards the transitions of normal and abnormal. I feel as a group we turned an action so simple to an action worth meaning, that the typical and mundane values where transgressed and pushed to the extremes.
Here is a link to the video of the Blow-Up Ball:
The next task we took was during our experience in St Malo’s local supermarket. The aim was to venture up and down the aisles of the market and pick up various items from the different shelves. This was among the public circle and wasn’t staged to the extreme. This was all captured on video and when one of us shouted ‘slow’, the movements of normal pace turned into slow-motion, leaving the only the public to react in a surprising and humorous way.
Surprisingly, the people of the public didn’t know quite how to react and in this in fact made them not appear in the video at all due to them realizing the performance and warding off because of it. The avoidance in such a public and mundane place ensured to us that we had really challenged and changed the transition of normal to radicalized, proving our performance as successful.
Setting up into our positions.practicing the repetitive actions.
Here is a link to the video of our Slow-Mo Market Dash:
The next task was to challenge the reaction of the public further. We directed one of our group members, Molly to climb into a small cardboard box. She then placed herself with our instruction in the middle of a busy pavement, central of St Malo’s town. We captured on video the audiences reactions and how they were challenged with the change of normality. This idea of chance was established too, as people who walked past gave molly the chance to perform.With the influence from Tom Pope, the suggestion of how if there wasn’t any people there would probably be no chance of any performance, so concluding this the location of this act gave this performance a chance to challenge the change in the public arena.
Molly waiting for her performance to start.Molly hiding in the box.
I felt this performance was very successful, and from the video you can clearly see the aim of this action being established. The feeling of change from normality to becoming surprised was clearly evident, and from the video this challenge was successful as we changed the normal transitions that wouldn’t of been there if our performance didn’t take place in that moment of time.
Tom Pope is a British photographer born in 1986. He lives and works in London. Pope is the 2015 Photographer in Residence at the Jersey Photo Archives. Last Tuesday we worked with Pope alongside the Jersey Archisle where we did a few workshops to develop our understanding of Performance Photography. Pope is a performance photographer who usually goes on impulse and finds objects when he goes to where he is going to perform.
Pope’s performances are all recorded where he will find an image within each film. Often Pope’s spectators are those who happen to be on the scene at the time as he doesn’t pre-plan or tell anyone where he is going to be in a place.
The So It Goes project is filled with many different concepts that Pope has managed to create and are displayed on his blog which is linked above. The story of the Grandfather clock has a deeper meaning of living a life without time, which explains destroying the clock and carrying it around in a hearse. I like the idea of this project as in many ways people of our generation would be lost without time. They wouldn’t be able to do the usual things that we are expected to do, such as getting to work and school on time. What if time didn’t exist? What if we didn’t have to live in a world were time was the most important aspect and that we wouldn’t have to worry constantly about not having enough of it.
Another great project of Pope’s is the Fountain Bike. Here Pope made a bike with a mannequin hand holding up a hose pipe which was filtered from the rain water at the side of a road in the UK. Here Pope simply cycled on the spot in the rain and whoever was walking past was his audience and spectators. I like the vibrant colour of his yellow rain coat and the bright colours on the bike which make it stand out, as well as the obvious that water is shooting off the front of the bike through a hose pipe which is being held up by a mannequin hand and the water being produced from the rain water on the side of a road. This film still show many spectators of Pope’s performance. The first is the woman walking past on the street, moving to the side to avoid getting more wet from the water coming off the bike. The other spectators are the children on the bus who are looks at Pope in an entertained/confused way. I like that Pope will just go out and create something completely random to make an impact and to perform for the people who happen to be there at that time.
On Wednesday 17th the photography group are going to St Malo for the day along with Tom Pope and the Archisle people to show our skills in the art of performance photography. I am excited to see how this turns out and if we manage to come up with visually interesting pieces.
Yury Toroptsov was the photographer in residence at the Jersey Photo Archives in 2014. He was born in 1974 in Vladivostok, in Russia. Toroptsov is a photographer who focuses on the common denominator for distant cultures. He looks at people and their identity and the permanence of myths. Memories, metamorphosis, profane and sacred are the recurring themes in his photographs. He currently lives and works in Paris.
During Toroptsov’s six month period in working in Jersey, he found some old videos from the Second World War of the Battle of Flowers which still went on even throughout the duration of the war.
Toroptsov was influenced by a particular float called ‘Fairyland’ which is developed in the first video on his website of the Fairyland page. This interests me as he looks deeper into Jersey and uses the Archive as a way to access the present day. This backs up what the Archisle man stated that ‘you need to understand a history to anticipate the future’. We as a community need to reflect and understand the past to move forward.
One photo in particular which I like is the one of a bench with a plague on it that says ‘In Appreciation Of Being Jersey Born – K.J.H.’. The reason I really like this image is because of the simple message that we should be proud to be Jersey born. Often people tell me that they wish they weren’t from here or that they don’t consider themselves as from here but instead from the background of where their parents are from. I am proud and happy to have been born and live in such a beautiful island. Although the island has many setbacks and is very cushioned compared to the rest of the world, I think that it has so much to offer. In the beauty of its landscapes and all the different cultures we have on the island. I like this image because it is simple yet powerful.
Michelle Sank is a South African photographer who moved to England in 1987. Sank is a social documentary photographer, with her work illuminating issues around social and cultural diversity. Sank was in Jersey for six months working on a project called ‘Insula’.
Sister Mary Agnes, Annual Pilgrimage to Elizabeth Castle
Veronica
General Sir John Chalmers McColl KCB CBE DSO Lieutenant Governor of Jersey
Edyta Jamrozy, B Team Potato Planter, Grouville
Bathers, Plemont Bay, St Ouen
Georgia, Harve Des Par swimming pool, St Clement
Cave, Plemont Bay,St Ouen
Carlo, Harve Des Par, St Clement
Re-enactment by 1781 Jersey Militia, Official Birthday Reception for Her Majesty the Queen, Government House, Jersey
Sir Michael Birt, Bailiff of Jersey
Erin and Darcy, Miss and Junior Miss Grouville 2013
Dais, Liberation Square, St Helier, Liberation Day 2013
These set of images follow the Archives of the past with photographers such as Henry Mullins who recorded his photographs in rows of four in large photo albums. This set of images shows the people of today living in Jersey and how different cultures and social classes live rather than just the higher social classes which were recorded in the past. I like these images as they can show the different personalities of the people of Jersey as well as letting the spectator in on the environment surrounding the subject.
One image which I find really interesting is the one below of Liberation Square on Liberation Day 2013. It interests me because of the Union Jack in the background because I would have actually expected to see the Jersey flag and not the British. One reason being that the Prime Mister at the time of World War II, Churchill, chose not to defend Jersey against Nazi invasion and also failed to announce that the Channel Islands were unarmed resulting in 47 innocent Jersey farmers to be shot and killed when the Germans arrived. Although, I realise that the reason the Channel Islands were liberated the day after Britain was because of the great effort the British and the Americans put into defending the rest of the world against the German Nazis.
I like this image because it shows how the people of Jersey will come together on this one day, 9th May, to celebrate the freedom and liberation of its past people and its ancestors.
Dais, Liberation Square, St Helier, Liberation Day 2013
Tom Pope is the Photographer in residence 2015 at the Jersey Archive. Pope was asked to do a masters in photography in the Royal Academy of Art, after graduating from his first University at Swansea Metropolitan University where he studied Photography in the Arts.
As a title of ‘Chance, Challenge, Change’ many ideas came to mind. On our workshop visit to Archisle, Jersey, we were given a talk by Gareth Syvret who’s a photo archivist in the Societe Jersiaise. He influenced me into thinking further when thinking about archiving photographs. Syvret mention that being an archivist allows you to test and question what the definition of art and what it is, as a photo library represents a cannon of personal history and time. Gareth was particularly influenced by Kessel Kramer where his collection ‘In almost every photograph represents this understanding of history to anticipate the future. Below are some examples of Kessle’s work.
“Visual History – Knowledge – Power”
Another influence of Gareth’s was William T. Collings, an Artist whom captured many of his photographs in neighboring Channel Islands. This then came relatable for Syvret as much of the photographs archived where found in the Societe Jersiaise. Much of William’s work was captured in the 1860’s all of working class men and woman. Syvret added that this “Anthropological representation may be deceiving” as the straight faces in Collings’ photographs can be seen as ‘ambiguous. Also, plate cameras which where used made the colour red deficient, resulting the eye to question the photographs profanity and truth. Below is an image William captured during his time shooting in Sark.
