Richard Billingham

I chose Richard Billingham as one of my artists because his ideas and methods are similar to what I want to do; filming, almost exposing the inside life of my own family. He takes a documentary approach to his work which is what I’d like to achieve. His work also fits into the theme of Rebellion – since his Father was an alcoholic and his Mother was an angry lady with heavy tattoos, however this wasn’t exactly intentional.

He is an English Photographer, artist, filmmaker and art teacher. He is best known for his photography book (Ray’s A Laugh 1996), which documents the life of his alcoholic father, Ray and his obese, heavily tattooed mother, Liz. He’s also made a number of short films for example Fish tank (1998), which again surrounds his parents and exposes what goes on behind the scenes. He then went on to release his first feature film, Ray and Liz (2018). His work originally sprouted from when he aspired to be a painter, and was originally using the images he took as guidelines for his paintings, however, a tutor at Billingham’s art degree course fell upon these images and thought they were different and unique.

Billingham stated “I realised that if I photograph the whole room on a wide angle lens, you’re showing people everything, whereas if you focus on details then the viewer pieces together what that room looks like. It’s much more engaging – the viewer has to work to fill in the gaps, so I think it can be more engaging that way.” – This gives me some inspiration for the visuals of my film, instead of focusing on a big picture, grab details and smaller aspects of an area to intrigue the viewer. Here are a couple of interview based articles with Billingham:

https://thequietus.com/articles/26164-ray-liz-richard-billingham-interview

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/feb/23/richard-billingham-ray-and-liz-interview

PHOTO ANALYSIS

TECHNICAL: Looking at the image above, it is clear that Billingham uses natural lighting, nothing has been set up in order to achieve a specific type of lighting. However it does appear that there is a fluorescent/artificial lighting involved, most probably from the flash on the disposable camera that he used to take the photographs. In his films, he also appears to use natural lighting and no type of flash or artificial lighting has been used in order to achieve a certain type of lighting. Since he was using a disposable camera, the average shutter speed is about 1/100, allowing not much light in, however again, there is a flash. Disposable cameras also have a fixed mode of operation concerning the lens focus, aperture and shutter speed).

VISUAL: No filters or colour adjustments were used within Billingham’s images. Therefore, the colours in his images are natural and true to real life. The tones of his images are overall quite dark, especially when the pictures were taken during the night, however the tone does lighten when the images are taken during daytime. There is no specific composition when it comes to his photographs, as I have mentioned he takes a documentary approach to his work therefore there is no set up and takes images as things are happening right in front of him. This is the same for his films, there is no set up or composition, he simply let’s things flow naturally.

CONTEXTUAL AND CONCEPTUAL: As mentioned, Billingham wasn’t immediately set out to be a photographer, but instead, an artist. However when his tutor saw the photographs he realised that they were intriguing and had potential. His images and films were a portrayal of the poverty and deprivation in which he grew up in Cradley Heath, a town in Birmingham.

The area appears to be quite run down, middle to lower class area. He documented his parents mostly. His Mother being an overweight, tattooed chain smoker and his father being an alcoholic. His upbringing then may have been quite unique and different, compared to others he may have knew with ‘normal’ parents that lived without any addictions etc and lived within the middle to upper class areas. He may have felt many personal struggles when it came to his upbringing and expressed this through photography. Billingham has stated that he ‘just hated growing up in that tower block’. The reason why his images became so popular was because his pictures were surreal, claustrophobic and gave meaning to the idea of “too close to home”. It is not often you get to see someone essentially exposing their every day life and what the go through and have to deal with. As humans we have this inquisitive nature and wonder what happens behind closed doors. After making images, and them having a successful response, Billingham went on to make short films such as Fishtank and eventually a feature film named Ray & Liz. Overall going through major events that happened in his own life such as, when he was 10 years old and the family problems spiraled after Ray lost his job as a factory machinist.

It has been said that Billingham is protective and dismissive of the impacts that his childhood and upbringing has had on him. Instead of processing the hard times, he frames it – and out of that he did get successful, however he has said that “Jason often says to me now that, statistically, we should either be in prison, or dead.”. Richard Billingham most definitely turned a bad thing into a good thing. Which is the place that I am coming from when it comes to making my movie. My Mum does suffer from a terminal illness and things do get hard sometimes however exposing the inside to my life may bring some realization to some people and remind people that everyone has things going on behind closed doors.

Here’s a link to one of Billigham’s epiosode’s of ‘Fishtank’:

Meaning and Methods

Since I am making a film, I would like to focus on Billinghams’s filmmaking when it comes to talking about his meaning and methods. In the second clip I’ve inserted he says that the images he took ‘just happened by themselves’ and he wanted to experiment and see how things would look if he filmed the situations that he was living through. He wanted to explore a new medium to see if the same ‘magic’ would happen that appeared in his photographs. He also stated that with videos, he was looking for a ‘good catch’ and that he wanted to portray the emotions that were being expressed through a video.

He filmed most of his videos on a hand held camera and simply documented what he saw. His focus wasn’t necessarily on techniques but on capturing certain moments in order to create a hard hitting, close to home film. This is what’s good about documentary photography, it’s often non-fictional and true to real life which makes it somewhat more intriguing. He considers his photography ‘accidental artwork’ as he didn’t intend from the start to even be a photographer, but an artist. Billingham goes on to state in the interview that I have linked below that he didn’t want a polished aesthetic – he just wanted to make his images and films very moving emotionally.

Richard Billingham | Photoworks

From all the research it is clear that Richard Billingham’s meanings and methods are similar to what I would like to achieve. I’m not looking to make a technical, studio film, I’m wanting to make a hard-hitting, true to real life documentary film that captures certain struggles in my life, specifically surrounding my Mum, just as Billingham did with his parents. He has definitely inspired me with his short films and it goes to show that things don’t necessarily have to be the most visually pleasing or have a direct story for them to be a success.

Laia Abril

Laia Abril is a research-based artist working with photography, text, video and sound. She typically enjoys telling intimate stories that raise uneasy and hidden realities related with sexuality, eating disorders and gender equality. The Epilogue is a story of the Robinson Family and the aftermath in losing their 26 year old daughter to bulimia. She worked closely with the Robinson family and and reconstructed Cammy’s life through memories and flashbacks shown through the family’s grieving process. The Epilogue is about Cammy’s absence as well as her omnipresence; her energy and willfulness, her struggle with her disorder that truncated her life and capsized the lives of those around her. The book shares a range of dilemmas and the frustration that came with Cammy’s disorder, the guilt and the sorrow, all blended together in the bittersweet act of remembering their most troubles loved one.

Although Abril’s technique is different (she has photographed and created a photobook whereas I’m making a film) I feel like her concept and the elements she has pictured represents greatly of the feel I would like my film to be. For example, she is not directly photographing Cammy, because she has passed, but has photographed elements of Cammy’s life that all refer to her illness and troubled life. This is a technique that I would like to include in my film; not directly filming my Mother all of the time however incorporating certain elements like her medicine, doctors notes, my siblings etc that are all to do with her illness and struggles of every day life. I feel as though this gives a more intriguing feel to photography and film and allows the audience to make connections between the illness and various other thing’s in the person’s life.

She also tends to use archives of Cammy and the family from when she was alive; apparently happier times that strikes a great juxtaposition in the recent photographs that she has taken. This is something that I may experiment with to create some hard hitting juxtapositions within my own films – showing the difference in the past and how things have changed since my Mum fell ill.

CONCEPTUAL&CONTEXTUAL: This image is of Cammy’s mother. As I mentioned, Abril tends to use archives that show happier times that involved Cammy. Visually, this image is very sad and mundane and juxtaposes the old images greatly showing a huge difference in mood and family connection. Her mother appears very dull and worn out – showing the affects Cammy’s death has had on her. The photograph is essentially conveying a range of emotions which was Abril’s aim when it came to making this project. It shows remembrance, sadness and somewhat moving on. The image is very simple, however it makes you wonder all the things going round in the Mother’s head, that is also revealed throughout the book; ‘Where did it all go wrong?’, ‘Was she really unhappy?’, ‘What could we have done differently?’. As I have been saying a lot within my personal project, sometimes pictures and films do not have to be visually complex or pleasing, the meaning and covert messages that are at bay, are often more hard hitting than the visuals themselves. Again, this is something I want to achieve also.