The world-renowned English photographer John Blakemore will launch a retrospective book about his work with a lecture and signing session at McDonald Road Library later this month.
Blakemore, born in 1936, first took to photography during his stint of national service in 1956. His early Picture Post-influenced work featured the people and places of bomb-ravaged Coventry, his home town.
Later, he came to specialise in black and white studies – typically landscapes and still lifes of trees and flowers admired for their richness of tone and texture, extraordinary detail, and subtle emotional burden.
'His landscape photography was always about ideas about place rather than just the place itself,' writes Tim Parkin in his article on master photographers. 'He wanted to capture a sense of the forces that shape the landscape at large. The results are photographs that have a raw power with a presentation that can look uncomposed to the hurried eye but is actually exquisitely balanced.' You can read the full piece here.
For many years he taught at Derby University where he continues as Emeritus Professor. Previous publications include Inscape (1991) and Stilled Gaze (1994).
John Blakemore will launch Photographs 1955–2010 at McDonald Road Library on Monday 24 October from 6.15pm.
For further information, or to reserve a place, contact Beyond Words (info@beyondwords.co.uk) or Tel. 01620 895985. Beyond Words are the publishers, and are asking for donations at the door to cover costs (suggested £3 or £2 for students/unwaged), reimbursed if book purchased.