Visiting Speaker: Julian Simmonds
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Posted: 2020-02-18T23:00:00Z
Out of a Tardis-type bag, Julian pulled out camera after camera until the front table represented his life and career in cameras, ranging from a huge press camera, through several film versions, his first digital model and at last, the tiny Fuji he uses to be discreet and unnoticed. He was an entertaining speaker, not just because he has had a fascinating and wide-ranging career, but also because he can tell his stories with humour and self-deprecation. He welcomed questions along the way and explained his change from Canon to Nikon: in preparation for the Olympics, wanting extra visual presence, Nikon gave him a free camera.
Julian had organised the images he wanted to show us into themes and started with portraiture - he has worked within the worlds of politics, some sports and entertainment. He had always loved photography and worked for his Boy Scout badge before pursuing higher qualifications, including art school and a degree in photography and film. His portraits demonstrated his ability to capture different aspects of his subjects - taking several poses to give picture editors a choice. We particularly loved his black and white portrait of Andy Warhol standing in the light and shade of Venetian blinds. He prefers uncomplicated lighting - looking for natural light from windows when he can and suggesting that when one runs out of ideas, one can always tilt the camera! I loved how he said that in some instances you just stand someone against the wall and shoot them. A serious piece of advice was to let someone know at the start of a shoot how many different positions you intend to use - then they relax and know what's expected. Although posing one man on top of the Royal Opera House might have been a particular challenge. the resulting shot was breathtaking, certainly.
As he told his story, it became obvious that he is a compassionate, empathetic and brave photographer. He has covered many areas of conflict and international stories which needed to be told. He has blagged his way in to situations to get close to the action - 'if you are not there, you can't take the shots'.
In talking about the influence of other people on his work, he talked about Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, Tony Ray-Jones and Gary Winogrand among others, and the compositions, impact and power of his images show the power of his own creativity, whether in his professional press work, or in the more personal projects he is working on. Taking one camera and one lens, he has an ongoing project, visiting Europe and beyond on their national festivals, without an angle, just wanting to give a flavour of each culture. We really enjoyed Julian's visit and hope he has added another dimension to our understanding of story-telling. He might even come back to advise us as part of our own story-telling project.