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PREVIEW: Hombres – a photo exhibition of the male nude

Ted Cotter spent his working life in financial services in the City of London.

A HIGH-level hockey player in his spare time, he turned to photography relatively late in life, joining the world’s oldest photographic society The Camera Club in London in 1990. He subsequently became its Secretary, Treasurer and then its President.

At the Camera Club he created a group to study and photograph the male nude form, running it for fifteen years. “Male nudes were frowned upon, but we said “we’re here, deal with us .”

The first male nude exhibition at the Camera Club rattled a few cages, he says, but was the most successful opening the club had had.

Over the intervening 30 years Ted has built up a group of models who pose for him at intervals – some yearly and some more ambitiously every decade. His ‘continuity’ project charts the men’s maturing and ageing and is an ongoing piece of work, of which he is duly proud. And the models have often become good friends, feeling totally at ease with the work.

So what makes a good subject for Ted ? “The guys need muscle tone, so I can mould them into abstract shapes but they mustn’t be muscle Marys, and they have to bring personality to the shoot.” He particularly likes working with dancers. “They have great control of their bodies, physical strength but also an inner strength of character.”

Ted has three main projects – the chronology work over many years with the same men; a thematic series with men posed round ropes, and a new idea for male and female pictures, probably including the woman in various stages of pregnancy and including the new child when born.

All his photography is black and white. “Colour in a photo of the human form is distracting ; there is much more tolerance in the developing of a monochrome print and it adds to the sculptural effect I aim for.”

As with all highly professional photographers, much of his work is discarded along the way. Typically a three-hour shoot will produce 5 or 6 exhibition-quality photos.

Still based in studios at the Camera Club in Kennington, London Ted admits: “My best photos have often been mistakes. I tell the subject not to move but then they do and create a better shape.”

“The most important element of the work is total trust between subject and photographer.” This clearly only comes with time, but when you photograph the same people for over 30 years, time is clearly on Ted Cotter’s side.

Ted Cotter hopes to mount this current exhibition in Brighton in 2019.

You can view more of his work on Tumblr at towncrierphotos.

For enquiries to buy his work, email:  towncrierphotos@gmail.com

Hombres is presently showing at the Casablanca cocktail bar and art venue in Sitges until October 14.

Local artist paints Freddie Mercury for Hibernation 2018 fundraising auction

Local artist, Lez Ingham supports Hibernation 2018 fundraising luncheon with new painting of Freddie Mercury.

Lez Ingham
Lez Ingham

LAST year Lez donated a painting of George Michael which was auctioned at Hibernation, the community luncheon organised by Bear-Patrol raising £3,300 for the work of the Brighton and Hove LGBT Community Safety Forum.

This year Lez has kindly offered to create a unique painting of Freddie Mercury to auction for the benefit of the Rainbow Fund.

Lez said: “Occasionally I’m stopped in my tracks by a flash of genius. I’m intrigued by super bright stars, and Freddie Mercury was definitely both a genius and a star. In 2017, I painted a portrait of George Michael, another bright star, in my estimation to be auctioned at Hibernation, Bear-Patrol’s Annual Community Luncheon. I was overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and interest, and the incredibly well organised and entertaining event.”

When Lez arrived at the Old Ship Hotel for the luncheon last year she was massively stressed, as she’d very nearly destroyed the painting of George, minutes before catching the taxi to the hotel.

She continued: “When I paint a portrait of someone, famous or otherwise, I immerse myself into their character, and try my best to get under their skin. Freddie Mercury was outrageous, flamboyant and exotic. His energy and imagination had no boundaries. He had a twinkle in his eye and a ‘campness’ that transcended other rock stars, excluding Bowie of course.

“Freddie was fun, cheeky, sexy as well as being a musical genius, or as he famously described himself, ‘I’m just a musical prostitute my dear.’

Lez has chosen to depict Freddie in this years painting, as an outrageous showman with a wicked sense of humour, blessed with the ability to transform himself into a surreal visual feast.

She adds:I’m Going Slightly Mad was released after Freddie was diagnosed with HIV in 1991.
He chose to film the music video in black and white, reminiscent of early silent movies. Wearing heavy white face make-up and a wig, he manages to amuse and titillate with such aplomb.

“I hope this painting of Freddie is as well received as George was last year and hope he manages to raise a fair amount of money for The Rainbow Fund, an organisation close to my heart.

“I look forward to seeing all the Bears at Hibernation on Sunday, October 21 at the Old Ship Hotel and thank Danny Dwyer for asking me to create a piece of art for Bear-Patrol once again this year.”

The Rainbow Fund give grants to LGBT/HIV groups and organisations who deliver effective front line services to LGBT+ people in Brighton and Hove.

REVIEW: Austentatious @ Brighton Dome

 

Austentatious

Brighton Dome

September 24th

AUSTENTATIOUS is an entirely improvised comedy play in the style of regency author Jane Austen.  The cast create a riotously funny new literary masterpiece, based on nothing more than a title suggested by the audience. Like balls, no two shows are ever the same. Performed in full Regency costume, with live musical accompaniment, Austentatious’s past works include ‘Bath to the Future’, ‘Strictly Come Darcy’ and ‘Mansfield Shark’.

Each person in the audience has a slip of paper with a ‘Penguin Classic’ book cover to write down a title of a ‘lost’ Austen classic, one is chosen and this wickedly sharp troupe of improvisers, all skipping around in period costume with a few chairs and plenty of alacrity, get to work on constructing a narrative that may, just, have come from the pen of Ms Austen herself.   They tick the boxes of period drama fans, Austen die-hards, impro fans and people who just like to be delighted by silliness done extremely well.

The ‘lost’ Austen masterpiece recreated in the regency splendour of the Dome was ‘Virtue & Vampyres’  and had all the tropes & motifs one would expect from a regency period drama of social commentary and romantic pursuits about a family of ancient Vampyres living discreetly in Guildford.  It’s prim but subtly naughty, flirtatious and utterly unctuous and the group work superbly well bouncing ideas off each other and running with them into the deepest darkest impro woods.

Austentatious Solo
Photo Credit: ©Richard Davenport 2015, Richard@rwdavenport.co.uk, 07545642134

Watching a super group of comedy folk work so seamlessly together is a joy in itself and watching them set each other up, and artfully nipping in and out of each other’s traps was delightful and then the occasional ganging up to make someone wallow in glorious improvised twaddle and it working! There’s nothing an audience likes more than a comedian who can pull off the long shot and although the team work is well rehearsed it’s the little moments of personal madness which spin out into the wider plot which makes this regency show shine.

The narrative neatly folded back up in the second half, bringing all the bonkers parts of the plot into something resembling a workable narrative, with some lovely running jokes and rather mean pressing by some of the performers on the others which brought great hilarity, this was warm and engaging entertaining.   The on-stage fiddle playing from regency hottie Oliver Izod, underscoring and rather understated was perfect background to the scene setting and I loved the dramatic emotional playing to suggest, or underline the action happening on stage. The musician is a superb addition to this show and gives a regency authenticity to the silliness on stage.

Austentatious Solo
Photo Credit: ©Richard Davenport 2015, Richard@rwdavenport.co.uk, 07545642134

Throwing an interval in makes this long form improvisation easier to digest and also gives the frantic pace of plot some time to settle in.  90 minutes of improvisation is a long ask of an audience, it is testament to the talent of this crew and their pure adorability that the time flies past.

One felt the selection process was a little unspontaneous, sifting thought the choices offered up from the audience until one was settled on, I’d rather a more chance ( and dangerous) element to the title of the evening and I felt a tiny disappointment at the Vampyres genre being the chosen one. I understand the need to filter out the endless filth that gets flung at an improvisation group and the Meta clash of genre is always a delight, but it undermined what I was expecting to be a sparkling night of wit and tingling speculations paying off.

Other than that one small gripe the troupe are well versed in deconstruction and the endless forms of parody, they tease and roll with each other’s suggestions and allow space for some occasionall fireworks and delightfully damned oddness.  The evening was one filled with light hilarity and ending as it should with a dénouement of romantic attachments, “Virtue and Vampyres” was a gentle frolic around the backwaters of the lost cannon of Miss Jane Austen’s works and brought to temporary life by the every delightful and utterly charming band of improvisers which makes up this charming troupe. The Prince Regent would surely approve….

On Tour, do leave a card and call on them should they be visiting your county for the season.

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