#81 CAMERA Book Review: Colin O'Brien - Retrospective Images

Colin O'Brien, Retrospective Images, published by Pentagram. I love Colin O'Brien's work, and I wanted to just, this is all I have, and I just wanted to put this little book into the camera arena and just give everybody a quick insight into his work. I do love his work. He's a very prolific street photographer, and he sadly died in 2016, and he is documenting London from the 50s. highly regarded I'm sure Colin is the influence of many a photographer going around now in the streets from Nick Turpin Matt Stewart George Jensen any of them I guess somewhere Colin O'Brien must feature in their history and their view and stuff and like I said that's all I have this little beauty you can pick up for a couple of quid on Amazon and I think it's worth getting so I want to have a quick look through it and this is just something done by Pentagram Design I'm not really sure what the purpose of this was but it was an exhibition or yes it is right so it's Retrospective Images and it was gallery at Pentagram Design so the private view 26th of January 2000 so he was actually still alive when this went ahead so that was great and yeah so this is some of the the images this is you may notice i haven't looked at this for a while but in in here this is a bigger picture and this is just a crop of that bigger picture in fact it runs out there but there's a lot of top on that which is missing so it should be in here so let's have a quick look i don't want to miss it because it's a really lovely shot so this the what this sort of the exhibition i think it's just charting is the 60s 70s 80s 90s of his work let's have a look at it let's just um i may just move that down a little bit so there's an introduction by Dave Hayward Dean of School of Marketing and Management London College of Printing and you know Colin was sort of um very well regarded and well respected you know so i wouldn't be surprised that people were um people were flocking to this when it came about so we've got this is the shot cowboy and girlfriend let me just change the right so I've just come down on this so that's the shot that's a fun cover so that's the bit of the cover you're getting I love it absolutely gorgeous shot that sort of decisive moment isn't it and there's nothing he's got what 50mm lens something like that it's not too there's nothing really too wide about the shot a lot of people I think think going on stuff like that getting too close and they're too wide often with the lens choice and i think that's a lovely subtle beautiful sort of um candid approach to that um scenario and you know you're able to capture other elements in this is Solomon's second hand shop 1963 wow so that's 1960 and so i'd say 98 wow so we've jumped big time there's a total different deepness about the blacks as well from the 60s to that um so that you know sort of newer like more modern type shot and film even and so this is not just London because he was very renowned for his London shots so this is and like this one is Great Yarmouth you know i don't mind getting things wrong i'm learning as i'm doing this myself so i i'm quite happy to put my my neck on the line a little bit because i'm just trying to be positive and constructive about you know other photography so i have nothing to worry about and i and i you know i'm not always right that's nice John Smith and friend 1988 he's a well-traveled man in a sense you know he must have worn down his shoes quite a bit travelers children 1990 London Fields beautiful here we're going back now look at that look at the depth and that i'm going to go just print quality that's 1990 London Fields again i that's the extension of the travelers and we've gone into that beautiful rich black of the 50s and 60s color look at the car what a change of walking the streets for all them years and what he must have seen with you know like that's 1997 Chinatown London fields again oh look at that park bench night 84 looks like the album the cover it's like the cover from an album doesn't it let's Let's have a skim. What have we got here? Senior Service, 1916. Have a look at that. Mrs. Lineweber, Clerkenwell, 1959. I may have pronounced that name wrong. Oh, I can smell that. It just reminds me of Granny's cooking, that scene. It's just beautiful. Harley, Rome. Oh, it's good that it was showing some other stuff. I've seen that. That's the Harley Rome shot. That's fine. And this is, you know, I can see here with this signage and this concept, But, you know, I can see Dachewicz's work here, and I can see the Matt Stewart, and I can see, you know, this relationship where people have been inspired, you know, to sort of copy Collins' sort of style and work, especially with that sort of Dalies shot. I hope I'm making some sense. I know I waffle on a bit, but... Excellent two. I'm not going to show you the other one. 1960 ambulance. Look at that old ambulance. Look at the car. i can't really make out what's going on here is back 1982 i'll have to show you that flower lady brighton 1959 oh wow that's another era isn't it with the richness and that i wonder what film he was using it's Ebury Estate 1963 that's a great shot that's a lovely shot fashion girls 1998 ah let's have a look at that piccadilly 1959 wow wow hasn't it changed look at that car looks like something from Bugsy Malone and i'm gonna end on lightning over St Paul's 1972 so I have missed some of this out but regardless of what I've left out of what I've included of what I've said I wanted to just give you an opener to Colin O'Brien and that you should go and discover his street photography I think it's I think it's lovely I think it's some beautiful images it's a man who worked very hard at his passion at his his love and his photography and you know people make this stuff look so easy and it's not believe me it's not easy this is hard work to get these this stuff great photographers just make it look so simple and Colin O'Brien certainly did that thank you