Opening
times: Tue-Fri 12-5pm; Sat & Sun 11am -4pm;
Closed
Monday
The RADA Centenary Portraits: a veritable ‘who’s who’
of British acting from stage and screen, captured by
award winning photographer Cambridge Jones.
Since taking his first ‘celebrity portrait’ only two
years ago, Cambridge Jones has quickly built up a respected
reputation for photographing the rich and famous. From
Prime Ministers to pop stars, Jones’ subjects cannot
help but be striking, but his powerful images of them
show us these well-known figures in a new light. For
The RADA Centenary Portraits, which have been previously
exhibited at The Getty Gallery, London and The National
Theatre, Southbank, London. Cambridge Jones presents
portraits of the great and good from British stage and
screen, allowing his feel for dramatic and iconic images
really to come into its own.
His subjects include familiar
faces such as Alan Rickman, Joan Collins, John Hurt
and Anthony Hopkins. Each photograph represents a moment
of frozen time in the intimate working atmosphere Jones
likes to foster with his subjects. He wants to show
people at their most interesting, so by helping them
to relax, Jones hopes "we are able
to go that much further together creatively". By
employing playful composition and dynamic use of background
pattern and texture, Jones creates images that range
from the humorous to the poignant, always succeeding
in portraying the personality of those he works with.
Using high contrast, superbly detailed black and white
photos, Jones captures his subjects confidently and with
character.
He cites Cecil Beaton and David Bailey as inspiration
for his practice. The influence of their celebrated works
is evident here in Jones’ photographs, in the cinematic
atmospheres he evokes and the sophisticated simplicity
of the way he frames images. These timeless portraits
offer a welcome relief from the clandestine paparazzi
snaps that usually depict contemporary celebrity in the
mass media. They represent instead the charisma of their
subjects in a stylishly candid manner.
www.cambridgejones.com |
