New work by Dave Imms
April 6, 2011
Over the last 6 months Dave Imms, photographic and tutoring assistant at Garage Studios, has been compiling portraits of butchers. He has recently declared this project finished and has detailed some of this journey below. The series is appropriately titled, ‘Butchers’.
I hope this project takes the subtle hints of mortality, humor, and attitude that I would like my work to contain. On paper it is a picture of a guy who is a butcher in his shop, but deeper that that we have a guy that has dedicated his career to cutting up animals, hanging meat on big hooks, getting covered in blood…you can smell the flesh and blood in the images, and although I have tried to shoot them clinically in a cool light, they come across so raw and grim, especially in the image of the guy in the chiller. It is a little bit about the interaction with death but equally about jobs and what people do to make money. It’s a bit funny, a little bit ‘League of Gentlemen’, but don’t get me wrong, I’m not taking the piss out of these guys, I just liked the idea of these people looking a bit ‘Hilary Briss meets Billy the Butcher (Daniel Day-Lewis’ character is Gangs of New York)’.
I really wasn’t sure how the first image was going to work when I arrived. I had hopes of shooting it out the back, off the shop floor, but I was told that wouldn’t be possible, so I just had to plonk my light down where I was standing and make do. Another hitch in the plan was that the chap didn’t know who I was or what I was doing. I was told by his boss that, “Yeah, it’ll be fine, I’ll let them know you’re coming. They’ll have to do it, I’m the gaffer. Hahaha…”, but he didn’t tell them, and in the end I just started setting up and managed to get my picture. It worked out pretty well I think. The rest snowballed from there.
As with all the butchers, how I pitched myself was key. I had a number turn me away. One argued that my story was a complete fabrication and “anyone calling called ‘Dave’ would probably be more trouble than it’s worth as we’ve had issues with the animal liberation agency before, thank-you-very-much!” I couldn’t reassure them that I hated animals and that’s why I ate them…
So, eventually I had it worked out, and I’d explain I’m shooting a series of portraits and I’d bring one light, and that I would take about 30 minutes. It’s amazing how quickly that time goes, and how their idea of how long 30 minutes is to your own, especially while their running their business.
I would brief the butchers that it was a portrait, but they didn’t have to smile and they could just stand however they felt most natural and comfortable in front of camera. Everyone took to it fairly well, one guy got it completely, knew exactly how I wanted it to look and even acted up to it while quoting a Lee Evans sketch about the maniac with the cleaver who would spin around and say, “Hello madam, how may I help you?” Others didn’t get it at all but that’s all part of it I suppose. As long as you shoot enough and come away knowing you’ve got your shot then you know you can edit your desired image. This is a set of images that isn’t documentary but it can’t help being a social commentary at times. Although I am stripping away personality with the ‘non-pose’, little elements of this person will resonate though the image. Say, bits of Décor, cleanliness, dress and hair will make suggestions about this person.
One of the seven that I shot I’m really not happy with. It’s a drastically different environment to the others. Most had white, shiny tiles and were quite compact spaces. My light reflected off everything and gave a relatively even light, but this one place had MASSIVE ceilings, yellow tiles, mirrors everywhere, red aprons, wooden counters…it was so far removed from the others that no matter how much I looked at it, it just felt ugly. It’s nothing to do with the establishment itself, I’m sure it’s a great place, but from my point of view it was an absolute nightmare!
I had this strange moment the other day while walking past one of the places I shot. I peered through the window, ready to give a little wave should he be looking, but he wasn’t, he was just shoving pork in to the mincer, starring into nothingness, in the daily grind of the shit we do. This guy was nothing of the character I took a photograph of [insert moment of contemplation here]. DI
You can see more of this, and Dave’s work HERE.
