THE ESTABLISHING SHOT: Andy Gotts

Showing posts with label Andy Gotts. Show all posts

Last week the lady and I were delighted to go along to a private viewing of renowned portrait photographer Andy Gotts's new exhibition in collaboration with BAFTA at Somerset House entitled Behind the Mask: Andy Gotts MBE portraits for BAFTA.

There is a line of dialogue in Gus Van Sant's My Own Private Idaho spoken by Mike Waters, the character played by River Phoenix that has stuck with me since my first viewing of the film -

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“There's not another road anywhere that looks like this road - I mean, exactly like this road. It's one kind of place. One of a kind... like someone's face...”

River Phoenix's character is not only speaking of the uniqueness and individuality of faces as well as something much larger - how he relates to the world and his place in it. But also a very human trait that we have, the ability to project mood and emotion onto something.

It takes talent to paint something with light bringing its inner personality and character to the fore or allowing previously hidden or surprising qualities to be revealed and allowing others to see the same thing. Some would argue that that is the goal of any artistic endeavour and this is something photographer Andy Gotts excels at.

In my mind evoking mood, character, atmosphere, meaning or narrative with a still photograph is indelibly tied into the ideal that the composition of each scene or frame of motion picture says something. And for me is just as important as narrative, plot or performances. Andy Gotts is internationally recognised as the man able to capture the essence or personality behind the face he photographs and if you are familiar with any of my photography you may appreciate that I am a fan of Gotts's work.
If you are an avid reader you may remember I mentioned Gotts in a post last year as some of his rousing work was on display at the Mount Street Gallery when I visited artist Tony Dykes's 007 Project Bond Exhibition. So you can probably guage my delight at cracking an invite to go along and see Andy Gotts's work up close.

Andy Gotts BAFTA Behind The Mask

To honour the 50 anniversary of James Bond and the release of Sam Mendes’s rather good Skyfall in cinemas this Friday 26 October we have decided to create the ultimate James Bond guide to London showing you things to see and do before settling in to see Skyfall. Our review of Skyfall can be found here!

048 or 3 of 50 on The Establishing Shot’s ULTIMATE JAMES BOND GUIDE TO LONDON OR 50 PLACES TO VISIT BEFORE SEEING SKYFALL is is visiting The Mount Street Galleries to see The 007 Project Bond Exhibition and possibly purchase a piece of James Bond history.

048. Leaving Scott’s after a late lunch across the road, by sheer serendipity I managed to get an exclusive preview and personal tour of The 007 Project Bond Exhibition from Mount Street Galleries owner and damn decent chap Damian Delahunty ahead of it’s secret star studded preview later that evening.

The Establishing Shot: THE 007 PROJECT - EVERYTHING OR NOTHING - 50 YEARS OF JAMES BOND EXHIBITION AT MOUNT STREET GALLERIES by Craig Grobler

The Establishing Shot: THE 007 PROJECT - EVERYTHING OR NOTHING - 50 YEARS OF JAMES BOND EXHIBITION AT MOUNT STREET GALLERIES, a photo by Craig Grobler on Flickr.

Damian took me through the genesis of The 007 Project as well as showed me some of the rather catching pieces created by Artist James Hart Dyke that would grace any James Bond fans collection, a set of original James Bond posters, Bond photography by Andy Gotts, as well as two absolutely stunning pieces (so much so that one of them actually sparkled as an object of desire) by legendary Bond artist and illustrator Robert McGinnis.

To mark their Centenary Artist James Hart Dyke was invited by the Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, to create a record of their work in a series of paintings and sketches. This unique project saw James working closely with MI6 for a year, both in the UK and embedded with military abroad. The resulting exhibition A Year with MI6 was exhibited at Mount Street Galleries in 2011. To view Dyke's MI6 collection online visit his site here: http://www.jameshartdyke.com/James_Hart_Dyke_official_website/A_year_with_MI6.html

A Year with MI6 was very successful and received both critical acclaim and wide spread international coverage which resulted in Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson at EON hearing about James, we gave them a private viewing of a few select pieces from James’s show about 2 or 3 months ago.

The idea was that James looked back at the older Bond films poster and we really loved them - they are works of art like Dr No and You Only Live Twice and we felt that there was a lack of art in James Bond movie posters. James proposed to a similar design to this -