Mr. Jackson, 1974. © John Myers
British artist John Myers first took up photography in 1972 when he began creating portraits of local residents in the town of Stourbridge in the West Midlands. Using a 5 x 4 Gandolfi plate camera, Myers made a series of photographs that combine the classic archetypical studies of August Sander and the quirky psychological profiles of Diane Arbus.
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Although a selection of the works were exhibited in London at the time and published in British Image 1 (1974) – the first landmark publication from the Arts Council – most of the photographs had never been printed until now. With the release of The Portraits (RRB Photo Books), Myers returned to his archive to unearth a selection of work made throughout the 1970s.
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“In the early ’70s in England, there were very few photography books available,” Myers recalls. “My main interest and influence was August Sander and Diane Arbus. What’s striking about Arbus’ photographs is that you can’t get away from the figure. They are not composed in any composition sense; they are in a box and they intrude on your space. There’s nowhere to hide. Arbus developed this notion of the figure in space from August Sander.”
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Nicola and Donny Osmond, 1973. © John Myers