Comments on: John Claridge’s Darker Side

By: David Edmunds

David Edmunds — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 14:14:23 +0000

Noir is the genre of John’s work but out of the darkness comes light.

By: Dave Dye

Dave Dye — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 09:54:40 +0000

Fascinating.

When is the next episode due?

By: Len Weinreich

Len Weinreich — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 09:10:41 +0000

Marvellous images, very sinister.

I was intending to say ‘Moody’, except that I have your sublime portrait of James standing right by my record collection and I didn’t want to confuse.

Someone once asked Anna Pavlova what she thought about when she danced. She replied: ‘if I could tell you, I wouldn’t have to dance’. Snap.

Best to you both.

By: john edwards

john edwards — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 09:51:01 +0000

Ah! Tottenham Royal, Orchid [ did they know it means bollocks? [latin]] Purley. Jive – zoot suits, slim jim’s, woven suede crepe soles. Band only allowed to play ONE ‘ Be-Bop ‘ number in the evening – Ours was ‘Lemon Drop’ – Dizzy Gillespie – Aah Bop Booodly Be Da – Earl Bostic, Sarah Vaughn [In yer dreams kid & she was] Stan Kenton band … The razors on the racecourse – all taped up but the top eighth inch the bookies making off with the bag in haste … The ‘Malts’ in charge of prostitution through Soho to Bayswater. Pals of mine off the fairs Don Brute & Johnny Angel, Don had the brass tap while Johnny carried a shard of broken saucer – just in case. The other one was the flat cap with razor blades around the brim. This way before Odd Job or anything else Q dream’t up for Bond.
As we didn’t have that serpent in Eden – Television, may it burn in hell, it was all very direct experience. The Saturday dressing ritual, sacrosant … The amazing D.A’s [Ducks Arse] & Boston
[ Tony Curtis] at the hair ‘saloon’ … ‘ Anything for the weekend, Spunky’? Forever checking it with the comb at the ready. Local Bad Boys , ‘Piggy’ Frimley & ‘Billy The Yid’ … The Giant Lanegan cutting through to the bar with ‘Hoppy’ a near dwarf market trader coiffed and dressed to the nines on his
bulging arm, as Hoppy beat the heads below with his [small] wooden leg. When Lanegan had set Hoppy on the long bar he would turn with a deep dark stare, pump up his biceps and split! the seams
of his shirt …….. Whap! Follow that … Zip Guns? Don’t leave home without it. Nobby near killed three of us at start of typo class as his went of and mashed a corner of the blackboard. Sorry he said,
didn’t know it was going to do that. I notice the shotgun is a nasty cheap Belgian or Italian pump
action … Mind though we did store a lovely little skeleton stock .22 that broke down to little parts
of innocuous metal, plus a more serious item – for a [dear] friend of ours, while he was applying for HMSS, later became a watercolour artist of great quality. This was sometime later when we woke up in the early 60’s. I swapped my Pentax for a Leica 3A Sonnar lens on a Cook & Perkins graphite mount …. what a beauty … low light soft blacks with laser definition …. You know – What larks Pip
old Chap … Mudlarks on the foreshore low tide of time gone by and ever sharp present. the one of the Caddy is genius …… Filth had Wolseley’s and Snipes – with a bell on top …. Liverpool wit ‘ Why are cops like banana’s?’ ‘ ‘Coz they’re yellow, bent & hang round in bunches’ – Well some of them were all of that pinpoint comment – Not any more thank God … we’re civilized now….. still have to stay sharp …. Very nice JC – Best of Times – not Worst of Times – Sense of vitality & clear identity then.
Good feeling to recall – Mono Clarity in the age of Surround Sound. Most refreshing.

By: John in Paris.

John in Paris. — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 13:24:56 +0000

One can only comment on the talent of JC on making these images of some”naughty” objects look stunning!

By: sprite

sprite — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 17:52:20 +0000

gang warfares
as rife as ever between
dividing postcodes
layers of old East End survive
hidden from gentrification

sprite

By: David Drakes

David Drakes — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 14:11:36 +0000

So now we know! . . . from the inheritance of the “Darker Side of the East End” and its associated “Objects of Affection” (which is which we sometimes have to ask ourselves!)
emerged a JC lens that portrayed an often austere but always inherently honest view of the world, be it his commercial work (a refusal to give in to saccharine commercial pressures) or his portrayal of the world at large in his editorial or published work (visit his website, http://www.johnclaridgephotographer.com to see for yourself or order one of his books)
. . . posted by “a middle class graduate” who, since the 1970s, unlike some unenlightened contemporaries, has long respected JC as a friend and multi-talented professional.

By: Gerry Coe

Gerry Coe — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 12:36:51 +0000

Only getting round to seeing these Pictures John. Powerful as always. Love the Razor image and the Pentax. My first serious camera was a Halina 35x bought second hand by my father for me. You must have a barn filled with memorabilia as you seem never to have thrown anything away. G

By: Steve Button

Steve Button — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 08:37:36 +0000

Another series of great photos John, postcards of cut and gutted eels – a winner!

By: simon meyrick-jones

simon meyrick-jones — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 21:52:46 +0000

Good thing they didn’t have metal detectors in those days… I love the wrong side of the tracks image.I was reading John’s comments about the making of real guns from toy guns and was thinking “Why in my day,children didn’t have access to gunpowder!” But then I remembered my own childhood and we were always unpicking shotgun cartridges to create explosive devices. I really like the ambivalence of the images-are they softened by time,or they as scarey as today’s images of gang culture are?

OK I’ll get my coat