Tony Ray-Jones Video

This excellent video was linked on Twitter a while ago but i thought I'd mention it again on the blog because it is such a fascinating watch.

The film looks at the the superb photography Tony Ray-Jones produced for the journal Architectural Review in 1970. Instead of using the journal's staff photographers, leading photojournalists were used on a themed series called Manplan. Tony Ray-Jones worked on the issue that looked at housing.

I was greatly surprised to learn that Tony Ray-Jones was refused membership of Magnum twice - the second time after a poorly received submission of his Manplan photographs. One comes away from the film with the opinion that the failure was all Magnum's for not recognising such a fantastic photographic talent.

A good collection of Tony Ray-Jones weblinks can be found HERE

Best Selling Image

Some more prints sold this week and by quite some distance it's the speedway shot above that is my most popular image. It seems to appeal to a lot of people - probably bikers or motor sport fans... or both!

It was taken quite a few years ago now at a speedway meet in the West Midlands and I've always thought that this image nicely captures the energy of the sport - that sudden surge of power and speed as the motorbike rearing up as it leaps off the line at the start of the race. It's the raw ingredient of all motor sport.

It's one of my favourite shots too. You could get really close to the action (so close you could probably use an iPhone and fill the frame) and the epic levels of engine noise and bursts of speed from the bikes (with no brakes!) was enough the raise the hairs on your neck. The atmosphere was fantastic.

As for the camera, well the image was taken with a Nikon F3HP with a motordrive and a 50mm lens. The film was Ilford HP5 which added a grittier feel. More images from the speedway can be found HERE