November 2008

Legal London

Even after working in the Fleet Street area of London for over 15 years, guide Andrew Davies still managed to spring surprises on me and a group of Farnham DFAS members during our guided tour of Legal London.

Did I know that the Embankment where I had enjoyed many a picnic lunch was reclaimed from the Thames by the Victorians? Er – no. Was anyone aware that those same clever Victorians had used the extra space to lay down drains and the beginning of the Underground system? Er – no.  And so it went on.

Temple Station was pretty and flat-topped so that it would not spoil the view of the Duke who lived behind it; the 24 steps of Essex Steps and the soaring arch above it allowed the eponymous Earl to have private access to his own barge - then a mode of transport as common as cars in today’s world. All around us was evidence that this was the centre of Elizabethan society with streets and alleys named after sundry Lords, Dukes and Earls.

Darting down narrow alleys, we found ourselves in pretty gardens and enjoying the spacious squares that make up Inner and Middle Temples and Lincolns Inn. Temple because this is where the Templars had their English base until their allegiance to the Pope became unpalatable to the ruling Protestants and they had to go. We learned to recognise the symbols on the drainpipes designating the Temple we were in and marvelled at the silence, not to mention the almost seamless marriage of architecture spanning the centuries from the 16th to the 20th.

We gazed in the windows of the shop which makes the wigs and gowns of the judiciary and giggled at the bright green metal urinal erected by the Victorians and closed by the Elf ’n’ Safety brigade.  We were awestruck by the rebuild of St. Clement Danes after being gutted in WW2 and touched by the chair in honour Sir Archibald MacIndoe featuring a flying guinea pig.

After lunch in what had once been a branch of the Bank of England no less, we made our way to the Law Courts where we entered some of the tiny book-lined courts to witness what was going on in the world of litigation. Not a lot in the way of excitement was the general impression.

Finally, a stroll down Fleet Street into the Strand  to Somerset House, where they were already in the throes of preparing the famous skating rink, and thence to the terrace at the back which had been closed due to vandalism until recently since 1870 – that’s right: 1870.

At the end of it all, the image which remained strongest was the bust of a judge (I think) in the Law Courts, which was made entirely of wire coat hangers!

Our thanks to Jeanne Stow, who organised the trip, and to driver Ray, who negotiated major traffic jams with aplomb.

Copy by Vicky Jackson
Photos by Nick Houston

Photography as Fine Art

The Farnham Decorative and Fine Arts Society met on Tuesday November 18th at the Maltings to hear a lecture given by photographer Mr. Brian Stater.

The Chairman, Mr Peter Duffy, announced that the visit to Tyntesfield next year would be on May 26th 2009. Bookings can be made at the March meeting. He also reminded members that the next study day ‘The Renaissance Portrait’ would be on November 26th.

Mr Duffy then welcomed Mr Brian Stater, who is a lecturer at UCL Bartlett School of Architecture and a keen photographer. His talk was entitled ‘Photography as Fine Art’.

We are all exposed to photographs every day in the media and in our own use of cameras. Mr. Stater posed the Question “Should we accept that the very best photographs can be regarded as Fine Art?” He went on to show that photography could equal and possibly exceed the more traditional disciplines in the key genres of portraiture, landscape and still life. These arguments were illustrated and discussed with reference to the work of some of the acknowledged masters of photography going back to 1840. Images produced by the camera can be more spontaneous and atmospheric than paintings, particularly those produced in black and white. They can be altered to perfection in the darkroom and now on computers.

Among the pictures that Mr. Stater showed were pictures of landscapes, which contained messages of the fragility of life against the magnificence of nature and a picture of Wall Street where the buildings dwarfed the people below in a scene reminiscent of L.S.Lowry. Some black and white photographs of cities echoed the Impressionist style and a coloured one of the Vietnam War had the style of a Renaissance painting while at the same time recording the action. As well as still life studies, which showed the beauty of everyday things in a certain light and the pristine perfection of a maple leaf, Mr. Stater showed pictures captured as a narrative of events. St. Paul’s in the Blitz and the tanks in Tiananmen Square were recorded in unforgettable images, which are works of art. Portraits can be more natural captured on camera, as they are more spontaneous. A study of a mother and child in Africa illustrated this with the mother’s hand cradling the child’s head as her fingers reflected the little ribs of the child. This was a work of art, which contained a stark message. Another stunning picture was of a man leaping into a puddle, taken as his foot met his reflection. Was this a message of hope that the puddle was not deep?

Mr. Stater quoted Longfellow saying “Nature is a revelation of God; Art is a revelation of Man” and showed that photography is Fine Art as it illustrates life and the wonders around us in beautiful and memorable images.