#5imag016

The essay question I want to answer is an adaptation of one we were given, as it is more tailored to the research I have done for the presentation, and themes I’m interested in. I have changed the question to:

Choose an image (exhibition or body of work) and discuss it from the viewpoint of queer theory.

My essay will focus on the Shot in Soho exhibition, displaying themes of queer sexual relationships and nightlife with reference to Clancy Gebler Davies work around the Colony Room Club and the video work in the Exhibition by (Forgotten Artist). 

The group presentation went better than I thought. After a struggle to find something that we all wanted to present about, the outcome felt rushed and unbalanced. We were presenting about Queer Theory and it’s representation as a theme in Shot in Soho with links to Historical Context of Soho also. My part of the presentation was the History of Soho as a queer space and the introduction of the Shot In Soho Exhibition. This is something I am focusing my essay on, so it made sense for me to put all my effort into the research for this part. 

I struggled with working with my group, because we all had contrasting opinions on what we were going to do and there were varying levels of effort going into 1) choosing a topic and 2) doing the work. I did find myself worrying about the amount of effort being put in, which caused me to snap at members of my group a couple of times, however I feel that without this interaction then the progress wouldn't have been made. I reached a point with 10 days to go until the presentation, where I just started putting myself first with the work. This is because its my degree on the line, and the research I would be doing is going to go towards my essay also. 

That being said, I put a lot of effort into helping other members of the group with their parts, answering any questions they had or when they needed something to say.

Soho is an area of London that has always welcomed outsiders. Following WW2, there were over 500 Private Members Clubs based in and around Soho. The majority of these were owned and ran by the Jewish, Albanian and Maltese Mafia, often as safe places to run prostitution rings. Because of the Mafia’s presence, the police tended to stay away from the area. Because it was illegal to be seen in public actively looking for a same sex partner, the LGBT community took refuge in Soho, away from the Police’s glare. This really allowed Soho to thrive as a safe space for the LGBT

Soho is also home, and namesake, to the internationally known Private Members Club, Soho House. It was in one of the original locations, 41 Dean Street, that Muriel Belcher founded The Colony Room. She was given the first drinking licence that was extended through 3pm-11pm, where public houses were not allowed to serve after 2:30pm. Belcher opened the club in 1948, with the fate of the club being passed on to Ian Board in 1979 when she died. The club attracted artists, celebrities and expressive gay men. searching for a safe space to be themselves. Patrons were often bought in by Belcher’s Jamaican Girlfriend, Carmel Stuart.

On the last Saturday of November 2019, Soho House, with the help of Cain Jennings launched a new monthly party, ‘Club Muriel’. Jennings claimed he wanted to ‘pay homage to one of Soho’s original and best club and party hosts’. It takes place in the same venue as Belcher’s famous evenings with intention to educate a new generation about Soho’s queer history in the same style as the original evenings.

The Photographers Gallery is currently hosting an Exhibition called Shot in Soho, running fro 18th October to 9th February next year. It shows a number of famous photographers work, including William Klein, Corinne Day and Anders Peterson, as well as lesser known artists like Clancy Gebler Davies. The exhibition celebrates the diverse culture, community and creativity based in and around Soho, at a time of radical transformation and political uncertainty. The innovation of the Cross-Rail, a transport hub being built at Tottenham Court Road will invite thousands more people into Soho each day, which at risk could damage the open-mindedness of the area. 

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It is an area of London that has always welcomed outsiders. Following World War 2, there were over 500 Private Members Clubs based around Soho. These were home to a lot of illegal activity at the time. The Jewish, Albanian and Maltese Mafia all took salvation in Soho, and all ran these members clubs to house their Prostitution. Because of the presence of these very dangerous groups, Police tended to stay away from Soho. This allowed the LGBT community to be free within the area, as at this time it was illegal to be seen on the streets actively looking for a same sex partner. The lack of Police really allowed the area to thrive for both the Queer Community and for other people who don’t conform to normative ways of life. 

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Shot in Soho is an original exhibition held at the Photographers Gallery, running from 18th October 2019 to 9th February 2020. It celebrates Soho’s ‘diverse culture, community and creativity at a time when the area is facing radical transformation’. Soho has always been a safe space, a village of sorts, inside the centre of London. It is not only stomping ground for members of the LGBTQ+ community, but home to immigrants from Italy, China, Hungary and many more. 

The buzzing culture in the one square mile area is a muse for many creatives and artists, whether it is film or tv, art or photography, fashion or cabaret. Soho being the founding place of the ‘Soho House’ franchise, an exclusive members only creative hub, based now internationally. After starting in Soho, it has now creeped out to their namesakes, Shoreditch (House), Barcelona (House), and New York to name but a few. Soho must be something special, to house this much creative talent, and the names don’t stop there. This exhibition houses work from artists such as William Klein, Anders Peterson and Corinne Day. 

An overall evaluation of the Exhibition would use Queer Theory as a methodology to analyse the works as a whole. The theory notes a resistance to any of society's norms, with a large reference to heteronormativity. Where gay/lesbian studies analyses the explicit same-sex relationships, queer studies faces this and more. It also regards any sexual relation that doesn’t fit normative standards. The exhibition faces many of these topics, hookup culture, sex work and exclusive private members clubs to name a few. 

History can give whole new understanding to a photograph. An image could be of the simplest of things, a house, a street, a portrait, but as soon as you have historical context, it creates a whole new narrative, meaning and intention. Whether this narrative was intended to be told by the artist or not, the connotations suggested around historical context cannot be ignored. A good example of this was ‘rue de Maure’ by Eugene Atget (1908).

At a first glance, this image looks like a street. In fact, it is a street. The cobbled path leads round past a ‘Chaudronnerie’ French for Metal Fabrication. Two figures can be seen in the frame, one outside the building and one in a window in the first floor. Because of the French sign, the only context we are given is that the location could be in France. It be confidently suggested that it is a historical image, however it could have also easily been recreated using old technology. 

Around this time, Haussmann was recreating Paris, demolishing the old parts of the city, and rebuilding it to be the capital it is today. He planned to remove the old overcrowded back streets (like the one seen in the image) and replace them with wide paths, new parks, squares etc. This street (rue de Maure) can be found in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, a place that was once overcrowded. According to the French census, at its peak population in 1861, there were 108,520 people living in the area. This number has now significantly dropped to 28,192 in 2009, after decreasing every year since the initial census. 

It’s pretty obvious that art has changed over time. There have been too many movements to count, arguments over order, influence and pioneers of each artistic style. But these art movements and historical events have a large impact on the photographic world also. What painters are doing at the time, can mimic or differ completely from what photographers are doing. It would be naive to say that photographers and artists are separate beings, as a large majority of well known artists work in multiple mediums. Therefore, a knowledge of what is happening in art must have an influence over photographic style. 

Jeff Wall, for example, when you look at their work there are clear references to art, even if you don’t have an extensive knowledge of art history and movements. His photograph ‘A sudden gust of wind’ (1993) mimics the work from Hokusai, with the graceful composition of floating papers, the vast landscape and event the posture of the people and tree in the foreground. 

[Above] A Sudden Gust of Wind (After Hokusai), Jeff Wall (1993)

[Below] Travellers Caught in a Sudden Gust of Wind, Hokusai (1832)

Jeff Wall is a photographer that took art as a significant reference for his work frequently. It can also be seen in his image ‘Picture for Women’ from 1979. It references Manet’s painting ‘A bar at the Folies-Bergère’, which has many significant references to the class system within society in the 19th Century, and the role of women at the time also. Wall’s image can be methodised using Art theory, with obvious reference to Manet’s painting, but also can be analysed using a feminist theory or gender theory, as he begs the viewer to re-analyse the way women are seen within art. By taking a historical painting and recreating it in a contemporary setting, it asks for the viewer to create comparisons between the two. 

[Above] Picture for Women, Jeff Wall (1979)

[Below] A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, Édouard Manet (1882)