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Carla Borel (born 1973) is a French-British photographer. She has made portraits and black and white street photographs in Soho, London.
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Carla Borel (born 1973) is a French-British photographer. She has made portraits and black and white street photographs in Soho, London.
Borel was born in Paris and raised in Southwick, Hampshire and Las Vegas. Her mother was a Las Vegas showgirl and appeared in Diamonds Are Forever. Her father worked at the Moulin Rouge in Paris, [1] and encouraged her to keep a diary. [2] Borel first worked in London as a croupier in casinos when she began recording the people around her with a Pentax SLR camera. [3]
She was working as bartender at The French House in Soho when she started documenting Soho life with her camera and also organising artists' projects there. These included exhibitions with Paul Gorman,[ citation needed ] Neal Fox of Le Gun, [4] and the first series of John Claridge's Soho Faces, the photography sessions for which Borel organised and were held in an upstairs room at The French House.[ citation needed ]
Borel shot her Stillsoho series using black and white film over a 15-year period. [3] The portraits depicted artists, writers, flâneurs, friends and lovers and the people and landscape of a disappearing London, such as The Colony Room Club and its members. [5] [6] Citing John Deakin and Ida Kar as influences, Borel said of the series: "I was trying to document a new generation of Sohoites." [3] Harper's Bazaar devoted a feature to the series, [7] and they also appeared in The Guardian, [8] The Daily Telegraph [9] and in German photography magazine Schwarzweiss, which focussed on the strong sense of nostalgia captured in Stillsoho. [6]
The Animals Were Beautiful (2016) were portraits of strangers travelling on the London Underground. Borel discreetly used an iPhone camera. In 2016 they were exhibited at the Royal Photographic Society's Magic Gallery, [10] one of which was included in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition group show. [11] The title came from a video of Bruce Davidson discussing his Subway project in which he said the series happened in New York because he "didn’t need to go to the Serengeti plains, the animals were right here and they were beautiful". [10]
Homme Libre (2017) was a set of candid portraits of men, in which Borel explored identity, community and ideas of masculinity as seen from a female perspective, and the degree of her own intimacy with the subjects. [12] The title is taken from a Baudelaire poem, L'Homme et la Mer, in Les Fleurs du Mal. All the subjects wore a t-shirt bearing the first line from the poem: "Homme libre, toujours tu chériras la mer!". [13] Notable subjects included Neil Bartlett and Adnan Sarwar. Borel published a photo zine of the prints, which were exhibited at A22 Gallery in London. [1]
Borel had a regular slot in the photography journal, F22, interviewing and photographing artists. Her portraits have been published in Vogue (Germany) and L'Uomo Vogue .
In 2018, Borel was one of the photographers, with her portrait of Louise Haigh MP included in the Women Exhibition at Portcullis House [14] – portraits of female MPs, all photographed by female photographers. The exhibition opened on 14 December, to mark the centenary of the date that some women over 30 and all men over 21 were able to cast their first vote, as part of a year-long series of events and exhibitions commemorating the women and men who fought to achieve electoral equality.
Norman Parkinson was an English portrait and fashion photographer. His work revolutionised British fashion photography, as he moved his subjects out of the studio and used outdoor settings. While serving as a Royal Air Force photographer in World War II, he started with Vogue magazine, discovering several famous models. He became an official royal photographer in 1969, taking photographs for Princess Anne's 19th birthday and the Investiture portrait of Charles III as Prince of Wales. Many other royal portraits included official portraits of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother for her 75th birthday. He was known for using elements of humour in his photographs. Parkinson received many honours during his life including the Royal Photographic Society's Progress Medal, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the American Society of Magazine Photographers, a Google Doodle, and a British postage stamp.
Mario Eduardo Testino Silva OBE HonFRPS is a Peruvian fashion and portrait photographer.
The Colony Room Club was a private members' drinking club at 41 Dean Street, Soho, London. It was founded and presided over by Muriel Belcher from its inception in 1948 until her death in 1979.
Zhang Jingna is a Chinese-born Singaporean photographer widely known as "zemotion." Her works have appeared on multiple editions of Vogue, Elle and Harper's Bazaar. She was named on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list 2018.
Ida Kar was a photographer active mainly in London after 1945. She took many black-and-white portraits of artists and writers. Her solo show of photographs at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1960 was the first of its kind to be held in a major public gallery in London. Kar thus made a significant contribution to the recognition of photography as a form of fine art.
Maciej Dakowicz is a Polish street photographer, photojournalist and gallerist. He is from Białystok in North East Poland. Dakowicz is best known for his series of photographs of Cardiff night-life titled Cardiff after Dark. He and others set up and ran Third Floor Gallery in Cardiff and he was a member of the In-Public street photography collective.
Lida Moser was an American-born photographer and author, with a career that spanned more than six decades, before retiring in her 90s. She was known for her photojournalism and street photography as a member of both the Photo League and the New York School. Her portfolio includes black and white commercial, portrait, landscape, experimental, abstract, and documentary photography, with her work continuing to have an impact.
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Val Williams is a British curator and author who has become an authority on British photography. She is the Professor of the History and Culture of Photography at the London College of Communication, part of the University of the Arts London, and was formerly the Curator of Exhibitions and Collections at the Hasselblad Center.
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John Claridge is a British photographer, known for his work in advertising, black and white portraits in Soho and street photographs in the East End of London.
R. J. Kern is an American artist, known for his photographs exploring identity, culture, and philosophical questions about nature and heritage through the interaction of people, animals and landscape. His work has been exhibited throughout the United States and in Canada, China, England, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Japan and Norway, at venues including the National Portrait Gallery, London, Rourke Art Museum, Museum of Modern Art Tbilisi, and Yixian International Photography Festival among many. Kern has received awards and recognition from the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize, the photography non-profit CENTER, and the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, and was chosen one of PDN's "30 New and Emerging Photographers" in 2018.
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Solmaz Daryani is an Iranian Azeri photographer and visual artist based in the UK and Iran. Her work is particularly known for exploring the themes of climate security, climate change, water crisis, the human identity and environment in the Middle East. Daryani is a member of Women Photograph and Diversify Photo.
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