I’ve just been selecting photographs from the following series: Paris (1970’s-1990’s), Egypt ( January-February 1989) and Periphery ( June-November 1991). Only “Periphery”, an assignment by the town of The Hague where I grew up on the eastern town border (autobiographical), was on my former website already, although the selection may be slightly different. The other two are new on the net. There’s more to come, e.g. gypsies, tattoo, jazz musicians, London, Barcelona and other cities… If you want to buy a personal favorite from these added or earlier photographs for your collection (reasonably priced signed gelatin silver prints 30×40 cm.), be welcome to email me. The 3 current series have been scanned and will be uploaded to my photosite www.tomstappers.com in the next few days, probably soon after Easter. Do visit, I think they’re interesting allright, and keep an eye on this blog. I will comment on my photography in several more posts to come!
Tom Stappers’ work in this exhibition represents the aesthetic reflex. The photographer looks at the outside world to see what all of us others no longer see, because we are a little tired and lead our lives absorbed by our own thoughts and sorrows. He rediscovers for us the visible reality and shows us how fascinating and disturbing, how beautiful it can be. To this end he uses an adequate aestheticising imagery which owes a lot to the adventure of modern art. We experience the same urban atmosphere. I’m not surprised to hear that Stappers is also a jazz photographer. The urban atmosphere – and in a way the atmosphere of the artistic live photography of the 1950’s and 1960’s with its graffiti and “la beauté du laid” [the beauty of ugliness].
(spoken introduction at Egypt exhibition, CC Hasselt, Belgium, by Karel van Deuren (1921-2006) ©1995) translation of this quote: TS.
I just got an email from Jeffrey Shurdut, who will perform tonight with the equally gifted Joe McPhee at The Stone, New York. He must have overlooked that I’m not “in town” so I won’t be able to make it I need not add, in spite of the invitation, but what a pity. I would love to photograph a jazz concert again after a long time, love to hold those sturdy Nikons, use the speedlights and the motordrives, feel the weight around my neck and count the exposed films in my pocket. The game of photography, as Garry Winogrand called it, offers a lot more than just pictures, it is the excitement, being a master of timing, the tactile, the response of mechanical high-end material and being involved in (or at least very close to) the action…