Major Practical Project - Colin Gray

Colin Gray describes himself as a "commercial and fine art photographer", his largest, and most personal project being 'The Parents'. Here follows his statement about the project:

"The Parents series started in 1980 when I moved to London. I felt alienated and, perhaps, memories of the isolation I had felt when I was younger began to surface. On the few occasions I went back to Hull, I borrowed a Hasselblad from the photographer I assisted. I felt comfortable with the camera’s square format, perhaps harking back to my Dad’s box Brownie. I now felt the work with my parents was becoming a serious project. The early pictures were looking at my relationship with my parents and their relationship with each other, often expressed in a humorous way. Many of the images involved enactments of a memory or fantasy, interwoven with past events, domestic rituals, and the encroachment of old age."

For me, I don't particularly relate to his more staged images, but the ones that are just simple documents of his parents' lives act as inspiration for my own, similar project. 

'Plug 1983' ©Colin Gray

'Nic Nacs 1987' ©Colin Gray

'Cue To Snooze 1987' ©Colin Gray

 Although most of his images are comical, these are 3 examples of easily relateable situations or objects. There is a kind of humorous stereotype of the father figure in the family falling asleep in front of the TV on a sunday evening. For the most part, his photographs branch away from the majority that I have looked at, purely because they do actually contain people - they are portraits in the traditional sense. They also have that kind of yellowy-orange glow or cast that I have come to expect with old family photos. It was actually something I noticed about being back at home recently; that I associate positive, homely feelings with that orange-tinted lighting. 
Personally, I don't want to try too hard to make my images humorous. However, even in these examples that aren't staged with humour in mind, they do play up to those kind of mildly amusing british stereotypes of how children view their parents - collectors of random nik naks perhaps, being very settled in their ways and routines. Although I know these are down to opinion and upbringing, it might be interesting to see how my family fits into these stereotypes. What I also acknowledge in Gray's work is the way of making images seem nostalgic, even if they are newly shot. It had never occurred to me to use anything other than natural, available light. However, I might be worth looking at old photographs I do feel nostalgic about and seeing if it would be possible to recreate that effect using more modern techniques.

http://www.colingray.net/