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| Tony Ray-Jones's tips on how to be a good photographer |
I have been meaning to write about a pre-Christmas visit I made to the best photography exhibition I have seen in a long time.
'Only in England' displayed the work of Martin Parr and the late Tony Ray-Jones and it was the first exhibition to be held in the Science Museum's new Media Space.
I wrote about the pair's work on this site on September 22 after The Guardian featured the exhibition in its pages. So there is no need to repeat those thoughts.
But it is worth explaining what made this show so special.
First, there was Ray-Jones' wonderful eye for detail and his ability to tell several stories in one complex image. One shot immediately comes to mind of an outdoor cafe at Windsor Horse Show in 1967. The eye is immediately drawn to a man, legs bent, about to sit down at a table alongside a slightly shifty-looking gentleman wearing a trilby and sunglasses and sporting a jacket and tie. Meanwhile a dappled grey pony walks between them and the counter, followed two yards behind by a little Jack Russell terrier. The lady behind the counter carries on brewing tea as if the scene before her is the most 'normal' imaginable.
