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About Myself:  Raymond Julian-Huxley 

 

I was born in London on December the 2nd, 1942, and like to be referred to as Julian. I have been a photographer since the age of seven and have worked with virtually every film format. I'm a very private person and work alone. I do not consider myself to be a photographer but a pictorialist (I consider myself a failed painter and believe that I paint with light). I am also a contemporary secessionist like the American photography movement. I hope my pictures contain a story or intrigue the viewer to perform their own interpretations. There is a lot of abstraction and a very personal vision of the city of London that I live in. I mostly prefer to work in the portrait form and occasionally use the landscape form. Being of a mature age, I prefer to travel as light as possible; I'm currently using a GH5 camera.  All the pictures on this website are made with a Leica 50 mm 1.4 Summilux  lens , but from page 35 onwards all pictures will be made with a Leica 24 mm to 120 mm Elmarit lens.

 

I'm passionate about studying the weather on any day that I go out taking pictures (I do not like plain skies). All elements in my pictures exist as where I took them. All clouds are the real thing. There are no Photoshop tricks apart from the usual processing techniques. In fact, I do not use Photoshop. I use a system called ACDSEE, which I find to be an exceptional processing tool. It is also worth noting that I only ever use natural light and have an extreme dislike of studio setups. I also think flash is an abomination.

 

Viewers of my work may be surprised that all my pictures are taken using JPG. I personally consider RAW to be an absolute myth. I approach photography as I would have done in the film days — get it right first time in the camera. I pay a lot of attention to getting the exposures absolutely spot on. All that is left then is to fine tune them in post-production. I think people use RAW as an insurance to patch up their mistakes. I think the proof is in the pudding. 

 

​This website shows a very minor selection of the many pictures that I have taken.   

 

My influences are very much the cinema — mainly the great classic black and white films from the very early silent era up to about 1970. I consider most of the films made today to be of little influence or interest. My absolute influence (because of its extreme depth of field) is Citizen Kane, which was photographed by the genius cinematographer, Gregg Toland.

 

I love the black and white film noir of the 30s and 40s. Directors of the likes of Orson Welles, Billy Wilder, Ingmar Bergman, Alain Resnais, Robert Bresson, Louis Malle, F.W Murnau, Powell and Pressburger, Jean Cocteau, Frank Capra, Sergei Eizenshtein, Fritz Lang, David Lean (but only his early black-and-white and early technicolour films, for example, This Happy Breed) and many, many more. 

 

There is of course our own British film director [ Alfred Hitchcock ]

who was absolutlutely superb at all the aspects of film technique that also drive my own visual perseption 

 

When I was a very young boy (at about the age of 7), I used to go to Saturday Morning Pictures (as it was called) to my local cinema, and the admittance was about 6 old pennies. For two hours or so, I would be glued to the screen watching, as appears today, astrocious American films, which had terrible cliff hangers that you had to wait for next week's to see what happened. Having seen so much of this at a young age, I was deeply hooked on cinema. As I got a bit older, and remember these were different times, I would go alone for one and a half pence on the bus in the evening to see proper adult feature movies. As time went by, I so much wanted to watch the more mature 'A' movies, which could only be viewed if accompanied by an adult. Since there was just my mother and me, and she was not interested in going with me, I would stand outside the cinema when an 'A' movie was showing until I saw a nice looking couple of adults and asked if they would take me in and I'd hand them my money. On many occasions, they refused to take my money and paid for my entrance. On one occasion when I did this at the odeon, a young couple I asked to take me in had accepted but refused my money, and thereafter, for a whole year, I met them every week at the same time and they paid for my admittance. After one year, they said they are no longer going to the cinema, as they are saving for a deposit on a house. So, that was the end of that! I did continue to find people to take me in (it could be up to 5 films a week at different cinemas) until I reached the age allowed. I always had aspirations in my head to become a film director, but it was never to be. However, I felt I reached a kind of directorship with my photography, because having learnt of the studio system and its idosyncratic ways, I am completely in charge — I am the writer, the continuity, art director, editor, lighting cameraman, and finally... I always have control of the final cut! 

 

I'm also highly influenced by the pre-raphaelite brotherhood of painters. I love the colour work of the painter, Howard Hodgkin. And the ultimate Victorian pictorialist painter, John Atkinson Grimshaw.

 

Music plays a huge part in my life. When working in post-production ('The Virtual Darkroom') music is in the background to help inspiration. I see most music formulation in terms of colour. An example would be Shostakovich, which would be the colour red. Some of the music that has the biggest range of colours would be the jazz of Duke Ellington and especially Miles Davis who both excel in colour ranges. In the classical area, three little known composers are Alfred Schnittke and Allan Pettersson and George Benjamin who excel in the most incredible ranges of tonal colour asthetics . And of course I have no place for superficial popular music. Most of my music influences would range from virtually all Russian composers, except Tchaikovsky ( who I Ioathe and consider a minor composer of very little inspirational value ). In the German or Austrian area, there are the likes of Bruckner, Bartok, , Anton Webern, Schoenberg, Brahms, etc. also Italy’s Giacomo Puccini ) film scores are also important the best of the film composers was Bernard Herrmann , todays so called film compossers are a bad bunch and should look to the old guys to see how it should be done !!

                          

    A few other composers that influence my eye for image making

                                =================================================

 

LUTEOSLAWSKI / MARTIU / PENDERECKI / SCRIABIN / PROKOFIEV /

 

SATIE / POULENC / HINDEMITH / STRAVINSKY / ARVO PART / VARESE

                   

BENJAMIN BRITTEN / TAKEMITSU / VILA-LOBOS /

 

KORNGOLD / FRANK BRIDGE / VAUGHAN WILLIAMS / E.T.C

 

My working methods are a distinct attention to deportment. This is in respect how an opera singer must never screw up the high notes or a ballet dancer fallin g off point. This just must never happen. So, full attention to all details must be complied with, because the moment is so short.  

 

I am also a passionate printer of my own work. I have spent many years refining my printing system. At this stage, I'm now satisfied with the quality levels I am getting. It's all about using very high quality photo paper and a modifide by myself state of the art printer. All of my work is printed and is slowly piling up towards the ceiling. 

 

I'm a very technical person and I build and refine all my own equipment. Although my photographs are technically involved, I do not wish them to be viewed as a technical exercise. They hopefully should be enjoyed for their visual literacy. 

 

Over the years, I have perfected a technique of presetting the camera and shooting from the hip. I never use a view finder — only the articulated screen on the GH5. It's very much like the icononic twins lens rolleiflex camera, which was very revered by the photographer Cecil Beaton, and when using this method, you're able to have the advantage of having so many compositional values. I'm always aware that one must not intimidate a living person, and wherever possibile, try and use the candid method. 

 

And, finally, remember... cameras don't take pictures; photographers do!

 

Oh, and when asked which picture is my favourite, I always reply, "The next one!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copy of P1022035best copy.JPG

              © RJ-H self portrait

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