Posted by Foto Care | Posted in Photo Exhibits in NYC, Photography Books
Posted on September 30, 2011
Photographer Iain McKell offers an extraordinary and breathtakingly beautiful glimpse into the lives of a real and raw group of present-day nomads whose culture is built around ideals of freedom, nature, and simplicity. Historically despised, the new Gypsies are there by choice, not heritage. Unrelated to the Roma (an ethnic group with origins in India who live primarily in Central and Eastern Europe), the movement began in 1986 when a group of Post-Punk Anti-Thatcher protesters headed out of London into the English countryside. (Source: Amazon). Catch the New York Exhibition while you can!
The New Gypsies Exhibition
Clic Gallery, NYC
24 Broome Street New York, NY 10013
August 29 – October 2, 2011
From Clic’s press release we learn: Fashion and social documentary photographer, Iain McKell tracked and befriended a ‘small tribe’ of New Gypsies for over ten years. But it is 25 years since he took his first series of photographs of the travelers from which they evolved.
The Summer Solstice in 1985 witnessed the new phenomenon of New Age Travelers in the ‘Peace Convoy’, double-decker buses ‘with Dickensian characters sporting battered top-hats and Victorian frock-coats’ – ‘gangs of urban subcultures let loose in a rural setting’. Margaret Thatcher sent police to ‘de-commission’ their convoys.
From those beginnings have evolved the New Gypsies. Now ‘horse-drawn’, the New Gypsies sport elaborately decorated caravans and share a desire for freedom and the open road, self-reliance and a disdain for the trappings of contemporary life. However, these new nomads are also driven by their desire for sustainability in today’s world; they embrace technology, a grapevine watered by the latest gadgets and solar power. Their roaming existence is probably greener than any other element in society.
Iain McKell’s photographs of this new group of itinerants reveal his deep-seated attraction to both the people and the lifestyle, and betray mixed perceptions of a romantic life coupled with a hard one. The women exude a ragged glamour; the male subjects have a harder edge. But every photo is permeated with a wistfulness and sense of being a proud outsider.
The journeys of the New Gypsies are built around a yearly map of festivals and celebrations and much of their time is spent poring over Ordnance Survey maps. McKell’s photographs map the seasons of the horse-drawn travelers’ lives – from primeval celebrations of summer to the interiorized life of wintertime. His portraits often seem like a character from some ancient mystery play, symbolic of a careless purity and oneness with their natural surroundings. (Source: Clic Gallery Press Release)
With sensitivity and honesty he captures a way of life that seems at once romantic, strange, beautiful and simple. The result is a deeply insightful portrayal of a culture that eschews the traditional creature comforts of urban life in favor of the simplicity and freedom of the natural world.
The Book / Click here to Order:
About the Artist / Author
Iain McKell is an international photographer whose work has appeared in numerous advertisements and major publications. Born in Dorset England, School Clifton Collage, Studied graphic design at Exeter Collage of Art 1974-79 before moving to London in 1980.
Iain has contributed to Tha Face, i-D, Italian Lei, The Observer, Sunday Times, Inderpendent, WSJ, Telegraph, English Vogue, French Vogue, Italian Vogue, luomo Vogue, Cassa vogue, Zoo, Tank, Flair and V magazine. He has shot for Levis, Wranglers, JigSaw, Max&co, Red Stripe, Vladivar, Tia Maria, Mercedes Benz and at present agency favourite shooting for Diesel international campaign.
All Photos © Iain McKell
