#Richard Billingham

[joeinct]

Untitled, Photo © Richard Billingham, 1995

#richard billingham

[guy60660]

Richard Billingham | Mack

#moody #buddies #Richard Billingham #mack

[danlesac]

#richard billingham #ray’s a laugh

[tammmarind]

Richard Billingham Untitled (RAL 6), 1995. Fuji long-life colour print on aluminium. 

#art #photography #Richard Billingham #british #artist

[americantraffic]

#richard billingham #rays a laugh

[satelliteee-com]

Photo Art: The New World of Photography エリナ・ブラザウス、タシタ・ディーン、リュック・ドゥラヘイ、アレック・ソス、イェンス・ウルリッヒ、マイケル・ヴェズリーなど、写真の最前線にいる約120人の国際的アーティストの作品を、豊富な図版でわかりやすく紹介。短いエッセイで各アーティストを紹介し、4ページにわたって作品を掲載。写真家・コレクター・写真愛好家にとって、貴重で前向きな参考書。

ISBN-10: 0500287112, 13: 978-0500287118 p.520, 27.2 x 22 x 4.2 cm 2008/3/24

Photo Art: The New World of Photography

#Roy Arden #Olivo Barbieri #Yto Barrada #Valerie Belin #Zarina Bhimi #Richard Billingham #Bitter/Weber #Ruth Blees luxembur #Niels Blommers/Anuschka Schumm #Sonja Bras #Dirk Braeckman #Sergy BBratkov #Adam Broomberg/Oliver Chanarin #Elina Brotherus #Stefan Burger #Gerard Byrne #Claude Closky #Collectif_fact #Kelli Connell #Natalie Czech #Tacita Dean #Luc Delahaye #Charlotte Dumas #Lukas Einsele #Ruud van Empel #JH Engstrom #Roe Ethridge #Charles Freger #Yan Fudong #Stephen Gill

[littlebrownmushroom]

Recently received Ray's a Laugh by Richard Billingham

[riverbills]

RIVER BILLINGHAM ( JUSTICE SMITH ) is a TWENTY-EIGHT year-old SCREENWRITER in LOS ANGELES. They were brought under Richard’s care when they were only TWELVE. They are known as THE MELODRAMATIC because they are IDEALISTIC but also TEMPERAMENTAL. Let’s see what choice they make regarding the fate of Woodrow House

BASIC INFORMATION.

Full Name: Christopher River Billingham

Nickname(s): As a child he used to go by Christopher. He decided to start going by his middle name when he moved to Woodrow. River had always preferred his middle name to his first name. Christopher was too inconspicuous and boring. He decided that moving to a new place was the perfect time to reinvent himself (as much as you can reinvent yourself as an twelve year old). Plus, he associated his first name with his parents and didn't want anyone else to call him that.

Date of Birth: March 3rd 1977

Age: 28

Occupation: Screenwriter

Current Residence: Los Angeles, California

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE.

Hair: Right now River has a curly bleach blond close cropped fade. Please always picture Justice in Generation even when I'm using gifs from other projects x

Eyes: Brown

Height: 6ft1

Notable Features: Dimples and a cute wide smile but he won't be smiling very much through the course of this rp

PERSONALITY & BEHAVIOR:

Strengths: Inventive,spontaneous and compassionate

Weaknesses: Immature,credulous and scattered

Quirks: Frequently chews gum, talks with his hands, usually wears multiple bracelets which he plays with,regularly gasps de and used to chew pens tops when he used pens more often

Vices:River is a very pleasure seeking person so has dabbled in alcohol, nicotine and drugs at various points in his life. He was a regular smoker from the ages of 16-19 but he didn't like the lingering smell of cigarettes on his clothes so decided to fill the hole nic left with red bull.

INTEREST & HOBBIES:

Interests: Writing, fashion, the history of film & photography, literature and after he processed his parents deaths he got back into music.

Hobbies: River has cds but he stands by his tape collection. He doesn't go out as much as he used to in his early 20s but he still enjoys clubbing. He also enjoys rollerblading and painting

Special Skills/Talents: Depending on when you ask him River would either answer this question with “Whatever I put my mind to.” or “Nothing.” He's pretty good at writing and acting. He learned to play the drums as a child but stopped after his parents death. However, he started playing the drums again in his late teens. He has tried djing a couple of times and is quite good at that

BECOMING A WARD.

cws: lightly implied period typical racism and this is woodrow ward lore so parental death (this time with a slight twist on a motor accident)

When River was born his dad was the frontman of a popular psychedelic rock band. River’s birth and his parents long term mostly monogamous relationship was kept a secret from the press because it was safer and more beneficial for River's dad to act as a cool sexually available rockstar than admit to the public that the Black woman working as the bands public assistant was actually his wife. Even long after the band split up and River's dad had moved onto making weird but very of the time new wave music as a solo artist he kept River's existence a secret from the general public. This was so River could have an upbringing that was more luxurious than most people's but didn't involve his classmates asking about his dad or being pestered by the paparazzi. River’s upbringing was very sheltered and he still views his childhood as an idyllic time in his life. His primary caretaker was a nanny but at the time he didn't see this as a negative experience and he didn't feel emotionally neglected by his parents. It was an exciting treat every time they stayed with him for long periods of time. When he was twelve both of his parents went on the twentieth anniversary reunion tour for his dad's band's first album. There was a horrific tour bus crash in which both of his parents died. Even though the general public didn't know he existed, various rich people his parents met at charity events did (this includes Richard Woodrow). Forever the bleeding heart Richard offered to take in River. Both sets of River's grandparents agreed that there would be less chance of a scandal and word getting out about River existing if he lived at Richard's secluded New York Estate.

LIFE AS A WARD.

Unsurprisingly, River was very volatile when he first moved to Woodrow House. He was a sensitive pre-teen who was grieving his parents and had just moved to the other side of the country. He would snap at unexpected moments and cry for no particular reason. With the passage of time and the best therapy Richard could buy that behaviour eased up. However, he was still one of the more expressive wards. He would make his emotions known through his words and actions. He was probably a source of great annoyance for most of the wards. But I'm sure at least one of them found him to be fun, charming and loving. River enjoyed having lots of people around Woodrow as a teenager. He's a true extrovert and being around others reinvigorates him. Though growing up River often felt like a failure compared to some of the other wards because he wasn't an academic genius.

AESTHETIC .

River's sense of style is a lot more garish and informal than most of the other wards. He has a behind the scenes job in film and tv and lives in LA so he really can wear whatever he wants. He has a lot of loose fitting brightly coloured shirts. But he's still young and hot enough for the occasional tight tank top. He also has a lot of shorts of various colours and textures. He does not have many clothes that are weather appropriate for New York. River has one of his ears pierced so he often wear stud earrings or little hoops. He loves wearing multiple embroidered bracelets at once

EDUCATION.

River chose to go to the same private school other wards had/were attending. He wanted to prove that he was as good as they were despite not being a natural academic. Another reason River wanted to go to a real school was because he wanted to meet more people and have a social life outside of the other wards. While in school one of the writing exercises River enjoyed the most was screenwriting and he wanted to go back to California so that's why he applied for a BFA in film at Dodge.

EXTRACURRICULARS.

If it wasn't clear River was a very artistic and dramatic adolescent. He spent a lot of time painting and crafting in the art room. He also enjoyed creative writing. When he started private school he did drama and directed multiple productions. River wasn't interested in sports but decided to try to find some he enjoyed because he knew Richard thought sport was an important part of making the wards well rounded individuals. Plus, he was jealous of the cute little outfits other wards wore as sports uniforms. He played cricket for multiple years. He never fully understood the rules but knew he had to run after batting the ball and thought cricket whites looked chic. He also took up dressage because he thought there was something sweet about doing a sport where you need to connect to an animal and again he got to wear a fun outfit.

LIFE NOW.

River has been coasting through life since graduation. He decided to stay in LA to pursue screenwriting and because he's a west coast baby at heart. Two of his scripts have been made into movies but they weren't big Hollywood features. The movies he wrote were very low budget indie dramas that didn't make much money. The biggest fans of his films are probably people who found them at the Dollar Tree DVD basket. River mainly writes TV show episodes. His most steady source of income is a medical drama. His lifestyle hasn't changed much since his early 20s. He goes out to clubs to feel something and make meaningful fleeting connections. The only way he's more successful than most of the other wards is the fact he has a spacious house with a pool. He uses the fact his house was expensive to justify why he has 3 housemates (an actress who mainly works in tv, a mildly famous model and a director he met because she directed one of his scripts). He also has a cat called Saskia. He adopted her from a friend who couldn't look after her anymore after moving in with her boyfriend with cat hair allergies. River brought Saskia to Woodrow House with him because she’s a daddy's girl and would make everyone's lives miserable if he left her for weeks.

#wrhq.intro

[talesofsorrowandofruin]

The Great OC Alphabet Caper: Dazzle Edition

(Credit to @sleepyowlwrites for this idea)

For characters introduced in the other books, see these posts: The Unfortunate Moth • Silver Glass • Houses Full of Deceit • There Stands a Spectre • The Tempest and the Night

Now we're into the still-unwritten WIPs, so information about the characters is likely to change. Spoilers ahead!

Cecilia

Name: Cecilia Billingham

Age/Pronouns: 27(?), she/her

Brief physical description: None yet

Brief list of defining traits: Amateur actress, nurse-in-training, and murder suspect

Excerpt: None yet

Trivia:

Her first name is borrowed from a character in Five Little Pigs

She plays the title character in The Duchess of Malfi

Becomes a suspect because she had the opportunity to commit the murder, but no known motive

Jack

Name: John Courtenay

Age/Pronouns: 20s, he/him

Brief physical description: None yet

Brief list of defining traits: Amateur actor and director, archaeology student, and murder suspect

Excerpt: None yet

Trivia:

Played the Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance, which he also directed. Becomes a suspect because he wanted the award for best director, and Edward won it instead

He's named after two people I know in real life

Vasily

Name: Count Vasily Goncharovski (alias), Victor Wilkinson (real name)

Age/Pronouns: Mid 20s, he/him

Brief physical description: Black hair, brown eyes

Brief list of defining traits: Amateur actor, medical student, and the most likely murder suspect

Excerpt: None yet

Trivia:

He pretends to be a Polish count. He's really a half-Chinese American. His alias is both an in-joke and a clue that only Tumblr users are likely to spot: "Goncharovski" isn't a real Polish surname as far as I know (it's a real Russian surname), and Goncharov is a famously non-existent film

Why does he pick a Russian name instead of a real Polish one? In-universe, because he stole his alias from a random Russian, and it's not as if there are many Poles (or people familiar with Polish names) in China who'd be able to spot the difference. Out-of-universe, because I want to show he's a fraud from the start

Plays Bosola in The Duchess of Malfi

Edward's childhood friend. Edward is the only person who knows his real identity. He's trying to hide his real identity, so everyone assumes he killed Edward to stop him revealing it

Edward

Name: Edward Hannay

Age/Pronouns: Mid 20s, he/him

Brief physical description: None yet

Brief list of defining traits: Amateur actor and director, history student, murder victim. Secretly married to Wei Yang.

Excerpt: None yet

Trivia:

Plays Ferdinand in TDOM, which he also directs

His surname is a reference to Richard Hannay (hero of a series of thrillers by John Buchan)

The plot of TDOM foreshadows his fate: he's an innocent victim of someone who already had it out for him and hated him even more after learning about his secret marriage

Kiyoshi

Name: Kanayama Kiyoshi (金山 潔)

Age/Pronouns: Mid 20s, he/him

Brief physical description: None yet

Brief list of defining traits: Amateur actor, economics student, important witness

Excerpt: None yet

Trivia:

Plays the Cardinal in TDOM

Witnesses the murder, but doesn't realise what he saw until much later

Understands English better than he speaks it -- something the murderer should have considered before casually making incriminating remarks

His surname is a reference to retired Takarazuka actress Yuzuki Reon (whose real name is Kanayama Chie). His personal name is from a list of most common Japanese names in 1912 (the first time name trends were recorded). Kiyoshi would be around 35 in 1912, so this is a slight anachronism but hopefully not a glaring one

Wei Yang

Name: Meng Wei Yang (孟 未央)

Age/Pronouns: Mid 20s, she/her

Brief physical description: None yet

Brief list of defining traits: Secretly married to Edward. Convinced Victor/Vasily is the killer.

Excerpt: None yet

Trivia:

Her personal name comes from the title character of the TV series The Princess Wei Young ("Young" is a mis-transliteration of 央, "yāng". How did the title translator make that mistake? Your guess is as good as mine)

Her surname is borrowed from the actress Meng Zi Yi

Zhan

Name: Meng Zhan (孟 战)

Age/Pronouns: 30s, he/him

Brief physical description: I picture him as looking like Luo Yun Xi (this is either a screenshot from a drama I haven't seen, or part of a photoshoot):

Brief list of defining traits: Wei Yang's brother. Policeman assigned to the case. Becomes the Watson to Yo-han's Holmes. Spends most of the book suspecting all the wrong people.

Excerpt: None yet

Trivia:

His personal name is borrowed from Xiao Zhan

Otterbourne

Name: Simon Otterbourne

Age/Pronouns: 30s, he/him

Brief physical description: None yet

Brief list of defining traits: TDOM's producer. Constantly worrying about the budget. Becomes a suspect because he and Edward had a fight before the murder

Excerpt: None yet

Trivia:

He's named after two characters in Death on the Nile: Simon Doyle and Rosalie Otterbourne

Adding the general Case-files taglist: @akindofmagictoo, @sam-glade, @sarahlizziewrites, @oh-no-another-idea, @cljordan-imperium,

@mrbexwrites, @lightgriffinsect (Let me know if you want to be added/removed!)

#the great oc alphabet caper #writing #my writing #my characters #my WIPs #WIP: dazzle #the case files of seo yo han #nerissa rambles

[tenderlysharpmidain]

Myskoxemannen

🍸😱💪🐢🏆hyperrealistic outdoors action photography by Richard Billingham, Ursula von Rydingsvard, dale chihuly, Frank Frazetta, Pieter Aertsen, tokujin yoshioka, Joana Vasconcelos,Boris Vallejo, Nan Goldin, Jacob hashimoto, Anders Zorn, and Paul Fusco

midjourney

#midjourney

[woodrowhq]

"Welcome back, dear. It’s been too long since we’ve had the pleasure of your company."

Congratulations, you've been accepted as one of Richard's wards!

The Ambitious — Sama Ali ( Aiysha Hart ) played by Bree

The Charmer — Jacob Butcher ( Corteon Moore ) played by Tia

The Guardian — Alison Torres ( Melissa Barrera ) played by Sam

The Introverted — Naomi Kojima ( Anna Sawai ) played by Auddie

The Lookalike — Estrella Soto ( Jenna Ortega ) played by Pea

The Melodramatic — River Billingham ( Justice Smith ) played by Reu

The Mischievous — Reece Starling ( Rachel Sennott ) played by Gray

The Misunderstood — Reuben Sharpe ( Mike Faist ) played by Heidi

The Nostalgic — Mickey Jacquemin ( Ruby Cruz ) played by AJ

The Nurturer — Darcy Beaumont ( Elizabeth Lail ) played by Sushi

The Observer — Sebastian Son ( Lee Soohyuk ) played by Mini

The Perfectionist — Natalia Chen ( Havana Rose Liu ) played by D

The Protector — Angus Byrne ( Callum Turner ) played by Nie

The Rebel — Still available for applications.

The Scholar — Dominic Lepoult Serveille ( Jacob Anderson ) played by Mimz

The Tormented — Carmen Alvarez ( Adria Arjona ) played by Gina

"Now, before you settle in, there are a few things we need to go over." 

While you await the announcement for interactions to begin, kindly complete the checklist below.

Send in your account within 36 hours.

Follow your fellow wards.

Follow the Hub for starters and more.

Post your introduction ( outline provided here ). #wrhq.intro

Complete your first task. #wrhq.task

"If you need anything at all, don’t hesitate to ask. Now go on, settle in."

#wrhq.accepted #thank you so much to everyone who took the time to apply! <3

[in-the-red-notebook]

"Ray's a Laugh" - Richard Billingham

What should a photo book be? A container for work? A physical reproduction of a bunch successful images? Or a work unto itself, in the tradition of the artist’s book, where book is the final formal goal ? To me, Ray’s a Laugh offers a high-water-mark affirmation of the latter. The body of work in this book is greater than any one image, the edit and sequence is brilliant, and the book speaks and lives for itself in an astounding way, a self-contained parable in its own humble world.

The work in this book was made in Billingham’s parents’ apartment in a small town in England, and centers on his father’s shut-in alcoholic lifestyle and his relationship with Billingham’s doting, caring mother. It’s a complex portrait of the whole family, posing playfully as a document but in reality functioning much more as impressionistic drama.

This work joins the likes of Larry Clark’s "Tulsa" and Nan Goldin’s “Ballad of Sexual Dependency” in the discussion of ethical/exploitative photography—is it right for Billingham to publish work that shows his family in extremely personal, vulnerable, and sometimes graphic situations? Is it right for him to characterize them as he does—deeply flawed, but charming and loving? Is it exploitative to aestheticize their poverty? These questions are complicated, but I think that given the personal nature of the work—Billingham’s own family being the subject—it’s hard for me to really condone or criticize the work either way. I don’t think of this book as benevolent or as evil, but as existing in the gray area of exchanging the privacy of loved ones for artistic honesty. I truly hope that this exchange was made in good faith.

As to the aesthetization, if we give Billingham the benefit of the doubt about the work being “authentic” (even if it’s such a flimsy adjective), it can be argued that the real, cynical commercial exploitation of poverty and addiction aesthetics is done downstream, when work like this starts popping up on moodboards for advertising and editorial photography, in commercial contexts, etc. On this topic, there’s a really fascinating publication called “Opioid Crisis Lookbook” that interrogates the culture of addiction and recovery from within the current North American opioid crisis, and I think it’s really good reading for anyone interested in this discussion. PDF here: https://theopioidcrisislookbook.com/issue-1/ 

Aside from the moral quandaries, I don’t mean to be grandiose when I say that to me, this book is a testament to the power of photography; a reminder to pick up the camera and observe, because something photographed is so different from something remembered. The work rides a fine line between earnestness and what could be considered callousness: gritty, dynamic photographs ostensibly about the reality of an alcoholic family member that are somehow stubbornly light-hearted and whimsical. Billingham engages in something like anti-humanist humanism, breaking up somber, revealing portraits with funny, detached snapshots of almost baroque scenes unfolding in the apartment day to day. This complexity makes me think about a consistent, obsessive photography practice, close observation of the intangible, and the simple, revealing power of a photograph.

In Ray’s a Laugh, Billingham is able to approach and re-approach the same people, the same spaces, and the same ideas, over and over, over the course of several months. The result is this magical, complex book that really satisfyingly blurs the lines of truth and fiction, and tragedy and comedy. What I think most draws me to this book is Billingham’s extremely present voice. He seems to function half as a family photographer and half as a photojournalist, moving jarringly back and forth between tenderness and a distant ambivalence. This is what endures for me, the ever-looming fiction of the work, which seems to almost allow the pictures to be more truthful and honest, at least about Billingham’s feelings. I think he offers us a way to see his family in the way that he does, focusing on silver lining and humble moments of joy while acknowledging pain and imperfection. This, to me, is the “magic of photography” Billingham reveals: the camera’s capacity, after a long while, to show who is behind the lens almost as clearly as who is in front of it.

I’ve come to the conclusion (sadly a bit late in the year) that what I would like to do is find some kind of concrete subject or container within which to make a project. I picture this as a body of work about a group of people, or a specific place, or maybe a subculture. I think I’ve had a tendency in the last few years of photographing to kind of reject the idea of any concrete focus, instead approaching my practice as “carry a camera everywhere, and let photographs come to me.” I’m reaching a point now where I’m frustrated with my “pile,” hundreds of one-off photographs tied together maybe only by my own experiences. When I first started photographing, Wolfgang Tillmans and Daniel Arnold were front and center in my mind. Their work, at least as I’d seen it presented, was less about concrete things and more about espousing a “way of seeing” (hence the MoMA show name “To Look Without Fear”). And while I think finding a primal, almost subconscious visual language is invaluable to a photographer (being able to look at a photo and regardless of subject having a feeling that this is ”a Noor photo”), my thinking on it as a conceptual framework has shifted. I think I was originally aiming for a body of work that was chaotic, all over the place, and vastly dynamic in subject matter. I now find this kind of framework to be a crutch for an under-edited project. In terms of Arnold, and in terms of books, I much, much prefer Matt Leifheit and Eve Lyon’s edit of Arnold’s work to that of his monograph, Pickpocket, because the former edit is tighter, more vulnerable, and “says” so much more than the latter collection of already-instagram-famous street photographs. I’m now much more interested in honing in on something, both through re-editing my old pile (over and over) and through changing what I’m photographing, so that I have some specific guiding light.

For final critique this year, I want to focus on an edit that is more intentional and revelatory, and most importantly, more vulnerable. What photographs have I been omitting that have more of myself in them? What can I do to narrow the perspective and get at something deeper? Thinking forward to this summer, I have set the goal to find some kind of “container” for what I shoot. I haven’t yet decided on one, but I’m thinking of things along the lines of “5th avenue, between 14th and 42nd,” or “Little League Baseball in Prospect Park.” Something I can go back to, week after week, something I can slow down and observe. I’m also including in this goal the qualification that I may break out of the container as I see fit. Through this container, I hope to apply my photographic intuition --which until now has been the whole story--to a more self-contained world.

PS. Mack recently reprinted Ray’s a Laugh with a new, expanded edit in a larger size than the original. It kind of feels like a deluxe edition album; I like the new plates that were added but only because I liked the original work so much. I feel like the expanded edit and coffee-table size (which kind of gives it what I call the “Phaidon vibe” :/) detract from the magic of the original’s concise edit and humbler physical size. 

-Noor

#noor

[k00285350]

Artist Research - Richard Billingham 'Ray's a Laugh', 1995

(17.01.23) At Deborah's photography talk today, she showed us a bunch of new photographers I've never heard of, one of which was Richard Billingham. Afterwards, I looked at his work and it really struck me.

During 1996 the British photographer, Richard Billingham, made this series titled Ray’s A Laugh, capturing his parents at home in their tower block in the West Midlands.

At first, the photographs unsettled me because of the disheveled conditions, but looking closer at them, they had a raw everyday quality that I admire. Showing that a high quality production isn't necessary to create beautiful works which is something that really inspires me.

[isabelamospho101]

Week 10: family snapshot by Richard Billingham, 1994

What - A woman yelling at a man in a well lived in home. Another man laid behind them watching on. The lady seems mad and is making a fist. The man is avoiding eye contact.

How - Shot from Billinghams front perspective on cheap film he had said.

Why - To show complex family dynamics and to show how one can mentally drift away from confrontations to escape.

[tammmarind]

Richard Billingham Untitled (NRAL 13), 1996. Fuji long-life colour print on aluminium. 

#art #photography #Richard Billingham #british #artist

[samplingsofsam]

Carlsberg - Curious Beginnings from Sam Pilling on Vimeo.

Let's go back... waaaaaaaay back... Do the best things begin with Curiousity? Probably

Agency: Fold 7 ECD: Dave Billing CDs: Rob Griffiths & James Hudson Agency Producer: Sian Parker Production: Magna MDs: James Sorton & Davud Karbassioun Director: Sam Pilling Producer: Lucy Gossage DP: Justin Brown Production Designer: Andy Kelly Casting: Hammond & Cox Costume Designer: Mr Gammon Choreography: Rosi 1st AD: Julian Richards H&MU: Aaliyah Oke PM: Antonia Cickers Service: Icon Films Sofia Edit: Ellie Johnson at Tenthree VFX: ETC VFX Supervisor: Chappers VFX Producer: Joe Billingham Colour: Jason Wallis Sound Design: Sam Ashwell & Jake Ashwell at 750mph Music Supervision & Re-record / arrangement: string & tins Music Supervision: Theodore Music: The 45 King ‘The 900 Number’