Ravilious on Twitter

[Mr Standfast]

 

I found the James Ravilious twitter feed the other day. It is @JamesRavilious

 

Most days a charming black and white image, with a lot of silvery grey tones is posted showing some amazing rural characters.

 

For those not aware; James Ravilious documented rural life in Devon from the 70's until his death in 1999. He used a Leica and Kodak Tri-X, under exposed and over developed a bit, very little was lost.

 

The feed is curated by Ravilious's daughter Ella, and each picture is credited as "by my dad", and why not!

 

Most of his work is held at the Beaford Archive which is well worth a browese https://beaford.org/archive

 

Also at Beaford is the early work of Roger Deakins, wonder what became of him?

 

 

[AlbertSnapper]

There is an article, along with a selection of lovely photographs, of James Ravilious' work in Black +White Photography (glossy magazine, issue 246).

[Harry Harrison]

For quite a long time the only books featuring his work were out of print so only available secondhand but last year his widow Robin published two new volumes, "The Recent Past" a new selection from his best work, large format and beautifully printed, together with her biography "James Ravilious - A Life".  Both still available and highly recommended.

 

The Beaford Archive have also scanned and put on-line all his actual contact sheets complete with their 'red pen' selections by James himself. It's pretty unusual to see a photographer's contact sheets, very illuminating. He rarely took more than a handful of frames in any given situation, very much a disciple of Cartier-Bresson's Decisive Moment, indeed it was seeing an exhibition of Cartier-Bresson's pictures that inspired him to pursue a life as a photographer having previously trained as an artist, like his illustrious father. @Ravilious1942, is another twitter feed, not I think connected to the family, but this time of work by his father Eric Ravilious, brightens the dullest of days.

Edited December 6, 2020 by Harry Harrison