KEN RUSSELL COPY

KEN RUSSELL

The directors cut

Famous for directing movies such as Women in Love, The Devils and Tommy, Ken Russell has a secret past as a still photographer. APs Bob Aylott reports

LEFT A duelling scene that combines street fashion with the look of a Hollywood film set was described by the old master himself as a typical Russell picture

S I tramp up the narrow wooded path to his thatched cottage deep in the New Forest, film director Ken Russell is waiting for me in the spring sunlight, leaning nonchalantly against the five-bar front gate. Dressed all in black, he cuts a striking figure with his ruddy face crowned by a semi-feral mass of white hair. He looks like the wild man of the woods, but perhaps this is just a faade, a role he is acting out during his autumn years amid the ancient copses and nooks of this arboreal film set. My encounter with the 78-year-old film director promises to be as bizarre as one of his scripts. His little home in the forest is so tucked away that you would have to be a pony to find it. Even though I had directions, I got lost and arrived late after negotiating the rough terrain, horses, cows and cattle that rule this Hampshire jungle. Youve made it, he declares as if I am another extra hoping for work. As I pass through the gate and into a world where reality meets fantasy, he stops me in my tracks. You must be quick, he says and lifts the lid of his wood mailbox. I strain my neck and see a cluster of six nesting baby bluetits and they look up at me with their mouths open waiting for food. My experience with the birds is over in a fraction of a second as Ken closes the lid. Youre lucky, I dont normally disturb them, he says. Im touched by his compassion; but then maybe the man who has shocked movie buffs around the world has mellowed at last. At the front door that is actually his kitchen door I turn to marvel at the view scrubland, gorse, bracken and trees stretch for as far as the eye can see. I scan for evidence of human habitation on this set there is none. Then, as if straight from the props cupboard, two white horses appear on the horizon. If the master had called for action, I hadnt heard him. Yet they canter over while Kens dog Nipper, an Old English black-and-tan toy terrier, runs circles around my feet. All the while Ken throws random snippets of information at me such as: Im allowed to collect fallen wood for the winter fire. Its all very surreal. In the kitchen I squeeze past Jackie, the ironing lady, and into the conservatory. On the table is a macabre doll made from assorted coloured buttons, and a phone covered in glass beads. At the end of the room is a large green backdrop, a sure sign that the conservatory doubles as a studio. Draped over a chair is a womans Scottish kilt and other female tartan clothes. These, Ken tells me, are for a movie he is making called Brave Tart. It stars his wife Elize, who plays a brave Scottish prostitute. It is along the lines of Braveheart, but with the obvious touch of Russell genius. We have just finished shooting three other films here, The Good Ship Venus, The Revenge of the Elephant

48 Amateur Photographer 11 JUNE 2005

www.amateurphotographer.com

www.amateurphotographer.com

11 JUNE 2005 Amateur Photographer 49

KEN RUSSELL

KEN RUSSELL COPY

Man and a film about Mata Hari that we shot in the garage, he says proudly. Its a real cottage industry in more ways than one. Ken smiles, turns and looks at Jackie still ironing in the kitchen and adds, I even pressed her into service. She was a body double in The Mystery of Mata Hari. A lot of other villagers also star in my movies. This is the eccentric Russell that I was hoping for. Now it is my turn to shock the old man of the movies, with skeletons from his past. I am here to show him a set of pictures the young Ken shot in1955 as a photography student at Walthamstow Art College in London. The subject was the Teddy Girls of Londons East End and as I lay the 50-year-old pictures on his table it is the first time he has seen his early works since pressing the shutter half a century ago. At the time his agent sold the photographs to Picture Post magazine, but since their publication in June 1955 the negatives have lain dormant in the archives of a picture library. Now the collection of 30 b&w photographs will be exhibited in London later this month. He looks surprised as he examines each image with his famous eyes and inquiring mind. Its a bit of a shock I remember taking them while on a three-year photography course, he says. Its fantastic that they have suddenly appeared. If two or three pictures had turned up I could have understood that, but to find 30 Im stunned. His wife Elize, at least 30 years his junior, joins us. A singer and actress, she is a bubbly, bouncy American from North Carolina. She enthuses over the Teddy Girl pictures and immediately remarks on the hair fashions, Wow! Thats a Ducks Tail, she cries. Ken sombrely informs us that it was also known as a Ducks Arse. I ask if he was a Teddy Boy himself. No I was a f***ing aristocrat, he shouts back and then offers me a drink. He begins pouring the white wine. I shake my head and ask for coffee instead. How about Camp coffee? Theyve just got it in at the village shop. No thanks thats the chicory liquid my grandmother used to drink, I reply. Youll have to wait an hour and a half for a cup of instant, is his final word on the matter. I wonder if this is some sort of punishment or a joke. He refills his wine glass and looks at the pictures over and over again. Everyone knew about the Teddy Boys, but I was the one who discovered the Teddy Girls. No one knew about them until my pictures appeared in Picture Post, he says. Most of the photographs look like student snaps, but there are a few real gems. They

ABOVE Great use of the eyes in the background on this street portrait by a young Ken Russell RIGHT Here Russell has captured the atmosphere of Londons East End with the youth culture of the 1950s

50 Amateur Photographer 11 JUNE 2005

www.amateurphotographer.com

www.amateurphotographer.com

11 JUNE 2005 Amateur Photographer 51

KEN RUSSELL

KEN RUSSELL

I desperately wanted to shoot fashions. After leaving college I got a couple of assignments
show an eye for composition and for using whatever is around. I loved the Teddy era at least they were trying to push their personalities out. I ask Ken what he remembers about shooting the photographs. He smiles and lays the prints down for a moment. Not a lot the1950s went on for a long time, he grins. There was a lot of rubble around Walthamstow in those days and I think I took the pictures over a two-week period. At college Ken met his first wife Shirley. She was studying fashion design, and went on to become one of the countrys most famous costume designers. It was her student friends that Ken photographed in Walthamstow High Street and the market area. As a budding fashion photographer, Ken was in his

BELOW Another bomb site, another day. A collection of Teddy Girls pose for a genius in the making

element photographing the clothes-conscious Teddy Girls. They were not always as easily defined as the more famous Teddy Boys. Some girls wore trousers, some had skirts and others would wear quite ordinary clothes, but with Teddy accessories. Teddy fashions were inspired by the Edwardian period during the early years of the 20th century, so loosefitting, velvet-collared jackets and narrow trousers, with 1950s variations, were hip. Blouses were often high-necked and elaborately embroidered, with turn-down collars garnished with cameo brooches. Mannish waistcoats were favoured, as were lace-up sandals and coolie hats. There were striped boater hats and a general preference for b&w as the basic colours and every Teddy Girl needed a thin, long-handled umbrella and long, flat handbag. Ken continues, I loved their clothes, but hated rock and roll. Im more into modern jazz or the classics. Ken used an old Rolleicord for his pictures, and would develop and print his b&w work in the college darkroom. He never used a tripod or a flashgun, preferring to work

with natural light. Processing colour film was a different matter and he recalls the problems. It was a bit of a nightmare. The knack was getting the temperatures exactly right. I was constantly plunging the thermometer into the chemicals that were sat in bowls of hot water, trying to get it spot on, he says, waving his arms in the air. It was always going from 90 to -50. It was a wonder that anything ever came out, he laughs. I was very keen and wanted to become a fashion photographer, he says and enthuses about Amateur Photographer, which he always read. It was like the bible for me and most amateur photographers in the 1950s, he continues, I desperately wanted to shoot fashions. After leaving college I got a couple of assignments, but I never had the opportunity to really express myself properly. The clients just wanted their clothes photographed in a straightforward manner against a white background. I wanted to make the pictures interesting, but they didnt want to know about my

ideas. He then confesses, I was disappointed when I realised that I wouldnt become a famous fashion photographer. I felt I never got the right break. While scraping a living as a freelance photographer for about five years, Ken did a little advertising work and even photographed a major campaign for mints. He worked for Illustrated magazine on a regular basis and had several covers for the magazine that he describes as the poor mans Picture Post. One feature he remembers shooting was called The Pogo Stick is Here to Stay. I took pictures showing the various uses of the pogo stick. One photograph showed a policeman on a pogo stick chasing a burglar, which even today would be a great picture, he says. He freely admits that his work for Illustrated wasnt that good. The picture editors were not impressed with me. They thought my pictures were a bit soft-focus. I also had an old primitive Leica with a lens I had to screw in and a Victorian plate camera that I used only once for one of my fashion shoots. It was so big on

ABOVE Not your typical student fashion picture, this one has a touch of Russell class screaming out from the urban decay

52 Amateur Photographer 11 JUNE 2005

www.amateurphotographer.com

www.amateurphotographer.com

11 JUNE 2005 Amateur Photographer 53

KEN RUSSELL COPY

KEN RUSSELL

LEFT Another set-up still picture that would look just as good on the big screen BELOW A simple but effective portrait shot using the urban location for a touch of drama

the tripod that I was always knocking it over and smashing the glass plates, he says. My training as a photographer did influence my film career. It was only after my photography training that I borrowed a 16mm Bolex cine camera and made three amateur movies, he explains. I turned my experience in still photography into shooting TV documentaries. His short films Peepshow (1956) and Amelia and the Angel (1957) got Ken into the BBC, where he made several documentaries for the arts programme Monitor (1958-65). Ken informs me that it is time to move to a new location for lunch and The Turfcutters Arms is our next port of call. When we arrive at the hostelry we order food, with Ken going for a massive pork hock. He tells me the dish is Nippers favourite although I dont recall bringing the dog along. Last year another photographic skeleton fell out of Kens cupboard. I had shot a set of pictures of an action painter in the 1950s, he says. He would throw his paint onto a large canvas on the floor and then ride over it on his bicycle to produce his final picture. I photographed this on stills and16mm movie film. Suddenly last year the movie film turned up and the Tate Britain gallery wanted to use it. That was another oddity from the past. Who knows what else is waiting to surface? In the pub, where ponies look in through the windows, our conversation about other film directors and movie stars is definitely off the record. The wine is still flowing and with his hock only half-eaten Ken tells me that at the age of 12 he got his first camera, a VP Twin from Woolworths. It came in three separate parts for the price of 1/6d. A little plastic novelty camera with a metal viewfinder that folded up and down, he says, trying to demonstrate the actions with both hands. On a family holiday in Fordingbridge I pressed the viewfinder hard up against my eye and shot pictures of my parents, the rivers, trees and bridges. When the film came back from the chemist every exposure was a picture of my feet. I had been pressing so hard against the viewfinder that I had the lens pointing down at the ground. I gave up photography for several years after that. He then tells me how he missed the biggest scoop of his life in 1954. It happened while Ken was travelling on a plane from Paris to Madrid. He was sitting next to honeymooners Audrey Hepburn and Mel Ferrer.

54 Amateur Photographer 11 JUNE 2005

www.amateurphotographer.com

www.amateurphotographer.com

11 JUNE 2005 Amateur Photographer 55

KEN RUSSELL

ABOVE Ken has used the strong side light and urban location to make this picture into something more interesting than just a portrait

She was a massive movie star and a screen goddess at the time, he says. There was so much speculation about the two of them running away to get married, but no one knew where they were. When I arrived at Madrid airport, the address system was screaming out my name. It was my agent on the phone telling me to give my film with the picture of the couple on to the next pilot going back to London. I didnt want to disturb them. They looked so happy together, I told him. I knew I was a failure. I had the

Bombsite Boudiccas
Ken Russells 1955 photo essay on London Teddy Girls is on show at the Spitz Gallery, 109 Commercial Street, London E1 6BG. Open from Saturday 18 June to Sunday 26 June, Monday to Friday noon-7pm, Saturday noon-5pm, Sunday 1 1am-5pm. Admission free.

hottest couple in the world cuddling up next to me and Im taking pictures of the clouds, he laughs. To be honest I was s**t-scared. As the afternoon wears on our discussions about film-making and film-makers gets deeper and louder. We both have our own strong views on the subject, but Mr Russell calmly leans over and puts his cards on the table. I am a brilliant analyst of cinema you know nothing about it. That is the only difference between us. On this occasion, I concede. It wasnt Ken who called cut on the day, but the landlady of the pub. Ive got to collect my son from school and need to lock up, she told me, politely but firmly. The curtain was coming down on my New Forest flick. It was time for the players to pack up and go home, though not before Ken made his last shout Doggie bag! Immediately a white plastic bag containing the remains of his lunch is delivered to our table. Its Nippers favourite, Ken reminds me as the lights go out. AP

56 Amateur Photographer 11 JUNE 2005

www.amateurphotographer.com