‘A Photographic Friendship’ – A celebration of 50 years of friendship between two photographers

Mike Rego

Anyone with an interest in the rural life of Dartmoor and North Devon from the past 50 years must surely already be familiar with the photographs of Chris Chapman and the late James Ravilious, who between them have built up an incredible historical archive of everyday life and agricultural practice in and around the region.

A new book has just been published combining, for the first time, a selection of the photographs of both Chris Chapman and James Ravilious, as a celebration of their friendship and photographic work.

What makes ‘A Photographic Friendship, James Ravilious and Chris Chapman’ unique is that not only does it contain a number of previously unpublished photographs, but by displaying a photograph of a broadly similar image taken by each photographer on a double page spread, it allows a direct comparison to be made of their approaches to recording the seeming ‘ordinariness’ of what was, and is, the everyday life in their communities.

The book came about at a private ceremony held last September in Chulmleigh when a Blue Plaque, organised by the Devon History Society, was unveiled above the front door of the home of the late James Ravilious. Two friends, Simon Timms and Richard Westcott, fell into conversation and realised that 2022 would mark the 50th anniversary of when James Ravilious and Chris Chapman began their photographic projects in Devon. Throughout the year an anniversary group was formed to produce a new book celebrating their work edited by Mark Haworth-Booth and with a foreword by Michael Morpurgo.

Great care has been taken in the selection of the images to be paired, be they landscapes, agricultural practices, community events or portraits. What is immediately striking is the similarity of their approaches to their subjects, to observe without prying or being intrusive. As Mark Haworth-Booth, who edited the book, says in his introduction ‘An unusual flair for photographing the usual’. What makes both Chris’s and James’ photographs so special is ‘because both photographed the characteristic and typical, as well as the remarkable and extraordinary’.

Their photographs display a simple honesty without making fun or mocking their subjects and that is where their strength lies, in recording actual life as it was, in available light, rather than a photographic manipulation.

Chris and James had a close friendship, collaborative rather than competitive, and the section of the book with Chris in conversation with James’s daughter Ella Ravilious reveals many details of their individual approaches to photography as well as how they worked and experimented together with trying out different lenses and films to achieve their desired results.

They both had many discussions over the ideal tones they sought to achieve. James was a great believer in using uncoated lenses and different developers to achieve greater tonal range for his black and white photography, and he and Chris had frequent discussions and experiments to achieve their ideal tones.

Chris recounts in the book how, in the 1980s, there was an accusation that his and James’ photographs were regarded as sentimental and not seen as cutting edge, and yet it is this very quality that makes their photographs so special today and will do so in the future, and so popular if the demand for previous (second-hand) books by Chris and James on the likes of eBay is anything to go by.

As Michael Morpurgo says in his introduction, village and rural life stands at the crossroads of change, modern farming methods have swept away many of the old traditions and memories fade away, but photographs do not. He describes the photographs of Chris and James as ‘the most extraordinary archive of village and country life’ and how ‘… their world as it was, will live on, and this is thanks to the work and the insight and foresight, the dedication and the talent of James and Chris. We owe them both so much’.

To anyone who appreciates the art of photography, the book is a masterpiece not just in photographic composition and style of two remarkable photographers but also in observation of the ordinary, that all too often we take for granted until it is too late and we then realise that we have lost it for ever.

‘Glimpses of a pastoral life to be treasured, the visionary work of two great photographers. Every page of this wonderful book a revelation and a joy, a memory stirred.’  Michael Morpurgo.

The official launch of the book is taking place at The Burton Gallery, Bideford, North Devon on the evening of Tuesday, 29th November, 5.30pm to 7.30pm.

The book ‘A Photographic Friendship’ is published by Skerryvore Productions Ltd, ISBN 978-1-3999312-0-5 and is currently available from the following stockists, cover price is £25:

Astor's, 70 The Square, Chagford, Newton Abbot, TQ13 8AE

Beaford  www.beaford.org/shop

Bookstop, 3 Market Street, Tavistock PL19 0DA

Skerryvore Productions Ltd   www.chrischapmanphotography.com/Books

The Bookery, 21 High St, Crediton EX17 3AH

The Burton Art Gallery, Kingsley Road, Bideford, Devon EX39 2QQ

The Shop at RAMM (Royal Albert Memorial Museum), Queen Street, Exeter EX4 3RX

Walter Henry’s Bookshop, 12 High Street, Bideford, Devon, EX39 2AA