38. NEIL DRABBLE - A SPACE BETWEEN PROXIMITY AND INTROSPECTION.
The artist reflects on his work and introduces new book ‘CLOSER', launching at The Photographers’ Gallery - LONDON.
Neil Drabble, Untitled, (Playground), 2021 (from CLOSER, Double Obelus Editions, 2023). Image courtesy of the artist.
Your new publication ‘CLOSER’ views like a bombardment of empty urban spaces - all taken within walking distance of your home in London, can you introduce this body of work and why you are presenting this now?
Well, the series didn’t come from any pre-conceived thesis or prescribed idea – I wanted to move away from that and return to starting with making. I wanted to start without an idea and see what evolved. I knew I wanted to make something ‘local’, something ‘closer’ to myself physically and psychologically, but that was the initial extent of the plan.
Also, having made a series of photographic works in the USA and Spain as well as other places, I wanted to explore the potential for making work here in the UK.
I started walking – at night – without a plan and without a destination – the walks were all circular from my home, and all at night. There was something about working at night that also appealed to me visually and psychologically. The walks continued over a year period and the pictures evolved into the work that became the new book – CLOSER. The work ended up being made during the pandemic, but it’s not intended to be a response to lockdown – the main impact the pandemic had on the work was that the streets were very deserted and silent which I think helped me in the making of the pictures.
The statement for the book text nods to what the work is about – but having said that I never think that the pictures I make are about what they are of.
Within your practice and career you have engaged extensively with portraiture - what is it about this that interests you?
I was always interested in portraiture - as I kid I used to draw and paint people. I started making photographs of people as my way into photography. For a long time, I only ever photographed people - I taught myself photography through portraits - oddly, it was a long time before I started photographing anything else - seemed natural at the time, but my very early contact sheets are all people. The thing about portraiture is that unlike other forms of photography, it is a definite collaboration- it’s a two-way activity - it’s not necessarily an equal relationship, you are definitely in charge, and you need to be able to know what you are looking for and then you work towards that with the sitter. It’s a singular vision - arrived at by two people. When I embarked on Book of Roy (MACK 2019) - what interested me was the possibility of making a very extensive series of portraits of the same person, over a long period (8 years as it turned out). I had made lots of singular portraits of famous people (writers, actors, musicians) as editorial commissions - for these you have a very limited amount of time, and are usually aiming at one definitive portrait - with the Roy work it was the total opposite, a body of work where each portrait had to be definitive in its own right, but also work as part of a larger series.
Neil Drabble, Untitled, (Roy Red Hoodie), 2005. Image courtesy of the artist.
Your relationship with the US seems to really resonate within your work, what draws you back?
When I was growing up, America appeared as a very alluring and magical place – it seemed worlds apart from the dank and gloomy backdrop of 1970’s Manchester. The US TV shows presented teenage life as an endless Summer, where kids drove cars and went to High School Hops - whatever they were. In terms of photography, I think for people of my generation, this is where photography in the West evolved. As a self-taught photographer I learned from books (when I could find any), and they were predominantly American photographers usually focusing on landscape and portraiture. I guess it’s that thing of America being the mecca of some sort - the home of the image. Also, visually and semiotically it’s similar to the world I grew up in, but also different, which allows different possibilities to make work there. The signs and symbols are recognisable, but don’t come with the same social and cultural baggage for me as similar things would do in Britain. There’s also much more of it to explore. The initial shock of actually being in America eventually wears off, but there is still something that draws me back to it. I guess one of the reasons Book of Roy evolved was due to my desire to make a body of work in the USA.
Neil Drabble, Untitled (Tyre Tracks), 2019. Image courtesy of the artist.
Your portraits of trees are fascinating, they are a subject that you return to again and again, why is this?
I’ve always enjoyed trees for the way they make me feel.
They have the ability to elicit and suggest the potential for emotional resonance that inspires me to return to them as subject matter.
They’re also amazing kinetic sculptures, moving and changing with the seasons. They’re everywhere so it’s a subject matter that I can work with across global boundaries - they speak to people regardless of the language.
Neil Drabble, Untitled, 2000. (from Tree Tops Tall, Steidl/MACK, 2003). Image courtesy of the artist.
There is a historical relationship between artists also being educators, both within the work they physically make and also the work they contribute in terms of teaching others. We have discussed this at length and I remember you saying how you felt that everything in some way is part of the work, can you expand upon this?
As I said, I’m self-taught and didn’t have a great educational experience, so becoming involved in teaching was not planned - it sort of happened. A good friend kept asking me to do a guest lecture for his students, but I wasn’t sure about it - I eventually agreed, and was very surprised by how much I enjoyed the experience, how much the notion of ‘teaching’ seemed to have changed from when I was at Art School, and how much I enjoyed interacting with the students. I then made it my mission to become more involved with teaching and ended up teaching on various courses. I always saw the teaching as part of everything else - everything you do feeds into everything else - one thing that did happen was that in having to explain things to students and give lectures and tutorials, it helped me to access a dialogue with my own work and motives that had previously been on a more subliminal level. Verbalizing things to other people is a very good way to make you think about what you are trying to say.
Neil Drabble, Untitled, (Sidewalk Sun), 2018. Image courtesy of the artist.
The image of the sun drawn in the concrete, published in issue 2 of M-A (A SPACE BETWEEN), is such a pivotal work within the magazine - It says so much about the time we are in, and feels so optimistic and yet so sad at the same time, please can you tell me about this image?
The picture was made in Los Angeles for another project I’m working on. I work quite quickly and respond to things either emotionally or not. This picture seemed somehow, as you say, to straddle between being optimistic and melancholic – which I think runs through the majority of my work – in this case, the ‘up’ was ‘down’ – the sun was up, but it was down on the ground.
To purchase CLOSER, click HERE
Book Launch & Signing, Neil Drabble: CLOSER 02/11/2023, 6:30-8:00pm. The Photographers Gallery,
16-18 Ramillies Street, London, W1F 7LW