Red Saunders (photographer)

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Red Saunders (born December 28, 1945 in London , England ) is a British photographer and director . He is one of the founders of Rock Against Racism .

Life

Saunders was born in London in 1945. As a young mod , he joined the amateur theater group CAST in the 1960s, which Saunders later assessed as an important influence on his work.

From 1963 to 1965 he completed his photography training with the advertising agencies GSRoyds and SHBensons and the Gilchrist Studios in London. He later studied at the Polytechnic of Central London and worked for GSRoyds in the Photo de Seine studio in Paris. After working as an assistant for the advertising photographers Jimmy Wormser and Lou Long, he went to the Middle East in 1967 on behalf of the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation , where he reported from Lebanon and from Syria , Jordan and Egypt during and after the Six Day War . After a job at GM Studio, Saunders worked for the Sunday Times from 1969 .

In the 1970s, he began working for advertisers, editorial staff and book publishers in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States. His photographs have been used on numerous record covers by artists such as Suzi Quatro , Jean-Michel Jarre , Seething Wells , Benjamin Zephaniah , Billy Connolly , Big Country , Aswad and Yellowman .

From the late 1970s he photographed for the Sunday Times Magazine, Time Out , Rolling Stone , GQ , Time and Life, among others . From 1983 Saunders was involved in the publication of illustrated books such as 24 Hours in the Life of Los Angeles / Olympic City '84 or A Day in the Life of London .

In 1976, together with Roger Huddle and other activists, Saunders launched the Rock Against Racism initiative, originally planned as a one-off event .

From 1985 Saunders ran the company Short Circuit Films, where the first short film The End was made under his direction . From 1990 to 1993 he directed the six-part production The Gift for BBC Wales and White Girls on Dope for Channel 4 . The Autumn Graphics commercials for Channel 4, filmed with Glenn Carwithen, won a Yellow Pencil at the 1993 D&AD Awards .

In 1993, his London studio and much of his work was destroyed in an arson attack , whereupon Saunders took a three-year break. From 1996 he shot again some commercials for clients such as Ribena, Safeways, Lillywhites, Sony, Nintendo and Sure in the United Kingdom, as well as Germany and the United States. From 1999 onwards he began to take up photography again, now turning to more personal subjects and dealing with digital photo processing for the first time. In 2000 Saunders had a solo exhibition of his photographs titled Nearby at the Pentagram Gallery, London. After an order for the Italian architecture magazine Domus , further works in the field of architecture and landscape photography were created.

In 2008 Saunders began his project Hidden , in which he recreated events from the centuries-long struggle for democracy and social justice with large-format tableaux vivants (“living images”). With his project, Saunders wants to make deviants, revolutionaries, radicals and non-conformists visible, who have so far hardly been documented ("hidden") in pictures, apart from the kings, queens and battles that are at least captured in paintings.

In 2011 his photographs were exhibited at the Impressions Gallery in Bradford . In 2013 and 2014 the exhibition was presented in other exhibition locations such as Manchester or Winchester .

Writings and editorships (selection)

  • Klaus Fabricius, Red Saunders (Ed.): 24 Hours in the Life of Los Angeles / Olympic City '84 . Alfred van der Marck Editions, New York, 1984, ISBN 9780912383040 .
  • Red Saunders, Syd Shelton, Malcolm McGregor: A Day in the Life of London . Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1985, 288 pages, ISBN 978-0224029759 .
  • Red Saunders, Syd Shelton: Ireland: A Week in the Life of a Nation . Ebury Press, 1986, 288 pages, ISBN 9780712695183 .
  • Roger Huddle, Red Saunders: Reminiscences of RAR: Rocking Against Racism (1976-1982) . Redwords, 2016, 256 pages, ISBN 9781910885369 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Artist's Questionnaire with Red Saunders . In: hiddenschoolstour.files.wordpress.com from June 2013.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Bio . In: redsaundersphoto.eu, accessed on May 25, 2020.
  3. ^ Roger Huddle, Lee Billingham: Anti-Fascism: That Was Then, This is Now . In: Socialist Review , June 2004, issue 286.
  4. ^ Sarfraz Manzoor: The year rock found the power to unite . In: theguardian.com of April 20, 2008.
  5. ^ Channel Four Autumn Graphics . In: dandad.org, accessed May 25, 2020.
  6. ^ The Hidden Project . In: redsaundersphoto.eu, accessed on May 25, 2020.
  7. ^ Red Saunders - The Agreement | The story behind the work . In: thecynthiacorbettgallery.wordpress.com of August 22, 2015.
  8. ↑ a b c Red Saunders: Hidden In: impressions-gallery.com, accessed on May 25, 2020.
  9. ↑ Julia Coulton: Manchester photography: Red Saunders' digital “tableaux” of a political past . In: creativetourist.com of March 8, 2013.
  10. ^ John Gillingham : The London Riots 1381: The blood-soaked uprising which changed the face of England forever . In: dailymail.co.uk of September 30, 2011.
personal data
SURNAME Saunders, Red
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British photographer and director; Founder of Rock Against Racism
DATE OF BIRTH December 28, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH London , England , UK