« Photographie/Personnalités/S/Homer Sykes » : différence entre les versions

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'''Homer Warwick Sykes''' est un photographe britannique né en 1949 au Canada. Sa carrière comporte beaucoup de projets personnels et de photographies de [[paysage]]s.
 
== Biographie ==
 
Le père de Sykes, Homer Warwick Sykes, né au Canada, était d'origine anglaise, il travaillait pour la ''China National Aviation Corporation'' à Shanghai ; sa mère, Helen Grimmitt, née Canadiennea été élevée à Hong Kong. Le couple se maria en août 1947 mais en juin 1948, au début de grossesse de sa femme, Homer fut tué dans un accident sur l'aérodrome de Lunghua. Helen retourna vivre avec sa famille à Vancouver et son fils naquit trois semaines plus tard.
Le père de Sykes
 
Lorsque sa mère se remaria en 1954, la famille déménagea en Angleterre. Sykes était un photographe adolescent enthousiaste, avec une chambre noire à la maison et une autre à l'école. En 1968 il entama un enseignement de trois ans au ''[[w:en:London College of Communication|London College of Printing]] (LCP)''. La première année, pendant les vacances d'été, il vint à New York et fut impressionné par le travail de divers photographes célèbres, [[Henri Cartier-Bresson]], [[Bruce Davidson]], [[Lee Friedlander]], [[Robert Frank]], [[Burk Uzzle]] et [[Garry Winogrand]] exposés au ''[[Museum of Modern Art]]''.
 
Sykes's father, Homer Warwick Sykes, was a Canadian-born American of English extraction who worked for the [[China National Aviation Corporation]] in [[Shanghai]]; his mother, Helen Grimmitt, was Canadian born and raised in [[Hong Kong]]. The couple were married in August 1947, but in June 1948, in an early stage of his wife's pregnancy, Homer was killed in an accident at Lunghua airfield. Helen returned to her family home in [[Vancouver]], and the son was born three weeks later.<ref name="statement">Homer Sykes, "Photographer's statement", ''Shanghai Odyssey'' (Stockport: Dewi Lewis, 2002), n.p.</ref>
 
When the boy's mother remarried in 1954, the family moved to England.<ref name="harrison">Graham Harrison, "[http://www.photohistories.com/interviews/26/homer-sykes?pg=all Homer Sykes]", ''Photo Histories,'' Accessed 10 September 2015.</ref> He was a keen photographer as a teenager, with a darkroom both at home and at boarding school. In 1968 he started a three-year course at the [[London College of Communication|London College of Printing]] (LCP),<ref name="harrison" /> while sharing a house in [[St John's Wood]].<ref>Neil Lyndon, "[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/property/3290477/No-place-like-someone-elses-home.html No place like someone else's home]", ''Daily Telegraph,'' 30 June 2001. Accessed 9 September 2015.<!-- previously http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/3290477/No-place-like-someone-elses-home.html --></ref> In the summer vacation during his first year, he went to New York, and was impressed by the work of current photographers &mdash; [[Henri Cartier-Bresson|Cartier-Bresson]], [[Bruce Davidson (photographer)|Davidson]], [[Lee Friedlander|Friedlander]], [[Robert Frank|Frank]], [[Burk Uzzle|Uzzle]] and [[Garry Winogrand|Winogrand]] &mdash; that he saw at the [[Museum of Modern Art]].<ref name="harrison" />
 
While wondering about a new photographic project, Sykes serendipitously came across a story on the [[Bacup#Culture and community|Britannia Coconut Dancers]] in an issue of ''In Britain'' magazine.<ref name="harrison" /> This led him to research other local festivals in Britain at the archives of the [[English Folk Dance and Song Society|Cecil Sharp House]].<ref name="mellor1513">David Alan Mellor, ''No Such Thing as Society,'' 15, n.13.</ref> Sykes' photography of these festivals was inspired by that of [[John Benjamin Stone|Benjamin Stone]], but he approached them with a modern sensibility and a small-format camera, "[trying] to include the unintended participants and to document the unfolding drama in a contemporary urban environment".<ref>"[http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/we-are-here We are here: Martin Parr, Anna Pavord and others on photographing Britain]", ''Tate etc,'' issue 10, Summer 2007. Accessed 9 September 2015.</ref> The results were shown in exhibitions, where they were praised by [[Colin MacInnes]],<ref name="mellor15">David Alan Mellor, ''No Such Thing as Society: Photography in Britain 1967–1987: From the British Council and the Arts Council Collection'' (London: Hayward Publishing, 2007; ISBN 978-1-85332-265-5), 15.</ref> and also in the book ''Once a Year: Some Traditional British Customs.'' In this book (published by [[Gordon Fraser (publisher)|Gordon Fraser]], uniform with [[Patrick Ward (photographer)|Patrick Ward]]'s ''Wish You Were Here''), Sykes presents one or more photographs of and a detailed explanatory text for each of 81 customs &mdash; for example three photographs (on pp.&nbsp;105–108) of the annual auction on the first Monday following St Peter's day (29 June) at the Grapes Inn of the mowing and grazing rights to Yarnton Meadow (or Yarnton West Mead), [[Yarnton]] ([[Oxfordshire]]). ''Once a Year'' has been described as "a beautifully photographed, tender and often humorous document";<ref>[[Simon Roberts (photographer)|Simon Roberts]], "[http://we-english.co.uk/blog/2008/09/22/once-a-year-homer-sykesi/ Once a Year: Homer Sykes]", We English, 22 September 2008. Accessed 9 September 2015.<!-- Previously http://we-english.co.uk/blog/?p=449 --></ref> and, 32 years after its publication, as remaining "[p]robably the best study of English folklore and ritual".<ref name="hamilton">Peter Hamilton, "Now the time returns again", ''British Journal of Photography,'' 18 November 2009. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100412034555/http://www.bjp-online.com/public/showPage.html?page=871249 |date=12 April 2010 }}.</ref> Annie-Laure Wanaverbecq of [[Maison de la photographie Robert Doisneau]] writes that "Observing his countrymen with humour and curiosity, over several years [Sykes] produced a fabulous visual archive of a nation in crisis and beset by doubt."<ref name="wanaverbecq">Annie-Laure Wanaverbecq, "[http://web.archive.org/web/20140714165902/http://www.maisondelaphotographie-robertdoisneau.fr/rubrique/expo/plus.php?rub=4&sousrub=1 Homer Sykes: England 1970–1980]", Maison de la photographie Robert Doisneau, 2014. {{Fr icon}} Archived by the Wayback Machine on 14 July 2014. Accessed 9 September 2015. (''Observant ses concitoyens avec humour et curiosité, il produit pendant plusieurs années une fabuleuse archive visuelle de la vie ordinaire dans un pays en crise et en proie au doute.'')</ref>