Ponch Hawkes Australian, b. In researching photographs for the upcoming exhibition Out of the closets, onto the streets: Gay Liberation photography I came across this photograph taken by Ponch Hawkes of the Gay Liberation march that was part of Gay Pride week in Ponch had never seen this image before until I scanned the negative.
And there, front and centre as always, is Rennie Ellis capturing the actionβ¦ What a special find and a wonderful photograph by Ponch! You know you are having a good time when you laugh out loud at so many photographs, sharing the experience of the artist as though you had been there. There to capture it all β affectionately, non-judgementally β was Rennie Ellis.
He was always part of the action because he was part of the family. He was a humanist photographer in the true sense of the word, for he loved photographing human beings, their social relations and their habitats, whatever that might be β sunning, partying, boozing, smoking, picking up.
Ellis had an eloquently clumsy eye, and for the type of baroque photographs he took this is a great thing. No perfect framing, no perfect tension points within the image, no regular alignment of horizontals, verticals or diagonals β just instinctual images taken in a split second, with his own particular brand of humour embedded in them.
And always with this slight eccentricity in his vision. Look at the image of Dancing People, Razor Club , below and notice the odd hand poking in at the left hand side and the attitude of the dancers, or Fully equipped, Albert Park Beach c. Ellis also liked to push and pull at the pictorial plane; he liked to use pairs of people; he was not afraid of out of focus elements in the foreground of his images; he used chiaroscuro; and his use of light is always excellent. Above all, there is a consistency to his vision that never falters β a concatenation of images that is his style?
