George Plemper, B+W, Mamiya Twin Lens Reflex

[David Jones]

Given the interest here in film-based photography, I thought I should share the work of one of my Flickr contacts, George Plemper. Like me, he was a teacher in the 1970s, wrestling with the problems of the profession at a time when we were both too young and inexperienced to cope with the problems of the time. He taught in Riverside School, London and I worked a few miles north up the A10 in Hoddesdon.

George is an unassuming chap but I find his images moving and evocative of an era that doesn't seem that long ago but in reality is. He had a knack of capturing the youngsters' inner souls, if that is not too pretentious. I believe he mostly used a Mamiya TLR so how much of this was down to him, and how much was down to a style of photography that allows you to maintain eye contact with the subject I do not know. Seeing the uniformly high standard of images it must have been largely down to his keen eye and empathy with the subjects.

If you trace the Flickr link, you can read the comments on the image I have posted here. Towards the end it is very moving and shows the power of social media to share images that would otherwise be long forgotten. The same thing happened to me. One of my ex pupils died not long after I put up a photo of his class on FriendsReunited. It meant a lot to his wife and son, and would have just sat in my slide box without the ability of the Web to share.

George had some of these images published in Black+White Photography magazine. There are some very powerful portraits in his photostream, and some of the comments are well worth reading.


Steven Brown, Riverside School Portait 1978 by Mak'm & Mrs, on Flickr

 

[David Jones]

Two more of George Plemper's images. The Flickr comments are worth reading, especially for the girl by the sewing machines:

Riverside School, Thamesmead Portrait #34 1977 by Mak'm & Mrs, on Flickr


Riverside School, Thamesmead, England. Portrait #9 Denise Smith 1977 by Mak'm & Mrs, on Flickr

 

[Pete Askew]

Thanks David. Interesting and also fabulous photos. One of the things I like about waist level finder (as on the Mamiya TLRs etc) is the connection you maintain. Add to that the rapport and skill that George displays has certainly led to some wonderful images. It would be great if he was interested in joining RPF. What do you think the chances are?

 

[David Jones]

I will drop him an email. He is still taking photos but left teaching, as did I (although I returned to College teaching as my final full-time job).

I notice I take more photos of things than people; I always found it ironic that as a teacher I actually hate telling people what to do so I tend to go for the candid rather than the posed. I finally have a camera with a fold-out LCD panel and I want to try it TLR style to see if that works for me.

 

[Pete Askew]

That's a good idea, bizarrely I never though of using a fold out screen to do that (not that I have a camera with one). I do use WLFs on medium format cameras (film and digital though). And you can definitely get a 'look' using that approach.

 

[Brian Moore]

Those school shots are wonderful. I bet he was perceived by his students as a very cool chap, walking around and snapping pics with his TLR. Well, I would have thought so were I one of his students. Thanks for posting these David.

Pete: That's a smashing wee portrait you've posted too.

 

[Glen Roberts]

Those were the days when you could innocently photograph children and no one would think anything of it.

Can you imagine teachers walking around class taking photographs of pupils these days. Half the parents would be accusing them of all sorts and the headteachers would be calling them in for a disciplinary hearing!.

I mean you can't even photograph the children's nativity plays at Christmas now!!!.

 

[David Jones]

The parents I got to know in Hoddesdon in the early 1970s were so supportive and despite the odd "bad 'un" the school was a good place to work. These pictures bring so many strong memories back for me; some of the subjects even look a bit like youngsters I taught.

To be honest, I don't think you would have problems with the age-range shown here even today, provided you explained what you were doing and were prepared to share the results. I never had any problems taking photos around our college and some of our students were not that much older. Those who did not want to be photographed let it be known and we just left them out of the pictures.

Of course it is what you can do with the images afterwards that has changed dramatically. I would never post any images of our students on social network sites unless it was for a formal event such as an awards evening where they knew they would be photographed, or it was our degree students who were quite happy for the images to be shared.

 

[Rense Haveman]

Wonderful, these photos fill me with sadness....

 

[David Jones]

Why sad? I admit some of these images are very evocative, and a couple of the commentaries are quite sad. Ultimately though they record young people with all their different strengths and personalities and I find that up lifting. George had - and has - a real skill for portraiture.

I have been in touch and it sounds as if he will join us in due course.

An example of his more recent work:


Eleanor, Lincoln March 2012 (6) by Mak'm, on Flickr

 

[Chris Dodkin]

That eye contact in #34 is something else - she's looking right through the screen into my head!

Love the lighting as well - gives her a very dimensional look against the more 2D kids in the background.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Yes, that eye contact, and the smile really makes contact. Beautiful.