Keeping up with the Ray-Joneses

That's Not My Age is fond of a spot of gritty realism - give me Ken Loach over Richard Curtis, Shaun Ryder over Nigel Havers any day. So this weekend, the Blog Widower and I were very excited to be invited to a private view of the late, sixties photographer, Tony Ray-Jones' work. I'd seen some of Ray-Jones' pictures before at Grayson Perry's Unpopular Culture exhibition but didn't really know his stuff. According to my lovely friend Paul Deller, who organised the exhibition, this is because, 'Tony Ray-Jones is a photographer's photographer.' My favourite images are those of unsuspecting holiday-makers in English seaside towns - the ballroom dancing photograph in Morecambe, the man on the sunlounger in Bournemouth, the couple on the promenade in Blackpool. All taken by TR-J as he travelled around England in a VW Camper van, for a couple of years at the end of the sixties with his wife, Anna.







Doubly exciting was the fact that Magnum photographer, Martin Parr was there too (at the private view, not in the camper van). Some of his TR-J photos are on loan and he was in discussion with Anna Ray-Jones - which was a real treat. I won't go on about it but Parr says the reason TR-J is still so inspirational is because, 'He treated the English seaside as a theatre, brought an American sensibility to British photography and his pictures are very simple,' adding knowingly, ' They look effortless but I know how complicated they are.' Definitely a photographer's photographer, then. And in the spirit of the Great British photojournalism, That's Not My Age picked up a camera and took a picture of Martin Parr:



Tony Ray-Jones went to school at Christ's Hospital in West Sussex, which is where the exhibition is on until 9 December 2010 - it's by appointment only but don't let that put you off, everyone's welcome. Contact: trjshow@gmail.com

Home is where the art is

Now this home really is where the art is. Forty-something couple, Lynne, a fashion & textiles expert and Del, an art teacher met as students at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in the eighties and now live in rural Sussex with their 11-year-old son, and Custard the Cat. The couple take a make do approach to interiors, most of the artwork here is second-hand and furniture has either been handed-down, or salvaged and recycled. Del plays art swap with friends when he's looking for something new to hang on the walls, creates stuff for the home using found objects and makes his own pasta (though apparently, Jamie Oliver's cannelloni with semolina flour is a 'fucking arse ache' to make). The screen for the fireplace is made from an old chest of drawers. Obviously they have a better class of skip down in Sussex:



Every surface is dotted with carefully curated doodahs. On the mantlepiece in front of the vintage French mirror sits a ceramic jug by Japanese potter, Takeshi Yasuda, a selection of family photos and a wooden statue bought off a beach artist in Jamaica, 'I asked for one that was unfinished, ' says Del, 'I like it because it's a work in progress.'



Whitewashed walls and neutral carpets make the perfect blank canvas for an interesting mix of artwork and antiques. And proving that less really is more, this ceramic bird cost one pound from a charity shop and the painted metal candlestick holder was picked up at a garden centre.



Second-hand fifties mirror, and mobile from the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York.



As a child growing up in the seventies, Lynne shared a pink-walled bedroom with her younger sister. Their grandma, a devout Catholic, often presented the girls with religious memorabilia - statues of patron saints, plastic plaques, rosary beads - which they displayed on the mantlepiece. 'We had this horrible seventies decor and all this religious stuff including holy water. It was mad,' laughs Lynne, 'The other day I thought blimey, I'm doing it again. I made the connection but it's not a religious thing at all, I'm an atheist! I suppose it's a comfort thing.'

Del tends to take the same approach to artwork as to interiors, with the emphasis on creating something modern from rescued cultural relics. As is evidenced by his latest collection, a series of collages made from old Penguin book covers. And, that's my picture happily sitting on the settee at That's Not My Age mansions so don't get any ideas! Besides, there's an exhibition coming soon.



To contact Del about his artwork: email P-DELLER@sky.com