With each new journey with the camera, I learned not only how to take pictures but also the essential humanistic tenets of photojournalism. Do not judge your subjects but be interested by them. Allow them to “speak” through the pictures, never ever put yourself or your bias first.
Jocelyn Bain Hogg
This seminal series (and later book) was born when Bain Hogg was given an editorial assignment by British Elle to photograph a journalist who was interviewing two known villains. He got talking to one of the men about the intimacies of the father and son relationship - Bain Hogg’s father was an actor (Tom) and the Villain’s son was also an actor – they bonded over a night of whiskey and conversation in a Soho club. The villain was keen to see the shots for the article and Bain Hogg who realised he had begun to be privy to a secret, private and frightening world, asked if he could photograph them further. He then pitched the idea of a full story to a Japanese journalist he’d been working with – an exclusive document of the British Crime World featured in Japanese GQ. The work for the commission was shot in a month, but Bain Hogg carried on shooting this seedy world for 3 more years resulting in the completion of The Firm.
“The reason the pictures resonate is because I never ever lied to them. I cannot pretend to be from their world; I do not have a cockney accent and actually have no interest at all in British crime histories and from the start made it clear I didn’t want to photograph their own presentation – no posed pictures and no complicity. From day one I showed them the pictures and continue to do so. This way there can be no arguments and no compromise. I soon realised that they actually enjoy being presented in this hard, real way…”
Jocelyn Bain Hogg
The prints in the exhibition have been hulled from the yellow and block kodak boxes which have lain undisturbed for decades housing the original works since the story went from neg to its physical existence at the skilled hand of Bain Hogg, who is himself a consummate printer. These prints were mainly used for blue chip publications and have Jocelyn Bain Hogg’s stamps, signature and notations on the verso – something now which is becoming more and more exceptional in the days of the digital image.
Jocelyn Bain Hogg began his career as a unit photographer on film sets after studying documentary photography at Newport Art College. He shot publicity campaigns for the BBC and worked on numerous commercial and editorial assignments appearing in Vogue, Vanity Fair, GQ, Esquire and The Independent to name but a few. Bain Hogg is the author of 7 books to date including The Firm, The Family and Idols + Believers which are among his most known. He is a member of the famed journalistic photo agency VII.
