Tony Butcher: White Male Photographer of Black Male Bodies

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From: FunBone                           Sent: 10/18/2002 4:52 PM            

White Male Photographer Of Black Male Bodies

 

Tony Butcher is a white man who has successfully exhibited and published his images of black male nudes. His work is varied: some studios, some outside, some in rooms or buildings. There are portraits, full length shots, and others which concentrate on specific parts of the body. Tony has been a serious photographer for less than five years and has no background of either academic criticism or formal art training. He learned his craft initially via the route of camera clubs and the Royal Photographic Society. In these circles, the male nude is only reluctantly accepted, and even then, more black than white - what one might term the National Geographic factor. Two questions arise from Tony's work: How good is it? And should it be 'allowed' from a racial perspective? The first question can be answered unequivocally. Tony is a fine photographer and has always been concerned to represent not only the physical beauty of his subjects, but also their personalities. He believes in working with a model over a period of time and seeking his collaboration and acceptance of the images produced. The relationship between artist and model is closer to a partnership than an exploitation. The racial question is more complex. The controversy has arisen from the view of some black people that they are uniquely qualified to represent themselves. They argue that white people, even with the best of intentions, should not intrude. Clearly black people have insights not readily available to an outsider. A recent example is the work of Ingrid Pollard, a black woman, who makes moving and personal statements on the separation of families. She juxtaposes family group photographs with bleak images of the sea to signify displacement and desolation and links them with superficially banal messages such as 'Wish you were here'. But just because minority groups are uniquely placed to photographically represent each other, does it therefore make it 'wrong', for outsiders to do the same? George Dureau, A New Orleans artist and photographer, used amputees and dwarfs as models and showed them as they wanted to be seen The results are certainly challenging, but it would be difficult to maintain that the subjects are exploited or that a physically handicapped photographer would have presented them more sympathetically. An outsider can be unaware of certain overtones in his or her images, but this is not necessarily bad - it merely reflects the viewers different appreciation. For example, Tony's image of a man on the seashore has been described by more than one black viewer as very sad, with references not merely to separation but to slavery - which certainly reads more into it than was consciously intended. To them, the pose suggests bondage and the downcast eyes sadness, possibly submission. In comparison with Tony, the work of two other photographers - Robert Mapplethorpe and Rotimi Fani-Kayode - should be mentioned. Tony's control of lighting is as meticulous as Mapplethorpe's, but it is less formulaic. Like Mapplethorpe, his work contains an element of surprise - the mark of true creativity. Tony's work, however, contrasts more strongly with that of Nigerian photographer, Rotimi Fani-Kayode. Whilst Tony's work is generally self-explanatory, Rotimi's insights need to be explained - and not just to white people. For instance, taken cold, Rotimi's photograph of a man painted with coloured spots, holding three candles in front of his genitalia could easily be read as exoticism of the most patronising variety, with a crude reference to the myth of black super-virility thrown in. In fact it relates to the Yoruba god of smallpox - which just shows how wrong you can be if you don't know a culture. Tony continues to progress. His work maintains the quality I first saw in it: the expression of his appreciation of black male beauty which can be shared by either sex and any race                                                  

 

Tony Butcher is one of the leading photographers of the male nude to emerge from Britain in the 1990's.

Tony began photography as a hobby in 1989 .He gained a fellowship at The Royal Photographic Society in 1990 with a panel of his Black Male nudes. His Studies in Black have been published in several books, among them: Adam and Erotica by Edward Lucy Smith. Naked Men Too and The Male Nude Now by the American author David Leddick. He also featured in the book Man published by St. Martins Press in New York.

The Ink Group in Australia devoted the calendar Noir to his work for three years and now the calendar has been taken over by Tushita in Germany. Several magazines have published his work, the Australian magazine Blue have published his work four times including an eight page review of his new book, they also included his work in three of there books Dreamboys 1 & 20 and Men in Blue.

Tony Butcher's work has been shown in several one man exhibitions in London, Birmingham, New York, San Francisco, Amsterdam and Paris. Tony has also been offered a one month solo exhibition in New York to open the galleries season in 2004 and will be the first time the entire space has been given over to a exhibition on the black male body.

He has also done stills work for two London productions, Pepper Soup at the Lyric Hammersmith and the controversial play Corpus Cristi.

 

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