Roger Bamber: Out of the Ordinary

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Roger Bamber: Out of the Ordinary, Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, Brighton and Hove, 1 April – 3 September 2023 [2] His perfectionism was legendary. In the days before digital, he would take reels of film, photographing the same subject 50 times from slightly different angles before satisfying himself that he had found the perfect image. He once asked Brighton sculptor Bruce Williams to jump from a ladder for a picture shoot 231 times. Three days later he rang Williams, but his wife answered. She said he couldn’t come to the phone because he was lying crippled in bed.

I really liked taking the pictures of the images in the museum. This time I took my picture in a portrait orientation, and I quite liked the frame and the look of it, which I am very happy with. His work brought him a clutch of accolades, including twice Photographer of the Year (once for a Sun portfolio and once for a set of Guardian pictures – a double thus far not repeated by anyone else...), twice News Photographer of the Year and he couldn’t remember how many times he’d been Features and Arts Photographer of the Year but knew it was more than 11. Roger Bamber was born in Leicester in 1944 and trained in graphic design, a discipline that informed all his future work. He was only 20 years old when he joined the Daily Mail as a photographer in 1965. It was the start of a career that saw his pictures used in every national newspaper, which allowed his passion for working with artists and other creatives full rein. He lived for most of his life in Brighton, where the beach became his outdoor studio and scores of his fellow Brightonians his willing subjects. Images of people and events in Brighton & Hove will provide a strong focus on the city in two of the three galleries.

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Retires from commercial newspaper photography, but continues with photography, producing a book, " Out of the Ordinary". Visiting this exhibition has inspired me creatively. I think I will use these pictures to inspire new music that I make, or use as album art. Lenny I chose this picture as my favourite as I love their position, the lighting, and the story behind it. I find so fun and interesting. I would definitely recommend visiting this exhibition and seeing the photos in the gallery, because there are so many pictures to look at and it’s quite fascinating. There’s a lot of options, so there’s surely something for everyone, and the captions to the images are really interesting.

The exhibition will include around 70 framed photographic prints and 10 large reproductions, interpretation, slide shows and film.Rupert Murdoch buys the broadsheet Sun newspaper and relaunches it as a tabloid to compete with the (image-centric) Daily Mirror. Bamber is persuaded to leave the Mail and be part of the Sun's team. As well as war reportage, Bamber documents the British music scene, getting an enviable level of access because musicians recognise him as an artist, and because he's likeable. Bamber told me it was the best accolade he’d ever received. Somebody had glanced at a newspaper a carriage or two away and thought, ‘That’s a Bamber’.

George Best – pictured in Mauritius in 1985 after serving a three month sentence for drink driving in December 1984 (Image: Roger Bamber)The camera angles and the composition of the images really Inspired me and I learned a lot. I want to try to learn how to do this too, to capture a whole scene in a way that still looks good, and to use high contrast in my images. Theo After moving to Brighton in 1973, Bamber’s work began to focus on everyday peoples’ lives, using the vivacious colour of flower fields, buses and seafront beach huts to demonstrate the vibrant personality of the city. One visitor described how the ‘the audacious use of colour was the most striking aspect of his work’. In addition, he concentrated on the very foundations of the city, ensuring full coverage of the railway station and Victorian sewage system that remains today. Bamber captured monumental moments in Brighton, such as the early rehearsals on percussion group Stomp in the streets of the town center and how hundreds came to witness the snow settling on Brighton Beach for the first time in 2 decades in 2009. Roger Bamber: an original mind - Twice British Photographer of the Year; twice News Photographer of the Year (topfoto.co.uk) Roger Bamber: Out of the Ordinary (brightonmuseums.org.uk) – exhibition, 1 April to 3 September 2023.