Steve Blair

Although this current collection was taken over a period of 5 years some 8 years ago, the idea behind my work followed a particular creative process. When I set out to take the photographs I was very interested in the fashion and art happening in London. I found that Japanese people had a very unique way of expressing identity, and could utilize images, or styles, in particular way that would make me reflect on the kind of culture, or “feel” that was going on in London in the mid to late 90s. So my use of Japanese people in my work was intended to bring a kind of parody or humor into what I was seeing or experiencing around me. I saw it as an indirect way to express my experiences and since most humor is illogical, then its sometimes difficult to place it in a meaningful context, yet the work, hopefully, still speaks for itself. When we look at something out of context, then its meaning can sometimes become more apparent. “ Andy Shows of Chopper At School”, the title of one of my pieces, is a good example of this. The title is actually the heading on The Sun newspaper, and is about the prince royal taking his kids to school in a helicopter yet, those of us familiar with British humor, will realize the pun on words since “chopper” is actually the American English for helicopter, yet is also slang for “penis” which, in many ways, was a great headline on The Sun newspaper that came on the same day of the scheduled shoot, so I used it. The Japanese girl drinking the can of special brew, and the guy reading the sports page of the newspaper, with the headline showing, was for me a very interesting and funny image, yet it’s also kind of dark and reflective which came about from seeing groups of people drinking strong beer on the streets. As a photographer, I would give my subjects a kind of theme and encourage them to express their feelings through a series of images or poses. I used various props to do this and my subjects could adapt them in the photo shoot to change the theme or adapt a feeling to what I was intending to express.