Eight years ago, Bob Carlos Clarke committed suicide. Born in Ireland, he’s one of UK’s most underrated photographers. He’s also one of the great erotic photographers. Ghislain Pascal and the Little Black Gallery in London is paying him tribute with a retrospective which opened last Saturday. We decided to dedicate this special day to him, with recollections by Philippe Garner, Greg Hobson, Max Houghton and Lindsey Carlos Clarke, his wife.
We would like to thank Ghislain Pascal and Tamara Beckwith of the Little Black Gallery for organizing this day.
Living Dolls marks the 10th anniversary since legendary photographer Bob Carlos Clarke‘s final exhibition in 2004, Love – Dolls Never Die, before his untimely death in 2006. It includes a selection of images from the Love – Dolls series, some special photographs from the archives, plus eighteen classic black & white images.
In 2004, for his final exhibition, Bob Carlos Clarke wrote the following text:
‘Love Dolls Never Die’ is a sexy, tongue – in – cheek view of the current and uncomfortable relationship between the sexes. As British women grow stronger and more man – shaped, sexier, drunker, richer, more demanding and generally less compliant, men have adopted alice bands, skin care regimes, and twice monthly weeping. Hardly surprising then, that the enfeebled Y – chromosome is teetering towards total extinction.
A world without men might take 100,000 years, but the process is already well underway. In Britain, where women outnumber men in every age group over twenty, sperm counts are plummeting, and fathers, denied access to their offspring, dangle in fancy – dress, from cranes and high buildings.
While programmers and advertisers invariably depict men as brutes, idiots, assholes and/or losers, the equivalent images of females have become so ‘super – charged’ that they bear little resemblance to reality. If the same degrees of discrimination, distortion and digital enhancement were used to sell any other ‘product’, the advertising standards watchdogs would be snapping at heels.
Enhanced images of females should carry warnings. Men need to be aware of the dangerous side – effects of even dreaming of such creatures, and the possible damage to our health, wealth and happiness. Passive Fantasising Wastes Lives! Exotic Entertainers Threaten Family Values! Billboard Beauties Increase Braking Distances! Husbands and men with morals should be offered discreet separate entrances to newsagents and garage – forecourts in order to be spared the risk of exposure to newsstands heaving with pubescent gussets and ballooning bosoms.
For twenty or so years, I tried to use my camera to discover and reveal a little truth, I was, at least, ‘pure’ photographer, but nobody much likes reality anymore. A photographer shooting celebs for Hello earns more than one who risks his neck in a war zone. Lifestyle has vanquished real life, and digital technology has subverted the camera from a reasonably dependable purveyor of truth to a glass-eyed liar of the first order. Cosmetic surgery colludes in the creation of a world of false smiles and impossible proportions, and these days my lens lies like never before.
Perhaps, in such a world of such extreme brutality, fantasy and illusion are the safest places to hide. “Love – Dolls” is about the approaching time when real women become so perfect, and doll women so technologically advanced, that they will be indistinguishable from each other. The only way you’ll ever get to know the difference, is when she attacks you. That’s when you’ll know she’s real, but by then it may be too late
Bob Carlos Clarke, 2004
EXHIBITION
Bob Carlos Clarke, Living Dolls
From May 5th to June 21st, 2014
The Little Black Gallery
13A Park Walk
SW10 0AJ London
United Kingdom
