Stillsoho by Carla Borel presents a series of intimate black and white portraits of artists, writers, flanneurs, and bon viveurs, taken in and around Soho.
Using photography as a memoir, Borel records the human activity around her with a sensitivity rooted in affection for her subjects. Her openness to accident and the unexpected is indicative of her openness to the moment and lends empathy to the strange and tender encounters captured.
Inspired by the work of photographers from previous decades – John Deakin, Lisette Model, Brassai, and David Bailey’s 60s images – Borel’s photographs suggest another age and time.
The title of the exhibition comments on the filmic quality of the images, like stills from an unmade film. As Beat Generation expert Barry Miles cites of ‘Lexington Street’, 2006, “It’s like a movie still, it suggests a story, a series of images continuing before and after this moment in time”.
Carla Borel was born in Paris in 1973, and grew up in Hampshire. She moved to London in 1997 where she worked as a croupier in Mayfair’s casinos. Both inspired and disillusioned by this nocturnal life, she cultivated a passion for photography and taught herself how to use her trusty manual Pentax. From 2000 til 2007, she worked behind the bar at the French House, providing hospitality and counselling to an eclectic array of artists, media-folk and other assorted ne’er-do-wells. Carla now works at one of London’s leading contemporary art galleries.
Stillsoho by Carla Borel
From 11th December 2012 through January 2013
The Society Club
12 Ingestre Place, Soho
London W1F 0JF
T : +44 020 7437 1433
