AN EXHIBITION OF COLOUR
5 minute read
Magnum has visually documented most of the world's major events and personalities since the 1930s, covering society, politics, events and conflict. The Luminaire has partnered with Magnum Photographers to offer photography enthusiasts, amateur or accomplished, an opportunity to learn from Magnum’s most renowned talents and explore the inspiration behind their work.
Alex Webb, and his creative partner and wife, Rebecca Norris-Webb, have worked with The Luminaire to curate a journey to their hometown in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, including a visit into their home and studio.
Alex Webb began working with Magnum in 1974 at the age of 22. Then a Magnum Photos nominee, Alex began working as a professional photojournalist, going on to work for the New York Times Magazine, Geo, Life, National Geographic, among other magazines.
Alex and his wife Rebecca, a poet and photographer, have long been artistic partners, most recently collaborating on Waves, a pandemic logbook in words and photographs of Cape Cod during the waves of the coronavirus. Ahead of the journey, The Luminaire asks Alex and Rebecca for insight into their creative backgrounds.
Q: You recently collaborated on Waves. How have your personal creative styles fed into your collaborative work?
Alex Webb (AW): In the process of collaborating, we have discovered that though our respective bodies of work and ways of seeing are quite different, there are certain links, certain commonalities that enable us to bring our work together. We are both attuned to the emotional tenor of colour—both of us respond to the atmosphere that colour creates and enhances. I also think that there is often a slightly surreal element to both of our work. Our work generally strikes different enigmatic notes, but a shared sense of mystery allows our respective bodies of work to speak to one another in special ways.
Rebecca Norris Webb (RNW): We both appreciate how our collaborative work often pushes us into new creative territory, where we may not have ventured otherwise. For instance, I tend to explore the natural world—in particular those landscapes where I’ve lived or spent considerable time in. For instance, for my third book, My Dakota, I photographed in the badlands and prairies of South Dakota—where I came of age—in response to the unexpected loss of my brother.
With our collaborative book, Waves, however, Alex’s and my creative roles were turned upside down—like many things during the pandemic. From spring 2020 through spring 2021, Alex transformed into a landscape photographer, drawn to the Wellfleet beaches where he’d spent many of his childhood summers. Meanwhile, I followed the waves of light as they washed through our mid-century modern house of many windows.
Image credit: Rebecca Norris Webb/Magnum Photos. Clouds, 2020.
Image credit: Alex Webb/Magnum Photos. MEXICO. Oaxaca. 1990. Cotton candy.
“I REALISED THAT BY PHOTOGRAPHING IN BLACK AND WHITE, I WASN’T DEALING WITH THE BRILLIANT COLOUR AND SEARING LIGHT THAT DOMINATES THESE WORLDS, PLACES WHERE VIBRANT COLOUR SEEMS ALMOST EMBEDDED IN THE CULTURE.” - ALEX WEBB
Q: What drove your transition from black and white photography to colour?
(AW): Like many photographers of my generation, I began as a strictly black and white photographer. However, that changed in the late 1970’s when I found myself working extensively along the U.S.-Mexico Border and in the Caribbean. I realised that by photographing in black and white, I wasn’t dealing with the brilliant colour and searing light that dominates these worlds, places where vibrant colour seems almost embedded in the culture. As a result, I turned to colour, which I have worked in ever since.
Image credit: Alex Webb/Magnum Photos. Thessaloniki, 2003.
Q: Cape Cod has long attracted creative communities. Why do you think this is?
(AW): There is a long tradition of the arts on the Cape. The list goes on and on: Edward Hopper, Hans Hoffman, Robert Motherwell, Eugene O’Neill, to name just a few. I am in fact a product of this tradition, in that shortly after World War II, my parents—my father an aspiring novelist, my mother a painter—met in Provincetown. And after they had children, they returned to the Cape.
I suspect there are many reasons why the Cape has proved to be such fertile ground for the arts. Its natural beauty, remoteness, and quietude—especially during the off-season, our favourite time of year—all certainly play a role. Like no other place in the world, it’s where Rebecca and I find we can completely immerse ourselves in selecting and sequencing our work, in particular while making our photography books in our Wellfleet studio, which was originally my mother’s artist studio. And then there’s the luminous Cape Cod light. Where we live on the Outer Cape is a bit like living on an island—it’s only a few miles wide, with the light and the sea constantly changing. It’s no wonder that artists of all stripes have long been drawn to the Cape.
Image credit: Rebecca Norris Webb/Magnum Photos. First Light, 2020.