Tuesday, May 11, 2021

"The audacity of that pink bubble against that landscape"

I haven't read Douglas Stuart's Booker Prize winning novel Shuggie Bain yet, but learning that it was inspired by Raymond Depardon's brilliant photos of Glasgow - which I've written about before, here and here - certainly pushes it up the list.

In this article (published on fashion site Mr Porter, presumably on account of his day job as a senior menswear designer for major labels), Stuart talks insightfully about ten of the most remarkable images in the series, touching on everything from brutalist architecture to curtailed childhoods, working-class pride, the gender divide and misplaced hope. He regularly notes Depardon's knack/habit of illuminating an otherwise grimy, monochrome, urban environment with a strikingly conspicuous flash of colour - whether that's a woman's coat, a parked car, a girl's dress or a boy's bubblegum.

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