Ken Griffiths (photographer)

Griffiths was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, the eldest of five brothers. His father, Edward Rae Griffiths, was a manufacturer of leather goods from South Wales, and his mother, Gwladys Winson Griffiths,[2] a teacher from Cornwall. In 1969, at the age of 23, Ken travelled from New Zealand and began studying photography at the Royal College of Art (RCA),[1] where he was taught by professors John Hedgecoe and Michael Langford.[3]

In 1971, while at the RCA, Griffiths was named the Daily Telegraph Magazine's "Young Photographer of the Year",[4] an award which subsequently earned him a job at the Sunday Times Magazine. He used the prize money to travel through the Soviet Union, recording the experience in photographs published in the Daily Telegraph Magazine's 1973 article 'Life on Buttermilk and Tenterhooks'.[5]

Griffiths began his professional career with the Sunday Times in 1973. He was, alongside Don McCullin, one of the few photographers on the staff contract.[1] One of his first projects at this time was a series of twelve portraits entitled 'In an English Country Garden'. Each month, for a year, he photographed an elderly couple, Mr and Mrs Sweetman, in their garden in the village of Three Cups Corner, East Sussex. Published in the Sunday Times Magazine in 1974,[6] the series later became well known internationally because of a misunderstanding.[7] The absence of Mrs Sweetman in the final portrait caused the series to be interpreted as a poignant symbol of love and loss. In fact, she found it too cold to venture out for the final shot, and can be seen looking out through the kitchen window. Mr Sweetman stands in his wife's accustomed spot, not for any romantically metaphorical reason, but simply to avoid obscuring that window. The photographs were later displayed in the Sunday Times Magazine 50th Anniversary exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in 2012.[8] In the accompanying print edition of the magazine,[9] and subsequently in the book Zeit Wert geben, published in 2013.[10]

Throughout the 1980s and 90s, Griffiths' work featured in various magazines with a reputation for high photographic standards, including Independent Saturday magazine,[1] Geo, Condé Nast Traveller (from the first issue, launched by Harold Evans in 1987), Vogue, Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar, and the Sunday Times. He also created images for the advertising campaigns of many businesses, including MG cars, British Telecom, British Airways, Ford, Renault, Smirnoff, Visa, Volvo, Sainsbury's, and Pirelli. In 1998, Griffiths was commissioned by the Young and Rubicam advertising agency to photograph Ronaldo, the star of the Brazilian football team, for Pirelli's World Cup campaign. The footballer is depicted in his trademark celebratory pose, arms outstretched, and his image replaces that of the statue of Christ the Redeemer, which dominates the summit of Mount Corcovado, overlooking Rio de Janeiro. The image caused considerable controversy within the Catholic Church.[1][11]

During a 1987 assignment in Clarendon, Texas, a truck happened to park in front of him, and a father and his young son emerged, similarly dressed in cowboy boots and hats. Griffiths decided to take a picture, which subsequently led to Guess commissioning photographs for a book, The Panhandle, designed by Derek Birdsall RDI.[12] Griffiths enjoyed the spontaneity of the event, saying the following year that these pictures were not planned and allowed him to express what he felt was most important about photography, the recording of life as it really is, in that very moment.[13] The image 'Cornfield' and the aforementioned father-and-son 'Clarendon Cowboys' from the Panhandle project appeared, with two other of Griffith's images, in printer Robin Bell's 2009 book Silver Footprint: 35 Years of Darkroom Printing,[14] and were later exhibited at the Richard Young Gallery[15] and The Lucy Bell Gallery. The book (published by Dewi Lewis) and the accompanying exhibitions inspired the subsequent documentary film, The Silver Footprint, directed by Richard Dunkley.[16]

Griffiths was also an acclaimed portraitist, and his subjects included John Lee Hooker,[17] Sting, Bo Diddley, Adam Ant, Bob Geldof, and Keith Richards.[18] Ken's images of Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller were used as the front cover for the film 'The Edge of Love',[19] and his 1985 shot of Princess Margaret holding a pillow embroidered with the words 'It's not Easy being a Princess', was not seen until 2002, when it was used in the Sunday Telegraph's announcement of her death.[20] He also photographed Lucian Freud, and Freud's lifelong friend, the photographer and picture editor Bruce Bernard.[21] Griffiths' photography would later appear in the book Century, released in 2000 just before Bernard's death, and marketed as a chronicle of the twentieth century.[22]

Griffiths' tool of choice was a Gandolfi field camera, a bulky device, hand-crafted in mahogany, with brass furniture and leather bellows, the design of which has remained essentially unchanged since the mid 19th century.[33] He claimed that the considerable time required to set up his equipment afforded him a valuable opportunity to develop a greater rapport with his subjects, something he believed was often absent on photographic assignments; and gave them a choice as to whether they were to be photographed.[34] The large format sheet film employed, commonly 10 by 8 inches (250 mm × 200 mm), produced images of very high resolution, allowing for the creation of larger prints without sacrificing quality.

A lifelong advocate for the Gandolfi company, Griffiths became good friends with the Gandolfi brothers, taking great pains to ensure that they were well cared for during the final years of their lives.[35] Working with his brother David, Griffiths put together a 90-minute documentary, Gandolfi - Family Business, a warmly affectionate celebration of a dying craft.[36] Filming began in 1982, and continued for some 20 years, the documentary being premiered at the Sheffield International Documentary Festival in 2004. The film was selected for a British Film Institute sponsored tour of UK cinemas, and played to a full house at the National Film Theatre. The digitally remastered film was released on DVD in 2018, one year after the Gandolfi company finally closed its doors.[37]

Griffiths' choice of development processes (platinotype for monochrome and the carbro process for colour images) was equally old-fashioned, but the results were imbued with a painterly quality, and particularly resistant to fading. The carbro technique is particularly labour-intensive and was virtually obsolete when Griffiths gave it a new lease of life.[38]

Ken Griffiths died in 2014 at the age of 69, after a long battle with Motor Neuron Disease.[1] He is buried in the hills of Bala, Gwynedd.[1]

• Official website