‘A Tale of Two Cities’ Featuring works by John Deakin and Johnnie Shand Kydd.

The Sebastian Guinness Gallery will launch ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ on Thursday 10th November, 6-8pm, and will be open till the 10th December.

While both photographers are better known for their social documentation of the important art and social movements of their time, this exhibition will highlight their mutual affinity with Italy – for John Deakin through his studies of Genoa and for Johnnie Shand Kydd through his cultural documentation of the city of Naples.

“After working at a Bond Street art gallery selling 19th Century paintings for a number of years Shand Kydd began taking photographs of his artist friends and those in his social sphere, using an Instamatic camera”

Speaking with Johnnie Shand Kydd you immediately perceive he may very well just have two loves, one being Photography, the other Naples. Not surprisingly, his photographic work in the past has been focusing on certain fringes of society, extremes, that serve to represent a state of mind, if not the mere joy of life. On his second photobook ‘Crash‘, that opens with a foreword by Tilda Swinton, he documented the random, chaotic, joyful everyday life of close friends and acquaintances within the art scene – a highly recommended purchase.

Now, what does Naples have to do with that mad fancy world of stardom? A lot. For it seems that all in Naples is sublime! One can start to understand more clearly when listening to Johnnie’s stories about each of the photographs, the circumstances that surrounded them, the characters, the unique shabby chicness of a city as old as time – one could say. The result of almost a decade of research was published as ‘Siren City‘, a great photobook. He has spoken in the past about his feelings towards Naples. I believe that you don’t fail to understand him when seeing his work.

As a dramatic contrast to Shand Kydd’s work, Deakin, famous for his Vogue portraits of Dylan Thomas, Humphrey Bogart, Maria Callas, John Huston, etc., offers a view on Genoa, a selection of studies, more abstract and less humane.

Both photographers shared an affinity with Italy. In 1999 Johnnie Shand Kydd traveled to Naples for the first time, so beginning a love affair with this metropolis that continues to this day.  At first captivated by the vivacity, light and humour of the city, he soon became aware of an alternative and much darker story that reveals Naples to be the last great pagan city in Europe today.

Many of Deakin’s photographs have been lost, destroyed or damaged. Bacon based a number of famous paintings on photographs he commissioned by Deakin, including Henrietta Moraes on a Bed and a series of his portrait studies are part of the permanent collection at the Dublin City Gallery – The Hugh Lane in Dublin.  A chronic alcoholic, Deakin sadly died in obscurity and poverty, but since the 1980s his reputation has grown through monographs, exhibitions and catalogues.

Their sensibilities are similar – both share a handheld aesthetic, both prefer the 2¼ roll film medium-format camera – but more than that Deakin would have found an ally in Johnny, a comrade-in-arms with a profound love without pretence or artifice for the ordinary person in his own world.