Tim & Barry: the kings of the photographic underground get digital

Tim & Barry, the established kings of underground photography, are starting to make waves in the digital world. After a decade documenting subjects ranging from the grime scene to high-end fashion, the pair is turning their attention to online films designed to rival the slicker videos of the music industry.

"We had talked about moving image for a while, but as a small company we didn’t have the resources really to do it," says Barry. "Then, with the advent of YouTube, we thought let’s just start. Growing up on programmes like The Word, Dance Energy and Rapido that were exciting and had live music, we were really bored with the same old MTV mimed videos. They never really seemed to capture the energy and passion which real musicians have.’’

The pair’s own online TV channel, Tim & Barry TV, is a mime-free zone, featuring only live recordings of singers, bands and MCs.

Their newest project takes them even further into the online music community. Dontwatchthat.tv is a collection of video streams created by some of the people they have photographed over the past decade.

"Many of our friends and contemporaries have been playing about with moving image, so when we started telling people that we were going to set up our own website and stream video ourselves, they said, well I am working on this at the moment and would really like to put it on your site," Tim says. "So now Jean Charles de Castelbajac has a weekly channel (JCDCTV) so does Ben Drury (The Silent Listener), Tim Westwood, SB.TV, Palace Wayward Boys Club (PWBC) JME and Tempa T (Par TV) and of course Tim & Barry TV.

"The idea is to have a new video which goes up every day," he continues. "There will be blogs, forums and photos also, so it’s hopefully going to be a nice little creative community that has absolutely nothing to do with MySpace, YouTube or Face book.’’

Tim & Barry met at college in 1997, became friends and started helping out photographers. They found they worked well together, and when Tim was commissioned by i-D magazine to photograph UK garage act Wookie, he invited Barry along to do the shoot with him. Gradually, other artists from the scene began to get in touch when they needed press shots or album artwork, and they began to build up a portfolio. Examples of their portraits range from M.I.A sitting on a washing machine in a launderette to Slew Dem crew "spitting bars" at a Paris fashion show after-party.

Their work – and the positive reaction to it – has taken them in some unexpected directions. They ended up working with the French fashion designer Jean Charles de Castelbajac after a chance conversation unearthed a connection between him and an artist they were photographing.

"We contacted him and told him about how the scene wore his clothes," Barry says. "He knew a few of the grime artists and was really excited. He invited us to his retrospective exhibition at the Victoria and Albert museum, where he gave us a guided tour of the show and invited us to Paris for his next fashion show. We took photos backstage at his show and then went back to his studio and showed him our portfolio. He loved our photos and said that he really wanted to work with us. A couple of months later he called us up and said that he wanted to commission us to photograph his archive for his first major retrospective in Paris and six months later we had three photographs, 11 meters high, hung outside the Musée Galliera. You could see then from the top of the Eiffel Tower with the naked eye.’’

It was at about this point that they started to move beyond photographs and experiment with video, initially as a way of getting around commissioning editors.

"So often in the past we would pitch musicians to magazine and they would say, ‘Errrrrr sounds interesting,’ but then wouldn’t commission us," Tim explains. "Then a year or two later they would come back saying, ‘Oh you remember you said about such and such, well we are ready to do them now’. The YouTube channel gave us the platform to work with who we wanted, when we wanted.’’

Now, their channel has attracted 2.8 million hits, including several thousand for their latest surprise hit, which takes on the economic policies of Gordon Brown and Barack Obama.

With such a varied body of work, they hesitate to settle on their favorite medium. They like the directness of online video and being able to see people commenting on it and post it on blogs, they say, but eventually they return to their photographic roots.

"There is nothing like looking at a photograph you just took and thinking that is the one," Barry says. "With moving image, it’s not that immediate response. You have to capture the footage, edit it, output it, and then you can see the results. The satisfaction you get when you post a video and it suddenly takes off, people commenting on it and posting it on blogs, it’s really satisfying in a direct way.’’

Tim和Barry ：两位民间摄影之王转向数字化

Tim和Barry ，这对资深的民间摄影之王，正开始在数字领域里大展身手。在记录从满是尘垢的场景到高端时尚十年之后，两人正在将注意力转向在线电影，旨在与音乐业界的雨衣影片竞争。

“我们谈过一些电影方面的情况，但作为一个小公司，我们实在没有资源在这方面有所发展” Barry说。 “然后，随着YouTube的出现，我们认为我们可以开始了。我们在像The World, Dance Energy and Rapido 等节目上发展很快，这些节目令人兴奋并且有鲜活的音乐，可是我们对节目中模仿电影的MTV 真的感到厌倦。似乎他们从来没有获得真正的音乐家才有的充沛的精力和激情。

二人自己的网络电视频道，Tim & Barry TV,，不步他人的后尘，以只播放歌手，乐队和MCS的现场录音为特色 。

他们的最新项目使他们在在线音乐领域扎得更深。 Dontwatchthat.tv是一个专门播放视频的频道，是由他们在过去的十多年里拍过照片的一些人创办的。

“我们的许多朋友和同时代的人们一直在以电影自娱，因此，当我们开始告诉人们，我们要建立我们自己的网站和流媒体，他们说，我们正为此而努力，真想把它放在你们的网站上，”Tim 说。 “于是现在Jean Charles de Castelbajac有一个每周频道（ JCDCTV ）。Ben Drury （The Silent Listener） ，Tim Westwood, SB.TV, Palace Wayward Boys Club (PWBC) JME and Tempa T (Par TV) 当然还有Tim & Barry TV都是这么出现的。”

“创办在线频道的目的是希望每天都让人们看到新的视频， ”他继续说。 “也会有新的博客，论坛和照片，因此希望那是一个不错的有创意的领域，绝对与MySpace ， YouTube或Facebook没有任何关系。”

Tim & Barry是1997年在大学里认识的，后来他们成了朋友并开始给摄影师帮忙。他们发现他们在一起合作得很好，于是当i-D杂志委托Tim拍摄UK garage act Wookie时，他邀请 Barry和他一起干。渐渐地，当地的其他艺术家需要拍照或制作艺术画册时就开始和他们联系，并开始建立投资组合。他们创作的肖像包括从坐在洗衣店的一台洗衣机上的M.I.A到巴黎时装展结束后举行的斯卢戴姆组合“口水吧”聚会。

他们的工作-以及对他们工作的积极反应-把他们引向了一些意想不到的方向。在一次可能泄露他们与一位他们正在拍照的艺术家的联系的交谈之后，他们结束了与法国时装设计师Jean Charles de Castelbajac 的合作。

“我们跟他取得联系并告诉他当地人怎么穿他设计的服装，”Barry 说。 “他知道几个土气的艺术家，真的很兴奋。他请我们参观他在维多利亚和阿尔伯特博物馆举办的回顾展，在那里他陪同我们参观展览并邀请我们参加他的下一个巴黎时装展。我们在他的时装展的后台拍了照片，然后回到他的工作室，把我们的作品给他看。他非常喜欢我们的照片，并说他真的想与我们合作。数个月后，他打电话给我们说，他想委托我们给他在巴黎的首次大型回顾展的档案拍个照。6个月后，我们完成了三张11米高的照片，悬挂在Galliera博物馆外面。从艾菲尔铁塔顶部用肉眼你就可以看到它们。”

大约正是从这时起，他们开始摆脱单纯的拍照，开始尝试制作视频，不过，最初只是为了不再把工作委托给编辑。

“过去我们经常将音乐家推荐给杂志社，他们会说， ’ 哦，这--听起来很有趣，但他们不会委托我们”Tim解释说。 “然而一年或两年后，他们会回来说， ’噢，你们还记得你说的什么什么吗？我们现在想做那些事情了’ 。YouTube频道给了我们这个平台，让我们可以与任何人，在任何时候进行合作。”

现在，他们的频道已吸引了二百八十万人点击观看,其中包括最近令他们吃惊的数千人的点击, 因为他们对英国首相Gordon Brown和美国总统Barack Obama的经济政策感兴趣。

由于出现了五花八门的媒体，他们对选择最喜爱的媒体犹豫不决。他们说，他们喜欢网络视频的直观性，能够看到人们对其进行评论，并将其贴在博客上。但最终他们回到了他们的根本，摄影方面。

“绝不像看一张你刚拍摄的照片那样，觉得那就是你想看到的。”巴里说。 “就视频而言，它不是那种立即就能看到的东西。你必须捕捉镜头，对它进行编辑，把它制作出来，然后你才能看到结果。当你在网上贴出一个视频，而它又突然大受欢迎，人们对它进行评论并把它贴在博客上时，你就会得到一种满足，那确实是一种获得满足的很直接的方式。”