PICKPOCKET 2023

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GABRIEL JONES' PHOTOS OFFER A NEW TYPE OF VOYEURISM

 

Article by Emily Gosling for Creative Review Magazine, London

 

11/02/2022

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"Photography has a longstanding fascination with unposed subjects: Henri Cartier-Bresson’s ‘decisive moment’ hinges entirely on the candid; while some of our most famous living photographers have made a career out of snapping spontaneity — Martin Parr, Nan Goldin (to some extent), and Bruce Gilden, to name a few.

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But Canadian photographer Gabriel Jones has taken things one step further by making images that celebrate the oblivious people (...)

These amorphous codes of photographer-as-performer are also at the heart of his newer series, Pickpocket. “I photographed pickpockets in action over two years without them knowing,” he explains. “I started this series after being robbed: I accidentally found the pickpockets in my neighbourhood and started following and studying their complex methods. Pickpocket is different from Splashes but I use the same techniques.”

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Pickpocket 2023 suggests various references to Robert Bresson’s film Pickpocket (1959).

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- Excerpt From: ROBERT BRESSON “Bresson on Bresson.

Interviews 1943–1983. Edited by Mylène Bresson.

 

« There’s something magical in this kind of theft. 

Have you ever felt the uneasy atmosphere when a thief is present? It’s inexplicable. 

I would like to make a film of hands, glances, objects (…)

I will improvise a lot, shoot in crowds, face unpredictable obstacles. . . ."