The famous Tim Jefferies runs Hamiltons Gallery in Mayfair which exhibits late 20th Century modern photography masters. His successful gallery represents artists such as Helmut Newton or Irving Penn amongst others. No doubt I was very excited to meet him at his gallery for our interview, as I have always been fan of modern photography with a strong interest in Helmut Newton’s work! Tim was very kind as he took some of his time for this interview on an opening day of his new show: “Something for Everyone” 18th march – 12th April which includes a selection of works by Herb Ritts, Helmut Newton, and Guido Mocafico amongst others. Olivier Bourseau: Hamiltons Gallery is specialized in photography. Why choosing this type of art form to painting or sculpting? Tim Jefferies: When I started the gallery which is nearly 25 years ago, the photography market barely existed in the UK. It was already underway to some degree in America but here in the UK and particularly in London there were very very few, in fact there were no photography galleries. There were a few institutions supported by the government that showed photographs, but there were no commercial galleries. There were certainly no photography galleries with the kind of premises that we have here at Hamiltons. So my business partner at that time and I decided that we would give London a pre-eminent venue for the exhibition of late 20th Century photographs. Picture below: from "Something for Everyone"'s exhibition - Hamiltons Gallery Olivier Bourseau: How do you select your artists and do you look for a particular style of photography? Tim Jefferies: We specialize in late 20th Century photographs. I work with traditional photographers making traditional photographs. So we don’t really work with the group of photographers who refer themselves to artists working with a camera. So not Gursky for instance. We represent people like Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, Robert Mapplethorpe, Helmut Newton… Classical, late 20th Century masters. In addition to that we also look for new emerging talent. Picture below: from "Something for Everyone"'s exhibition - Hamiltons Gallery Olivier Bourseau: What are the major subject matters represented in your exhibitions and do you see new trends emerging? Tim Jefferies: We have photographs that deal with everything from fashion, portraiture, still life, female nude, male nude, architecture…. It is a huge range of subject matters that we deal. We don’t specialize or specifically focus on just one thing although you find in my office right now that there is a common theme! (Tim refers to Helmut Newton’s photographs) Helmut Newton was a show that we had late last year and I still have a number of things left over from that show. There has been a tremendous amount of interest in Newton’s market recently so I am just riding that wave at the moment. Olivier Bourseau: London is one of the most active Art place in the world. How can you make sure that you differentiate yourself from the growing competition in the city? Tim Jefferies: It is a good question, as I said earlier we have been here for 25 years. 6 years ago I closed the gallery for nearly a year and made a major refurbishment. I created this environment that you are in now and part of creating this office that we are in is to represent more of an environment where pictures are going to end up. Very few people live in a white box with a concrete floor, and hard lights. It is important to see photographs in the context with furniture, and other objects. They look different when you see them like this. And this was an innovation that I thought would give us an edge. It certainly has. I think one constantly needs to be thinking and re-thinking how one presents ones’ pictures, what kind of work one shows. So we try to stay on our toes, I hope we succeed. Picture below: from "Something for Everyone"'s exhibition - Hamiltons Gallery Olivier Bourseau: Photography represented about 2% of the Fine Art Auction Sales turnover in 2004, with painting as the main art category with 75% of turnover. Why is photography not as popular as painting in your opinion, and do you see photography growing versus the others art category in the coming years? Tim Jefferies: The photography market has steadily increased over the last 20 years, and there has been a sharp increase in prices in the last 3 or 4 years. Photography is enormously popular. I’d say photography is probably more popular than painting. One of the things that people appreciate about photography is that it’s more democratic. It is easier to understand. A lot of modern and contemporary art confronts people and make them uncomfortable. They don’t understand what it is they are looking at, they feel stupid, and immediately just shut off. We are now more visually literate than at any other time in the human race. We have all grown up with magazines, with television, with internet. We are bombarded with images most of which are driven from film or from cameras, from photographic means. So we all have this visual literacy. So photography seems to be more digestible, more acceptable. So I see huge gains and increases in the photography market. Picture below: Is it not Andy Warhol and Co? - Hamiltons Gallery Olivier Bourseau: How is current market doing for fine art photography and what is the major expectation for the next few years? Tim Jefferies: It is difficult to say with what’s going on in the world at the moment: the sub-prime crisis, Bear Stearns going under a few days ago… There are extraordinary events taking place in the financial markets around the world. But that said, there are extraordinary gains being made all over the world and in other parts of the world. China, India: there are these new markets developing, and as these new markets develop, these new areas of wealth become interested in western culture, and in other art forms. I see photography really enjoying the boom which can last for many many decades to come. Olivier Bourseau: Thank you very much Tim!