Hannah's Photography.: Dryden Goodwin

Travelling around on the Jubilee line you are presented with various portraits by Dryden Goodwin of the Jubilee line staff. After seeing these and hearing a bit about his work in Carmen’s lesson I became more interested in his work and visions. I first looked at his work ‘Linear’ which is the work commissioned by Art on the Underground that you see along the Jubilee line. Goodwin hand drew 60 portraits of staff with a pencil. He also extends his idea of portraits by creating 60 movies of him while drawing each portrait. In each movie you see that way he connects with the subject and get a better idea of their personality beyond their job. Each portrait makes you think more about the underground staff and reminds you that they are actually people too. Goodwin quoted on this work “Linear exists as a repository of insights and histories, anecdotal and factual, revealed through the interplay of the drawn line and conversation, that is unique to the Jubilee line at this particular point in time. Drawing someone you’ve never met before results in an intense encounter and enables a unique intimacy to develop. As the portraits unfold, so too does openness in the conversation; Linear is all about different types of connection.”

The exhibition ‘Cast’ held at the Photographers Gallery in 2008 is the other piece of work by Goodwin that I became particularly interested in. In this series Goodwin photographed people he saw on his travels around London. His images tie photography and drawing together, as he scratches over the print surface. When viewed up close you can see how delicate and exact his scratchings are. I read a review for this exhibition on the Guardian website and it gives a really good insight into Goodwin’s work. I feel Goodwin has created a real art form, which may look easy but is hard to get right. Goodwin’s ideas really interest me, and the way he connects with his subject. His images are very captivating and eye pleasing, for me anyway! Another series of Goodwin’s which is worth looking at is ‘Art Now’ which he exhibited in 2002 at Tate. Again the series includes images as well as film.