Tobias Zielony is most well known for his work capturing and documenting the lives of young people in their everyday surroundings. They often feature young people loitering or being involved in illegal activity and although this isn’t strictly “gangs,” the style in which he shoots is how I imagined some of my own work to look.
It seems that Zielony doesn’t focus on documenting the conditions people live in but how they conduct themselves, their self-portrayal and gestures. This is a style of photography I really admire and would love to achieve myself. Although my shots would be staged, Zielony’s works gives me great inspiration for the style and feel I would like to achieve.
The work that inspires me most is 'Curfew.' It was shot in Bristol in 2001 and takes its name because it is mainly of teenagers hanging around after dark breaking Tony Blair's curfew law for young people.
This picture from the curfew series shows a group of teenagers hanging around on a common, smoking and burning a dustbin. You get a real sense of boredom and in many ways the image reminds me of some of my own teenage years. Not that I smoked and burnt bins but I can remember the boredom, not having anywhere to go and just hanging around with my friends. This is why I think the photograph is so significant, because it captures what life is really like for teenagers who come from poorer backgrounds.
The places where his subjects would meet include car parks, service stations, building entrances and many other places that would not be social hot spots if not for their presence. The fact that these places are used intensifies the sense of boredom this is shown by a quote from a girl he photographed in Zielony's book 'Story, No Story' "We're not bored. Boredom is just a word for what we do anyway."
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| Tobias Zielony, Maik + Rico 2006, from the series: 'Big Sexyland' |
This photograph taken from the series 'Big Sexyland' depicts two young men loitering in a Berlin park. Zielony found the men in a porn cinema opposite the park. Many of the subjects in this series worked as male prostitutes and Zielony photographed them waiting around in between action. They would smoke, sleep and just hang around.
He focuses on the way they conduct themselves, the way they move and gesture. You also get the feel that Zielony doesn't take the picture from the perspective of being a by stander but as if he is a part of the group. I think this is important because the images are not taken in a way to cast pity or judgement upon the subjects.
He used artificial and infra-red lighting to capture the images in the series. I don't know much about his type of lighting but I think it works well in the context he is taking the pictures. You can see how dark it really is in the top right of the picture and with the light you almost get a sense that he is revealing something to you that you wouldn't know was there.
The work of Tobias Zielony captures young people in their every day surroundings. What makes his photographs unique is that most are not from a fly on the wall perspective but as if he was one of the people in the photograph doing the very same things. I feel as though he is lifting the curtain on behaviour that older people either think doesn't exist or turn a blind eye to.
