Melancholy & Hope

These pictures came from a number of conflicting places. They reflect the documentary tradition and commercial brief, but also a desire to produce work that attempts to answer questions using a combination of real and staged imagery.

They show the development of tight narratives and the struggle between the limited language of commercial imagery and a deeper, story based approach.

The selected images below were taken using a combination of medium format film and digital capture. See review below from E Magazine below:

"Joseph Kaler's photos seem like snapshots of life, or moments captured from a film. His models do not pose in glamorous worlds, but appear casually against everyday London backdrops. Kaler's photographic intention breaks with conventional fashion photography, a bold step once taken by Philip-Lorca diCorcia with his street photography for a renowned clothing manufacturer in the nineties. Joseph Kaler aims to achieve more than simply presenting fashion in appealing ambiences, he seeks to enhance pictures with a deeper content and emotion: seemingly authentic scenarios tell stories, arouse feelings and appear to document real events.

All the pictures in his latest series were taken in East London, a part of the metropolis that has been shaped by unemployment and poverty, but also by a special group of people that inspired Charles Dickens. Melancholy and hope still lie close together here, creating a unique atmosphere. In this environment, an emancipated, confident, young group of people with a new attitude to life has emerged. To Joseph Kaler, photographing East London means concerning himself with issues such as the identity, nationality and sexual roles of young men."

Andrea Spath, E Magazine.