Michael Joseph (1941-) - Pool ladies ready to dive - powerful bold authentic B & W darkroom print
03
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€ 10
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Selected by Elena Vaninetti
Has over ten years of experience in art, specialising in post-war photography and contemporary art.
Estimate € 450 - € 550
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Michael Joseph, 1987, Pool ladies ready to dive - powerful bold authentic B & W darkroom print, a vintage gelatin-silver photograph, hand signed from an original negative.
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Description from the seller
Ready to Dive - Clapham Common Pool, London, 1987
Original Vintage Silver Gelatin Darkroom Photograph
Photographed and hand-printed by Michael Joseph
Poised, powerful and perfectly still, Ready to Dive captures the delicious fraction of a second before the plunge.
Photographed from a remarkably low viewpoint, a line of swimmers stretches away from the camera, their bodies gleaming with water, heads tipped back beneath bathing caps and goggles, and feet braced against the pool edge. Michael turns an everyday swimming scene into something rhythmic, sculptural and almost cinematic - bodies, bathing caps, light and limbs repeating into the distance.
Photographed at Clapham Common, London, in 1987, this is an original vintage silver gelatin photograph, personally printed by Michael in his darkroom, using his techniques like dodging and burning, developed over the years to optimal effect here. The rich blacks, luminous skin and dramatic perspective give the image an extraordinary depth and sensuality.
This is a genuine vintage photographic object rather than a later reproduction. It retains the subtle irregularities of a hand-made darkroom print, together with minor surface and age-related marks visible in the photographs - part of the individual history of a print now nearly forty years old.
The reverse is particularly lovely: Michael has signed and titled the photograph by hand, adding “Ready to Dive”, “1987” and his signature directly onto the back, alongside the original Michael Joseph Pictures Ltd archive label.
Photographer: Michael Joseph
Title: Ready to Dive
Location: Clapham Common Pool, London
Date: 1987
Medium: Vintage silver gelatin darkroom print
Print: Personally hand-printed by Michael Joseph
Signature: Signed, titled and dated on the reverse
Size: Approximately 40 × 30 cm
Condition: Vintage condition with minor surface and age-related imperfections, as photographed
A wonderfully bold example from Michael Joseph’s Pool Ladies series - poise, perspective and repetition, caught at precisely the moment before stillness gives way to movement.
#MichaelJosephLondon #ReadyToDive #PoolLadies #ClaphamCommon #London1987 #VintagePhotography #SilverGelatinPrint #DarkroomPrint #SignedPhotography #BritishPhotography #AnaloguePhotography #VintageDarkroomPrint #FineArtPhotography #PhotographyCollectors #OneOfAKindPhotography
Seller's Story
My father, Michael Joseph, was a London-based advertising photographer, active from the mid-1960s to the early 1990s, and best known for his photographs for the Rolling Stones’ Beggars Banquet gatefold.
My continuing mission is to share what we affectionately call “the other photographs”: the lesser-known treasures from his extraordinary archive — original darkroom prints, test prints, alternative frames from major shoots, his celebrated group compositions, and more intimate, personal images.
For this special Solo Seller Auction, I am particularly excited to include a selection from Michael’s 1964 Vietnam archive — photographs that have never previously been seen or offered for sale. These remarkable images reveal a very different side of his work, made when he was just 23 years old.
Alongside Michael’s authentic vintage darkroom prints, I am also presenting a new generation of works: striking prints on aluminium and my own handmade cyanotypes, created from his original negatives and transparencies in the Dordogne sunshine. Some are made on vintage photographic paper retrieved from Michael’s own working library, bringing the archive quite literally into a new generation.
Together, the collection brings photographic history and contemporary experimentation side by side — from unique vintage prints made by Michael himself to bold new interpretations of his remarkable archive.
I hope you enjoy discovering these photographs as much as I enjoy bringing them to light — sometimes preserved exactly as Michael made them, sometimes given an entirely new life.
All works are carefully protected and packed with the attention appropriate to collectible photographic artworks.
For US buyers: customs duties and applicable import charges are paid at source and included in the shipping cost. No additional charges should normally be payable on delivery, subject to any change in regulations.
Translated by Google TranslateReady to Dive - Clapham Common Pool, London, 1987
Original Vintage Silver Gelatin Darkroom Photograph
Photographed and hand-printed by Michael Joseph
Poised, powerful and perfectly still, Ready to Dive captures the delicious fraction of a second before the plunge.
Photographed from a remarkably low viewpoint, a line of swimmers stretches away from the camera, their bodies gleaming with water, heads tipped back beneath bathing caps and goggles, and feet braced against the pool edge. Michael turns an everyday swimming scene into something rhythmic, sculptural and almost cinematic - bodies, bathing caps, light and limbs repeating into the distance.
Photographed at Clapham Common, London, in 1987, this is an original vintage silver gelatin photograph, personally printed by Michael in his darkroom, using his techniques like dodging and burning, developed over the years to optimal effect here. The rich blacks, luminous skin and dramatic perspective give the image an extraordinary depth and sensuality.
This is a genuine vintage photographic object rather than a later reproduction. It retains the subtle irregularities of a hand-made darkroom print, together with minor surface and age-related marks visible in the photographs - part of the individual history of a print now nearly forty years old.
The reverse is particularly lovely: Michael has signed and titled the photograph by hand, adding “Ready to Dive”, “1987” and his signature directly onto the back, alongside the original Michael Joseph Pictures Ltd archive label.
Photographer: Michael Joseph
Title: Ready to Dive
Location: Clapham Common Pool, London
Date: 1987
Medium: Vintage silver gelatin darkroom print
Print: Personally hand-printed by Michael Joseph
Signature: Signed, titled and dated on the reverse
Size: Approximately 40 × 30 cm
Condition: Vintage condition with minor surface and age-related imperfections, as photographed
A wonderfully bold example from Michael Joseph’s Pool Ladies series - poise, perspective and repetition, caught at precisely the moment before stillness gives way to movement.
#MichaelJosephLondon #ReadyToDive #PoolLadies #ClaphamCommon #London1987 #VintagePhotography #SilverGelatinPrint #DarkroomPrint #SignedPhotography #BritishPhotography #AnaloguePhotography #VintageDarkroomPrint #FineArtPhotography #PhotographyCollectors #OneOfAKindPhotography
Seller's Story
My father, Michael Joseph, was a London-based advertising photographer, active from the mid-1960s to the early 1990s, and best known for his photographs for the Rolling Stones’ Beggars Banquet gatefold.
My continuing mission is to share what we affectionately call “the other photographs”: the lesser-known treasures from his extraordinary archive — original darkroom prints, test prints, alternative frames from major shoots, his celebrated group compositions, and more intimate, personal images.
For this special Solo Seller Auction, I am particularly excited to include a selection from Michael’s 1964 Vietnam archive — photographs that have never previously been seen or offered for sale. These remarkable images reveal a very different side of his work, made when he was just 23 years old.
Alongside Michael’s authentic vintage darkroom prints, I am also presenting a new generation of works: striking prints on aluminium and my own handmade cyanotypes, created from his original negatives and transparencies in the Dordogne sunshine. Some are made on vintage photographic paper retrieved from Michael’s own working library, bringing the archive quite literally into a new generation.
Together, the collection brings photographic history and contemporary experimentation side by side — from unique vintage prints made by Michael himself to bold new interpretations of his remarkable archive.
I hope you enjoy discovering these photographs as much as I enjoy bringing them to light — sometimes preserved exactly as Michael made them, sometimes given an entirely new life.
All works are carefully protected and packed with the attention appropriate to collectible photographic artworks.
For US buyers: customs duties and applicable import charges are paid at source and included in the shipping cost. No additional charges should normally be payable on delivery, subject to any change in regulations.
Translated by Google TranslateDetails
Date of print
1987
Artist
Michael Joseph (1941-)
Sold by
Owner or reseller
Title of artwork
Pool ladies ready to dive - powerful bold authentic B & W darkroom print
Condition
Original State
Technique
Gelatin-silver print
Height
38.5 cm
Edition
Print from an original negative
Width
26.5 cm
Signature
Hand signed
Genre
Nude
Sold by
