PHOTOGRAPHY – QUEEN: THE UNSEEN ARCHIVE, PROUD CENTRAL
Hannah Gilkes
Proud Central’s latest exhibition, Queen: the Unseen Archive, features the work of Peter ‘Ratty’ Hince, the band’s chief roadie for more than 10 years. He met Queen in 1973, switching his allegiance from Mott The Hopple when he was asked to work full time on the Night at the Opera album and staying with them until 1986. The exhibition is pitched as offering an intimate, behind the scenes view of the life that Queen lead at a time when all eyes were upon them. This intimacy is clearly felt in some great shots that seem to have been taken unawares: Freddie Mercury, with his unfazed make-up artist, admiring himself in fake breasts, tight pink top and leather mini-skirt before the I Want to Break Free video shoot or smoking while at work in the studio. Similarly, a personal touch is apparent in playful shots: Roger Taylor complete with large sticker saying ‘Drums’ on his head or Brian May, intent on a game of pinball.
However, despite some notable exceptions, the overall effect of the exhibition is that these are still ‘on duty’ pictures. There’s no doubt Peter Hince was a witness to the intimate moments that are explicit in few but hinted at in most photos, but the moments themselves are sometimes lost. For example, Freddie Mercury, apparently in a whimsical mood, decides to dress up in royal robes. A great photograph without a doubt, but the finished image is one that looks like it has been carefully posed, lit and selected and has consequently loses some of its immediacy. A lot of the photos get their individuality from the fact that they are shot from an unusual angle: shots of stage performances taken from high up in the set, rather than from offering any particular insight. .
Queen: The Unseen Archive exhibits a lot of previously unseen work that would definitely be interesting to a real Queen fan, and even if you couldn’t name more than 3 tracks (which I couldn’t) there’s still a fascination attached to the iconicism of the subjects, if not neccesarily to the photos. You don’t have to know or like Queen’s music, or even to have been alive in the 70s, to appreciate that Freddie Mercury combined personal magnetism and stage presence with rare quality and that Brian May had the kind of hair that must only come around every few decades. It is here that the real draw of the exhibition lies.
The exhibition, which is free, runs at Proud Central until the 13th of September. Click here for more details.
