Book Review: For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness
Cloth bound and covered with a strikingly retro, boldly-coloured floral print, tellingly reminiscent of the assorted vegetative-patterned table cloths which both hold and exhibit the protagonist’s evident affection for plants and flowers within, Julian Germain immediately presents his photography book, For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness, published by MACK and first released in 2005, as more kitchen table than coffee table display piece.
A self-conscious and emotive container of memory – Charles Albert Lucien Snelling (“Charlie”), Germain’s elderly subject with whom he had shared a bond for eight years since their first meeting in 1992, passed away before the photographer’s book idea had ever taken root – the series literally opens, closes and is effectively buffered from the outside world via pages copied straight from Snelling’s own photo albums, ring binder and all. Borrowing a quality of familial authenticity in this way, the photographer thus offers an, inevitably very curated, complementary ‘snapshot’ of a later phase in Snelling’s life, as a widower. Wholly in tune with his rather whimsical portrait of this “simple”, joyful, elderly gentleman, Germain describes Snelling as his quiet and colourful “antidote” to “modern living” at the book’s close.
Inside, Germain’s Snelling appears to have existed, somewhat insouciantly, within his own “force field” in his circa 1990s hometown of Portsmouth – an attribute which, in interviews, the photographer has praised in his chosen and potential subjects. While Snelling’s paisley-patterned world, as captured by Germain, was certainly – literally – bright and cheerful in tone and appearance, it is Charlie’s projected demeanour which imbues each frame, whether he is present within it or not, with irresistible, humorous hints of the visceral ‘happiness’ suggested by the book’s title. For Germain: “Without ever trying or intending to, [Charlie] showed me that the most important things in life cost nothing at all.” Yet, Snelling’s pleasantly uncompromising zest for relationship and the natural, unadorned, beauty of colour, plants and flowers – the very essence of Germain’s captivation, one infers – inevitably paints him as a rather magical, marginalised figure. Charlie’s more informal, personal photographs of his passions (namely, his late wife and colourful flowers), which bookend and are interwoven amongst Germain’s own portraits, here serve to flesh out a more well-developed view of the gentleman’s life.
Though taken by a friend, without any intention of publication, Germain’s photographs are inescapably well-balanced, handsome compositions, which to some extent jar, naturally, with the effortless soulfulness of Snelling’s own photos. The subject’s evident fondness for bright oranges, yellows and reds, however, ensures a measure of aesthetic consistency throughout. Regardless, that so much life and colour seeps from each and every page is a testament to Charlie’s sheer, unadulterated, force of personality, even towards the latter years of his life.
Limited copies of For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness are available for purchase for £30 in the Open Eye Gallery shop.
Images © Julian Germain
Words by Charlotte Robson
