Carla

STILLSOHO, Photographs by Carla Borel, 10 March - 5 May 2009, The French House, 49 Dean Street, Soho, London, W1.STILLSOHO by Carla Borel presents a series of intimate black and white portraits of artists, writers, flanneurs, and bon viveurs, taken over the last nine years in and around Soho.Using photography as a memoir, Borel records the human activity around her with a sensitivity rooted in affection for her subjects. Her openness to accident and the unexpected is indicative of her openness to the moment and lends empathy to the strange and tender encounters captured. Inspired by the work of photographers from previous decades - John Deakin, Lisette Model, Brassai, and David Bailey’s 60s images - Borel’s photographs suggest another age and time.The title of the exhibition comments on the filmic quality of the images, like stills from an unmade film. As Beat Generation expert Barry Miles cites of ‘Lexington Street’, 2006, “It’s like a movie still, it suggests a story, a series of images continuing before and after this moment in time”.A small publication will accompany the exhibition with catalogue notes written by Barry Miles.