Steve Pyke, Philosophers

Philosophers (Volume I) ©Cornerhouse Press 1993 ©Z Press 1993 "For over 30 years, Pyke has photographed the great and the good up close and personal. He has positioned his Rolleiflex mere inches from the faces of musicians, film directors, astronauts and politicians. He has photographed both his sons week by week as they moved from infancy through childhood to adolescence. There is something pared down about his style and obsessive about his methodology. It is as if he is attempting to take essentially the same photograph – or the same kind of photographic portrait – over and over again, and, by doing so, he is repeatedly reminding us how infinitely expressive the human face can be. Consider his Philosophers series, which started 23 years ago in 1988 when, on assignment for a magazine, Pyke came face to face with the late AJ Ayer, one of the great British thinkers of the 20th century. He was told he could have 10 minutes with Ayer, who was very ill at the time, and whose reputation wa