photobook review

The Family

photographs by
Jocelyn Bain Hogg

Gritty, grainy, and up close to an old-school London-based gangster family, the photos in this book document the day-to-day dealings of the Pyles — a tough, proud, criminal family that has been in “business” for generations.

They stare directly into the camera, unthreatened. They snort drugs, whisper secret deals, argue, flirt, run illegal boxing matches, and ham it up at little kids’ birthday parties. They celebrate their victories, intimidate their enemies, talk strategies and alternatives, and look out for each other, no matter what it takes. All in front of the camera, without a care about what is being captured on film.

We know there are people like this out in the world. But most of us are rarely, if ever, this close and this intimate in the way that photographer Jocelyn Baine Hogg is. He knows the members of this family, and they trust him and talk to him. They brag and express their worries and concerns. They let him in, and through his pictures, he lets us inside, too.

If Weegee could have gotten this close inside, his pictures may have looked a lot like these.

In between the large, lush full-page photos are some stunningly honest and arrogant quotes from conversations with these real-life characters:

“Anyone who’s been on the receiving end of us has truly and honestly one hundred percent deserved it. We’re not bullies, we’re not fucking maniacs.” – Warren

“This family? It means to me to walk amongst men and to know that I’m a man.” – Alan

“My Mum was a very strong woman, she was the lynchpin, as all mums are… She instilled values… We stick together, we help one another. That’s what families are.” – Lorraine

The swagger and bravado and indiscretion are all here, but you sense that absolutely none of it is artificial, none of it staged for our appreciation.

Since technology is changing everything in the world — even the most basic criminal activities — the Pyles may be among the last generation to maintain these kinds of hands-on, rough-and-tumble family-based activities. So, Hogg’s book is a valuable sociological documentary report of a dying breed, as well as an engaging photobook.

— Jim Casper

The Family
by Jocelyn Bain Hogg
Softcover, 176 pages
33 x 28.5 x 4 cm
Published by Foto8
ISBN 978-0955958090
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