Don't You Want to be Free? (Remix 2015) by Johnny Green (47'11)

"When I'm on my own, I'm lost in space, my freedom's a delusion" Teenage Fanclub, Your Love Is The Place Where I Come From

Don't You Want to be Free? is an art project by British photographer Johnny Green, shot between 2008 and 2012. The work investigates notions of freedom and the ties that connect us with others, as well as exploring our own individual, collective and social consciousness.

The film was produced in 2013 and remixed in 2015 by Johnny Green & Fabiola Simonetti. All music copyright lies with the song's creator(s) or third parties.

Johnny Green is a photographer from Leicester, based in London. He retains the copyright to most of the photographs in Don't You Want to be Free? except for some owned by the Press Association.

Don't You Want to be Free? is Green's third major body of work, adding to Those eyes are enough to take this heart of mine (2007) and God knows how I adore life (2008). 

A pop-up gallery, J. Green & Son, opened in Bloomsbury, central London, in 2010/11 with a retrospective of his career to date entitled It has often been my dream, which also became Green's first international show in spring 2012 at Trementina Artes in Bogota, Colombia. More recently his work has appeared in an exhibition in Taipei, Taiwan in 2014.

In November 2012, his series of 20 photographs exploring questions of identity and belonging were included in Tracey Moberly's LABEL special event at Tate Britain, London.

Green has also given talks at Leicester College in 2014 and at the Instituto Europeo di Design in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2015.

Transience is the latest work by Johnny Green and again the film was mixed with Fabiola Simonetti in Spain in May and June of 2015. Work has now been completed on a photo book for Transience, with the launch date expected by the summer of 2017.

Cat Power - Babydoll / Johnny Green - Don't You Want to be Free? (Remix 2015) 1/10

All music copyright lies with the song's creator(s) or third parties.

Spiritualized - Silent Sound / Johnny Green - Don't You Want to be Free? (Remix 2015) 2/10

All music copyright lies with the song's creator(s) or third parties.

Trophy Wife - Microlite / Johnny Green - Don't You Want to be Free? (Remix 2015) 3/10

All music copyright lies with the song's creator(s) or third parties.

Marine Girls - A Place In The Sun / Johnny Green - Don't You Want to be Free? (Remix 2015) 4/10

All music copyright lies with the song's creator(s) or third parties.

Utam - Matter Space And Sound / Johnny Green - Don't You Want to be Free? (Remix 2015) 5/10

All music copyright lies with the song's creator(s) or third parties.

Deadmau5 - Soma / Johnny Green - Don't You Want to be Free? (Remix 2015) 6/10

All music copyright lies with the song's creator(s) or third parties.

Neil Halstead – Witless or Wise / Johnny Green - Don't You Want to be Free? (Remix 2015) 7/10

All music copyright lies with the song's creator(s) or third parties.

Plumbline/Roger Eno - It All Becomes Clear/Johnny Green-Don't You Want to be Free? (Remix 2015) 8/10

All music copyright lies with the song's creator(s) or third parties.

Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions / Johnny Green - Don't You Want to be Free? (Remix 2015) 9/10

All music copyright lies with the song's creator(s) or third parties.

Violens - Another Strike Restrained / Johnny Green - Don't You Want to be Free? (Remix 2015) 10/10

All music copyright lies with the song's creator(s) or third parties.

Joy Division - Heart And Soul / Johnny Green - Heart & Soul

Heart & Soul is a series of abstract photographs by photographer Johnny Green mixed to the bleak, brittle and burnt out depths of Joy Division's Heart And Soul. The photographs chronicle A Journey from The End, literally, as it's the story of the end of The End, the London nightclub which shut its doors in the early hours of January 25, 2009. They show a London of sorts upon that January morning, dark, wet, abstract.

Yet the music's not of that night. It is of a Manchester of 1980. Somehow, away from the dance floor, neon lights and sweat, to the sodden, sodium lit suburbs of north London, this other world of alien, translucent forms captured from the rainy windows of a taxi shadow the Hulme of 1980 and the spirit of Heart And Soul. 

Heart And Soul is taken from Joy Division's second and final studio album, Closer. All copyright lies with the song's creators or third parties.

This short was produced by Johnny Green, Ish Kalia & Fabiola Simonetti.

God knows how I adore life (Remix 2015) by Johnny Green (34'35)

“J'aime l'automne, cette triste saison va bien aux souvenirs. Quand les arbres n'ont plus de feuilles, quand le ciel conserve encore au crepuscule la teinte rousse qui dore l'herbe fanee, il est doux de regarder s'eteindre tout ce qui naguere encore brulait en vous.” Gustave Flaubert, Novembre

Now it's autumn. The sun is paler, the air more crisp, and a constant breeze cloaks you. But you feel happy. If asked why, you really wouldn't know how to explain. No reasons come to mind. What news do you have? None to mention. Perhaps you feel content because the sun has grown pale, the air is crisper and the breeze touches your skin and you can feel it. That's it. You can feel. It's like there's something with you during this time. Not carrying you, but walking with you. It's not a person. Though there is dialogue. It's not assistance. It's like there's company. Were your soul to walk with you. Down the road, past the shops and into the side-streets. It's quieter there. Not much traffic. More trees and less people. But your friend is still with you. Yes, she's your friend.

Soon it grows dark. Much sooner than what you remember. You take pleasure in this. In darkness you can hide. It loses you. Which means you can lose yourself too. The night is good for the imagination. It's easier to think of yourself in a different time. Things are less visible to contradict these visions. These dreams. But the temperature drops too. The wind is stiffer. And there's no romantic glow of moonlight tonight. So you turn round, face home, and walk.

The walking does you good. Your heart begins to swell once more. Again, you don't really know why. There's been no change. Nothing's happened. In fact, where is it that you're going to? Aren't you going to from whence you came? But everything's happened, it's all changed. Your friend and you got out. You escaped. If only for a while. Did you really want longer?

No. Just for a while. Had you wanted to see more? More than the street lights, the headlights and the warmth that the pub gave out? Those mountains and rivers that you tell me you want to see once more? No. They can wait. For you've been out. You've had your little adventure for today. The world can wait. You want nothing more than to go back in.

...

God knows how I adore life was conceived throughout 2006 and consists of photographs shot in 13 countries between late 2005 and November 2007. It is a sister project to its predecessor, Those eyes are enough to take this heart of mine, which was itself completed during this period.

As with Those eyes are enough to take this heart of mine, there is a soundtrack featuring 12 pieces of music and views as an audio slide show, this time with a mass of 360 photographs and runs for 34:35 mins.

The copyright to all the images contained in God knows how I adore life lies with either the artist, Johnny Green, or in some cases, the Press Association. The copyright to the music is owned by each artist and/or their respective record company. The copyright to God knows how I adore life is solely that of the author, Johnny Green. All rights reserved.

Beth Gibbons & Rustin Man - Mysteries / Johnny Green - God knows how I adore life (Remix 2015) 1/9

All music copyright lies with the song's creator(s) or third parties.

Bill Fay - Hypocrite / Johnny Green - God knows how I adore life (Remix 2015) 2/9

All music copyright lies with the song's creator(s) or third parties.

Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Saturday's Gone / Johnny Green - God knows how I adore life 3/9

All music copyright lies with the song's creator(s) or third parties.

Peter Doherty - Back From The Dead / Johnny Green - God knows how I adore life (Remix 2015) 4/9

All music copyright lies with the song's creator(s) or third parties.

Le Volume Courbe - Harmony / Johnny Green - God knows how I adore life (Remix 2015) 5/9

All music copyright lies with the song's creator(s) or third parties.

PJ Harvey - The Garden / Johnny Green - God knows how I adore life (Remix 2015) 6/9

All music copyright lies with the song's creator(s) or third parties.

Bill Fay - Strange Stairway / Johnny Green - God knows how I adore life (Remix 2015) 7/9

All music copyright lies with the song's creator(s) or third parties.

Sigur Rós - Andvari / Johnny Green - God knows how I adore life 8/9

All music copyright lies with the song's creator(s) or third parties.

Badly Drawn Boy - The Long Way Round / Johnny Green - God knows how I adore life 9/9

All music copyright lies with the song's creator(s) or third parties.

Those Eyes Are Enough To Take This Heart Of Mine (Promo) by Johnny Green (4'00)

“Pour niaiser et fantastiquer”, (“To be foolish and fantastic”), Montaigne

Those eyes are enough to take this heart of mine is a collection of photographs providing an abstract and dream-like narrative to my life during a ten-year period including the course and breakdown of a relationship with a love and muse. The photographs, which bear witness to the lives of holocaust survivors, the homeless, children, soldiers, prostitutes, models, dancers, clubbers and anarchists, to name but a few, of the living and of the dead, of mountains, trees, seas and of her, are played over a soundtrack, full of beginnings and endings. 

“If there is truth in the old quip that marriage is the most important reason for divorce, it also follows that nothing determines an ending so fatally as a beginning”, André Brink, States of Emergency

Those eyes are enough to take this heart of mine is about love and letting go. But mostly it’s about love.

The seemingly eclectic and haphazard range of photographic styles and subject matter is neither accidental, nor staged or produced for any other reason than…it is. Our natural way is often first to seek to understand. To work it out. We like control. But you may not find that here. If there’s too much going on, it’s because there was. To divide this work into convenient sub-sections of styles or topics is to miss the point. There is chaos. There is confusion. Yet there is also clarity, and completion, finally. Well, almost.

The period was one of pace and change and similarly, much of the work was shot at speed. Running around, searching for thrills, looking for love. Finding it. Losing it. Wasting it. Chasing the sun, looking for warmth, yet drawn also to the cold, and to a life of extremes. And as for beauty, where art thou? Less elusive than love, for sure. So visible and abundant in places. Yet, there, everywhere, where our mood is happy. And the woman, who breezes in and out of the work? She was always there. I went missing. Lost. Why, I don’t know. 

If we look upon our lives as films, with us, you and me, all cast in the lead role, I don’t appear to be in mine so much. Always running. Restless. Yearning to be free. But so rarely feeling free. Moving too fast. Yet, adventures mount, experiences accumulate and wisdom can be acquired. And misplaced. For you don’t need to move this fast in order to see. Slow down, you, the one with the quickening heart. But then, is that not life? And love? When your heart races so and you feel so alive? But then, what of stillness? Ah, this life. 

But memories fade and emotions lose that rawness as they melt. The photographs, along with the music, draw a sketch of a life past. Of a shared life past. We are no more, yet here we are, my lover and I, still together in this work. All of us reside there in part. The key is when we return there, it is with acceptance. And not remorse.

So to now… and now we would prefer it if you could just watch. This is all about you now. There are so many journeys contained within this work, so many lives, so many unknown, so many not knowing. There are beginnings and endings for all of us. And many of these won’t always make sense. If you think too much, there are far too many questions. But the answer is always the same. To return to the beginning. And L.O.V.E.

This is dedicated to her. 
X

...

Those eyes are enough to take this heart of mine was conceived in late 2004 and finished in April 2007.  The work consists of 328 still photographs, shot in 26 countries between 1996 and 2005, with a soundtrack of 12 pieces of music, curated by the artist, including one song written specifically for it. The resulting film is 32:55 mins in length and was premiered at the Frontline Club in London in December 2007. 

Uploaded here is a promo of the work (4:00 mins), showcasing 60 of the 328 photographs and 20 seconds or so of each piece of music. It is an introduction to the work.

The copyright to all the images contained within Those eyes are enough to take this heart of mine lies with either the artist, Johnny Green, or in some cases, the Press Association. The copyright to the music is owned by each artist and/or their respective record company. The copyright to Those eyes are enough to take this heart of mine is solely that of the author, Johnny Green. All rights reserved.

Pascal Pinon - Þerney (One Thing) / Johnny Green - Transience (2015) 1/8

All music copyright lies with the song's creator(s) or third parties.

John Martyn - Don’t Want To Know / Johnny Green - Transience (2015) 2/8

All music copyright lies with the song's creator(s) or third parties.

Stereolab - Pack Yr Romantic Mind / Johnny Green - Transience (2015) 3/8

All music copyright lies with the song's creator(s) or third parties.