This page is a record of the exhibitions I have visited since undertaking various photography courses through adult education and the OCA. Links in red take you to the reviews written to go with the visits made.
Too Far South 2008
a group exhibition, exploring the manner in which artists engage with urban cultures and their environment through photography. Images from final portfolios of Goldsmiths University London MA students.
An exhibition of photography and urban culture.
Curated by Wiebke Gronemeyer, Yida He and Nina Trivedi.
From a wide vareity of locations, with a large range of technologies, with a great kaleidoscope
of themes, too far south frames twenty visual responses to urban spaces sometimes right in the centre but frequently in the margins, peripheries and assorted overlooked corners. In spaces such as kitchens and wastelands, backstreets and road junctions, gated communities and street markets, inner-cities and outer-suburbs, the diversity of urban culture is discovered when the conflicting role of the image becomes questioned between presentation and representation. The twenty photographers emerging from the Photography and Urban Cultures masters degree at Goldsmiths share an engagement with urban cultures and their environments. In Walter Benjamin's evocative phrase, they all 'botanise the asphalt', looking at the global and the local, the everyday and the exceptional, history and geography, origins and aspirations.
As a methodology as well as an intervention, the photographic dialogue issued in too far south invites us to rethink our relationship with urban spaces, places and cultures from Docklands to Tokyo, Brooklyn to Bognor,Amsterdam to Dubai and Madrid to Barking.
Dafni Anesti Alex Jean-Baptiste Santiago Escobar Ananda Ferlauto Claude Dernoeden AIkeno
George Kasolas Jaemini Kim David Kendall Lanis Levy Rebecca Locke Glen Mottershead Karl Obulo
Simon Pennec Michael Wayne Plant Suzie Rendell Ruby Savage Peter Stanners Savinien-Zuri M. Thomas
Ariadne van de Ven Manuel Vazquez
The Deutsche Borse Photography Prize 2009
Viewed work by Paul Graham, Emily Jacir, Tod Papageorge and Taryn Simon. I really enjoyed the work of Taryn Simon (although some of her images do appear to reflect her background in fashion) Interesting link Taryn Simon - Interview Magazine Finding myself drawn more and more towards street photography I loved the body of work by Tod Papageorge. Whilst I could appreciate the documentary style of Emily Jacir I did not connect with her images or the collection of documents she was showcasing. On reading an interview with Paul Graham I was interested to discover he likes William Eggleston. Neither Paul Graham nor William Egglestone would be in my list of favourite photographers ;o) I found many of his images too dark, and they did not provoke any emotional response in me at all.
Video: Adrian Seale on the Deutsche Börse photography prize shortlist | Art and design | guardian.co.uk
I recently found this online (9/11/10) and smiled when Adrian Searle echoed some of the things I had thought at the time of attending the exhibition.
What is British? 2009
A project by Michael Wayne Plant who photographed the varying identities found within a one mile radius of the Rotherhithe Tunnel. The area has undergons a rapid change within the last 30 years as the City of London expnaded to include Canary Wharf. De-industrialisation, continued immigration and the extended financial centre has had a profound impact on the area.
Michael Wayne Plant photographer
Taylor Wessing 2009-2010
National Portrait Gallery - Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize
William Eggleston @ Victoria Miro 2010
William Eggleston | Exhibitions | Victoria Miro
Mark Condren @ HOST 2010
Defending Life With Life.
Defending Life with Life consists of a series of photographic portraits documenting the experiences of human rights defenders in Honduras, Western Sahara, North East India (in the states of Assam and Tripura), Serbia and Kenya.
Mark Condren’s images document, among others: activist Bertha Oliva from Honduras, increasingly at risk due to post-election violence; Padre Andres Tamayo, deprived of his parish in Honduras, his Honduran citizenship revoked; and Aminatou Haidar who, on 18 December was finally allowed by the Moroccan authorities to return to Western Sahara after 32 days on hunger strike. Haidar had been in the United States to receive a major humanitarian award.
Defending Life with Life consists of 52 museum-quality, Giclée prints of photographs taken by Irish photographer Mark Condren and can also be viewed online at www.frontlinedefenders.org/exhibition.
Where Three Dreams Cross The Whitechapel Gallery 2010
Where Three Dreams Cross: 150 Years of Photography from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh
Shadow Catchers Cameraless Photography February 2011SHADOW CATCHERS Camera-less Photography
Hinterland spaces in between an exhibition by Barry Cawston March 2011 Capital Culture Gallery 3 Bedforbury Covent Garden Exhibitions - Hinterland the spaces between
The work, which ranges from breathtaking panoramas of China’s changing urban landscape to the historic grandeur of Bristol Docks to the crumbling desolation of Cuban interiors, captures the beauty of otherwise passed over places.
Shot on large format the images have a cinematic quality enhanced by Cawstons subtle use of light and and observation of detail. He is the winner of numerous awards including the Exeter Contemporary Open 2007 with ‘Tibetan Cowboy, Lhasa’ and the RWA Presidents prize award 2008.
Cawston says “I try to delve beneath the surface to show both a beauty and a reality that might be overlooked at first glance.”
Hinterland - The spaces in between, by Barry Cawston
A Piece of My Mind by Katie Ell Tapestry 52 Frith Street London W1D 4SH March 2011
Exhibition - A Piece of My Mind
London-based Katie Ell is a colleague of aCurator-featured photographer Michael Corridore who kindly directed her to the magazine, prompting her to submit 'A Piece of My Mind', the latest collaboration by Katie and Creative Director Paul Alexandrou.
"From the wildly irreverent to the deeply heartfelt, the series documents the different words and messages people choose to have tattooed on their bodies. Collected over a nine-month period, the project explores the power of language, the line between public and private, and the universal need to share what's on our mind."
London Street Photography exhibition at the London Museum 2011
An exhibition drawn from the museum's collection of street photography from the nineteenth century to the present, detailing the changing nature of life in London and the shifting role of photography in public places.
London Futures exhibition at the London Musuem Oct 2010-March 2011
Exhibition London Futures
Like snapshots from the future, the London Futures exhibition brings to life familar scenes from across the city, but with a few significant changes. Capturing the dramatic effects of global warming, food scarcity and rising sea levels, the futuristic images demonstrate the kind of changes Londoners may have to make if they want to survive.
Deutsche Börse Group - Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2011
Study Day :o) Deutsche Borse and London Street Photography
Deutsche Börse: The Photographers’ Gallery today named the four shortlisted artists nominated for its annual Deutsche Börse Photography Prize.
Now in its fifteenth year, with the winner announced at a special award ceremony on Tuesday 26 April 2011. The 2011 Prize will be shown at Ambika P3 at the University of Westminster, 35 Marylebone Road, London NW1.
The four shortlisted artists are Thomas Demand, Roe Ethridge, Jim Goldberg, and Elad Lassry.
Thomas Demand (b.1964, Germany) is nominated for his exhibition, Nationalgalerie, at Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (18 September 2009 – 17 January 2010).
Roe Ethridge (b.1969, USA) is nominated for his solo exhibition at Les Recontres d’Arles Photography 2010, France (3 July – 19 September 2010).
Jim Goldberg (b.1953, USA) is nominated for his exhibition Open See at The Photographers’ Gallery, London (16 October 2009 – 31 January 2010).
Elad Lassry (b.1977, Israel) is nominated for his exhibition Elad Lassry at Kunsthalle Zürich (13 February – 25 April 2010).
The Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2011 is presented by The Photographers’ Gallery, London. The annual award of £30,000 rewards a living photographer, of any nationality, who has made the most significant contribution, in exhibition or publication format, to the medium of photography in Europe between 1 October 2009 and 30 September 2010.
Paul Graham Retrospective 1981-2006 Whitechapel Gallery May 2011Paul Graham Exhibition Whitechapel Gallery 2011
Through renowned photographic series such as the A1, Troubled Land, New Europe or American Night British artist Paul Graham presents vivid portrayals of people and places. This comprehensive survey of over 25 years of work demonstrates his innovative approach to documentary, reinventing traditional genres of photography to create a unique visual language.
Ian Berry This is Whitechapel Whitechapel Gallery May 2011Ian Berry This is Whitechapel Whitechapel Gallery May 2011
A display of images of East London from Whitechapel Gallery's archives, capturing a slice of social history from 1972.
Bruce Davidson Retrospective Somerset House May 2011 Bruce Davidson Retrospective Somerset House 2011
Heralded as one of the few remaining Masters of Photography, Bruce Davidson has been described by the critical press as a 'rebel with a cause.’ There is no doubt that Davidson is one of the most influential photographers of the last half-century.
Sony World Photography Awards Somerset House May 2011
Sony World Photography Awards 2011
The World Photography Organisation (WPO) supports professional, amateur and student photography, lending a global platform for the photographic industry to communicate, congregate and cultivate, and showcasing current trends in Photojournalism, Fine Art and Commercial Photography.
Figures & Fictions Contemporary South African Photography V&A Museum June 2011 Figures & Fictions Exhibition V&A Museum
Figures & Fictions: Contemporary South African Photography highlights the work of 17 South African photographers, all of whom live and work in the country and whose images were made between 2000 and 2010. Each photographer is represented by one or more projects that are linked by the depiction of people and a self-conscious engagement with South Africa's political and photographic past.
Thomas Struth Retrospective Whitechapel Gallery September 2011 Thomas Struth Exhibition
Picturing subjects as diverse as places of worship, jungles and research laboratories, Struth once compared the space shuttle programme to the construction of the medieval cathedrals. His photographs reveal the cultural, psychological and historical undercurrents beneath the surface of modernity.
Tracing the architectural history of ordinary city streets Struth also charts the increasing uniformity of global development. While people are absent from his street scenes of Düsseldorf, Naples or New York, they take centre stage in his family portraits and his iconic museum photographs showing spectators lost in devotional gaze before works of art and architecture. In sharp contrast, his Paradise series captures impenetrable forests void of any trace of human intervention.
This exhibition spans early black and white prints to recent colour photographs that are up to 4 metres long. These include images of sites at the cutting edge of technology such as the Space Centre on Cape Canaveral. Their overwhelming scale evokes an industrial sublime; built by us, yet chillingly inhuman, these structures encapsulate the great contradictions of progress.
Tate Modern September 2011 Tate Modern Trip
Taryn Simon, Diane Arbus and New Documentary Forms
Lee Friedlander Timothy Taylor Gallery September 2011 Lee Friedlander Timothy Taylor Gallery
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/e3d50992-d2ff-11e0-9aae-00144feab49a.html#ixzz1XfVL5D3e
In 1964, two young art directors at Harpers’ Bazaar commissioned Lee Friedlander to photograph the Pontiacs, Chryslers, Buicks and Cadillacs that were the year’s new car models. Back then, the automobile was the embodiment of the American dream. “Fuel was not a concern. Big was good . . . The new cars meant optimism and elegance and the best of what America had to offer,” recalls Ansel Fieter, who was one of Friedlander’s commissioners.
By the 1990s, his visual chronicles of America’s urban spaces, as well as his self-portraits and nudes, had made Friedlander one of the world’s most prominent photographers. Now, in the wake of Frank and his many followers, he started to make trips across the US in rental cars. Yet unlike his predecessors, he chose to frame his shots within the interior of the car itself, so the landscape is captured within the smooth, manufactured surfaces of dashboard, windows and mirrors. The device exaggerates the flair for finding quirky,unexpected geometries, which has been a hallmark of Friedlander’s style since the 1960s. (The delicate, structural complexity of the images in The New Car series owes much to the play of horizontals and verticals – rooflines, windowframes, lampposts and street signs.)
Eyewitness Royal Academy of Arts September 2011 Eyewitness: Hungarian Photography in the 20th Century September 2011
Brassaï, Robert Capa, André Kertész, László Moholy-Nagy and Martin Munkácsi each left Hungary to make their names in Germany, France and the USA, and are now known for the profound changes they brought about in photojournalism, as well as abstract, fashion and art photography.
Others, such as Károly Escher, Rudolf Balogh and Jószef Pécsi remained in Hungary producing high-quality and innovatory photography. These photographs ranging in date from c.1914–c.1989 explore stylistic developments in photography and chart key historical events. These striking images reveal the achievements of Hungarian photographers who left such an enduring legacy to international photography.
