GALLERY VISITS: EVIDENCE
Dated 27th April 2022. As a small group, we visited various galleries in London that displayed some remarkable photography pieces, including notable exhibitions.
WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR 2022
The National History Museum, London
Overall winner of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition/gallery. Taken by Zack Clothier - a full-time nature photographer that specialises in landscape and wildlife of the American West.
Other Masterpieces in the Collection:
Gallery Review:
This was the first gallery we visited, located in the Natural History Museum in London. The gallery was located on the side of the gallery and we went as a group. The gallery started with 'land' based images and then sectioned off into images that were closer/in the water, eventually leading up to the grand winner and the runners up. The images were presented on lit-up screens with the image and text in full HD and the lights were dimmed to give higher significance to each picture.
Overall, the experience was immersive and insightful. What struck me most was that many of the photographers were very young- from ages 10 and above, and these pictures were so intricate, it was hard to believe the images were taken by them. But in fact, they were. It suggested that art is limitless, and anyone can do art as it is very subjective - there is no definite answer to art.
Gallery 2:
Victoria & Albert Museum, London
This was the second gallery of our visit. Only a short way from the Natural History Museum, this gallery had very peculiar images.
A vast collection of the images were sectioned off as, to my assumption, being based on industrial wartime era in Britain. The imagery was beautiful and captured the reality of the situation - glorious yet dangerous.
The other section of the gallery was a set of no-context images. Deducting from the way the picture was taken however, I can assume the images were taken quite a long time ago or deliberately taken to mimic an old style of photography.
Me and my team mimicked the image of the table with maidens with white scarves on their heads - we arranged ourselves in a position similar to them on the seats directly in front of it and asked our peer to photograph our clever idea. Incidentally, the image on which we were inspired also came into the picture.
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THE PHOTOGRAPHERS GALLERY
The Photographers Gallery, Central London
Centropy by Deana Lawson
Deana Lawson is an American photographer and educator based in Brooklyn. This specific photoshoot, named 'Centropy', was completed over 18 years and it's aim was to reframe black experience upend black stereotypes. Her protagonists are usually people she had just met or specific chosen people for the cast in her photography.
Centropy is based on a precisely choreographed array of work including large scale photographs, holograms, projections, video works and smaller images printed on mirrors or decorated with rock crystals.
Whatever You Say, Say Nothing by Gilles Peress
Gilles Peress is a French photographer based in Paris. This specific photoshoot, named 'Whatever You Say, Say Nothing', is a work of monumental achievement and complexity spanning across 2000 images, with two volumes and being described as a 'documentary fiction'.
Whatever You Say, Say Nothing delineates the helicoidal structure of history, ‘where today is not only today but all the days like today’. It describes existence and experience in a space ritualised by recurring violence, while striving for the savage nature of photography that exists in the no man’s land beyond accepted forms.
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Photographs 1980s - Now by Jo Ractliffe
Jo Ractliffe is a South-African photographer and teacher based in Cape Town. This specific photoshoot, named 'Photographs 1980s - Now', is a chronological gallery of images that display the complexities of a country scarified by the violence of Apartheid, as well as the aftermath of civil war in neighbouring Angola. "While Ractliffe is often acknowledged as one of South Africa’s foremost social photographers, her stripped back, often stark images do not sit typically within the social documentary genre."
Photographs 1980s - now, published by Steidl/The Walther Collection, 2021 – an extensive monograph comprising photo-essays, early works and newly published images which reflect on the literal and figurative landscape of post apartheid South Africa.
More Photography:
The following photography are more pictures that caught my attention due to various reasons such as the composition, lighting, location etc.
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REVIEW:
By the last gallery, The Photographers Gallery, we were individually requested to complete a survey as to which photoshoot we thought was best to us and to then vote and post our answers with reasons. I selected the photoshoot 'Whatever You Say, Say Nothing' because I liked the vintage B&W effect the photos had, as well as the interesting composition and backstory behind the photography.