Brother Paul, member of the Archulettaville Commune. Zoe Childerley.
It’s been a long time since I posted here. There are many reasons for this, both personal and professional, but I am still here and have some exciting news re: work coming up that I will share in the next couple of weeks. For now, I want to share some good news regarding a photographer who I have worked with through Tri-Pod,Zoe Chiderley. Also, good luck to Jonathan Goldberg, who also attended a Tri-Pod workshop, and has a series currently showing at Brighton station commissioned for the One Planet City organised in partnership with Fotodocument and the Brighton Photo Biennial 2014.
ZOE CHILDERLEY
Zoe will be showing work at theprintspace Photovoice Awards exhibition of shortlisted photographers running from 21 August until 1 September at theprintspace galleryin London. The overall winner will be announced next week on Thursday 20 August. The Commune series was produced during an artist residency in America. All print sales will raise funds for Photovoice.
Last week, I caught up with collector, gallerist and writer Laura Noble at her talk for the monthly Photologyy series on photography. The monthly talks are hosted by Hastings-based Alex Brattell and take place downstairs at the Bullet Coffee House. The following post is a collection of comments and insights from Laura. There is a 15min audio podcast which I recorded after the talk where I get to probe a little deeper about her flying fascination.
Laura trained as a painter and decided, after completing her studies, that she needed “a library and a studio” and got a job in The Photographers’ Gallery bookshop. She wrote The Art of Collecting Photographs in 2006. Photography entered the art market in the 1970s and photographs gained value and status through creating exclusivity by restricting reproduction. With an endlessly-reproducible medium, such as photography, this is of paramount importance. “That’s the wonderful thing about photography, it’s not just a recording medium now, but an art form.”
“The bulk of my collection is things that fly” – a realisation that helped narrow down her field of collecting. She recalls how her collection of photographs started slowly and how she likes to buy living photographers’ work – her first buy in 1991 was Hidden by John Kippen. Noble “didn’t spend masses of money to start with” and “rotates the photographs in her home as otherwise she “stops seeing them”. However, when people feature in her collection they “generally have their eyes closed”.
Her first digital work was of the undercarriage of a plane with the LA sky removed. These form part of a series of planes shot and manipulated post production, which “look like pinned butterfly specimens”.
Other works she owns include:
Forbidden Zone by Jonathan Olley, which she describes as “an incredible body of work shot” in the beech and pine forests of Verdun, where some of the First World War’s bitterest battles took place. “They still lose a man a month trying to clear the forest of ammunition and diffuse the bombs.” On his website, Olley writes: Recent estimates made by The French interior Ministry state at least 12 million unexploded shells lie undiscovered in the hills overlooking the City of Verdun.
One of Maeve Berry‘s crematorium photos from her series, Incandescence, which she exhibits on aluminium and Diasec so that the viewer sees themselves.
A photograph from Deborah Baker‘s, In Paradiso series, for which Baker uses digital post-production techniques, for example, montage and layering, using photographs she has taken in the woodland garden she has cultivated for eight years. “The prints are divine,” she adds.
One of Chris Steele Perkins’ photographs from his Japan series, Fuji; a Jeffrey H Short image; a print by Emily Allchurch, from her Tokyo series which pays homage to Utagawa Hiroshige’s, One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (1856-58); and a Mischa Haller print.
Photographers need to have a good working knowledge of the medium and to “know what’s out there” as it is “so easy to do work that has already been done”. Make work long term and keep doing it, she advises. Often it takes someone else to put forward a photographer’s work. “Take a look at your work in a mirror – painters do it all the time,” she adds when discussing composition.
Editioning is useful in photography: “It’s not worth breaking an edition, except if you’re William Eggleston,” she warns. Adding that “you are signing their own death warrant if you break an edition” and “if you want your work to fetch a decent price, you need to create editions”. As to the word giclee, she laughs. “I never use the word. Do you know what it means?” Someone in the audience shouts out “Spurt”.
Click on the play button to hear a 15m 50s long audio podcast with me in conversation with Laura Noble recorded after her talk. Laura talks about what her collection says about her and more…
Great! by Photobooks Great mag, really like the content, hadn’t seen any of it before, cool design too. Highly recommend
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“In the past few years contemporary photographic practice from and about the Middle East has been some of the most exciting, innovative and varied art anywhere in the world…” Marta Weiss, curator
From the series Upekkha, 2011, Nermine Hammam, 2011. Archival inkjet print, 60 x 90 cm, Copyright V&A. Art Fund Collection of Middle Eastern Photography at the V&A and the British Museum, Light from the Middle East: New Photograph
A major collection of contemporary photography, focusing on the Middle East, has been set up for the public by the British Museumand the V&A with funds from the Art Fund. The collection has been in development since 2009 and is funded by over £150,000 of support from the Art Fund.
Most of the collection will be showcased at the V&A (Porter Gallery) in an exhibition Light from the Middle East: New Photography opening on 13 November 2012 and running until 7 April 2013. The show will be the first major museum exhibition of contemporary photography from and about the Middle East and will tour nationally in 2013.
The show is divided into three sections around key themes: Recording, Reframing and Resisting. Expect works that “respond to the social challenges and political upheavals of the Middle East over the last 30 years” or “the last 20 years”, depending on which of the two press releases one reads.
Included are internationally established practitioners such as Abbas (Iran), Youssef Nabil (Egypt) and Walid Raad (Lebanon) as well as emerging photographers including Taysir Batniji (Palestine), Atiq Rahimi (Afghanistan), Shadi Ghadirian (Iran), Mehraneh Atashi (Iran), Nermine Hammam (Egypt), Manal al-Dowayan (Saudi Arabia) and Abdulnasser Gharem (Saudi Arabia), who also happens to be a lieutenant colonel in the Saudi army.
‘Bodiless I’ from the series ‘Zourkhaneh Project (House of Strength)’, Mehraneh Atashi, 2004. Digital c-print, 76.5 x 112.5 cm. Copyright British Museum. Art Fund Collection of Middle Eastern Photography at the V&A and the British Museum. Light from the Middle East: New Photography
There are over 80 works (90 in one press release) in the collection produced by 22 (28 in one press release) emerging and established artists “living in the region or in diaspora”. The works are diverse in terms of technique and subject matter and straddle genres including photojournalism, staged and manipulated imagery.
The collection of Middle Eastern photography has been “built in response to a surge of interest in the visual arts in the region, beginning to remedy the under-representation of Middle Eastern photography in the UK”.
From the series ‘Mothers of Martyrs’, Newsha Tavakolian, 2006. Digital c-print, 50 x 76 cm, Copyright V&A. Art Fund Collection of Middle Eastern Photography at the V&A and the British Museum
From the series ‘Qajar’, Shadi Ghadirian, 1998. Gelatin silver bromide print, 30 x 24 cm. Copyright V&A. Art Fund Collection of Middle Eastern Photography at the V&A and the British Museum. Special terms: Light from the Middle East: New Photography
Hotshoe App new edition brings you the latest content and ability to interact and join in the discussion and debate on photography.
Hotshoe magazine has revamped its App for the second edition bringing you the latest in contemporary photography in a curated, tailor-made, interactive experience.
Expect highlights from the bimonthly print edition as well as extended photo galleries, interactive gallery listings, text-only versions and cutting-edge articles and reviews. Plus the latest multimedia pieces from some of the most exciting photographers working today.
What’s New in Version 6.0.3?
Version 6 is a major update. If you have previously purchases issues with this application you will need to restore them from the settings page. Hotshoe magazine is now using the latest version of the Stonewash Magazine Framework.
Download the app for free and then subscribe for one year for just £9.99, and get the latest issue of Hotshoe directly to your iPad every other month. To read more about the app and download, go to Itunes.
Do let us know what you think of the newer version.
If you have any suggestions for content, or want to know more or are having problems with the blog, feel free to contact me: mirandagavin@hotmail.com
About the Roaming Eye blog
WELCOME to The Roaming Eye (formerly Hotshoe Blog).
Expect an eclectic dip into the world of contemporary photography and lens-based media from a multidisciplinary perspective.
Catch up on news, announcements, exhibitions, interviews and multimedia.
Check out the unique mobile photography Photo Stroll experience covering the latest shows and events.
I am co-founder of Tri-pod, a creative initiative supporting lens-based artists with personal projects in process, and am a regular contributor to Photofusion Photography Centre's website, as well as contributing essays to Hotshoe, a quarterly contemporary photography magazine. Previously, I was the editorial content manager and project developer of Frame and Reference, an online visual arts magazine for the South East from 2013-14.
The Roaming Eye is curated by Miranda Gavin. All views are my own.
If you have any suggestions for content, or want to know more or are having problems with the blog, feel free to contact me: mirandagavin@hotmail.com
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