EXHIBITION - The Americans Are Coming (to The Photographers Gallery)

What's that noise ? Oh its a moody soundtrack.

The Photography Gallery has three concurrent exhibitions each showing work by American cultural greats - David Lynch, William Burroughs and Andy Warhol. The exhibitions are on different floors and are independently curated but each attempt in some way to expand our understanding of the artists work through an exploration of their use of the medium of photography. 

ASSIGNMENT - Mansa-Colley Bojang School

See full set on Flickr

Auntie Fatou Saneh and child

In 2011 my wife and I visited The Gambia and were fortunate to meet Mr 'Mucki' Mucktarr Bojang the founder of the Mansa-Colley Bojang School in near Brikama. The school was founded in 2009 to meet the needs of the village of Jalanbang, where many of children were not receiving any primary education. With charitable assistance from overseas, the hard work of the paid and volunteer staff, and the support of the village chief and Imam, the school is doing well.

However, meeting Mucki again in 2013 it became clear that further help would benefit the children. My wife and I asked friends and family to help us raise money to buy school equipment. We created the 'Toubab Bumsters' blog to keep folk informed of progress and booked a trip for December. We raised £1,300 which will be used to buy text books for the older children.

We stayed for a few days at the school and I recorded some of what we experienced. I tried to avoid too many cliched images of smiling kids (difficult as the kids were charming and smiled an awful lot !) instead looking to a combination of posed portraits and reportage to capture some of the atmosphere of the place. While I am pleased with the quality of the images in hindsight I would approach the assignment with a more structured focus. When I go back to the school I will concentrate on portraiture.

Night Watch Man, Mr Ebrahim Barr

Nursery C teacher Auntie Charlotte Mendy

ASSIGNMENT - Around Gambia and Senegal

While the main focus of my trip to The Gambia in December 2013 was to work with the Mansa-Collery Bojang school it seemed churlish to turn down the opportunity of a holiday. My wife and spent 3 weeks in The Gambia and Senegal and I took the opportunity to take some pictures of place - and of the people we met.

Gunjar Media (Flickr)

We stayed firstly in Gunjar Medina which is thankfully some way from the rather unpleasant Senegambia hotel strip.My favourite pictures is this one of Mr Buba Badjie who was making wardrobes at our hotel. I like it mostly because of email reply I received from Buba after sharing the picture with him.

Hi Andy, how are you and your family? hope you are all in a good condition of health. I am very happy to hear from you and i have seen the pictures you sent to me and they are good pictures and i will show it to my family and tell them about  your kindness to me.
Now the malaria  is ok . Sent my greetings to Beth, tell her i am very, very happy about you
Thank you for your help and take care
Buba

Mr Buba Badjie

Jalanbang (Flickr)

The Mansa-Colley school is in the village of Jalanbang. We stayed there for a few days - enjoying the hospitality of the village very well. While poor the folk seem industrious and resourceful as this fellows homemade gym equipment shows.

Concrete dumbbells

Casamance, Senegal (Flickr)

Next step was a trip to Southern Senegal where we stayed with a very welcoming English chap and his Senegalese family (see Simon Fenton's home and photography here http://thelittlebaobab.com). Despite the foreign office warnings the place seemed calm and relaxed as were these two delightful kids near the beach in Abene.

Girls in Abene

Brufut (Flickr)

The majority of our time was spent in Brufut, a mid size town of brick compounds that while not touristy is very welcoming. I bought a bag of rice for our young friend Ousman Jarr's family and was welcomed into his home. This is his blind grandfather. Despite having to small talk in French (the man is a Fula from Senegal) I enjoyed his company very much.

Mr Jarr

ASSIGNMENT | Portraits of Abu and Jess

See full set on Flickr.

I was commissioned by a friend to take black and white portraits of her two daughters as a Christmas gift for her husband and friends. Although I know the girls well - and they are both polite and charming - this was a surprisingly daunting task as I wanted to capture the girls personalities; avoid cliche and kitsch; and produce work that had some resonance without missing the brief to be family friendly.

I shot with natural light (a lack of anything else helped this decision !), and worked hard in post to give the images a graphic quality while retaining naturalism. My client was pleased with the results.

Jessica

Abu

EXHIBITION | Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery

http://www.npg.org.uk/photoprize1/site13/index.php

Citizens of Porto Novo, Leonce Agbodjelou

In his review of the show Blogger Lewis Bush laments that he 'didn’t see a single photograph which challenged my idea of what a portrait should or could be’. In the month that selfie is crowned word of the year I have some sympathy for his view. One might be forgiven for thinking that the austere guardians of the NPG show, and the photographic establishment, are defending their position here. Grayson Perry recently, with tongue in cheek, announced ‘you have to be an artist to make art’. Is the NPG’s definition similar ? Do you have to be a photographer to make photographs ? While there is no expectation here for the curators to trawl Facebook in the hope of finding a seminal portrait, it seems odd that in the time of mass democratisation of photography that only the professional elite can make worthy imagery.

This critique should not, however, should not be seem as a criticism of the work on show - it is certainly well worth the trip to see how the professional’s do it. The show has a uniformity - a style if you like that gives it a whole (this is not a series of snaps, but a collection that’s almost themed). They are mostly colour; mostly full focus; mostly full body (not cropped); and mostly posed. The portraits are conservative in a good way - this is no freak show and its not sensationalist and at times we can soberly connect with that special moment between sitter and photographer.  I enjoyed the show so much I bought the book (which, incidentally, while excellent, sadly lacks the contextualising foot notes for the majority of the shots - a significant flaw).

Some highlights for me include …

EXHIBITION | World Press Photo 2013 at the Royal Festival Hall

http://www.worldpressphoto.org/awards/2013

On a normal day the brutalist 1970’s architecture and cavernous space of the Royal Festival Hall foyer might suit the gravitas of the The World Press Photo Exhibition. Sadly I chose the day that the young and glittering young men and women of the University of Westminster came out in their gowns to celebrate and record their graduation. The amassed bodies (all heels and pressed suits) distracted a little, and the snaps and selfies the students took - with photographs of horror and conflict for a backdrop - might make an exhibition in itself. But fortunately the show is strong enough, and the website good enough, to make up for the few images I may have missed.

The show is immaculately curated. 55 images are printed on large scale panels with informative text on either side of the image (this saves that awkward wait for a reading fellow consumer to move). You may miss the routine of a normal gallery context where a linear viewing from start-to-end is the routine, but the double sided screens and seemingly random order allow you to wander and pick and choose at will. In this way it feels like your show - not the curator's.

ASSIGNMENT | Local Radio in the Fleur de Lys Pub

View set on Flickr

On Friday 8th November BBC Radio Oxfordshire broadcast from East Hagbourne's pub. I took the opportunity to take some snaps. I managed to work with low light with the help of iso 3200 (using post grain to cover the join) and a bounce flash. The above is the most successful image - reward for braving sanction by 'stealing' a shot. The greased back hair is oddly timeless - I might kid myself into thinking I have drank from the same pint glass as Tony Ray-Jones.

EXHIBITION | Adrian Villar Rojas at The Serpentine

http://www.serpentinegalleries.org/exhibitions-events/adrián-villar-rojas-today-we-reboot-planet

Rojas work was a very nice appetiser for a great (if expensive) lunch in the Zaha Hadid designed Magazine Restaurant that is attached to the main building. There are plenty of fine and obscure foods to be had - but no elephant. The jumbo is instead to be found inside the show. It is life size, head down, supporting a seemingly massively heavy girder. It is emphatically (elephantically ?) part of the space, almost alive despite is Pompeii like earthen exoskeleton. 

Jumbo

The creature is beautifully poised. Despite its massive size it just fails to touch the wall it faces - this adds credibility to its mass - the weight falling through head and trunk is credible. The wall itself is made of cracked clay - it is monumental and seemingly ancient. The wall surrounds the gallery’s vaulted spaces, one of which is the exhibits heart. Walking through the portal one I was flooded with references - mostly cinematic. It is like the tombs in Prometheus and the warehouse in Raiders of the Lost Ark; or perhaps some dusty forgotten storeroom in a film studio’s backlot. 

EXHIBITION | Marisa Mertz at the Serpentine

http://www.serpentinegalleries.org/exhibitions-events/marisa-merz

On a wet November morning I trudged through Kensington Gardens to find what looked at first to be a closed gallery. There were cranes and men in overalls removing the Sou Fujimoto pavilion. At the front gate was what appeared to be a hairy-arsed builder in boots and hi-viz. When he spoke he miraculously morphed into an effete gallery guy. First impressions are not always right. 

And first impressions of the Mertz show were similarly misleading - my initial though on entering was ‘oh dear this is going to be very worthy and very dull’. But I was wrong as this is a delightful exhibition where many subtle understated works are nicely spiced by the occasional more baroque piece. The work often appears unfinished or haphazard - but on more careful appraisal it is controlled and very much complete. For instance, there are multiple pieces comprised of small lumps of clay caressed by folded lead sheet. I assumed they were abstract until I spotted an carefully moulded ear on one of them. The conceptual became figurative in front of my eyes. 

Unfortunately the air-con was broken

There are hanging metal objects that look like broken air-con ducts - and elephant trunks (unless that is, it was the gallery’s air con - I hope not as that would make me quite a pretentious prat).

There are a series of water colours and pastels showing beautiful soft smudgy faces. One is like a playful teddy bear. Its lovely (am I allowed to say that about ‘serious’ art ?).

ASSIGNMENT | Yorkshire

View set on Flickr.

Visiting my mother-in-law I took the opportunity to practice some portraiture.

It raised some interesting challenges:

• Pam is family and as such I have a duty to respect her privacy and present her image with respect and honesty. Is this responsibility universal ?
• I could tell multiple narratives. An old lady who's sad and lonely or pensioner who's comfortable and happy. A concerned carer or a reluctant barer of chores.  I erred on truthfulness. 
• Post production was tricky. The use of black and white gives the images gravitas - but is it mannered ?

EXHIBITION | Tom Stoppard at The White Cloth Gallery Leeds

http://www.whiteclothgallery.com/event/tom-stoddart-2/

'Unique and powerful photographs by the celebrated Tom Stoddart reveal forty years of significant world events

A selection of captivating images from the multi-award winning photojournalist Tom Stoddart will go on display at White Cloth Gallery, Leeds this October. ‘Perspectives’ comprises many of Stoddart’s greatest shots from his distinguished career, featuring some of the most important moments in world history such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, the election of Nelson Mandela as South Africa’s first black president and the Siege of Sarajevo.'

The White Cloth Gallery is a cafe bar nestled in a back street behind Leeds railway station. Its clientele seemed more interested in their burgers than the work on show - an indifference that seemed callous considering the imagery of peoples pain and suffering.

The large format black and white prints were presented without glass. While the card mounts, being sadly warped, gave the show an air of car boot sale this was still quite consciously journalism presented as art. There is no doubting the craft skill of Tom Stoddart - and there’s is seldom cause to not celebrate craft - but viewing images of pain and suffering divorced from the context of time and place left a whiff of disrespect in the air. Perhaps that’s hard - there were some accompanying texts to contextualise some of the work and it was presented in sets - but I do wonder what an 20 year old art student would think about the siege of Sarajevo - would they know what it is ?

One piece in particular raised some issues. It is an uplifting image of child holding a baby - there’s a sense of hope amidst the carnage of famine in Sudan. The picture was for sale, and although graciously half the proceeds were to be donated to charity, the manifest monetisation of starvation left me a little queasy. Clearly Tom Stoppard has every right to make a living from his work - but like clergy or doctors perhaps we prefer this to be remain unsaid.

EXHIBITION | Hepworth Wakefield

http://www.hepworthwakefield.org/

I took a drive from Sowerby Bridge to Wakefield. I took a cross country route up hill and down dale and in the valley bottoms saw black and brick towns framed by cows grazing in vivid verdant pasture. Driving through Halifax, Batley, Dewsbury and the like is a crash course in the industrial revolution with canal’s, railways and roads scratching the valley floors and grand brick buildings proclaiming the wealth that was drawn like blood from the many poor souls that came off the land and into the mills.

The Hepworth rises like blocks of granite from the river Calder’s rushing weir - its windows like picture frames exhibiting the industrial landscape from inside and punters from the reverse. It is monumental in aim if not quite scale. It is popular and populist. There are coach loads of students and mums and their half-term kids sketching and pondering and running around the Henry Moore’s (this was great to see). There are seven or eight galleries - with a rotating display that must keep the place more energetic than static. There are precious few Hepworth’s on show but those that are demonstrate the brilliance she has - where the weight of the forms can be felt not just seen.

BOOK | Bending the Frame: Photojournalism, Documentary and Citizen, Fred Ritchin

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bending-Frame-Photojournalism-Documentary-Citizen/dp/1597111201

Fred Ritchin is professor and associate chair of the Department of Photography and Imaging at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, and codirects the Photography and Human Rights Program at NYU with the Magnum Foundation. He also is director and cofounder of PixelPress, which works with humanitarian groups to develop visual projects dealing with social justice issues. Ritchin has written for Aperture, Le Monde, the New York Times, and the Village Voice, and authored several books, including the prescient In Our Own Image: The Coming Revolution in Photography (Aperture, 1990, 2000) and the more recent After Photography (2009).

Picking this up, being the first academic tone I have read for 25 years, was a little a daunting. But reading Ritchin’s book was not a painful process - it is accessible, filled with interesting asides and references and more worthy than wordy. As I read it over a number of sittings (what else does a man do when commuting other than Facebook) I dropped the thread a few times and am left not quite sure where the book started and ended. While the book is not propaganda - it has a viewpoint but its not didactic  - I did find myself waiting for the point - and felt a little let down when it ended more open than closed.

ASSIGNMENT | Army Parade in Didcot

View set on Flickr

A young soldier with the medal he received for serving in Afghanistan

I would have gone anyway - but when I heard the 11EOD were to Parade through Didcot I thought this a good opportunity to practice field work. When arriving I followed the guys with big lenses and soon found my self amongst a motley crew of TV, Radio and press journalists and photographers. Not one to disappoint I did not point out my newbee status to the press officer, instead I took the opportunity to be welcomed into the fray. For the final medal giving part of the parade I found myself corralled into a special press area. Only one wily old hack escaped the pen, with the immortal words " I'm not standing in there - I walk on water me to get a good picture". Next time I will follow his lead.

EXHIBITION | Only in England: Photographs by Tony Ray-Jones and Martin Parr at The Science Museum

http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/visitmuseum/Plan_your_visit/exhibitions/only_in_england.aspx

'Fascinated by the eccentricities of English social customs, Tony Ray-Jones spent the latter half of the 1960s travelling across England, photographing what he saw as a disappearing way of life. Humorous yet melancholy, these works had a profound influence on photographer Martin Parr, who has now made a new selection including over 50 previously unseen works from the National Media Museum's Ray-Jones archive. Shown alongside The Non-Conformists, Parr's rarely seen work from the 1970s, this selection forms a major new exhibition which demonstrates the close relationships between the work of these two important photographers.'

Tony Ray-Jones died tragically of cancer aged just 30. This perhaps gives his work an added gravitas as though his work did not have the chance to become diluted by repetition or derailed by new technology.

Andrea Mantegna -The Court of Mantua

The seminal piece - although not quite his most famous - is a ‘snap’ of folk on a Beachhead boat trip.It is clearly a lucky moment (next second our heroine may have had an ice-cream) but that’s photography for you.

The woman’s apparent rapture is made all the more remarkable by its context - a boat trip to beachyhead. We are thrown head first into her private world - made all the more into voyeurs as even the people around her are oblivious. Powerful stuff.

Is it fanciful to compare this composition to a renaissance group shot ?

EXHIBITION | Sarah Lucas at the Whitechapel Gallery

http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/sarah-lucas

'The bawdy euphemisms, repressed truths, erotic delights and sculptural possibilities of the sexual body lie at the heart of Sarah Lucas’s work (b. 1962). First coming to prominence in the 1990s with a show at London’s City Racing memorably titled, Penis Nailed to a Board, this British artist’s sculpture, photography and installation have established her as one of the most important figures of her generation.'

Lucas is a contemporary of Damien Hurst and shares some of the shock (but less awe) of his craft-meets-theory aesthetic. Her work features repeating themes of female sexuality - most prominently tights filled and arranged like disembodied legs. The subtext (when juxtaposed to ’sexy' imagery drawn from tabloid front pages) appears to be about the objectification of female sexuality. A large panel of multiple photos of her tights sculptures looks uncannily and uncomfortably like porn. However, if the ‘message’ is WOMAN ARE OBJECTIFIED that’s stating the blindingly obvious. That’s perhaps a little unkind, as the work is party historical not contemporary, and no where does she proclaim this is agitprop - but the net result seemed a little shallow. Indeed it shocked by seeming puerile - not the intention I presume.

EXHIBITION | Contemporary Art Society at The Whitechapel

http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/contemporary-art-society-nothing-beautiful-unless-useful

'From works by the Pre-Raphaelites and L.S. Lowry, to exquisite Victorian glassware and lustrous artist-designed ‘Pilkington Pots’, this display celebrates works in public collections across the North West of England and poses the question – what role should art play in social change ?’

A small show of artworks, craft and photographs that is a bit like a northern curiosity shop. There’s small pieces by William Holman Hunt and a lovely poem by John Ruskin that might well serve the HS2 protesters:

There was a rocky valley between Buxton and Bakewell, once upon a time, divine as the vale of Tempe; you might have seen the Gods there morning and evening, — Apollo and all the sweet Muses of the Light — walking in fair procession on the lawns of it, and to and fro among the pinnacles of its crags. You cared neither for Gods nor grass, but for cash (which you did not know the way to get); you thought you could get it by what the Times calls "Railroad Enterprise." You Enterprised a Railroad through the valley — you blasted its rocks away, heaped thousands of tons of shale into its lovely stream. The valley is gone, and the gods with it; and now, every fool in Buxton can be at Bakewell in half-an-hour, and every fool in Bakewell at Buxton; which you think a lucrative process of exchange — you Fools Everywhere

Most interesting was a selection of images by the MASS OBSERVATION movement. Some charming imagery (made more charming by its naivety) of working class life in the black-and-white days of old. Humprey Jennings was a member of Mass Observation - a worthy pre-shadow of Instagram perhaps.