Post by Redeye contributor, Adam Younghusband
With Photo London around the corner, we have compiled a list of highlights both at the photography fair and more broadly in London. A range of exhibitions, events and talks are happening across London from Thursday 16 to Sunday 19 May with something for everyone. This weekend is one not to miss.
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Exhibition: Go Home, Polish by Michal Iwanowski
In April 2018, Michal Iwanowski departed on foot to complete a 1900km journey from Wales to Poland. The motives for this originated in a piece of graffiti Michal spotted in Roath, where the artist lives in Cardiff. The graffiti read, 'Go Home, Polish'. After the Brexit Referendum vote during June 2018, a wave of nationalism spread around the United Kingdom and Europe. This prompted Michal to depart on a journey tracing a straight line from his home in Cardiff to his home in Poland. Go Home, Polish documents this walk, during which Michal asked people he met along the route about the concept of home. He was met with human responses and open discussion which answered some of his own questions about the subject. You can find the exhibition at Copeland Gallery as part of Peckham 24.
More information here.
Exhibition Tour: Only Human by Martin Parr
Following a successful show at Manchester Art Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery presents Only Human by Martin Parr. The exhibition explores Parr’s career photographing people around the world with a focus on his ability to unpick what makes us British. The collection will include world-famous images as well as images that have never before been exhibited. On Friday 17 May, the weekend of Photo London, there will be an exhibition tour led by Curator Dr Sabina Jaskot-Gill. This tour is free with an 6pm ticket to the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.
More information here.
Exhibition: Photo London Master of Photography - Stephen Shore
Photo London has announced Stephen Shore as its Master of Photography for 2019. Stephen was a pioneer of colour photography, alongside photographers such as William Eggleston, he has inspired many contemporary photographers such as Martin Parr, Nan Goldin and Andreas Gursky. His images of everyday objects, people and events have been widely exhibited across his entire career as a photographer. At Photo London this year, attendees get the chance to see Stephen's new series Details, which has never before been exhibited in the UK. It explores subtle components of the street, in particular street debris, which forms a new pictorial landscape. As well as Details, Stephen will also be exhibiting his 1969 work, Los Angeles, California, February 4th, 1969. This series was shot over the course of one day in Los Angeles and displays Stephen's ability to challenge his audience's perceptions of the everyday. You can see both of these exhibitions in the East Embankment Gallery at Somerset House.
More information here.
Talk: Jem Southam in Conversation with Susanna Brown
Jem Southam will be in conversation to discuss his recent works The Moth and Rockfalls. Jem is a leading British landscape photographer with a long and successful career, known for his long-term observations of single locations and colour photographs exploring themes such as belonging and nationhood. Susanna Brown is Curator of Photographs at the V&A and has produced numerous books and international exhibitions, examining themes including documentary photography, portraiture and fashion image-making.
More information here.
Exhibition: Antartica by Paolo Pellegrin
The Magnum Print Room presents Paolo Pellegrin’s work Antartica. This project was born from a NASA project started in 2009 called IceBridge, with the 11-year project aiming to document the Antartic and Arctic using airborne instruments. Paolo joined the project in 2017 and produced a series of abstract images that showcase the sublime but damaged environment.
More information here.
Event: OFFPRINT London
OFFPRINT London is a publication fair concurrent with Photo London. Held in the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern, this is an opportunity to see some amazing experimental publishers working in the fields of contemporary art, photography, graphic design, architecture, humanities and visual culture. OFFPRINT also dedicate an area of this impressive venue to photobooks with a wide range of international independent publishers showcasing work. Photoworks will be presenting a talks programme with an unusual format: each speaker invites the next, creating a string of varied speakers linked through professional or social connections, each with varied experiences of the visual arts. A great chance to see 170 avant-garde publishers and a range of speakers.
More information here.
Exhibition: AOP Awards 2019
Running until Friday 31 May, the Association of Photography Awards 2019 exhibition showcases over 240 finalist images from the Photography Awards, Open Awards and the Student Awards 2018. With new categories such as Photojournalism and Lifestyle, Innovation, Food and Drink and Still Life on top of pre-existing categories, there is a full range of the best the photography industry has to offer. This exhibition can be found in the lobby of One Canada Square.
More information here.
Exhibition: Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2019
The shortlisted artists for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2019 will be exhibited at The Photographer’s Gallery until Sunday 2 June. The shortlisted artists have been nominated for the prize because of outstanding contribution to photography in the last year. Mark Ruwedel is nominated for his exhibition Artist and Society: Mark Ruwedel, a collection of images that span almost 20 years of work investigating how geological, historical and political events leave their marks on the landscape.
Susan Meiselas is nominated for her exhibition Mediations, a thorough retrospective exploring her past projects. This includes long-term collaborations in conflict zones exploring subjects such as human rights issues and the sex industry.
Arwed Messmer is nominated for the exhibition RAF – No Evidence / Kein Beweis. Using techniques and materials familiar to police investigations and crime-scene reconstructions, Arwed charts the history of a ten-year period of the RAF (Red Army Faction) a far-left extremist organisation in Germany.
Laia Abril is nominated for the publication On Abortion, a project which tracks the continuing destruction of women's reproductive rights through abortion. Her series utilises text, audio and image to highlight the effect of unsafe procedures and to raise ethical questions surrounding this avoidable issue.
The winner of the £30,000 is announced on Thursday 16 May, and the exhibition is on show until Sunday 2 June.
More information here.