Fotofill Photography: Latest News & Images

The Photographers' Gallery

03/02/2012 23:11:36

The Photographers' Gallery (London) has been closed for well over a year now (since 19th September 2010), for a general overhaul of the premises. The initial plans for the renovation had to be altered after funds could not be raised to implement them, and a less expensive design was conceived and implemented which was less costly, with a final price tag of £8.9m.

The Gallery was due to open late 2011, but now delayed until May 2012, tagged as conceding with the Olympic year.

As the world of photography continues to change at an increased rate, and it's acceptance within the art world grows, one would began to challenge the relevance of having a specific location dedicated to photography and after a year of closure if the relevance of the Photographers' Gallery has diminished.

In the art world, a year is a very long time, and lots of things can change very rapidly, we're beginning to see acceptance amongst the art world of photography as an art form, rather than as a quirky plaything that anybody and everybody can, and does do. We have seen increasing prominence of photography within the major galleries in London, from the Tate modern Voyeurism exhibition spearheaded by the near newly appointment curator Simon Baker, the Taylor Wessing portrait prize being hosted at the national portrait gallery through to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year at the natural history museum.

With the temporary closure of the gallery, any natural choice for hosting an exhibition has gone with it too, perhaps forcing potential exhibitions to look elsewhere to display their works, the examples stated above have been very successful in their own right from visitors, one would argue if any of these exhibitions have been hosted at the gallery if they would've been equally successful or if they would only achieved limited success being segregated away as photographic art in a separate purpose built venue, rather just being placed in a more general purpose art venue, next to paintings, sculptures and more traditional art mediums.

I would argue that the increasing success of photography being defined as a artist medium is thanks to the progressive thought of many of the bigger galleries not just dedicated to one single form of art, but willing to display photography in the same, un-discriminatory way it would display any other form of art, segregation of photography is perhaps not the best way to promote it.

The gallery has been subject to many criticisms over the years, from photographers with a wide variety of opinions, not least is that the gallery is detached from what happens in the "real" world of photography, choosing to exhibit self indulgent projects with little or no content beyond vacuous; to some photographers the gallery simple does not, and never will exist, having no relevance to the work they do - slightly worrying criticisms for an organisation funded by the Arts Council.

If the gallery is too succeed when it reopens, it will have to work hard to establish it's relevance not only in the photographic community, but also in the art world as a viable venue & alternative location to bigger art galleries for exhibitions, I would argue after being closed for such a long time it may never regain a foothold when better more wider appealing public art space can be found; after all photography is a medium that is very much owned by the people (ever since the cheap box brownie arrived on the market) having such segregation of photographic art is a contradiction of this solid foundation.

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Ethnic Minority Man

03/02/2012 23:11:11

A common cliche amongst today's photographer is the "Ethnic Minority Man", a fairly common photographic subject, sure to turn heads and win competitions. The setup is simple, ship yourself to some foreign land, preferably with extreme poverty but with excellent year round sunshine; Jump out of your 4x4 Air Conditioned Land Rover, stick your hiking boots on and keep walking until you hit a suitable village of mud huts and half naked tribal priests (actually, the less clothes the better). Next find somebody of appropriate old age, a face full of wrinkles and character that suggest a lifetime of hard work, then set your camera atop of your tripod and attempt to steal that persons soul, making sure that before hand you taught them how to say "cheese". Job Done, time to go home.

I have several problems with this current trend of photography (or perhaps not so current) but first of all, let's start with the positives, usually Ethnic Minority Man is illustrated with a high level of technical competence, you most often get a very nice portrait, with that person dressed in attire which appears to be suitably appropriate to the lifestyle you'd expect, nothing wrong with a nice portrait, but this is where it all starts to go wrong.

Now consider for a moment, you've just flipped through the latest edition of Photo Monthly Weekly Magazine, and you've come across a portrait of Ethnic Minority Man, what does this picture really tell you about that person? Does it build a story? Does it create an image & a story of that person in your head? Is that image accurate?

My problem is that such a portrait only serves to reenforce several negative stereotypes, not least the defining stereotype that the photographer themselves provided of that person when they took the picture, the photographer intentional went out to find such a picture, and either intentional or accidentally perpetuated the stereotype of what people in the west imagine a person in poverty in the third world would look like, I have found out nothing about what the life of Ethnic Minority Man is really like, I am just looking at yet another stereotypical image.

What is most impressive about this situation is that most likely, the photographer thinks they have done a great service is promoting the plight (and probably showing the enduring internal spirit) of Ethnic Minority Man to a greater audience by taking such pictures and by travelling to such "harsh" conditions compared to their normal life, however beneath the surface such photos can only come across as Condescending with a Superiority complex thrown in for good measure, the photograph has conveniently forgotten that this is the normal life of Ethnic Minority Man, who is living in these harsh conditions everyday, by putting his portrait on a plinth for all to admire as a work of art. The photographer has had an idea about what type of person they want to photograph, decided upon a remote muddy location and went and packed their camera, the very concept of being anything other than condescending was lost from the very start, how could it be anything else?

I'm not saying it's not important to go on such journeys, and bring back photographs from far away places, of far away people, photography of that nature has served an important role in our society and help illustrate a world different to our own, and any plight that might exist in that world. However to go to such a place, and returning with images that perpetuate a stereotype is an easy and lazy option, a far greater, better thing to do would take photos of people in context, no matter what that context may be, even if that context contradicts what you where hoping to photograph, or your own personal stereotypes. Ethnic Minority Man has no meaning without context, context is lost within a single, often misleading portrait.

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Paul's Rest

02/02/2012 15:08:09

Joanna Kapica	03/12/2011 12:13
Feels so serene! Everyone is asleep perhaps? town is quiet.

Fotofill Photography: Latest News & Images

The Photographers' Gallery

Ethnic Minority Man

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