As usual, I visited PhotoLondon with Liz Smith this year. I would be really sorry to miss this show, but I have to acknowledge that there is always a sense of deja vu. That is inevitable as the exhibitors are mainly selling galleries, showing work by the artists they represent. Having said that, a lot of the individual exhibits are work I have not seen before, or recently and a lot of it is very high quality.
The main reason I return every year is that there are always some artists and ideas that are new to me.
There were several of Farber’s images on display, from his Wet Series eg
Although these are not abstract images, they succeed in capturing feelings as well as facts. I am increasingly attracted to the idea of hybrid abstract-realist images. Farber has a YouTube video available as he shows us around his studio.
The artist is beginning a new venture into mentoring- I am very tempted by his offerings.
The image that immediately caught my eye, amongst several, was
His website is full of equally stunning pictures from various cities and countries. This happens to be New York city, but I’m not sure that is important, at least not for me. I see colours and shapes and possibilities. Just remove a little of the most descriptive imagery and this could easily be anywhere or indeed anything.
Her website is truly astonishing. The image on show that caught my attention was
Although few of Wyse’s images are flattering, none of them are derogatory or voyeuristic either. In the bio on her website, she tells us “Aviya‘s art deals with the synergy between life and death. With her analogue photographic technique she creates installations that construct an archive of bodies with which she commemorates the lives of the living.” This potentially pompous and “arty” description of her work surprisingly seems comprehensible when I look at the pictures. I hugely admire Wyse’s ability to see the humanity in her subjects.
In passing, I also very much like the aesthetic of the printing on cloth. I shall investigate and try this for my own work.
I very much liked his images at the show. A typical image (from his website) might be
Gils says of these images- Initiated by a wish to break away from controlled predefined photography I employed a distinct technique by transferring Polaroids onto Watercolor paper and a conscious dividing of the photo into multiple fields. The new take on photography let to the unique expression seen in Limit To Your Love series. I have most recently developed this series into a further exploration, using old-fashioned glass plate techniques.
In the last few years I have begun to use ICM in some of my work. Of his similar work, Gils says- Movement is a series which combines a strong aesthetical point of view with meticulous attention to technical detail. As the title indicates, the series is concerned with giving shape to temporal and spatial aspects inherent in all visual experience. This, for me, fails the sniff test. There is no doubting the attractiveness of the pictures, but they demand very little of the viewer and so seem to me to offer very little back.
I noted this name and looked up his website yesterday. I love the images there. The colours and the shapes seem potentially in the cold spectrum, but they demand my attention and I find them rewarding and full of mystery and opportunity
Barry's Major Project 