On Location Archives - 1854 Photography

On Location – Amsterdam

George King — Mon, 18 Sep 2023 11:29:36 +0000

UNTITLED, FROM THE SERIES HAVEN © SEM LANGENDIJK

As Unseen Amsterdam opens in the impressive Westergas cultural park, George H King highlights some of the Dutch capital’s less-known photography spaces and initiatives

If you spend enough time in Amsterdam, you will encounter a nostalgic generation of older residents speaking fondly of the city’s past – of its liberal freedoms, its unpolished surfaces, its anarchic edge, the absence of rules. This Amsterdam was a city of artists, squatters, subcultures and parties, its chaotic scenes and eccentric characters best chronicled in the street photography of Ed van der Elsken, the ‘enfant terrible’ of the Dutch scene.

Ulay, the rebellious German performance artist, also made this Amsterdam his home in the late 60s – trialling pioneering experiments with Polaroids, and in 1972 unfurling a giant photographic banner across the facade of a canal house (Herengracht 532) in protest against the petrochemicals industry. It was also at an Amsterdam hotel that John Lennon and Yoko Ono staged a leg of their performative Bed-In for Peace protest in 1969, calling for an end to the Vietnam War.

For a brief period I lived in the shadow of this hotel, in an apartment overlooked by the newly-weds’ honeymoon suite. Today, shuffling from home to temporary home is an all-too-familiar story for Amsterdam residents – low rates of corporate tax in the Netherlands have made the country an attractive destination for multinationals, living costs have risen dramatically in recent years, and the absence of affordable housing is well-documented.

Some of these contemporary concerns come together in Sem Langendijk’s Haven project, published as a book by The Eriskay Connection, and recently exhibited at Amsterdam’s celebrated Foam photography museum. Shot in the docklands of Amsterdam, New York and London, the project explores the steady decline of free-spirited communities on the fringes – the likes of which Langendijk grew up in – at the hands of economic interests and urban development projects, which promise renewal but all too often enact displacement.

Amsterdam is at a tipping point, and the question is how much longer it can really support a rich and varied cultural life, or constitute a hospitable environment for artists. But it remains alluring to visitors and, frustrations aside, there is still much to be excited about. Echoes of the city’s lost spirit occasionally rumble beneath its slick surfaces. Photographically speaking, there are two stellar photo museums in the aforementioned Foam and the nearby Huis Marseille, both situated on the same canal. Love it or loathe it, the World Press Photo Foundation is also based in Amsterdam, and often hosts events and exhibitions in the city.

More broadly, there is an appreciation here for photography that does not always exist elsewhere; the Netherlands remains a nation of keen collectors, who facilitate a healthy market for artworks, even by emerging names. The country’s historic traditions in bookmaking and graphic design make it a valuable hub for photobook production, while interesting programmes at several Dutch art academies generate a stream of exciting graduates, many primed to consider the critical function of imagery in society. Funding opportunities in the arts are also generous by most standards.

The following listings highlight Amsterdam’s lesser-known offerings, but it is important to note that in a country so small it is both easy and commonplace to commute elsewhere for an exhibition opening or panel discussion. Most cities offer phenomenal cultural destinations in most cities.

Installation view of The Constellation by Nico Krijno © The Ravestijn Gallery

Untitled, March 2023 © Hanane El Ouardani

un/produced & un/fund
Eerste Keucheniusstraat 3,
1051 HN Amsterdam
un-produced.com
@un_produced; @un_fund
With a background in producing photographic shoots for a range of creative and commercial clients, Nottingham-born Rosie Donoghue became frustrated with many of the industry’s trappings – vague quotes seemed to sow distrust between suspicious clients and opportunistic production companies, while sizeable budgets did not always mean better payouts for the photographers involved. Likewise, she thought it ironic that photographers commissioned in the commercial sphere were generally identified on the basis of their personal projects – works which were made independently and often entirely self-financed.

In response, Donoghue went out alone in late 2021 to launch un/produced – a nonprofit, full-service production company based in Amsterdam. Beyond giving her clients full transparency as to where every penny is spent on each shoot, a 10 per cent production fee is earmarked for un/fund: an artist grant offering generous sums to its winners, selected via an annual open call. With an ethical outlook, Donoghue’s model proffers creative solutions to industry pitfalls. Accordingly, many are taking note. Working with photographers such as Annemarieke van Drimmelen, Chris Rhodes, Liv Liberg and Julia Noni, un/produced can already list A Magazine Curated By, Acne Paper, Valentino and Ann Demeulemeester as clients.

Artist-in-residence: Hanane El Ouardani
hananelouardani.com
@hananeelouardani
When Hanane El Ouardani’s grandfather first arrived in the Netherlands from Morocco, he belonged to a wave of so-called ‘guest workers’ – enticed from abroad to plug holes in a beleaguered Dutch labour force. Although his plan was always to return home, things went off-script: El Ouardani’s father, also born in Morocco, followed suit. “I’m not sure if that makes me a second- or third-generation immigrant,” reflects the Breda-born, Amsterdam-based artist. Complex questions such as this one, concerning identity and migration, as well as those of womanhood, underpin her photographic projects, a number of which remain in steady development.

I first encountered El Ouardani’s graduation project in book form, while shortlisting entries for the 2018 Unseen Dummy Award. The Skies Are Blue, The Walls Are Red gestured at the author’s thoughtful negotiation with her ancestral motherland, featuring bold but minimal graphic design, and tender portraits oozing with empathetic warmth. Just as impressive is her quiet resistance to repeating those tricks; since studying at The Hague’s Royal Academy of Art, El Ouardani has taken her time, downing tools altogether, trying her hand at curating, and rejecting expectations to turn out series after similar series. Two works in progress – one exploring the street markets of Brussels, Marseille and Casablanca, and another on the migrant workers propping up Kuwaiti society – should be all the stronger for it.

Installation view of The Constellation by Nico Krijno © The Ravestijn Gallery

The Ravestijn Gallery
Westerdok 824, 1013 BV Amsterdam
theravestijngallery.com
@theravestijngallery
For an afternoon of exhibition-hopping, many of Amsterdam’s snug commercial galleries are found in the city’s Jordaan district, conveniently clustered on and around the quaint Hazenstraat. Now awash with sourdough and natural wine, this neighbourhood was first built to house Amsterdam’s working classes as the city grew exponentially in the 17th century. Of the galleries found here, a surprising number have either a photographic focus or represent top lens-based talent, including Galerie Caroline O’Breen (Anastasia Samoylova, Jaya Pelupessy); Galerie Bart (Isabelle Wenzel, Henk Wildschut); Bildhalle (Douglas Mandry, Albarrán Cabrera); and Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen (Raymond Meeks, Donovan Smallwood).

Across town at the Westerdok, The Ravestijn Gallery occupies a split-level space of concrete pillars and floor-toceiling glass, overlooking the IJ river to the north, and an idyllic houseboat-lined canal to the south. While the list of Ravestijn’s represented artists speaks for itself, the detailed precision of its presentations, right down to the careful framing of each work, is to be appreciated. Founded by Narda van ’t Veer and Jasper Bode in 2012, the gallery’s programme is solely photographic, privileging new and experimental approaches to the medium. Do not be surprised to find photographic prints combined with sculpture, ceramics, video works or bespoke installations, and if you’re lucky, you might catch a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the gallerists’ staggering (private) photobook library.

Enter Enter
Nieuwe Herengracht 11, 1011 RK Amsterdam
enter-enter.nl
@enter___enter
‘READ BOOKS, BUY BOOKS, BUY LOCAL’ urges the slogan on a viral poster campaign, dreamed up by revered local graphic designer Hans Gremmen; you may well have seen it in a bookshop near you. Gremmen is one half of the excellent Fw:Books, a leading Dutch photobook publisher, which itself forms a third of Enter Enter – a youngish not-for-profit space dedicated to ‘the art of the book’, co-run with Premiss and the brilliant Roma Publications.

With the publishers’ studios to the rear, Enter Enter’s exhibition space is friendly and unpretentious, offering curated publication-based displays that speak to key questions in the art-bookmaking sphere, and a dynamic programme of related talks. Its summer exhibition showcased Aperture’s newly-launched Ari Marcopoulos monograph alongside 32 of the artist’s unpublished zines, for example, with a hands-on reading room to boot. While there are always printed treasures to discover, no books are sold here – when launching the venue in 2019, the founders had no interest in providing further competition for struggling independent retailers.

Athenaeum Boekhandel & Nieuwscentrum
Spui 14–16, 1012 XA Amsterdam
athenaeum.nl
@athenaeumboekhandel
On a busy cobbled square in the heart of the city, this fantastic bookshop-cum-newsstand is a magnet for magazine enthusiasts; its staff describe the store as a kind of ‘living room’ for Amsterdam’s culture-lovers. With a mind-boggling selection, from tiny hand-bound artists’ zines to widely circulated glossy fashion titles – and literally everything in between – barely a week goes by in which this writer does not pay a visit.

The staff here understand the importance of platforming small publishers and individual voices. “There are several buyers for books and magazines, and many different motives lie behind their selections,” explains Marieke van Ekeren. “What can we surprise customers with? What topics do we think are important to pay attention to?” In many instances, the shop’s window displays, book launches and intimate talks, organised in collaboration with publishers, offer a physical forum for timely conversations first staged on the printed page.

The work of Hajar Benjida on show at Unfair22. Image © Almicheal Fraay

Unfair
Klönneplein 1, 1014 DD Amsterdam
unfair.nl
@unfair_amsterdam
Unseen is surely Amsterdam’s best-known photography fair, where an international crop of participating galleries present contemporary photographic works to visiting collectors, in a refreshingly laid-back atmosphere. While Unseen’s early efforts to introduce emerging photographers to market were forward-thinking, another beloved Amsterdam event – Unfair – is even more subversive in its dismantling of the art-fair blueprint. Taking over the same former gasworks that hosts Unseen, Unfair was founded by artists, instilling each edition with a playful, experimental edge.

Even the fair’s architectural design is selected from a pool of public submissions, and later installed collaboratively with the participating artists. When doors open, artists represent themselves; no galleries are present here to take care of sales. In November, Unfair23 marks the platform’s 10th anniversary – this year’s iteration will feature over 60 artists, focusing on those who graduated in challenging times (the Covid 19 pandemic, for instance, or the 2008 financial crisis). While Unfair features practitioners of all kinds, lens-based artists are always well-represented.

UNSEEN AMSTERDAM IS OPEN FROM 21 – 24 SEPTEMBER AT WESTERGAS, KLONNEPLEIN 1, AMSTERDAM. FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT UNSEENAMSTERDAM.COM

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A guide to Singapore’s photography scene

Calvin Chow — Fri, 11 Aug 2023 16:00:26 +0000

Kathy Anne Lim, Wayside, from the series White Noise, 2020

This article first appeared in the Money+Power issue of British Journal of Photography. Sign up for an 1854 subscription to receive the magazine directly to your door.

Famed for its skyscrapers, the densely packed city-state is also home to a burgeoning photo scene. Photographer and lifelong resident Calvin Chow guides us through the cultural highlights

Touchdown in Singapore. The flight attendant welcomes you to the Garden City over the aeroplane intercom. Most travellers visit for a short holiday, or perhaps for a taste of modernity before heading to other South-east Asian destinations. But I have lived here all my life and realise that time is what you need most to properly uncover this city’s multiple facades. An ultra-modern skyline with spotless streets and orderly skyscrapers built on the legacies of colonialism, the city’s blend of greenery and steel is unparalleled. There is, however, a human hand involved at every turn.

To see Singapore is to look at the amalgamation of immigrant histories, native cultures and sacrifices of the natural world. The photography scene in the region began with an ethnographic intent in the 1800s, but has since morphed into a contemporary force. Pushing boundaries and distilling life into art, photographers have not only recorded the meteoric rate of change in this city, but what it means to live in Singapore and South-east Asia at large. When new train lines and homes compete with areas of nature, priorities become apparent in the city. Pragmatism is perhaps the name of the game, but life, unlike new condominiums, moves at a much slower pace.

Objectifs Gallery. Courtesy Objectifs

In Singapore, we find comfort in food. A national pastime is to venture to the different hawker centres (an open- air complex of food vendors) in search of delicacies. From Malay to Chinese cuisine, our food celebrates multiculturalism. The ubiquitous chicken rice is simple in its premise, yet its fragrant rice with juicy chicken meat has fed generations and is the dish I crave most when overseas. Food means so much to Singaporeans because it allows us to hold on to our culture and history.

In this guide, I will give you an idea of how I see the place. Of course, you should visit the popular sites – such as the hulking metal flowers at Gardens by the Bay, or the Avatar-esque waterfall at Jewel Changi Airport – but the beauty found in structures built by the genius of humans can easily be matched by that of nature. I encourage you to spend some time in the ‘jungle’, such as at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, where you will find crocodiles, birds and monitor lizards. In short, Singapore is whatever you want it to be. On a Monday morning, you could be fighting for standing room on the subway, or sipping champagne at the infinity pool on the top of Marina Bay Sands. You could eschew glass-and-steel in favour of nature but never be more than an hour away from an air-conditioned mall. If you are just here for a short time, hit up the highlights and leave but know that what you saw was all built for you: a facade of a city twisting and bending its beauty, appealing to the eye of the beholder.

Kathy Anne Lim, Blue Suspended, from the series White Noise, 2017

Artist-in-residence: Kathy Anne Lim

Upon encountering Kathy Anne Lim’s work, one experiences a sense of lightness and an almost dreamlike state. The ordinary Singaporean cityscape takes on an ephemeral form, drifting in and out of consciousness. For her series White Noise (2017–2020), Lim followed the fumigation teams that control mosquito populations within housing estates. The result is a work that has a sense of foreboding, accentuated by the sculptural form of fog. A control against dengue fever – a common yet lethal illness in Singapore – the white mist encroaches and seeps through every nook and cranny, until “the familiar becomes abstracted beyond recognition”, as she describes it. Lim’s poetic work on themes of memory and displacement is a critical component in considering the fabric of the nation.

Singapore International Photography Festival

Singapore International Photography Festival (SIPF) is a biennial public event that brings together installations of contemporary photography, workshops, talks and a photobook showcase. Aiming to introduce critical thought and academic discussion about South-east Asian photography, the festival takes a global approach by showing local, regional and international photographers alike. Entries to the festival are competitive and have been a catalyst in exposing Singaporeans and tourists to contemporary photography. Entering its ninth edition in 2024, the SIPF is the premier photography festival in the region and an unmissable event.

Objectifs Store. Courtesy Objectifs

Objectifs – Centre for Photography and Film

With a gallery inside a heritage chapel, Objectifs is a visual arts space dedicated to film and photography, as well as a bookstore selling local and regional works, and a place for workshops. Founded in 2003, the organisation has shown work by rising and established artists from the region, leading the way in nurturing future talent. From its youth programmes to professional mentorships, Objectifs is a stalwart of the contemporary photography and film landscape in South-east Asia. The building is located in the Bras Basah.Bugis precinct, the creative arts and heritage district, near museums and art colleges.

Djohan Hanapi, co-founder of Knuckles & Notch © Joel Chua

Knuckles & Notch

This Risograph print studio is renowned for its bold graphic prints, and its products can be found at book fairs worldwide, from Tokyo to Los Angeles. Supporting local and international artists, Knuckles & Notch is run by the artist duo Marilyn and Djohan, and is a mainstay for handcrafted art books and prints. From photography to illustration, the studio and its gallery, Chaos, provide a unique space for artists to experiment across multiple mediums. Visit Knuckles & Notch and Chaos gallery to experience work that stays true to the heart of independent publishing.

Singapore Art Book Fair 2022 © Clarence Aw

Singapore Art Book Fair

Held annually in April, the Singapore Art Book Fair is a vital part of the local photography scene as it provides a physical space for zine makers, artists and publishers to sell their books and network in the community. In space-constrained Singapore, rental prices are often out of reach for independent publishers, such as Your Local Newsstand and Nope Fun, placing even greater importance on the fair. Founded in 2013, the multi-day event was the first of its kind in the region and is now firmly established as one of the key book fairs in Asia.

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On Location: A photographer’s guide to Kyoto

Sean Lotman — Mon, 10 Apr 2023 11:00:29 +0000

This article is printed in the latest issue of British Journal of Photography: Performance. Sign up for an 1854 subscription to receive it at your door.

Photographer, writer and resident Sean Lotman guides us through the ancient city’s photographic hotspots

These days, it feels as if Kyoto is on everyone’s radar. However, despite being the capital of Japan for more than a thousand years (from 794 to 1868), only recently have the city’s treasures become appreciated globally. Tea ceremonies and classical theatre can be experienced across the country, but the aficionados will tell you it is better in Kyoto. The geisha in Gion are like movie stars, and the chefs of kaiseki restaurants like celebrities. Museum collections contain memories of centuries past – delicate scrolls, ceramic teacups and Buddhist sculpture.

For a long time, exhibition-goers were more likely to come across traditional arts such as sculpture and woodblock printing rather than photography. However, over the last decade, that has changed. Inaugurated in 2013 and modelled on Les Rencontres d’Arles, Kyotographie has evolved into a superlative international photofestival in Japan. Plus, a number of new galleries have opened in the city, and there are a growing number of bookstores selling rare first editions and independent press.

I first learned about Kyoto in the late 1990s. It was a somewhere-else-land that sounded romantic and mysterious 25 years ago to a young Californian man with dreamy aspirations. I would never have predicted that I would fall in love with a woman from Kyoto. My wife is the current and 16th-generation owner of 500-year-old soba restaurant Honke Owariya, and we now live in the city’s downtown area with our son and dog.

If you make it to Kyoto, you are likely to visit the famed bamboo forests at Arashiyama or the torii gates at Fushimi Inari. However, there is a chance you will discover more poignant resonance on your way. This is a city for strollers and wanderers. There are many in-between spaces that might strike your aesthetic fancy: overlooked geography surviving centuries of ‘progress’ – a machiya, a neighbourhood shrine, moss on a cracked wall – viewed in a glorious quality of light that changes with the shifting seasons.

Kyotographie

Citywide with a permanent space, Delta, in the Demachi Masugata shopping arcade
kyotographie.jp

Founded in 2013 by Lucille Reyboz and Yusuke Nakanishi, Kyotographie is an international photofestival celebrating masters of photography and up-andcoming artists. Inspired by the renowned Les Rencontres d’Arles in France, the pair believed Kyoto could become an expansive stage for showcasing art and ideas. The festival is based on the notion of engaging audiences who would not ordinarily visit museums and galleries but who are open to having their sensibilities challenged. Novel and creative presentation of artwork is the most important element in making Kyotographie unique. Collaborating with local designers, craftspeople and scenographers, establishments normally closed to the general public are transformed into atmospheric installations. Settings have included Zen temples, the kitchen quarters of Nijō Castle, and the redundant printing press factory of Kyoto’s main newspaper. It is this confluence of centuries-old history with the contemporary that gives the festival its special charm. The 2023 edition has the theme of Border. Running from 15 April to 14 May, it will present exhibitions by Boris Mikhailov, Joana Choumali, Mabel Poblet, Coco Capitán, Ishiuchi Miyako and Yuriko Takagi, among others. This year will also see the inaugural season of Kyotophonie, an accompanying music festival featuring visiting artists from the jazz, electro and world-music genres. Beyond the festival itself, the organisation presents a rotating programme of exhibitions at its bistro-gallery, Delta, located in the Demachi Masugata shopping arcade, near the Kamo River. It has also initiated an artists’ residency, each year welcoming an African practitioner to create a project in response to the city.

Purple

122–1 Shikinami-cho, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto 604-8261
purple-purple.com

South-east of Nijō Castle in a modest building, up several flights of stairs, is Purple. The gallery is the combined effort of two prominent Kyoto-based artbook publishers: Seigensha and Akaaka. The gallery opened on 26 March 2022, with an exhibition by Naoya Hatakeyama called Tsunami Trees [above], a series about landscape damage in the Tōhoku region in the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake disaster. Since then, Purple has shown the work of Japanese artists including Masahisa Fukase, Kikuji Kawada, Yu Yamauchi, and more. In addition to innovative exhibition themes, there is a bookstore with titles from the two publishers as well as other books with Japanese-related work. Chairs and table space allow for leisurely, comfortable perusal.

Villa Kujoyama

17–22 Hinooka, Ebisudani-cho, Yamashina-ku, Kyoto 607-8492
villakujoyama.jp

At the top of a steep path, in the hills south-east of the Heian Shrine, is the French arts residency Villa Kujoyama. The site initially belonged to the French Institute in Kansai, which opened in 1926 as part of an initiative led by the French poet and ambassador to Japan at the time, Paul Claudel. The organisation was moved to a more central location in 1936, but the land lay dormant until the 1980s when the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs decided to reinvent it as a cultural centre for the exchange of Franco-Japanese ideas. In November 1992, Villa Kujoyama became the first French residency programme in East Asia. The current building – a minimalist concrete structure flanked by trees and overlooking the city – can host up to six artists-in-residence for periods of two to six months. It is a perfect place to focus, the residence being deliberately removed from urban busyness, its grounds quiet and tranquil. The artists’ spaces have high ceilings with windows facing patio gardens. Originally set up for more traditional arts, its pursuits have evolved with the zeitgeist, and the facility now hosts digital artists, craftspeople, fashion designers and culinary artists, as well as photographers. In the 30 years since the residency began, Villa Kujoyama has hosted over 400 artists. It is open to French citizens as well as practitioners who have lived in France for at least five years and who wish to develop a project related to the Kansai region or Japan more generally

Photographing Kyoto by season

With its reputation for elegance and charm, Kyoto has been attracting photographers – amateur and professional – for many years. The most popular time to visit is early spring when the cherry blossoms are in full bloom. The flowers are particularly beautiful around Ninna-ji Temple and alongside the Kamo River. Others aspire to explore in autumn, when crimson maple leaves and chrome-yellow gingko transform the city’s foliage. These colourful leaves, known as kōyō, are to the Japanese autumn what cherry blossoms are to spring, and are best experienced at the Imperial Palace in the early morning quiet. Winter is cold, but there are fewer tourists and the light is clean and true. Summer, with its intense humidity, is the greatest challenge for a photographer hoofing around town as it can be exhausting. The light is intense at midday, but the ’magic hour’ luminescence lingers; one of the best-loved memories of a trip could be cycling along the banks of the Kamo River on a hot summer’s day, observing life lived by its murmuring waters. No matter what time of year you visit, the light particular to that season will be memorable – and will undoubtedly inspire you to return at a different time of year.

HoHoHoZa

2–7 & 71 Jodojibaba-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto-shi, Kyoto 606-8412
hohohoza.com

Anyone delving deep into the Japanese publishing scene should make a pit stop at HoHoHoZa. The establishment is actually two bookshops situated opposite each other on a quiet street. They share the same name, but are run independently by two different owners. One shop [above] is large and airy, focusing on decidedly anti-trendy, uber-indie publications. The other is a narrow room packed with an eclectic collection of books from Japan and abroad, including rare gems. A visit to either will unearth something wonderfully eccentric.

RPS Kyoto Paperoles

603 Laomatsu-cho, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto 602-8318
reminders-project.org

Located near the picturesque grounds of Kitano Tenmangu shrine in north-west Kyoto is an outpost of Tokyo’s legendary gallery-workshop, Reminders Photography Stronghold (RPS), led by Yumi Goto. The Kyoto space hosts photo exhibitions, workshops and events. ‘Paperoles’ is French for small pieces of paper folded and glued to the page, often with notes, captions and marks, and aptly expresses the process of photobook-making. The new iteration represents an expansion of RPS’ activities, which have become too much for Tokyo alone. Since 2014, participants from all over the world have taken part in RPS events; past subjects have included the Photobook as Object workshop (there is a forthcoming event in May) and a Photobook-Making Masterclass, instructing on the process of turning project concepts into photobook dummies.

Benrido Atelier

302 Benzaiten-cho, Shinmachi-dori, Takeyama-cho, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto-shi, Kyoto 604-0093
@benrido.atelier

Nothing in photography synthesises Kyoto’s old-world charm and photography’s heritage better than Benrido. It is the world’s last remaining atelier capable of full-colour collotype printing. Invented in France in the mid- 19th century, collotype printing is a complex, meticulous process – it can take weeks for even master printers to complete projects. Throughout the 20th century, Benrido made an invaluable contribution to the preservation of Japanese cultural artefacts, creating replicas of several national treasures. Some of the originals were destroyed in fires and history would have been lost if not for the collotype reproductions. Benrido also has a gallery and shop annexed to its offices, and in 2017 launched the Collotype Academy to educate artists on this extraordinary process. It also recently inaugurated the Hariban Award (hari meaning ‘glass’ and ban meaning ‘plate’) to artists working in black-and-white. Grand prize winners are eligible for a two-week residency in which they will be able to produce collotype prints of their work.

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On Location: Five highlights from Rio de Janeiro

Igor Furtado — Mon, 19 Dec 2022 14:01:32 +0000

© Walter Firmo.

This article was printed in British Journal of Photography: The Portrait Issue.

Home to iconic beaches and the world-renowned carnival, Rio de Janeiro is one of Brazil’s liveliest cities – with a photography scene to match. Photographer and editor Igor Furtado guides us through the artistic hotspots

To experience Rio de Janeiro is to be overwhelmed by images. These are images that are beyond any static medium – they are alive and moving. As the second largest city in Brazil, after São Paulo, Rio has a dynamic and constantly evolving art scene, driven by the effervescent spirit of its native residents, known as ‘cariocas’. In Rio, we are continuously searching for ways to disseminate the artistic force of newer generations. In recent years, a growing number of independent galleries have projected young talents to a wider international audience. Despite the difficulties of gaining financial support for the arts, these spaces are proposing new ways of showcasing photography and building a community around it.

Brazil’s troubled past is reflected in every fibre of its urban tissue. Beginning with the Portuguese invasion in the 1500s, the country’s colonial history is inextricably tied to that of photography. The daguerreotype arrived in Rio in January 1840, and became a process that represented a colonial mechanism with the purpose to dominantly catalogue the people and the landscape. Through the decades, Rio has largely been depicted through a foreign gaze. In mainstream media, the city is sold as a getaway, home to iconic beaches and the biggest carnival in the world. The photographs produced in the region reinforced a stereotypical perception of a tropical paradise overtaken by violence and poverty. It was only around the 1960s that photography began to be exhibited in museums, gaining a more artistic and experimental perspective of the practice.

Now, change is being demanded socially and politically. In the last year, many protests have taken place in the city, demanding immediate action to tackle police brutality, the climate crisis, and the embezzlement of public funds. All of these challenges have shaped the city, which in its restless DIY spirit urges a rewriting of history by the artists of today. As we face a pivotal moment in political history, we continue to dream of reaching a place of autonomy, protecting histories and lands that are important to us, but which remain unknown around the world. Rather than talking about our struggles, we hope we will be recognised for distinguished knowledge and talent, and continue to propel our international influence.

Here, I pick out five of the many photographic highlights of the city – first published in an extended version of this article in Issue 7911 of British Journal of Photography.

Galeria Refresco

Rua Sara 18, 4º Andar, Santo Cristo, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 20220-090

Located in the Santo Cristo neighbourhood in the port area of the city, Galeria Refresco has been operating since 2019, holding exhibitions, workshops and artistic residencies. Its latest exhibition presented work by Rio native Fernanda Liberti, a recent graduate of London’s Royal College of Art and laureate at the Prix Dior de la Photographie. Collaboration is at the heart of the gallery’s mission. For Liberti’s show, it welcomed fellow artists Vinicius Gerheim, Thadeu Dias, Manoela Bencze and Mariana Honório to be included in the artistic production. Previous exhibitions have included a series by trans non-binary artist Rodrigo Masina Pinheiro and Ton Zaranza who exhibited portraits of LGBTQ+ people made on 28 October 2018 – the day far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro was elected president – and how this event resonated in their lives.

Instituto Moreira Salles

Rua Marquês de São Vicente 476, Gávea, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 22451-040

Founded by Brazilian banker, politician and philanthropist Walther Moreira Salles, Instituto Moreira Salles (IMS) is a nonprofit organisation with a goal to promote the development of culture in five areas: photography, literature, libraries, visual arts and Brazilian music. Holding an archive of two million images, it is arguably Brazil’s most important photographic institution. IMS was set up in 1992 in Poços de Caldas, a spa city north of São Paulo, and has since established headquarters in São Paulo and Rio. The Rio outpost sits within Salles’ old residence, in the affluent Gávea neighbourhood. Surrounded by the spectacular forests of the Tijuca National Park, the space hosts film screenings, concerts and cultural events, as well as housing music and literature collections. The house and grounds are an attraction in themselves: a prime example of 1950s modernist architecture, designed by Olavo Redig de Campos with landscape design by Roberto Burle Marx. As well as publishing exhibition catalogues and books, IMS prints a biannual contemporary photography magazine, ZUM, and a quarterly publication of critical essays, Serrote. Its current exhibition presents around 200 images by the Brazilian Magnum photographer, Miguel Rio Branco. On view until 26 March 2023, the show traces work made in the 1970s to the present day, reinforcing the originality and relevance of Rio Branco’s restless experimentation.

RIO DE JANEIRO, RJ – BRASIL – 27 DE MARÇO DE 2018 – Imagens da montagem da exposição “CORPO A CORPO: a disputa das imagens, da fotografia à transmissão ao vivo”, em cartaz no Instituto Moreira Salles, no Rio de Janeiro. A mostra exibe um recorte da produção brasileira contemporânea em fotografia, cinema e vídeo por meio de sete trabalhos desenvolvidos por artistas e coletivos – Bárbara Wagner, Jonathas de Andrade, Mídia NINJA, Sofia Borges, Letícia Ramos e Garapa – com curadoria de Thyago Nogueira. (Foto: Leonardo Wen)

Galeria 5Bocas

Rua Ourique 1234, Brás de Pina, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 21011-130

5Bocas gallery takes its name from the favela where its founder, Allan Weber, lives. The 29-year-old artist opened the space last year, with the intention of offering new work and leisure opportunities for local people. With group exhibitions and future open calls planned, the gallery is part of a network of independent institutions supporting emerging artists outside the commercial circuit. These concerns are a reflection of Weber’s own practice, which is focused on “representing the lower income social class that with a lot of time, struggle and sweat are achieving their goals, even without access and opportunities”.

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Galpão Bela Maré

Rua Bitencourt Sampaio 169, Maré, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 21044-261

Located in the favela of Maré, Galpão Bela Maré is a cultural centre founded in 2011 by Observatório de Favelas – a non-profit organisation that aims to reduce inequality and strengthen neighbourhoods. During its decade of existence, the centre has contributed to the decentralisation of cultural facilities. Its prolific residency programme encourages creatives to reflect on the places they live – the people, the streets, and the stories they hold. The programme not only benefits the participating artists, but aims to provide inspiration for generations to come. Hosting exhibitions both inside the space and along the streets of Maré, it reaffirms the favelas as a fertile stage for contemporary art.

Casa da Escada Colorida

Escadaria Selarón 18, Lapa, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 20241-120

This multipurpose arts centre runs artistic and curatorial residency programmes, as well as exhibitions, workshops and film screenings. The project’s mission is to strengthen the creative community and democratise culture through education. The Casa is also a hub for the annual FotoRio – a 20-year-old festival offering a series of exhibitions and portfolio reviews every November.

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On Location: Five photographic highlights of Helsinki

Louise Long — Thu, 27 Oct 2022 16:00:35 +0000

© Louise Long.

This article is printed in the latest issue of British Journal of Photography: Time & Community.

Animated by the country’s dramatically shifting seasons, the Finnish capital’s photographic scene has steadily gained international recognition since the 1960s. Here, we guide you through some of its artistic hotspots

Finland’s capital may float on a peninsula of 300 islands, but since the 1960s its photographic scene has been firmly grounded by a solid infrastructure. International-facing museums and galleries, a cohort of prolific publishing houses, and a weighty educational system underpin Helsinki’s photographic community. But changes are afoot. Financial support for artists is still healthy, but competition has never been greater. The funding model of previous decades, which bore valuable framed prints suited to the international art market, is now being undercut by new modes of self-publishing, performance and events.

Meanwhile, other dynamics whirl through the scene. There is increasing pull from international publishing houses (the likes of Kehrer and Hatje Cantz), alongside a generational shift towards local publishers, such as Khaos, Bokeh and UTU Press. Then there are the stylistic and thematic shifts, influenced by artists’ rising ecological concerns, the encroachment of a ‘Southern European’ documentary genre, and even tendencies towards the materiality of photography.

Cycles, flows and weather systems define and animate this city. With the turn of each season – from the uncanny darkness of January to the disarming levity of August – there is plenty to bewitch visitors in Helsinki’s art scene. New spaces seem to rise from the spring melt, and even as the winter encroaches, artists gather to plot and scheme.

Below, we pick out some of the city’s best spaces to enjoy photography – adapted from a feature first published in the Time & Community issue of British Journal of Photography.

The Finnish Museum of Photography

The Cable Factory

Presiding over a collection of two million photographs, The Finnish Museum of Photography marks the country’s steadfast commitment to the medium in all its forms – from fashion, documentary, advertising and architecture. Holding 10,000 works of art, the museum may be the oldest of its kind in Europe, but what distinguishes it, says Elina Heikka, museum director of 15 years, is the presence of Finnish photographers within its ambitious international programme. This is “very special,” notes Heikka, “and not the case in other cities”.

Exhibitions are housed across two sites: The Cable Factory – a cultural centre occupying the vast former industrial buildings in the city’s Ruoholahti district – and at the centrally located K1 Gallery, on the lower ground of Kämp shopping centre. The museum’s adjacent bookshop, The Temporary Bookshelf, is a non-profit peer-to-peer initiative founded in March 2021 by Helsinki-based French-Japanese artist Hikari Nishida. It is “a vital hub of small press and self-publishing”, praises local publisher and educator Tuukka Kaila.

Installation view of Paradoxes of Photography exhibition at The Finnish Museum of Photography.

Nide

Fredrikinkatu 35, 00120 Helsinki

Terhi Jääskeläinen and Joose Siira founded Nide in 2015, observing a lack of specialist artbook shops in the city. The bookstore fills the gap with its stacks of art theory, monographs, coffee-table books and non-fiction titles; “from the most talked about works to little-known small editions”. The outlet, in the Design District, often hosts talks and readings, which are attended by a loyal community of creatives, students and academics. Venture into the back room for choice indie magazines, and look out for pop-ups with the likes of Marimekko, particularly during Helsinki Design Week.

Bookshelves at Nide © Louise Long.

Hippolyte Gallery

Yrjönkatu 8–10 Courtyard, 00120 Helsinki

Helsinki’s Association of Photographic Artists and foremost contemporary photography gallery find their confluence at Hippolyte. Founded as a non-profit in 1978, the gallery exhibits its members’ work at two locations: its downtown courtyard space, which boasts an elegant bookshop and upstairs library, and the Korjaamo Culture Factory in Töölö. The shows are curated following a “really thorough” peer-review process, says Henna Harri, director since 2016.Ranging from installation to moving image, the programme gives space to emerging talents such as Shia Conlon, originally from Ireland, engaged in transgender processes; and Sheung Yiu, a Hong Kong-born artist exploring image algorithms. There is also an older generation of established practitioners, including Marja Helander, a Sámi artist working with moving image; and Hannele Rantala, whose recent Ateneum Museum show, Dialogue, uncovered the ongoing correspondence and friendship between Rantala and Elina Brotherus, first initiated at Hippolyte Gallery in 2009. Alongside its mentoring programme and weekly broadcast of grants, residencies and work opportunities, the Association runs the annual Photobook Award (with The Finnish Museum of Photography), continuing to bolster the city’s vibrant publishing scene.

Work from the series Altar by Ananya Tanttu on show at Hippolyte Gallery.

Helsinki Photo Festival

Various locations

The fifth edition of Helsinki Photo Festival, themed ‘Believe’, ran from July to September 2022. The annual festival offers an intense series of contemporary photography activities in the city. “We are a young organisation, and every edition is a learning process for us,” says artistic director Rafael Rybczynski. Fifty emerging and established artists occupied historic landmarks, warehouses, galleries, parks and waterfronts during the summer exhibitions, followed by an educational programme of seminars, workshops and portfolio reviews.

From the series Brightness Hiding (the failure… © Carl-Mikael Ström.

Galleria Huuto

Kalevankatu 43, Inner Court, 00180 Helsinki

Huuto celebrated its 20th birthday this summer with a party hosted in collaboration with mental health organisation Pro Lapinlahti. The open-invite event – which included film screenings, visual art, outdoor music, a ‘Flower Bar’ and face painting – encapsulates Huuto’s spirit as a fiercely independent art collective of around 120 members, eschewing the limitations of institutional spaces. Some 50 exhibitions a year from member artists are held at Kalevankatu 43, the collective’s chequer-floored exhibition space in the University of Technology’s former labs. Recent shows include Tuuli Teelahti’s Curriculum Vitae, a video installation exploring the poetics of sleep, time and water flow; and Anna Reivilä’s Metaphysics, published by Kerber in book form this autumn as Nomad, a series fusing ideas around land art, Japanese bondage and the divine.

Installation view of Nokipiirroksia by Antti Keitilä at Galleria Huuto, January 2022.

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On Location: Five photographic highlights of Istanbul

Merve Arkunlar — Fri, 07 Oct 2022 16:00:43 +0000

From the series Slow Sleep © Bartu Kaan.

This article is printed in the latest issue of British Journal of Photography magazine: Tradition & Identity. Available to purchase at thebjpshop.com.

Istanbul-based editor Merve Arkunlar picks out some of the city’s best spaces to enjoy photography

I have lived in the Kadıköy neighbourhood of Istanbul for 30 years; it is a beautiful, mesmerising city. It is also a place of constant change and where the duality of the East and West maintains its tension. I started to make a visual diary of the city in 2007. By collecting postcards, photobooks and encyclopaedias, I realised that I was living in a city of treasures.

Shortly after graduating I worked at a private museum, where capturing images of the city was a large part of my job. It was a great experience but, in some ways, disappointing to witness how little progress was being made to expand the art world. There seemed to be a lack of enthusiasm for building new opportunities with the art and culture scene heavily reliant on private sector donations and support. Government funding is allocated only for ‘a certain type of culture’, pertaining to traditional forms of thought and production. In 2010, Istanbul was voted European Capital of Culture and hosted several multidisciplinary events and international collaborations. Cultural life was vivid, packed with new gallery openings and initiatives – a melting pot of diverse structures and artistic hubs.

The city’s multicultural heritage and diverse demographic remain strong. However, urban gentrification threatens Istanbul’s traditions, culture and local life. In the last 20 years, a number of remarkable places from my visual diary have vanished or lost their connection with culture and arts. Some artists have moved away, but many have kept the faith, contributing to a photography scene that is more productive than ever.

Today, there are many promising independent photographic spaces, focused on developing photography, publishing, documentation and print. Here, we round up five of the city’s best spaces for photography.

Onagöre

Meşrutiyet, Tuğrul Sk

Onagöre is a design and research studio, focusing primarily on urban history and photography. Founded by artist, editor and curator Ali Taptık, the studio creates databases of visual archives, conducts research on the local area, and designs exhibitions within it. Since 2020, “due to [having more time] as a result of the pandemic isolation,” says Taptık, the studio has been championing its photobook publishing arm. “We aim to develop a sustainable and consistent publishing practice,” he continues. “Since the first day we dreamed of the project, our desires and the values – to be as local, transparent and inclusionary as we can – have not changed and have moulded our publishing practice. We will keep building it as a company run by artists.” Recently, Onagöre hosted a pop-up shop at Postane, a historical building formerly known as the British Post Office of Galata (the original name of the Karaköy neighbourhood), which has been renovated into a co-working space for artists and activists.

FiLBooks

Kemankeş Karamustafa Paşa, Ali Paşa Değirmeni Sk.

Founded by photographer and visual storyteller Cemre Yeşil Gönenli in 2015, FiLBooks is a hub of activity where you can sip a freshly brewed coffee while flicking through a range of photobooks. Started as a bookshop and cafe in the hip district of Karaköy, it has evolved to include a small publishing house, organising workshops, book launches and artist talks. Its digital platform, FiLBooks Online, also offers online mentorship programmes on photographic and artistic output with the likes of Cemre Yeşil Gönenli, Stuart Smith of Gost Books, Gary McLeod and Ana Casas Broda among the many industry professionals offering advice and knowledge.

212 Photography Istanbul

06–16 October, various locations

212 Photography Istanbul is Turkey’s annual international photography festival, launched in 2018 as an extension of Istanbul’s biannual culture and arts magazine, 212. Celebrating its fifth edition, the festival, which this year takes place from 06 to 16 October, offers an opportunity to foster interdisciplinary dialogue through the shared language of photography. The 11-day event is directed by Banu Tunçağ and brings together some 500 artists to showcase work at 15 locations across the city. These include historical and cultural centres, galleries and outdoor venues on both the Asian and European sides of the city. This year, the Beşiktaş Square will host a pop-up exhibition titled SK8, reflecting on the city’s growing skateboarding trend as a form of self-expression for local youth. Other highlights include Our Dearest Friends, Animals, on show at the Akaretler Sıraevleri, which considers the natural world and the wonders of animal and human coexistence, bringing together animal portraiture from Walter Chandoha, Martin Parr, Hellen van Meene, Tim Flach, William Wegman, and more. Elsewhere, a programme of talks, workshops, music and dance performances, film screenings and, for the first time, food-tasting events alongside shows of food photography, will run throughout the event.

Border_less ArtBook Days

Rasimpaşa Mh, Yurttaş Sk

Seeking to bring together image and text from artists worldwide, Border_less is a dynamic online space. Founded by Huo Rf and Melek Gençer, it publishes creative, personal and abstract pieces, as well as critical conversations ruminating on the art industry. The multilingual platform also hosts a yearly bookfair called ArtBook Days. The event, which next takes place in May 2023, has become a popular meeting place for the city’s independent publishers, art professionals, art book-makers, curators, editors, artists, and other creatives. Border_less also hosts an annual open call for artists seeking to publish their first book. Last year’s book fund was awarded to Işıl Eğrikavuk for her artistic/academic project From A Political Protest to an Art Exhibition: Building Interconnectedness Through Dialogue-Based Art.

Versus Art Project

Kuloğlu, Hanif Han, Dernek Sk

Versus Art Project is one of the most prominent Turkish galleries in contemporary, lens-based art. Co-founded in 2015 by the Ünsal siblings, Leyla and Mert, the space is located in Taksim, the busy historical centre of Istanbul. The gallery prides itself on supporting emerging and more established Turkish artists, many of whom originate from, and are still based in, the city. Larissa Araz, Ege Kanar, Metehan Özcan, Selim Süme, Yusuf Murat Şen and Serkan Taycan are all part of the portfolio.

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On Location: A photographers’ guide to Paris

Rémi Coignet — Mon, 01 Aug 2022 11:00:51 +0000

La manche, Flora, Porte d’Aubervilliers, Paris, 2012 © Myr Muratet.

The French capital is rich with photographic history and the subject of some of the medium’s most iconic images. Writer and editor Rémi Coignet guides us through the city’s contemporary photographic scene

Photography is everywhere in Paris. The French capital is where Louis Daguerre unveiled his daguerreotype method of photo-making in 1839, and photography has been written into the city’s fabric ever since. There is the Place de l’Hôtel de Ville, where Robert Doisneau (1912–1994) staged his 1950 photograph Le baiser de l’hôtel de ville, picturing a couple kissing in a busy Parisian street. And in the suburb of Gentilly one can find Maison Doisneau, an art centre named after the French photographer and dedicated to the genre of humanist photography he pioneered.

Elsewhere, the Place de l’Europe, behind Saint-Lazare train station, marks the spot where Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908–2004) captured his famous photograph of a man mid-leap, his feet hovering over a pool of water. Meanwhile, the Cirque d’Hiver set the stage for Richard Avedon’s (1923–2004) iconic image of the model Dovima dressed in an elegant Dior gown posing alongside circus elephants. Closer to home, the curious intersection of Rue Beauregard and Rue de Cléry, near where I live, inspired several photographers: Eugène Atget, André Kertész, Roger Schall, Brassaï, Doisneau and Cartier-Bresson. Institutions dedicated to photography also fill the city. Every day, images pour into the Agence France-Presse (AFP) ’bunker’, located in the Place de la Bourse, before a fraction of them appear in newspapers and on news sites.

Excellent selections of photobooks can also be found at most cultural institutions. The bookshop at the museum Jeu de Paume is exceptional, and smaller art bookstores are on the rise, including La Comète (29 rue des Récollets, 75010) and the iconic publisher Delpire & co’s outlet (13 rue de l’Abbaye, 75006), which also showcases exhibitions.

Photography events punctuate Paris’ cultural calendar. Circulation(s) festival, which recently held its 12th edition, occupies Le Centquatre-Paris for two months each spring, showcasing the best of young European photography. In November, the annual Photo Saint-Germain festival, which started in 2010, presents a route through exhibitions in museums, cultural centres, galleries and bookstores on the Left Bank. The international Paris Photo at the Grand Palais Éphémère, and its many satellite events, also happen during this month, marking the end of the French capital’s photography season.

However, there are perennial highlights to discover, the most enduring of which we feature below.

Le Bal

6 impasse de la Defénse 75018 Paris

Nestled in a charming cul-de-sac, a stone’s throw from the Place de Clichy, Le Bal’s building has had several lives. In the Roaring Twenties, it was a dancehall – hence its current name – and later, the largest horse-betting shop in France. In 2010, having been abandoned for 20 years, the building was transformed under the impetus of Raymond Depardon and Diane Dufour into an art centre dedicated to photography, video and cinema. Its exhibitions showcase the work of an international roster, including Paul Graham, Dirk Braeckman, Wang Bing, and currently Judith Joy Ross. The exhibition space doubles as an educational platform, La Fabrique du Regard, which aims to engage young people. Le Bal also contains a bookshop with vintage and contemporary titles, and hosts a rich programme of book signings and lectures. Even its charming Café Otto has become a popular meeting place for image professionals and Parisians alike.

Le Plac’Art Photo

12 rue de l’Eperon 75006 Paris

If you visit only one bookshop in Paris, make it Le Plac’Art Photo. Located on the Left Bank between Saint-Michel and Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Le Plac’Art Photo (a pun that roughly translates as ‘the Photo Wardrobe’) takes its name from its first location, which was no bigger than a cupboard! Today the bookshop is housed in a beautiful shop where shelves slide out to transform it into an exhibition space. Owners Clément and Nobue Kauter present a selection of contemporary books. However, their central focus is vintage publications, including those from Japan, where they regularly travel to unearth treasures.

MEP Library Maison Européenne de la Photographie

5–7 rue de Fourcy 75004 Paris

Maison Européenne de la Photographie was inaugurated in February 1996 and run by Paris Audiovisuel: European House of Photography, an organisation founded almost two decades earlier, in 1978, by the then-mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac. These days, Simon Baker, the former senior curator of international art at Tate in London, is the director of MEP.

One of the major institutions dedicated to photography in Paris, MEP occupies a former mansion with an added contemporary wing in Le Marais district of the city. It houses a collection of 24,000 photographic works, an auditorium, an excellent photobook shop, and has exhibitions by both young and established artists. However, MEP’s real treasure is its library, which is open to visitors from Wednesday to Friday. The library’s collection comprises 36,000 titles, which makes it one of the largest photo libraries open to the public in Europe. It was conceived following the acquisition of the photography historian Roméo Martinez’s collection and has grown from there.

The collection features 4000 titles published before 1980, some of them very rare. European and American publications are well represented, and there are thousands of Japanese titles, many of which are difficult to find elsewhere. Nearly 450 international reviews and magazines are available, and the library also recently acquired 3000 titles from the Self Publish, Be Happy stable.

Maison européenne de la Photographie

Polycopies

Bateau Concorde-Atlantique, Berges de Seine, Port de Solferino, 75007 Paris

Every autumn (this year 09 to 13 November) during Paris Photo, Polycopies transforms a barge moored on the Seine into an ephemeral bookstore dedicated to photography books. The satellite event creates a space for dozens of independent publishers to exhibit and sell their publications during the fair. It’s an excellent place to meet and converse with fellow photobook enthusiasts.

Artist-in-residence: Myr Muratet

Numerous photographers reside in Paris and the question of how to represent one of the most documented cities in the world preoccupies many of them. Myr Muratet has been working on this for more than 20 years, like a modern-day Lewis Hine or Eugène Atget, the latter one of his reference points.

The epicentre of his work is the Gare du Nord, the train station where the Eurostar leaves and arrives. In a profoundly political approach, he is interested in state structures, as defined by the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben, both ideological and physical, that aim to guide or more often than not constrain behaviour and people. For example, a bench on which it is impossible to lie down. At the Gare du Nord, he began by photographing homeless people. Then, little by little, he observed marginalised populations: drug addicts, migrants from Africa or Eastern Europe who, beyond the station, are trying to make a place for themselves in the north-east of Paris.

Muratet highlights fragile, precarious existences and the tools implemented to counter and constrain the disorder in the lives of the most deprived. Both empathy and cold anger imbue his work, simultaneously chilling and upsetting. However, it frames the general picture of the social and spatial – and therefore political – organisation of the city of which the inhabitants of Paris Nord, or hurried passers-by, perceive only fragments.

Paris-Nord, Laurent et Patrick †, 2004

Galerie Jean-Kenta Gauthier

4 rue de la Procession, 75015 Paris (Vaugirard location)
5 rue de l’Ancienne-Comédie, 75006 Paris (Odéon location)

Jean-Kenta Gauthier gallery, founded in 2014, spans two spaces, developing and presenting projects in these and in major public and private institutions. The gallery represents an impressive list of artists, including Daniel Blaufuks, Raphaël Dallaporta, JH Engström, Mishka Henner, and Daisuke Yokota.

However, it is perhaps most significant for positioning itself as both a gallery in the traditional sense, and a laboratory and platform for artistic production, helping the creatives it represents to develop their practices. For example, The Days are Numbered, the visual diary that Daniel Blaufuks has been keeping since 2019, was first exhibited in 2021 in the main Vaugirard location. A new exhibition is planned for June 2022 in the smaller Odéon space before a monumental show in early 2023 transfers to MAAT in Lisbon. These changes of scale allow for artists to experiment with different exhibition formats directly in the gallery space. So what better reason to visit if not to observe the art of our time being made and considered

Installation view of The Days Are Numbered (May) by Daniel Blaufuks at Galerie Jean-Kenta Gauthier, Vaugirard, Paris, 2021 © Jean-Kenta Gauthier, Paris

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On Location: A photographer’s guide to Venice

Louise Long — Wed, 20 Apr 2022 11:00:03 +0000

Mantas, Floater, Green Fortuny, Cochinilla & Kinsaccuchu Dyed Yarn, Wood, Body in Forte di Mezzo, 2019 © Lorenzo Vitturi.

This article is printed in the latest issue of British Journal of Photography magazine – a special edition with a double theme, Love / Ukraine. It can be delivered direct to you with an 1854 Subscription or available to purchase as a single issue on the BJP shop.

The azure lagoons and golden light of Italy’s floating city have charmed visitors for centuries. Louise Long looks beyond the touristic sites and bustle of the Biennale to uncover Venice’s photographic highlights

Venice is – to borrow a phrase from writer Patrick Leigh Fermor – where I first encountered “rafts of colour”. The peach sky on a dawn lagoon, the slate grey of winter fog, the carmine red of Titian satin, and the rainbow treasure of Murano’s workshops. As a child, my first visit coincided with the tail end of the Biennale; at a time before I fully understood its significance.

The place exuded a gentle glow, and I immediately fell under its spell. Standing beneath Bellini’s San Zaccaria Altarpiece, I awoke to the transportive power of images. I was struck by the trompe l’oeil of the Venice architecture, the warmth of its light and the poetry of its details. “Immersed between sky and water,” is how artist Lorenzo Vitturi [below] describes the city.

As for photography’s story, it is a tale of fantasy and riches. Venice is where, in 1845, writer John Ruskin discovered the miracle of the daguerreotype. Four years later, he returned with his own camera, producing his three-volume study of Venetian architecture, The Stones of Venice. As the decades turned, photographers continued to visualise the city – from Tomaso Filippi’s late-19th century pictures of Venice to Fulvio Roiter’s best-selling photobook Essere Venezia, published in 1978. In the 1980s, the city inspired the salient work of the Viaggio in Italia collective, led by Luigi Ghirri.

Today the city accommodates a select but active community of practitioners. You need only to turn to contemporary artists Lucia Veronesi or Kensuke Koike, both of whom experiment with found and collaged imagery to navigate their experience of the city, to witness its diverse and timeless influence.

Venice’s greatest magic is in the everyday and the unexpected: pausing for espresso and sfogliatelle from Pasticceria Chiusso; stumbling across perfect herringbone brickwork in the almost-secret Campo de l’Abazio; or an aperitif at dusk among artists and writers in the courtyard of Hotel Aquarius.

In his book 435 Ponti e Qualche Scorciatoia (33 Postcards), photographer David Horvitz asks: “Does a visitor with only one day in Venice have the time to wander the city?” I would venture, yes: for at the very first step, you are enveloped in the enigma of its light and colour.

Casa dei Tre Oci

Fondamenta Zitelle, Giudecca 43, 30133 Venezia

Travelling over the water to Giudecca, or by foot on the Fondamenta delle Zattere, the ‘three eyes’ of Casa dei Tre Oci are unmistakable. Designed in 1913 by artist Mario de Maria, the palace is a marvel of neo-Gothic architecture. Boasting exhibitions, workshops, talks, portfolio readings and book events, Casa dei Tre Oci is the centre of photographic excellence in the city. Across three floors, temporary exhibitions offer space to the likes of Elliott Erwitt, Sebastião Salgado, and René Burri. Currently, the palace is hosting the largest-ever retrospective (on show until 23 October) of the late French-Swiss photographer Sabine Weiss, who passed away last December. Its bookshop is a rich trove too – of art titles, independent publications and essay collections.

Self-portrait, 1953. © Sabine Weiss.

Moda per Vogue, Francia, 1955. © Sabine Weiss.

Bruno

Calle Lunga San Barnaba, Dorsoduro 2729, 30123 Venezia

Amid a labyrinth of antique bookshops sits a beacon of contemporary publishing and utilitarian design. Bruno is an oasis of concrete walls, sleek shelving and steel girders – part bookshop, part design studio – catering to artists, architects, designers, and simply the culturally curious. Its thoughtful displays include artist books and one-off editions, while its magazine stacks buzz with emerging and independent titles. No less lively is its events calendar of special exhibitions, book launches and readings. In warmer months, locals can be found spilling out onto the street, olives and vino in hand.

Artist-in-residence: Lorenzo Vitturi

“In the last two years people have realised it’s possible to live again in the city,” says Italian-Peruvian artist Lorenzo Vitturi. In the 1960s, Vitturi’s father – a glassmaker from Murano – left Venice for Lima, Peru. There, he fell in love with Vitturi’s mother, and the pair returned together to Venice. Fifty years on, Vitturi is re-enacting the trip: transporting 100kg of glass on numerous expeditions between Europe and South America for his latest project, Caminantes. Four years in the making, the ongoing project speaks to the “process of transformation” that comes from cultural connection. Through photography, sculpture, painting and performance, Vitturi’s collaborations with artisans – including ceramicists, textile artists and glassmakers – preserve the facts of their original localities, while generating new meaning. Vitturi was raised between two cultures – Italy and Peru – and has spent the last 21 years living between London and Lagos. But Venice remains central to his artistic mission. Between lockdowns in July 2021, a three-month trip to the city turned into 10. Vitturi found it was the “best moment to come back”, landing a beautiful studio in the lively district of Cannaregio – almost impossible in pre-pandemic times. And while the light, colour and materiality of Venice have forever been his “teacher”, since 2019, Vitturi’s focus has sharpened on Venetian art history for the first time. Two decades and a global pandemic later, “I have been discovering my city,” he says.

Lorenzo Vitturi has recently returned to Venice and works in a studio in the northern district of Cannaregio.

Fondazione Querini Stampalia

Campo Santa Maria Formosa, Castello 5252, 30122 Venezia

Fondazione Querini Stampalia is, in its own words, a place “in constant flux”. It is a 16th-century palace with original furnishings, frescoes, and Venetian Old Masters paintings. But since its architectural renovations in the 1950s and 60s, the focus has been on its dialogue with contemporary art. In the permanent collection, photography is front and centre, with the archives of Luigi Ghirri, Graziano Arici, Luigi Ferrigno and Mark Smith held there. Also in its collection is Catalan photographer Margarita Andreu’s Entrambi luoghi (Both the places), a photographic series responding poetically to the Fondazione’s architectural renovations.

Exterior of Fondazione Querini Stampalia © Alessandra Chemollo.

Cameraphoto Epoche

Calle del Cafetier, Castello 6661, 30122 Venezia

“If Venice could talk,” says Vittorio Pavan, “it would say, ‘Stop taking pictures, let’s experience me!’” Pavan, a photojournalist for more than two decades, is custodian of Cameraphoto Epoche, an archive of over 300,000 photographic negatives of the city. He began working at the archive aged 14, and in the following 50 years, his appreciation for the collection has remained steadfast – from the spectacle of celebrity to the intimate life of Venetians: crafts, boats, Rialto market, and women in Burano making lace. From sun-kissed stars to political protests, sultry night scenes to the dazzling Carnivale, images of Venice may have reached saturation point. But luckily for modernday visitors, the historic jewels are in safekeeping at Cameraphoto Epoche.

Sean Connery in Venice, 1970. Courtesy of Cameraphoto Epoche.

Artist-in-residence: Paolo della Corte

After years spent working in Milan and Rome, Paolo della Corte has recently returned to Venice, to a small studio near the Rialto market. He is first to admit the artistic challenges of the city – of falling into “the trap of its beauty”, or producing work that is simply “too aesthetic and banal”. For now, he is committed to telling the story of the “contemporary city, through its inhabitants, who are resisting, despite the great difficulties of living here”. His projects, (R)existing in Venice and Venice 2050 DC are both born of this experience – reflecting the state of mind and day-to-day challenges faced by many kindred spirits.

Cecilia Foresi, artist. Both from the series Venice 2050 DC © Paolo della Corte.

LaToletta SpazioEventi

Fondamenta Borgo, Dorsoduro 1134, 30123 Venezia

LaToletta SpazioEventi is an ambitious new exhibition space curated by Michele Alassio. In early 2021, Alassio met Giovanni Pelizzato, owner of the historic Toletta bookshop in Venice. Within a few months the pair had transformed a warehouse into a world-class gallery, hosting up to nine exhibitions a year of emerging and established artists, as well as the Venice Photo Prize. Alassio jokes how he and Pelizzato were born on the same day, 10 years apart, and though they are “opposite characters”, the pair are “perfectly in agreement” over their shared vision. Their aim is to forge a community that comes back to “see the originals”, and leaves with pictures “in your eyes and heart, not under your arm or in your suitcase”. From April, the space will host free aperitif evenings on Fridays, in the rare company of local writers, painters and photographers.

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On Location: Lisbon

Ellie Howard — Mon, 14 Mar 2022 12:00:11 +0000

This article is printed in the latest issue of British Journal of Photography magazine, themed Home, delivered direct to you with an 1854 Subscription, or available to purchase on the BJP shop.

Lisbon resident Ellie Howard guides us through the photographic highlights of a city in creative flux

Lisbon draws light like no other city. Not even the postcards sold in its many souvenir shops capture the medley of colour reflected off its townhouses’ azulejos (painted tiles) and the Tagus river running through it. Lisbon’s old-world charm blinded me as a tourist, and it’s only after living in the city for some time that I’ve started to see past it. Indeed, works such as Camilla Watson’s O Tributo [below] and Henri Kisielewski’s project, Postcard City (a visual exploration of mass tourism’s implications on Lisbon), reveal the complex realities of Portugal’s capital beyond its rich history and heritage.

Lisbon’s photographic history is itself complex. The Estado Novo (New State) – an authoritarian regime that governed Portugal from 1933–1974 – repressed creativity in some ways and encouraged it in others. Ultimately it led to photographers such as Artur Pastor, Augusto Cabrita, and Eduardo Gageiro, among many others, not receiving due recognition during their lifetimes. Even after Estado Novo’s fall, Lisbon’s photography network grew more slowly than its counterparts further north in Braga, Coimbra and Porto. And this left many of the capital’s talented artists and image-makers frustrated.

More recently, struggling to recover from an economic downturn over a decade ago, Portugal’s government bolstered tourism and opened the real-estate market to foreign investors. The arrival of the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT) in 2016 transformed the city’s cultural infrastructure, as did the renovation of the historic Central Tejo exhibition space and opening of the Museu Coleção Berardo a decade earlier. These – alongside the older Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea do Chiado (MNAC) – do not focus specifically on photography but have staged exhibitions by international photographers such as Todd Hido, Joakim Eskildsen and Lisbon-based practitioners such as André Cepeda.

This fast-paced cultural transition means Lisbon is less formalised and overly institutional compared to other European cities. Instead, the city creates space for more spontaneous, experimental and interdisciplinary reactions to develop – mainly in the peripheral industrial fringes, such as Marvila and Alcântara. However, in central areas too, galleries like Hangar [below], A Pequena Galeria, Artroom, Galeria Madragoa, and Carlos Carvalho Arte Contemporânea are transforming the cultural landscape. Contemporary photographers and artists such as Paulo Nozolino, Daniel Blaufuks, Pauliana Valente Pimentel, António Júlio Duarte, Catarina Osório de Castro, and Délio Jasse all call the capital home and have exhibited in venues across it.

Although the growth of the creative class has not been without its issues – notably mass tourism and gentrification – ultimately Lisbon’s tide of creativity has been welcome. Many public artworks, artists, archives and organisations challenge commodification, treating photography and the broader arts as public entities, where societal interests are met and conflicts resolved. Lisbon has long been a cosmopolitan city, and as it continues to shift and transform, its photography scene will be there to document it.

O Tributo – Camilla Watson

Beco das Farinhas
Mouraria
1100–234

camillawatson.com

Mouraria is one of Lisbon’s oldest neighbourhoods. In this Moorish Quarter, caged canaries sing behind lines of washed linen drying. It is this sense of authenticity that compels visitors. However, most remain oblivious that the area’s community is slowly shrinking. As tourism engulfs Mouraria, locals have found themselves priced out. A third of properties have become Airbnb-style rentals and younger generations have moved further afield.

British photographer Camilla Watson, a resident of Lisbon for almost 15 years, noticed the shift. In 2009, she began the first of her public street installations, O Tributo. The participatory project saw 25 elderly residents collaborate with Watson in selecting a photographic portrait to be printed on wood and placed along a narrow beco (alleyway) they often walked.

The project, one of five permanent street exhibitions by Watson in the city, speaks volumes about the power of photography in place-making and community-building. The residents have become deeply attached to seeing their community reflected. Watson has at times removed portraits of those who have died, and the community often asks her to take new ones. The work does not just impart history and heritage, it also acts as a reminder of the true face of Mouraria; an antidote to the superficiality of tourism and the depersonalisation of a place caused by rapid gentrification.

Sr Henrique © Camilla Watson. Part of the permanent street exhibition in Mouraria.

On our radar
Photo Book Corner
Rua Marquês Sá da Bandeira 86C
1050–050
This well-known photobook store, which recently opened a brick-and-mortar site, specialises in self-published, small print-runs and limited editions (including signed editions).

Hangar – Centro de Investigação Artística

Rua Damasceno Monteiro 12
1170–112

hangar.com.pt

Photography is not Hangar’s sole focus, however, it is one of the central spaces in Lisbon fostering photographic innovation. The city, especially the Intendente neighbourhood on Hangar’s doorstep, is home to communities from Latin America and lusophone African countries. Hangar itself is one of the few institutions supporting culturally diverse artists and practitioners in Portugal, and it promotes critical reflection around post-colonialism. Mónica de Miranda and Bruno Leitão, Hangar’s founders, have adopted a model-based less on exhibitions and more on long-term collaborations and in-depth research led by non-European artists and curators.

Hangar’s site accommodates an exhibition hall, cafe (with Brazilian tapioca fritters) and residency live-work studios, giving it the feel of a community hub. It acts as the first port of call for many visiting artists, curators and researchers, and provides a support network for numerous local artists.

Installation view of Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me) exhibition, curated by Azu Nwagbogu of the artists Zanele Muholi and Ayogu Kingsley, 2021.

Arquivo Fotográfico de Lisboa

Rua da Palma 246
1100–087

arquivomunicipal.cm-lisboa.pt

Just off Praça Martim Moniz sits an unassuming building that was once an old fish factory. A discreet plaque announces it as the Arquivo Fotográfico de Lisboa, one of Lisbon’s oldest photographic repositories, established by the council to help conserve the capital’s photographic heritage from the 1850s to the present day. The building’s ground floors have become an exhibition space complete with a line-up of historical cameras. Upstairs, two smaller exhibition rooms lead towards a glass-house style esplanade mezzanine with a cafe. But the biggest draw is a tiered library hosting a spellbinding array of photographic books available to reference.

The archive’s main collections are searchable digitally. For instance, you can browse Artur Pastor’s images dating from the 1950s of a lost rural Portugal, before fast-forwarding to contemporary collections of António Júlio Duarte and Daniel Blaufuks.

The institution’s vast reference library.

Imago Lisboa

Various locations

imagolisboa.pt/en/ festival

Throughout the last three decades, there have been fleeting attempts to set up a yearly photography event in Lisbon – including, Mês da Fotografia (1993) and two editions of Lisboa Photo (2003 and 2005). However, until recently the capital lacked an annual photography festival. In 2019, historian and curator Rui Prata – co-founder of one of Europe’s largest and oldest photography festivals, Encontros da Imagem, in the northern city of Braga – turned his attention to building on Lisbon’s revived cultural capital and helped facilitate the launch of Imago Lisboa.

Photography festivals host multiple perspectives, but they also feed into discourse beyond the artistic. Indeed, spread out between repurposed civic buildings, large institutions and artist-run spaces, festivals lead you to geographical areas you might not have otherwise visited. Imago Lisboa feels less focused on drawing international crowds and instead endeavours to encourage new and local audiences. Putting arts education back in the public realm, with socially engaged projects and offerings such as free lectures on photography history, are indicators of this. Galeria Imago Lisboa, the festival’s most recent project and one of the city’s only medium-specific spaces, exhibits the work of emerging photographers, while Imago Lab, under the same roof, is dedicated to educational activities and research.

On our radar
Feira da Ladra
Campo de Santa Clara 1100–472
For antique cameras, undeveloped rolls of films, discarded family albums and other ephemera, you can’t beat this bustling flea market. The inspiration for Délio Jasse’s project, The Lost Chapter: Nampula, 1963 (2016) and Joachim Schmid’s Estrelas Amadas (2013) came from among its many stalls.

Atelier de Lisboa

Rua João Saraiva, 28A, 2o Alvalade
1700–250

atelierdelisboa.pt

Photography school and visual arts centre Atelier de Lisboa favours no single style or genre. Its holistic approach to photography education, alongside facilities such as a printing lab and library, has meant it has steadily become one of Lisbon’s most dynamic photography spaces.

Bruno Pelletier Sequeira founded the school in 2006. He remains its director, coordinator and one of its many teachers. Courses span topics from technical skills to theory-based modules such as Revelations of Portuguese Photography with photo historian and curator Emília Tavares, and project-led modules that end in a collective exhibition or production of an individual book. Week-long artist residencies are also available; visiting tutor Jem Southam has been leading groups to the Portuguese village of Monte Redondo in the Serra do Açor for years.

The exhibition Books and Dummies, showcasing work by Atelier de Lisboa students in 2019 © Maria Inês Martins/Atelier de Lisboa.

On our radar
Lisboa Photobook Fair
Avenida Conde de Valbom, 102B
1100–394
Held in November, the Lisboa Photobook Fair has been a mainstay since 2010. Packed with publishers, it offers an experimental space for exhibition, sale, discussion and debate around the photobook.

XYZ Books

Rua Ilha do Príncipe 3 porta E
1170-182

artbooks.xyz

XYZ Books started life in 2013 as a photobook store in the neighbourhood of Chiado. One of just three specialist shops in Portugal, XYZ and its co-founders, Pedro Guimarães and Tiago Casanova, served a niche audience, but it has since evolved – and its network alongside it. Hosted by the non-profit organisation Ilha, it still sells photobooks but also operates as a publishing house, artistic research centre, exhibition space and a printing lab, spread over three floors in a converted building tucked away in a courtyard in Anjos.

As a publishing house, XYZ focuses on diversifying the language of photography books, selecting image-makers based on their experimental nature and ability to push boundaries. It’s an ethos also evident in XYZ’s activity as a research centre, for which first-class educators and photographers such as George Georgiou and Vanessa Winship deliver workshops.

Recently, XYZ launched an artist-in-residence programme to provide technical and project-based mentorship to a photographer developing an artbook dummy. Austrian artist Michaela Putz’s Palinopsia (2021), which explores the ghostly haptic imprints left on digital screens, was published as part of the residency. Having expanded recently to a team of three (plus one at-large cockatiel), XYZ intends to grow their curatorial capacities. However, their main focus remains publishing – forthcoming are titles from Nuno Andrade, Andrea Basilio, Tim J Veling, Luísa Ferreira, Mariana Rocha, and Inês Gonçalves.

Specialist photobooks on bespoke shelves for sale at XYZ Books.

The post On Location: Lisbon appeared first on 1854 Photography.

On Location: Bristol

Aaron Schuman — Thu, 21 Oct 2021 16:00:51 +0000

Photographer and lecturer Aaron Schuman guides us through the history and creativity of the diverse community he calls home

Bristol first registered on my radar when a friend turned up to our college darkroom with two new CDs: Portishead’s Dummy (1994) and Tricky’s Maxinquaye (1995). The albums, which served to define the Bristol-born genre trip-hop – an enigmatic fusion of hip-hop and electronica – conjured an image of a place that was both woozily atmospheric and curiously edgy. And one distinct from the manically hyperactive metropolis of mid-1990s New York, where I was living.

In my mind, Bristol was slow-paced, unpretentious and, at times, mournful yet pulsating with an intense creative energy that was dynamic, multicultural and politically charged. More than 20 years later, I was invited to develop a postgraduate MA in photography at the University of the West of England. I discovered a place that confirmed and exceeded these hazy expectations; a city with a fascinating complexity and burgeoning photo culture that stretched far beyond the paltry limits of my teenage imagination.

Straddling the River Avon in the south-west of England, Bristol developed into an important trading port in the 12th century. In the 1500s, it became a launching point for early exploratory voyages. By the 1600s, it was also well- known for the trade of illicit goods, but ultimately the city built its substantial wealth through the transatlantic slave trade. By the 1730s, an average of 39 slave ships left Bristol each year, a number that grew over the following decades. As slavery was gradually abolished, the city continued its economic expansion through the importation of tobacco. In the late-1900s, Bristol’s maritime industries went into decline, and the economy turned to aerospace, information technology, media and culture. Many of its post-industrial sites have been regenerated into cinemas, restaurants, artist studios and cultural institutions, where a vibrant and supportive creative community thrives.

Despite its deeply problematic history, today Bristol is one of the most progressive and politically active cities in the UK. This year’s Kill the Bill protests, and last summer’s Black Lives Matter demonstrations, culminating in the toppling of the Edward Colston statue, are recent examples. Alongside such activism, there is a robust arts scene with a longstanding history of experimentation – Richard Long and Banksy, among many others, hail from Bristol. The city’s photographic culture finds its origins in the 1970s, with Jem Southam and Paul Graham. While working day jobs at the Arnolfini gallery and elsewhere, the pair built and ran a cooperative gallery and communal darkroom: Photographers Above the Rainbow. It was there, in the cramped rooms above the Rainbow Cafe (now the vegan Eden Cafe), that contemporary British photo culture first flourished, and colour photography gained a foothold within British art. Over the following decades, the city became home to many more photographers, including Garry Fabian Miller, Peter Fraser and Martin Parr.

Almost 50 years later, Bristol is experiencing a photographic renaissance. Artists flock to the city, and in the last five years alone, a plethora of new galleries, festivals, publishers, educational programmes and community-minded initiatives have established a home here. Little did I know, back when I was agitating my developing trays to the slow-and-low tempos of this city, that my lifelong obsession with photography would eventually lead me to Bristol. At such an exciting and important moment, and among such a wonderful community of people who share this obsession, I am forever grateful that it did.

On our radar

Knowle West Media Centre

Leinster Avenue, Bristol BS4 1NL

kwmc.org.uk

Based on the Knowle West estate, this charity works collaboratively with people from different backgrounds to create new models for achieving positive social change, as well as developing skills for them to become change-makers themselves.

Arnolfini/ Arnolfini Bookshop

16 Narrow Quay,Bristol

BS1 4QA arnolfini.org.uk

Housed in a former 19th-century warehouse in Bristol’s ‘Floating Harbour’, the Arnolfini has served as the city’s international centre for contemporary art for 60 years. From the outset, long before photography was exhibited or even accepted into most British art museums and cultural institutions, the Arnolfini was giving emerging photographers some of their earliest shows in the UK. In the 1970s and 80s, these included Ed Ruscha, Daniel Meadows, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Josef Koudelka, Lee Friedlander, Robert Mapplethorpe, William Eggleston, Chris Killip and more.

Photography still plays a central role within the Arnolfini’s programming, with remarkable exhibitions by Hassan Hajjaj, Amak Mahmoodian , and most recently an extensive Jo Spence retrospective. On show as part of Bristol Photo Festival is a retrospective by Stephen Gill, featuring iconic series alongside new and previously unexhibited works.

For photobook aficionados, the Arnolfini Bookshop is a pilgrimage site. It was here in the late-1970s that a young Paul Graham, after graduating from Bristol University with a degree in microbiology, served as a “lowly bookshop assistant” (his words).

He immediately took charge of the photography section, importing obscure monographs from around the world and selling self-published editions of his own books. To this day, the shop continues to host a modest but well-curated photography section alongside an expansive selection of contemporary art, design, music, fiction and politics titles. It’s almost impossible to walk out without a new book in hand – often one that you didn’t know you needed in the first place.

Paintworks

Arnos Vale, Bristol BS4 3EH

martinparrfoundation.org
rps.org

In 1987, while in the midst of photographing his landmark project The Cost of Living, Martin Parr moved to Bristol with his family. He has championed the city ever since, and in 2017, three decades after first settling in the area, Parr opened the Martin Parr Foundation (MPF). Set within a creative quarter called Paintworks – a former paint and varnish factory – the foundation houses a gallery, which presents a programme of historical and contemporary exhibitions. It is also home to a library full of photobook rarities, a well-stocked bookshop, Parr’s office and studio, and an ever- growing collection of prints, book dummies, ephemera and archives.

It feels like a clubhouse as much as a foundation, and is a gathering place for students, friends, colleagues and many photographic heroes: Chris Killip, Susan Meiselas, David Hurn, Alec Soth, Bill Owens, Anna Fox and Joan Fontcuberta have all visited.

Less than 18 months after the MPF arrived at Paintworks, the Royal Photographic Society (RPS) – one of the world’s longest-running photographic institutions – opened its new headquarters next door, creating a mini photo-neighbourhood of sorts. The RPS has an impressive gallery that hosts a dynamic programme, including the annual International Photography Exhibition. Held almost every year since 1854, it is the longest-running show of its kind, and has exhibited some of the world’s most eminent photographers, including Julia Margaret Cameron, Roger Fenton, Edward Steichen and Paul Strand.

Additionally, the RPS hosts a diverse range of artist talks, festivals and educational programmes throughout the year, with the admirable mission of creating an environment where people of all ages and backgrounds are inspired, connected, empowered and educated through photography.

On our radar

Photographique

53 North Street, Bristol BS3 1EN

photographique.co.uk

This is a top-notch independent photographic lab providing professional film processing, scanning and printing services, as well as a wide selection of analogue products. They also produce limited- print runs of work by local artists.

On our radar

Serchia Gallery

24 Elmgrove Road, Bristol BS6 6AJ

@serchiagallery

Launched in the summer of 2021, this new and ambitious gallery is based in the beautiful home of
its founder, Christine Serchia of Valentine Editions. Open daily by appointment, it shows exquisite work by contemporary practitioners.

Real Photography Company

St Paul’s Learning Centre,

94 Grosvenor Road, Bristol BS2 8XJ

realphotographycompany.co.uk

Based in St Paul’s Learning Centre, within one of Bristol’s most diverse and multicultural communities, the Real Photography Company is an initiative aimed at making photography accessible. It manages the St Paul’s Darkrooms, which offers community facilities for alternative development and printing processes at a low rate. In just four years it has also provided tuition and exhibition platforms for groups who would not normally have access to such opportunities, including over-50s, refugees and young asylum seekers. As well as free experimental cyanotype, photogram and pinhole camera workshops, the initiative delivers a series of free lunchtime lectures and outdoor workshops on how to make images using plants and kitchen tools.

Most recently, the organisation initiated the Windrush Community Project, combining photography, music and celebration. For October’s Black History Month, it is publishing a book about Windrush elders living in Bristol, and commissioning music by the Bristol Reggae Orchestra to coincide with its launch.

Bristol Photo Festival

bristolphotofestival.org

This year saw the launch of Bristol Photo Festival. Led by a powerhouse duo – festival director Tracy Marshall-Grant and education director Alejandro Acín, founder and director of Bristol-based IC Visual Lab – the exhibition programme, themed A Sense of Place, is staggering.

The ambitious city-wide event provides platforms for both internationally renowned and emerging photographers, as well as an extensive engagement and outreach programme via the city’s schools and community groups. Stretching across seven months (May to December 2021) the exhibition programme features a diverse range of artists, including James Barnor, Sarah Waiswa, Chloe Dewe Mathews, Lebohang Kganye and many more.

The exhibitions are presented at some of Bristol’s major cultural institutions – the Arnolfini, Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, Royal Photographic Society and Martin Parr Foundation – as well as in smaller venues and alternative spaces, including the historic boatyard Underfall Yard, the Georgian landscape park Royal Fort Gardens, and the long-established cooperative gallery Centrespace.

Furthermore, its commissions and education programme will be maintained even in the biennial’s ‘dormant’ years. This is more than a festival – it is a movement; one that is situating photography at the core of the city’s cultural identity, and placing Bristol at the forefront of both national and international contemporary photographic culture.

On our radar

Cube Microplex

4 Princess Row, Bristol BS2 8NQ

cubecinema.com

This non-profit cooperative cinema and performance space, established in 1998, specialises in independent, politically engaged, avant-garde films and events.

On our radar

IC Visual Lab

St Paul’s Settlement, 74–80 City Road, Bristol BS2 8UH

icvl.co.uk

A socially minded
studio that aims to overturn the traditional relationship between the art object, the artist and the audience through collaborative projects, workshops and events.

Chris Hoare/ Amak Mahmoodian

chrishoare.org

amakmahmoodian.co.uk

There is an astounding array of excellent photographers based in this relatively small city – Lua Ribeira, Jessa Fairbrother, Samuel Fordham, Jamie E Murray, Sadie Catt, Jessie Edwards-Thomas, Bnar Sardar and Sophie Sherwood are just a few. But from my perspective, Chris Hoare and Amak Mahmoodian eloquently represent two sides of the diverse and multifaceted spectrum of photography that’s currently coming out of Bristol.

Bristol born and bred, Chris Hoare’s lyrical-documentary approach draws inspiration from the best of the genre’s longstanding history. At the same time, it contains a freshness, depth and true sense of empathy, consideration and connection with his subjects. Ever since he was a teenager, Hoare has been pounding the pavements of his hometown on an almost daily basis. I’ve rarely met such a committed photographer who’s itching to get out there with his camera at first light. Both his intimate knowledge of and profound love for the city, its people, its communities and its complexity, offer a truly unique and insightful perspective.

Iranian-born artist and photographer Amak Mahmoodian is a beloved member of Bristol’s photo community. Her conceptually driven, intimate practice often interweaves images with research, archival imagery, sculpture, poetry and much more. Bridging the space between the personal and political, she “explores the effects of exile and distance on memory, dreams and daily life”. In recent years, Mahmoodian has published two critically acclaimed and heart-wrenchingly beautiful books – Shenasnameh (2016) and Zanjir (2019) – which speak to her present while longing for her past. Her solo show at the Arnolfini in 2020 was one of the last exhibitions held in Bristol before the pandemic took hold. It brought tears to my eyes back then, and memories of it still do to this day.

On our radar

Miniclick

miniclick.co.uk

A UK-wide organisation whose Bristol-based arm presents artist talks, discussions, events and exhibitions throughout the city.

RRB Photobooks

rrbphotobooks.com

Founded in 2008 by publisher and antiquarian book dealer Rudi Thoemmes, Bristol-based RRB Photobooks began as a specialist bookseller. In 2015, it established a publishing arm, focusing on overlooked or forgotten British photographers of the 1970s and 80s, as well as some of today’s most exciting contemporary practitioners. Exquisitely designed and sumptuously printed, recent releases include Niall McDiarmid’s Town to Town (2018), Czesław Siegieda’s Polska Britannica (2020) and Chris Hoare’s Growing Spaces (2021), plus publications drawn from the archives of John Myers, James Barnor, Jo Spence, Tom Wood, Ken Grant, Markéta Luskačová and more.

Additionally, if you are on the hunt for publications from the German Democratic Republic, or 20th-century protest and propaganda publications, Thoemmes is likely to have what you’re looking for, and if not, he will know where to find it. RRB Photobooks certainly knows how to uncover genuine photographic treasures, whether they are new or have been buried for decades.

On our radar

BOP

Paintworks, Arnos Vale, Bristol BS4 3EH

BOP (Books On Photography) is an annual photobook festival bringing together over 40 publishers, booksellers and photographers from across Europe alongside talks, book signings, street food, coffee and beer.

The post On Location: Bristol appeared first on 1854 Photography.

On Location Archives - 1854 Photography

On Location – Amsterdam

UNTITLED, FROM THE SERIES HAVEN © SEM LANGENDIJK

As Unseen Amsterdam opens in the impressive Westergas cultural park, George H King highlights some of the Dutch capital’s less-known photography spaces and initiatives

A guide to Singapore’s photography scene

Kathy Anne Lim, Wayside, from the series White Noise, 2020

Famed for its skyscrapers, the densely packed city-state is also home to a burgeoning photo scene. Photographer and lifelong resident Calvin Chow guides us through the cultural highlights

Artist-in-residence: Kathy Anne Lim

Singapore International Photography Festival

Objectifs – Centre for Photography and Film

Knuckles & Notch

Singapore Art Book Fair

On Location: A photographer’s guide to Kyoto

Photographer, writer and resident Sean Lotman guides us through the ancient city’s photographic hotspots

Kyotographie

Purple

Villa Kujoyama

Photographing Kyoto by season

HoHoHoZa

RPS Kyoto Paperoles

Benrido Atelier

On Location: Five highlights from Rio de Janeiro

© Walter Firmo.

Home to iconic beaches and the world-renowned carnival, Rio de Janeiro is one of Brazil’s liveliest cities – with a photography scene to match. Photographer and editor Igor Furtado guides us through the artistic hotspots

On Location: Five photographic highlights of Helsinki

© Louise Long.

Animated by the country’s dramatically shifting seasons, the Finnish capital’s photographic scene has steadily gained international recognition since the 1960s. Here, we guide you through some of its artistic hotspots

On Location: Five photographic highlights of Istanbul

From the series Slow Sleep © Bartu Kaan.

Istanbul-based editor Merve Arkunlar picks out some of the city’s best spaces to enjoy photography

On Location: A photographers’ guide to Paris

La manche, Flora, Porte d’Aubervilliers, Paris, 2012 © Myr Muratet.

The French capital is rich with photographic history and the subject of some of the medium’s most iconic images. Writer and editor Rémi Coignet guides us through the city’s contemporary photographic scene

On Location: A photographer’s guide to Venice

Mantas, Floater, Green Fortuny, Cochinilla & Kinsaccuchu Dyed Yarn, Wood, Body in Forte di Mezzo, 2019 © Lorenzo Vitturi.

The azure lagoons and golden light of Italy’s floating city have charmed visitors for centuries. Louise Long looks beyond the touristic sites and bustle of the Biennale to uncover Venice’s photographic highlights

On Location: Lisbon

Lisbon resident Ellie Howard guides us through the photographic highlights of a city in creative flux

O Tributo – Camilla Watson

On our radar Photo Book Corner Rua Marquês Sá da Bandeira 86C 1050–050 This well-known photobook store, which recently opened a brick-and-mortar site, specialises in self-published, small print-runs and limited editions (including signed editions).

Hangar – Centro de Investigação Artística

Arquivo Fotográfico de Lisboa

Imago Lisboa

Atelier de Lisboa

On our radar Lisboa Photobook Fair Avenida Conde de Valbom, 102B 1100–394 Held in November, the Lisboa Photobook Fair has been a mainstay since 2010. Packed with publishers, it offers an experimental space for exhibition, sale, discussion and debate around the photobook.

XYZ Books

On Location: Bristol

Photographer and lecturer Aaron Schuman guides us through the history and creativity of the diverse community he calls home

On our radar

Knowle West Media Centre

Leinster Avenue, Bristol BS4 1NL

Based on the Knowle West estate, this charity works collaboratively with people from different backgrounds to create new models for achieving positive social change, as well as developing skills for them to become change-makers themselves.

Arnolfini/ Arnolfini Bookshop

Paintworks

On our radar

Photographique

53 North Street, Bristol BS3 1EN

This is a top-notch independent photographic lab providing professional film processing, scanning and printing services, as well as a wide selection of analogue products. They also produce limited- print runs of work by local artists.

On our radar

Serchia Gallery

24 Elmgrove Road, Bristol BS6 6AJ

@serchiagallery

Launched in the summer of 2021, this new and ambitious gallery is based in the beautiful home of its founder, Christine Serchia of Valentine Editions. Open daily by appointment, it shows exquisite work by contemporary practitioners.

Real Photography Company

Bristol Photo Festival

On our radar

Cube Microplex

4 Princess Row, Bristol BS2 8NQ

cubecinema.com

This non-profit cooperative cinema and performance space, established in 1998, specialises in independent, politically engaged, avant-garde films and events.

On our radar

IC Visual Lab

St Paul’s Settlement, 74–80 City Road, Bristol BS2 8UH

A socially minded studio that aims to overturn the traditional relationship between the art object, the artist and the audience through collaborative projects, workshops and events.

Chris Hoare/ Amak Mahmoodian

On our radar

Miniclick

A UK-wide organisation whose Bristol-based arm presents artist talks, discussions, events and exhibitions throughout the city.

RRB Photobooks

On our radar

On our radar
Photo Book Corner
Rua Marquês Sá da Bandeira 86C
1050–050
This well-known photobook store, which recently opened a brick-and-mortar site, specialises in self-published, small print-runs and limited editions (including signed editions).

On our radar
Lisboa Photobook Fair
Avenida Conde de Valbom, 102B
1100–394
Held in November, the Lisboa Photobook Fair has been a mainstay since 2010. Packed with publishers, it offers an experimental space for exhibition, sale, discussion and debate around the photobook.

Launched in the summer of 2021, this new and ambitious gallery is based in the beautiful home of
its founder, Christine Serchia of Valentine Editions. Open daily by appointment, it shows exquisite work by contemporary practitioners.

A socially minded
studio that aims to overturn the traditional relationship between the art object, the artist and the audience through collaborative projects, workshops and events.