robin friend julian schnabel 12 - state-media.comfrida’s father, carl wilhelm kahlo, was a...

STATE 11 www.state-media.com1 STATE 11 www.state-media.com1

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ROBIN FRIEND

JULIAN SCHNABELArt Studio America

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ON TOURwith the STYLUS XZ-10with special thanks to Derek Robertson

A while ago we ran a promotion where the winners received our rather lovely award-winning XZ-10 camera on top of a street photography day in London. We followed up with some ads based on the images shot on the day but after seeing what Derek shot on his XZ-10 in Venice we felt it was worth a follow up just for him.

You see the XZ-10 is a truly pocketable camera with a punch. Perfect for the weekend away or just to be in your bag when you do not fancy carrying all the usual kit.

Thanks again Derek and we look forward to more XZ-10 adventures soon.

Find out more in-store or online at olympus.co.uk

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CHARLIE SMITH london is representing

TOM BUTLERCURRENT EXHIBITION

YOUNG GODSLondon Graduates & Postgraduates 2013 curated by Zavier Ellis

YOUNG GODS I. jan 09 – feb 07

The Griffin GalleryThe Studio Building21 Evesham Street

London W11 4AJMon, Tue, Thu | 10 – 5pm

Wed | 10 – 9pmFri, Sat | 10 – 4pm

YOUNG GODS II. jan 09 – feb 08

CHARLIE SMITH london336 Old St, 2nd Floor

London EC1V 9DRWed- Sat | 11– 6pm

LONDON ART FAIR.

jan 15 – jan 19Stand 4

Business Design Centre52 Upper StreetLondon N1 0QH

100 LONDON ARTISTS.Volume 2: 50 Other Media

iArtBook available from iTunes jan 2014

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Richard Young Gallery.pdf 15/8/13 12:33:44

INFOCUS ANN-MARIE JAMES

www.f22magazine.com 4

INFOCUS ANDREW PALMER IMAGE & TEXT CARLA BOREL

The intricately layered and contemplative paintings of British artist Andrew Palmer take form through a slowly developed process. Over extended periods, and with incredible patience, he applies oil, acrylic gesso paint and varnish to various supports such as canvas, solid wood panels and found stone. He layers and excavates the surfaces creating bas

reliefs that hide and reveal complex formations in predominantly pastel and earth shades. His paintings are decidedly non-representational, yet influenced as he is by Per Kirkeby and Peter Lanyon, whose works evoke the feel or structure of elements and minerals, Palmer’s paintings frequently return us to the material of the earth.

Of being an artist Palmer says: ‘Having the time to develop one’s voice as an artist is a serious privilege. The other side of which is development of a personal affinity with other artists, those that you know as people and those you know through their work. Feeling this connection to other artists and their work through the process of making is a reward in itself.’

Andrew Palmer was born in Salisbury in 1979. From 1998 to 2001 he studied at Falmouth College of Art, then completed his MFA at the Slade School of Fine Art in London in 2005, studying under Bruce McLean. He has had solo shows at Timothy Taylor Gallery

in London and Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle in Munich.

‘Having the time to develop

one’s voice as an artist is a serious privilege.’ANDREW PALMER

)(www.f22magazine.com 5

>> E D I T O R I A L CONTENTS l 12

COVER IMAGE | ISSUE 12

THE PEOPLE who spend time on this trivia have analysed what happens in a single minute on the Internet. Apparently 216,000 photos are uploaded to Instagram along with 72 hours worth of video to You Tube (let alone the 204 million emails sent every

60 seconds – but no analysis of the hours wasted reading them!). Two separate sources created infograms to detect this usage and the results were collated. But no one needs an algorithm to tell them the sheer number of photo-images polluting both the real and virtual worlds. The banal image has also gained a momentum of its own and galleries are bursting with less-is-less Photoshop’d inanities. The fusion of photography with fine art – a marriage which promised so much – might have backfired in a spectacular fashion.

Serious photographers have responded with a return to skill sets that require much more than a point-and-shoot with an iPhone. Processes that create unique images not seen since Victorian times are in the ascendant; analogue cameras as promoted by the visionary Lomography company and the devotees of the revived Polaroid technology are all fighting back. Even the open submission photographic ‘competition’ is being subjected to a shake out with serious, properly judged events like the Terry O’Neill Award and World Press Photo setting standards many others fail to meet.

Nevertheless, the click happy crowd obsessed with ‘selfies’ and documenting every moment of their vacuous lives has a champion. Writer and editor, David Lee, an independent voice if ever there was one, finds merit in the mundane on page 21. For us, the jury is still in the dark.

SEBALD REVISITEDKaren Stuke at Wapping10

SURFIN’ USA Artists & studios

TRUE ROMANCE Art of the Heart12 18

PHOTO50Edel Assanti on

OPINIONDavid Lee clicks20 21

04 IN FOCUS06 SNAPSHOT

09 TECHNOLOGY GEAR & GIZMOS

EDITORMike von [email protected]

PUBLISHERKarl [email protected]

DESIGN DIRECTORAnthony Cohen

ADMINISTRATIONJulie [email protected]

EDITOR AT LARGEAnna [email protected]

SPECIAL PROJECTSLara [email protected]

CORRESPONDENTSClare HenryPaul Carey-KentIan MckayWilliam VarleyGeorgina Turner

Lyle Owerkonew york

Anne Chabrolparis

David Tidballberlin

William Wrightsydney

Elizabeth Cromptonmelbourne

DISTRIBUTION Julie [email protected]

PUBLISHED BY State Media Ltd.london

[email protected]

PRINTED BY Garnett DickinsonRotheram S63 5DL

P E O P L E | P L A C E S | P R O J E C T S

F22 Magazine is available through selected galleries, libraries, art schools, museums and other art venues across the UK.

FREE, f22 is not a dull review magazine. It is

about PEOPLE worth serious consideration;

PLACES that are hot and happening; and

PROJECTS that will interest photographers.

Combined with STATE Magazine, f22

reports the fusion of art + photography

like no other with a truly international

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f22 is interactive. We value your

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ROBIN FRIENDJulian SchnabelFor ART STUDIO AMERICA© Robin Friend/Thames & Hudson

WHEN SHOOTING intimate portraits of leading artists for Art Studio America, Robin Friend well remembers his session with one of America’s legendarily irascible painters: ‘I’d been warned about Julian Schnabel’s strong personality. Had I done more research I might have had cause to be slightly more nervous. From the off it was clear that our time was going to be limited as Schnabel’s wife was expecting and they had an appointment at the hospital. That being said, we ended up having longer than originally intended as the artist warmed to the to the interview style and questions of Hossein Amirsadeghi. When Julian left, he granted us permission to stay behind and photograph some of the more private rooms in the house.’ (see page 12)

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SNAPSHOTS

FRIDA KAHLO RESTORATIONMexican painter, Frida Kahlo, was also a keen photographer and collector of photographs, like her husband, Diego Rivera. Now 350 photos taken by them are being repaired in a six-month project financed by the Bank of America Merrill Lynch. A museum, based at Kahlo’s former house in Mexico City, La Casa Azul (the Blue House), holds some 6,500 images, many by Kahlo and Rivera, capturing their life in the first half of the 20th century. Among those pictured are André Breton, the French writer; Leon Trotsky, Man Ray and Henri Cartier-Bresson. It is often overlooked that Frida’s father, Carl Wilhelm Kahlo, was a professional architectural photographer. The images form ‘a piece of a big puzzle of Frida’s complex life,’ the director of the Kahlo museum, Hilda Trujillo, has noted. ‘They enable us to understand many aspects of Frida’s personality.’ (source: Guardian)

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MARRAKECH EXPRESS

North Africa’s new purpose-built museum dedicated to photography will be based in Morocco. The Marrakech Museum for Photography and Visual Arts, designed by the leading British architect David Chipperfield, is to be built near the 12th-century Menara Gardens and scheduled to open in 2016. The 80,000-square-foot space is to have a small permanent collection, but will mostly feature rotating exhibitions of works by contemporary artists. David Knaus, the museum’s managing director, said special attention will be paid to Moroccan and North African names. The official release states: ‘The museum will focus its collecting across three genres of photography and lens-based media, both static and moving: architecture and design; photojournalism; fashion and culture.’ The museum is to be funded by undisclosed ‘private and corporate backers’. A temporary exhibition space at the Badii Palace opened with ten contemporary Moroccan photographers sponsored by the luxury hotel chain Sofitel. The museum also plans a scholarship programme in partnership with the University of Arizona, enabling Moroccan students to take museum studies courses at institutions worldwide. (source:The Art Newspaper)

Badii Palace Marrakech

The Ruralist

DEJA VUPainter-photographer Graham Ovenden was jailed for two years and three months after Court of Appeal judges found his original non-custodial sentence was ‘unduly lenient’. Caught up in the general Jimmy Savile hysteria, Ovenden was accused of abusing children who posed for his paintings in the ‘70s and ‘80s, but ‘got off’ in the eyes of many with a suspended sentence. A public outcry ensued. Ovenden claimed that his interest in young girls was artistic and not sexual. His work, in the collections of the V&A, Tate and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, was removed overnight.

Back in July 1974, London’s National Portrait Gallery hosted an exhibition titled The Camera and Dr Barnardo. It included seven prints of Victorian waifs taken by a previously unknown photographer, Francis Hetling, said to date back to the 1840s. In 1978, it was revealed that the images were first taken near London’s King’s Cross by an advertising photographer using child models in a pseudo-Victorian style. Ovenden, a collector of Victorian photography, surreptitiously re-photographed these images to look like calotypes, then presented the photos to the NPG as genuine Victorian prints. Ovenden was later charged with fraud by a collector who claimed to have bought ten Hetling prints from him masquerading as genuine vintage prints. At the trial, Ovenden described his creation of Hetling as a joke on the art establishment. He was acquitted. (source: AP)

Steve McCurry

HOT SHOTS AT NEC The Photography Show, at Birmingham’s NEC (1-4 March 2014) has confirmed Rankin, Joe McNally and Steve McCurry in the line up. It is a new consumer and professional photography event from publishers Future, owners of Digital Camera, Photography Week and Practical Photoshop. Rankin will be interviewed live on 1 and 2 March; American photographer Joe McNally will discuss his career on 2, 3 and 4 March; and Magnum’s Steve McCurry will discuss his career in detail on 3 March. His celebrated photo of the Afghan Girl has become an iconic image of the 20th century.

The East German STASI was established by the Soviets in 1952. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, STASI HQ was opened to the public and a museum created in the main building. It is of interest to photographers for the vast array of photo-spy gear on display. A Pentacon camera, with noise reduction, had an extended film roll for automatic operation and was permanently installed in public places like post offices. A camera could be disguised to look like a button, a tie, a handbag. A tiny camera could be implanted into a felt pen. The STASI used both off-the-shelf commercial cameras and custom-made hardware. Even a covert car shooting system, designed by Carl Zeiss Jena. The Trabant door’s outer shell was rebuilt with Plexiglas that looked exactly like the original metal door. Behind the

STASI MUSEUM, Berlin

Bill Eppridge

The second Lumen Prize Exhibition started its global tour back in October 2013 in Cardiff. It will end at Treberfydd House – where the Lumen Prize was founded – in Powys, in July 2014. The Prize Exhibition of 50 works and the Lumen Prize Winners were selected by a distinguished jury of eminent artists, art writers and curators from around the world: Gordon Young, Tessa Jackson OBE, Tom Cheshire, Yashodhara Dalmia, George Blacklock, Douglas Dodds and Yang Yongliang. The 2013 Lumen Prize went to Katerina Athanasopoulou ($3000) for Apodemy. Runner-up: Bonjour Interactive Lab ($1000) for Passage; third place Nicolas Feldmeyer ($750) for After All. The

People’s Choice Award ($250) went to Ginevra Boni for Wilderness.The Founder’s Prize ($250) to Carla Rapoport for Genetic Moo for Mother.

The Lumen Prize Exhibition is an international award and global exhibition that celebrates the very best fine art created digitally (work incorporating digital painting and drawing apps, graphic design, illustration techniques and/or computer software programmes). It may also use animation techniques, CGI and moving-image software to produce 3-D, interactive and time-based works. Digital photography is permitted where digital photo-manipulation is an intrinsic part of the work.

The Lumen Prize Exhibition will be displayed on large-scale screens, PCs, tablets, smartphones and high-definition projectors at these venues.

1-9 November, 2013New York Institute of Technology’s Gallery 61, 16W61st New York, USA

17-21 March, 2014Chelsea College of Art & Design: Triangle Space, LONDON

20 March, 2014The 2014 Digital Art Workshops & Symposium45 Millbank, LONDON

10-14 June, 2014Hong Kong, SAR, China. The Space,210 Hollywood Road, HONG KONG.

July, 2014Treberfydd House, PowysWALES

The German photographer, Michael Wesely, makes exposures which can last up to 3 years! His work usually reveals Berlin, a city constantly in flux, in another light entirely. Using his own non-digital, film photography process since the 1990s, Wesely’s mostly black and white works are the antithesis of point and shoot digital technology. They reveal the transitory nature of urban construction and an absence of human life (much too slow to register on the film!), but they do show the movement of the earth and sun over the year(s) and throughout the changing seasons. From 2001-2004, he famously documented the demolition and reconstruction of The Museum of Modern Art in New York.www.wesely.org

NEW STYLE OLD WAY

Michael Wesely: MoMA 2001-04

Marmite character, Darryn Lyons, has won the mayoral race in his hometown of Geelong taking 29.79% of the primary vote. Complete with a campaign slogan of ‘vision, passion and change.’ The stocky 48-year-old told reporters ‘I love Geelong.’ In 1992, Lyons founded picture agency Big Pictures in London (notorious for selling David Beckham and Rebecca Loos snaps to the News Of The World). Big Pictures went into administration with a string of debts in 2012, leaving 21 of his London-based staff without jobs and a tranche of bad debts. Back in Australia, Lyons became a shareholder of another firm called BPGG Limited – which controversially bought up the assets of Big Pictures from the administrators for a paltry £164,000. Comically, he appeared at the Leveson Inquiry into media ethics in 2012.

Mayor Darryn Lyons

BUSHTUCKER TRIAL

surface, a dozen powerful IR flashes were mounted. The camera itself was equipped with a revolutionary laser rangefinder autofocus, capable of working in complete darkness. Once the subject of interest crossed the focus, the system emitted a beep heard in an earpiece. The operator could then take a picture by pressing the button. Only 25 of these were built due to cost. The STASI employed about 2.5% of GDR (German Democratic Republic) citizens full-time, and up to a quarter of all citizens were used as informants at one time or another – more than even the KGB.

STASI MUSEUM Ruschestraße 103, 10365 Berlin, Germany

WPO-INDIGO PRIZEThe World Photography Organisation (WPO) paired students from eight UK universities with their local Hotel Indigo – the boutique brand of the InterContinental Hotel Group. The brief: to shoot a series in response to the local neighbourhood. The winner: MA Photography student at Manchester School of Art, Jemma Wilcock, for images influenced by the cotton trading heritage of Liverpool. The prize is a commission to shoot the photography for a new Hotel Indigo to open in Europe in Spring 2014. Along with the seven other finalists, she will be exhibited as part of the Sony World Photography Awards exhibition at Somerset House (1-18 May 2014).

The 2014 Sony World Photography Awards Honorary Judging Committee is: WM Hunt (chair); Guy Harrington; Ruth Eichhorn; Isabella Icoz; Matthew Pillsbury; Harry Hardie; Poorna Bell; Simon Barnett; Suzy Koo; Joanna Neurath. www.worldphoto.org

WPO winner Jemma Wilcock

WPO finalist Alberto Gualtieri

LUMEN PRIZE TOURKaterina Athanasopoulou Apodemy

PHOTOJOURNALIST EPPRIDGE DIES AT 75 Bill Eppridge was at the scene on June 5, 1968, when Sen. Robert Kennedy, who had just won California’s Democratic presidential primary, had addressed campaign supporters at a Los Angeles hotel and was walking out through its kitchen when shot by Sirhan Sirhan. Kennedy was hit in the head and neck and died 26 hours later from his wounds. Eppridge took his famous photograph of Robert Kennedy sprawled semi-conscious in his own blood while busboy Juan Romero cradles him on the kitchen floor. (source: AP)

O.G. REJLANDER STARSFrom Darkroom to Digital (until 15 February 2014) marks the Wolverhampton Photographic Society’s 125th anniversary. Wolverhampton was a hub for photographers in the mid-19th century including pioneer, Oscar G. Rejlander (1813-75). In conjunction with Wolverhampton Art Gallery, the exhibition includes his The Two Ways of Life (1857), a tableau vivant which explores the Victorian preoccupations of morality and depravity. Made up of 32 separate images, a copy was purchased by Queen Victoria. Proud of O.G. Rejlander’s achievements, the Society recognised his contribution by paying for his gravestone. Other locals include Haseler, Whitlock, Bennett-Clark, Eisenhofer and Susser and are complemented by images of modern day Wolverhampton. Jane Morrow is Exhibitions Curator.

WATCHING YOU WATCHING ME


B E R M O N D S E YRA T

ART BERMONDSEY is a self-contained gallery space located on Bermondsey Street, one of the most prestigious artistic hubs in central London.

Moments from the City and Tower Bridge, opposite White Cube, surrounded by galleries, chic bars, cafes and restaurants, ART BERMONDSEY is perfect for short term projects or longer exhibitions.

ART BERMONDSEY183-185 Bermondsey Street, First FloorLondon SE1 3UW

For floor plan and further details contact:+44 (0)20 7407 6496 or +44 (0)7988 [email protected]

Or visit: www.artbermondsey.co.uk

Independent Gal lery and Pro ject Space Avai lab le to H i re

Component Smartphone looks for investorsDutch designer Dave Hakkens has developed Phonebloks, a composite smartphone where the various components, or ‘modular elements’ (camera, storage, battery etc.) simply bolt on. Rather than upgrading, keep your phone and just add on new items as required – instantly swapped or replaced. If a battery dies, for example, a new one can be clipped into place. Cameras with different lenses can be swapped in and out depending on the occasion. Hakkens claims: ‘Every year millions of mobile phones are thrown away because they are broken or obsolete. In most of these cases it is just one part that needs repairing or upgrading and all the other parts work fine.’

Every ‘blok’ has its own function and they include a Bluetooth and Wi-Fi transmitter, a battery, camera, new display and storage. They each attach to a universal base that contains all the relevant electric connections. They are fixed on to this board using pins, with two screws holding everything in place. Individual bloks are sold through the Blokstore – similar to an app store, but for hardware. A photographer? Go for the best camera. Are you working in the ‘cloud’? Choose less storage. Or go back to basics and choose a top notch battery.https://phonebloks.com

3D still warm?The Seene free app, created by London firm Obvious Engineering, takes a series of pictures and then maps them on to the model to give the effect of 3D. When a Seene is created, a series of dots appears on the images, showing the perspective points the app can see to build its 3D model. It then asks a user to take a series of photos of the subject by moving the phone around. These images are then mapped on to the model, creating the Seene. When users move their phone, it appears that they can look around the object. (source AP)


TECHNOLOGY, GEAR & GIZMOS

The National Security Agency and GCHQ have made repeated attempts to develop attacks against people using Tor, a popular tool designed to protect online anonymity, despite the fact the software is primarily funded and promoted by the US government itself. Whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that the agency’s current successes targeted the Firefox web browser used with Tor, giving the agency full control over targets’ computers, including access to files, all keystrokes and all online activity. Tor – which stands for The Onion Router – is an open-source public project that bounces its users’ internet traffic through several other computers, which it calls ‘relays’ or ‘nodes’, to keep it anonymous and avoid online censorship tools. It is relied upon by journalists, activists and campaigners in the US and Europe as well as in China, Iran and Syria, to maintain the privacy of their communications and avoid government reprisals. To this end, it receives around 60% of its funding from the US government, primarily the State Department and the Department of Defense – which houses the NSA.

Law enforcement agencies say it is also used by people engaged in terrorism, the trade of child abuse images and online drug dealing, and they are targeting terrorists or organised criminals, but these attacks could also hit researchers or those who accidentally stumble upon a targeted site. GCHQ documents note Tor was ‘created by the US government’ and is ‘now maintained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)’, a US freedom of expression group. In reality, Tor is maintained by an independent foundation, though has in the past received funding from the EFF. (source: Guardian)

TOR The Onion Router

NSA & GCHQ target Secret Internet

The lightweight retro look is back. Panasonic’s Lumix GM1 shoots 16mp RAW stills at up to ISO 25,600, it has focus peaking, Wi-Fi image transfer and a 12-32mm f /3.5-5.6 kit zoom that retracts electronically to pancake-length when turned off. A remote control app for Android and iOS, and it shoots 24/60 fps 1080-line video (25/60 in PAL-LAND). There’s also a silent operation mode, pop-up flash and the usual complement of filters and creative options. But no shoe, no viewfinder or external mic and headphone jacks. You can option a ‘70s brown leather trim for full effect.

Lumix GM1

Bright SparkSpark Camera, from IDEO, makes it easier to shoot atmospheric, attractive mini-movies with a Smartphone. The maximum length is 30 seconds, no logging-in required to start shooting, and it’s peanuts in the App Store. As lightweight and easy to use as the iPhone’s stock camera app, but ultimately far more powerful. It lets you revisit and rework old clips at any time. Swap in a new filter, try out a new tune, or tack a new bit of video on to the end of the sequence – in private. Spark stashes your videos safely on your camera roll. www.ideo.com

Spark that phone up

Drones & Aerial Robotics Conference (DARC)

The first ever Drone and Aerial Robotics Conference (DARC) debuted in NYC last October and the main theme was miniaturisation. A popular feature was FPV (First Person View) where flyers drive their drones via remote displays. One spectacular demo that combined both was from Eirik Solheim of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation who flew a 25 gram 3D printed £150 Micro Quadcopter out of the stage’s backdoor and into the backstage passages of the venue, outside and back (YouTube link below).

Solheim is leading projects involving internet services, interactive TV, social media and broadband strategies. (source DARC)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-pAltDzmNMhttp://eirikso.com

Micro Quadcopter

Eirik Solheim Project manager, development department Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK)

GoPro, the company with the Hero line of sports cameras that take steady footage in extreme conditions has launched the Hero 3+. Lighter and smaller, it comes in two versions. The Black Edition is 20% smaller and offers a 30% improved battery life, four times faster Wi-Fi speeds, a new lens for sharper video and overall better

Have a Go Hero

GoPro action camera

image quality. A new feature called SuperView provides wider-angle shots. The silver edition has an image processor which is two times faster, 1080p video at 60 fps, as well as 720p video at 120 fps. Its body is 15% smaller and it supports the new, faster Wi-Fi standard. The older model, Hero 3, is still available.www.gopro.com

Back to the Future

Those embarrassing images sent over SnapChat are no longer safe and they are not automatically deleted! The SnapHack app lets you save and re-open SnapChat messages at anytime. SnapChat’s USP is that you choose how long you want a picture to be viewable (max 10 seconds) before it automatically deletes. Special effects and even text can also be added. Most usage of course: sexting. Orem-based firm Decipher Forensics discovered that SnapChat was saving the images: ‘[SnapChat] claim that it’s deleted, and it’s not even deleted. It’s actually saved on the phone,’ said a spokesperson. SnapChat – for that intimate moment

Gone but not forgotten

BTW: SnapChat reportedly rejected a $3 billion purchase offer from Facebook amidst rumours that Chinese e-commerce company

Tencent Holdings were also in the running. Co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel comes from an affluent background. His mother was the

youngest woman ever to graduate from Harvard Law School, and worked as a partner for the law firm Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro, his father

is a partner at the law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson, and they have a $4.6 million home in Huntington Palisades. (source: Huffington Post)

World Wide NetChina is home to the world’s largest population of digital natives, more than 75 million people, almost twice as many as the US with more than 41 million. Statista created the Top Ten countries that boast the most digital users: 1. CHINA 2. US 3. INDIA 4. BRAZIL 5. JAPAN 6. MEXICO 7. RUSSIA 8. GERMANY 9. VIETNAM 10. UK

Portable PowerTravelling with power hungry gadgets? The 6000 mAh Mophie Juice Pack Powerstation Duo has two USB ports for simultaneous dual charging. Long lasting and heavy duty, like having a portable wall outlet (as wide and tall as an iPhone 4 but thicker) it offers an all-day rapid recharge facility for iPhones, iPads and other USB devices.www.mophie.com

TitterOgilvy One Athens has created a bra that will send a tweet each time it is unclasped. The Tweeting Bra, sponsored by Nestle, uses a mechanism that is connected to a Smartphone via Bluetooth and automatically posts a tweet every time it is unhooked. The campaign features Greek celebrity Maria Mpacodimou who will wear the bra and each time she unhooks it, it will post to her many thousands of Twitter fans about breast self-exams. Yeah right! (source: AP)


PROJECT: THE PAST REVISITED

THERE HAVE BEEN many outstanding exhibitions of contemporary photography at the Wapping Project, but the penultimate exhibition in this

scintillating venue is one of director Jules Wright’s most poignant collaborations. Taking the mysterious novel, Austerlitz, by German writer WG ‘Max’ Sebald as a script, she commissioned Berlin based photographer Karen Stuke to interpret the myriad complex suggestions layered within a story of loss, identity and closure, centred on Nazi Germany.

‘In 1939, five year old Jacques Austerlitz is sent to England on a Kindertransport and placed with foster parents. He grows up ignorant of his past. Later in life, after a career as an architectural historian, Austerlitz – having avoided all clues that might point to his origin – finds the past returning to haunt him and he is forced to explore what happened fifty years before.’ (Gallery Notes)

Karen Stuke’s collaboration as photographer for After Sebald’s Austerlitz is inspired. Recognised as a master exponent of the ‘pin hole’ camera method of image making, her own exploration into capturing evolution,

time and the essence of a subject, melds perfectly with the translation of Sebald’s written imagery on to a tangible surface.

Stuke’s methodology was to attempt to follow in the fictional footsteps of Austerlitz, to recreate for herself the experience – both physical and mental – of a dislocated child, and to document key locations mapped along the journey. To these images she added others, loaded with emotional and historical impact, that could well be part of Austerlitz’s deep subconscious memory.

The resulting exhibition, in the depths and industrial gloom of the Boiler House gallery at the Wapping Project, was a sensation. In the hands of a world-class theatre director of the calibre of Jules Wright, the installation itself was also deeply moving. The facsimile, life-size railway line, running the length of the space and disappearing into a brick arch at the far end, needed no explanation. For a German artist to lay bare her response to the Nazi oppression of the Jews was at once courageous and wholly intimate. Karen Stuke’s reply to Jules Wright’s loaded proposition was an absolute triumph.

A MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR

The penultimate exhibition at one of London’s most original spaces was an outstanding tribute to both artist and curator

F22 : When did you first become aware of the W.G. Sebald novel? Was it the content that enthralled you, or the fact that he included mysterious images within the text? Karen Stuke : When I first met Jules Wright (in August 2012), she asked me if I knew the book – that’s when I started reading it. It was not easy in the beginning – long sentences and a difficult topic – but I really got into it when I tried to follow the ‘original’ places. That’s when he [Sebald] got me – the mixture between fiction and fact. It is the place, but somehow it isn’t. Reading the book, you could think that Austerlitz actually existed. I started to visit the real original places like Liverpool Street Station, hesitating, since I didn’t want the series ending up as a kind of documentary. I did a lot of research on the Kindertransport – getting 10,000 mostly Jewish kids out of Nazi Germany – an important part of the history which becomes more concrete when you know about specific stories and individual biographies.

KAREN STUKE: DIALOGUE AT THE PARASOL UNIT LONDON, OCTOBER 2013

Sebald puts in references which you can easily miss, but read carefully and start following the hints and links and you end up in real history with real destinies. He writes that Austerlitz’s mother (an actress and opera singer) had her first role on stage as Olympia in The Tales of Hoffmann. I know The Tales of Hoffmann quite well – Olympia – that’s in the act where Hoffmann buys glasses with which he can’t see the difference between fiction and fact anymore. Sebald must have had such an enormous knowledge – there are links to Wittgenstein and Kafka which I started to detect as well. I actually had to stop myself at certain points, otherwise it would have got out of hand.

In Prague, I visited the address which is mentioned, Sporkova 12, his home as a boy. Again, that address can’t be the ‘real’ one since it is a cloister and has always been so. But it’s not just about a boy who lost his memory and tries to recover it – it’s about this horrible history with all its facets. That’s why I included the black and white images which are pinhole film stills. The woman is from

a very typical Nazi propaganda film made by a Jewish actor and director who was then deported to Auschwitz. He agreed to film it because he was hoping to get away. In the book, Austerlitz is watching it again and again because he is hoping to recognise his mother. There is also the image with the names: I took that in the Pinkas Synagogue in Prague. Rooms with 77,000 names of murdered Jews – all handwritten on the walls. I was wondering if there was an ‘Austerlitz’, and there was! In short: I was rather enthralled by the fact that memory is a kind of blur and not something concrete. This matched wonderfully with my pinhole camera works.

How did the show at Wapping evolve? Is it designed as a one off, or will the exhibition travel to other venues?A friend who knew my pinhole work quite well (long exposures in theatres for a series called Opera Obscura, started in 1994, where the exposure time was as long as an entire opera, and another series called Sleeping Sister, from 2001, where the exposure was as long

as the duration of sleep) told me to contact the Wapping Project and the very first day I met Jules she asked me if I knew Sebald and Austerlitz. She said: ‘Read the book – we might have a project!’ When I read it – time and memory, the vague idea of image – although it was a challenge to work totally differently, I knew I could do it. I felt totally free and trusted – the best condition, I would say!

Everybody loved last summer, but I found it too sunny because who wants to bring a blue sky to th e Kindertransport, to trauma and to the holocaust? And it caused some problems because I wanted long exposures – grey sky and darkness would have been ideal. But time was a bit tight so I couldn’t wait too long for the right weather. We would love to show the installation in Prague and Berlin. Or cities where the children were sent to, so there would be a relation between the photos and stories and the ‘real’ again.

One can understand the immediate post-War youth of Germany being

culturally entwined – if not dominated – by the recent historical fact of National Socialism up to 1945. But why do you think this period, and the factors of the Holocaust itself, still obsess many creative Germans born two or three generations after these events?That might have something to do with the way we are educated at school – WWII is still a very big topic, even at primary school as far as I remember. Even three generations later we still have living witnesses like grandparents or parents. They were children, but they still remember. Who was lying? Who knew what? Who was afraid and followed the masses, against his own conviction, because of that fear? How all of that was possible is a question I ask myself quite often.

The pinhole camera process – which you also teach – is the very antithesis of modern digital technology. Why did you travel in this direction as opposed to creating the effects you wanted with technology?

When I took the first pinhole pictures, it was to capture an entire opera in one single image, since I wanted to show the spirit of a production. I chose the cardboard self-made box because of the relation between the camera and the stage, which is like a box too. I transformed rooms into camera obscuras during workshops – and you would be surprised how fascinated the participants are by this simple effect. One thing which annoys me is when people think my theatre pinhole pictures are done with Photoshop.

Wapping Hydraulic Power Station, Wapping Wall, London E1W 3SG. The venue is scheduled to close its doors permanently on 22 December.

LINKSKaren Stuke www.karenstuke.de

NOTESMax Sebald (Wertach 1944 - Norfolk 2001) studied German literature at the University of Fribourg and was a research student at the University of Manchester from 1966 to 1969. In 1970 he became a lecturer at the University of East Anglia (UEA). Sebald died in a car crash near Norwich in December 2001.

▲ WAPPING PROJECT Installation

▲ Karen Stuke Berlin 2013

▲ KAREN STUKE Names at Pinkas Synagogue, Prague ▲ Deportation of Jewish family (from vintage image)

▲ KAREN STUKE Paris Searching for Father

TEXT MIKE VON JOEL IMAGES KAREN STUKE

‘Even three generations later

we still have living witnesses

like grandparents or parents. They were children, but they still remember.

Who was lying? Who knew

what?’


PROJECT: ART STUDIO AMERICA

BACK IN 1965 a book was published – first by Nelson, later reprinted by others – that has since become an iconic collector’s item. Private View was a large format, hardcover tome

with 298 pages dedicated to trending British artists and dealers of the day. Written by John Russell and Bryan Robertson, with photographs by Lord Snowdon, it depicted artists in their home and studio environments, free from the constraints of the formal, posed promotional portrait. It has since become a reference work for the art historian examining the turning point of British art as it occurred in the age of the new colour

magazines and the newspaper supplement.

Many attempts have been made since to try and replicate the immediacy and the vitality captured by Private View. Surprisingly this was not achieved until 2012 when publisher, editor and writer, Hossein Amirsadeghi, created Sanctuary – a massive 600 pages of photographic profiles of leading British artists that benefited from a UK collaboration with veteran art house, Thames & Hudson. It was an exciting work anyhow, but all the more outstanding for Amirsadeghi’s choice of photographer for the project. Eschewing the current and fashionable ‘big names’ on

the circuit, he commissioned a relatively unknown Royal College graduate who had been nominated for the prestigious Prix Pictet Award just a year earlier. Amirsadeghi saw Robin Friend’s landscape images at the John Jones Gallery and, subsequently, a very special partnership was born.

With the support of Thames & Hudson, it was an obvious development to extend the concept of Sanctuary to America. The exceptional result, Art Studio America, was published in 2013 and, once again, a major part of its success was to be found in the dynamic portraits captured by Robin Friend

Over 100 leading American artists reveal themselves to the lens of a young British photographer – the result is an outstanding collection of candid portraits

and featuring some 115 leading American artists.(1) A large format (320mm x 250mm) hardback, manufactured to the highest standards one expects from Thames & Hudson, combines highly accessible texts and essays from Robert Storr, Mark Godfrey and Ben Genocchio, edited by Maryam Eisler. These support the key ingredient of the project – the intimate and personal examination of the private face of the many artists who enjoy fame and celebrity on the American art circuit, through Hossein Amirsadeghi’s own percipient interviews, and by the lens of Robin Friend. Each tells its own story.

ROBIN FRIEND INTERVIEWED IN LONDON & NEW YORK

F22: You are recognised for your extensive work with landscape. Was there ever a possibility that you might return to live in Australia (where you spent your formative years) which is itself – of course – essentially a tremendous landscape adventure?Robin Friend: Going back to live permanently is something I have never really considered. But you never know, if the right long-term project came around… I’m actually going there for Christmas for a month to see friends and work on a couple of ideas.

How did you come to be involved in Sanctuary, the study of British artists’ studios/workplaces?Chance! The publisher saw a piece of my work on display at John Jones. It was a large photograph of a smoke flue made at a slate mine in North Wales. It obviously made an impression on him – he got in touch and offered me the commission.

Capturing a portrait is, of course, different from capturing the ‘landscape’ of a studio space. There is a different momentum. How did you approach the inclusion of a specific living being (the artist) into the equation?Throughout Sanctuary I would say the artwork and the environment in which it was conceived came first and the artist would usually play second fiddle. It was the studio landscape I was after. There were exceptions, of course. With Art Studio America we made a conscious decision to show more of the artist and the personality of the individual.

I feel sure you perceived a considerable difference when dealing with American artists in comparison to the British selection. Can you expand on that?To be honest, it depends on the characteristics of the person, not the nationality. There is an eclectic and diverse mix of individuals in both books. Some were reserved and tried to

hold things back, whereas others were more forthcoming and only too willing to let us in. I suppose the challenge came from trying to create a balanced and consistent portrayal of each artist that is in keeping with his or her true nature. I would say that, on the whole, the Americans were more cautious about how they would be represented when it came to the selection and final edit of their profile.

What was the ‘mechanism’ of the commission? Were you involved in the selection process? Did you have to sort out the shoots, set the whole thing up? Or was it all prearranged?A brilliant small team orchestrated the shoots and it was mainly the publisher and executive producer who selected the artists. Often the artists would play an important part in the selection process. They would suggest a fellow colleague they thought worthy, pick up the phone, and it would snowball from there. I suggested a few, William Eggleston being

one. Alas he did not agree. Getting a project like this off the ground can be a logistical nightmare. Artists, on the whole, have crazy schedules and are difficult creatures to pin down. Things also happen that one cannot foresee. Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc with one of our NY trips. We had to improvise; the Hiroshi Sugimoto shoot was done in complete darkness. I used a torch and long exposures for many of the studio shots!

You have cited Nash as the most memorable studio visit in the UK. Was there a similar high impact – personal – experience in the USA that really impressed you?There are too many! I had the best bear hug ever from Bill Viola. Drive by fruit picking with Billy Al Bengston and his wife Wendy in Hawaii was a hilarious experience I’ll never forget. The trip to Santa Fe (New Mexico) and trekking to Georgia O’Keeffe’s house in the desert was also right up there.

JOHN CURRINIt was unfortunate that the day we met John Currin he had a pretty bad fever taking hold. To John’s credit, he battled through and didn’t let us down, knowing that the next day we would be heading back to London. The way he talks about his painting process, and cites fellow artists and works, is infectious. As the rest of the team left, I stayed behind to set up some scenarios that involved John’s hand and one of his paint palettes. He wasn’t content with just putting paint on to the palette. It had to be mixed; it had to be ‘real’. He began to paint a ‘study’ for a future work. The way his hand moved back and forth on the canvas was hypnotising.

TAUBA AUERBACHTauba Auerbach has a mathematical mind like no other artist I photographed for this book. Physics and philosophy are her weapons of choice. She is a deep thinker; evidence of this was all around her studio. I got the impression she is most at ease when creating work or solving an equation. Creation can be a compulsion one craves. Lamps, jewellery, playing cards, calendars and, of course, fonts; she is a constant creator, designing even the clothes she was wearing that day.

TEXT MIKE VON JOEL IMAGES ROBIN FRIEND

BEHIND THE

PAINTED SMILE



Tony – these are the captions - just name of artist then the ‘quote ‘ underneath like an extended caption. Key them to the pictures by numbers.

R

LINKSwww.robinfriend.co.uk

NOTES

1. In the context of this book ‘American artist’ refers to an artist living and working in the USA, irrespective of nationality.

<book jacket>ART STUDIO AMERICAContemporary Artist SpacesEd. Hossein Amirsadeghi / Maryam EislerThames & Hudson Large Format HB. 600pp. 597 illustrationsISBN: 978-0500970539

JEFF KOONSPhotographing Jeff Koons was as impressive as it was daunting. His studio runs like a well-oiled machine, a factory of sorts with around 130 assistants working for him at any one time. It’s an impressive operation. He’s obviously used to being photographed and was keen to get involved in the direction of the pictures. There wasn’t a lot of time to interact. Whilst the interview was taking place, I wandered from room to room exploring the different projects. I was curious to see how the large aluminium pieces were sprayed and then delicately painted. Everyone was quietly going about his or her own way.

LARRY BELLWe visited Larry Bell on three different occasions; twice at his Venice Beach studio in Los Angeles and once at his Taos, New Mexico space. The artist Jason Martin, a friend of Larry’s who I’d previously photographed for the British Artist book Sanctuary, had put us in touch. Larry is well known around Venice Beach and can always be found wearing his signature trilby and smoking a cigar. Around the corner from his studio is Larry’s, a restaurant and bar named in his honour. They serve a mean Bloody Mary. In Taos, I got to experience a little of what it’s like to be Mr Bell, by using his ‘Time Machine’, a sculptural piece which allows two participants to transpose their faces on to one another. Suddenly I was donning a trilby and smoking a fat cigar! Larry has a dry wit and loves making work. I enjoyed watching him work the high-vacuum thermal evaporator used by astrophysicists to play with shades of light. It was like watching a scientist – he was completely in his element.

RYAN McGINLEYRyan McGinley’s studio was situated in the hustle and bustle of Chinatown in Manhattan, New York. The studio had a very cool relaxed vibe with a young team calling the shots. Ryan spoke honestly and openly about his upbringing and how this had influenced his artistic practice. It was very interesting. I think he enjoyed the questions being asked: they challenged him. Making a picture of such an amazing portrait photographer could have been a daunting experience had Ryan not been so down to earth. He is the kind of person you can’t help but warm to. We had planned to meet up and do some more shots on another occasion, but unfortunately the schedule we were working to didn’t allow for that to happen. I hope we can meet up again in the future.



MALCOLM MORLEYMalcolm Morley was charming and right from the off made us all feel very welcome. Before starting the shoot, we had a lovely lunch that his wife Linda had prepared. They made a very sweet couple. What I remember most from that visit was the amazing light that filled the studio. Model planes and ships Malcolm had built dotted the colourful room. There was a childlike warmth and sense of play to the space. Later on in the day we travelled to the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, New York, where Malcolm was due to have the opening exhibition. They had the painters and decorators finishing off when we turned up. There was a great moment when Malcolm picked up one of the paint rollers and did a couple of giant strokes on the gallery wall.

LINKSwww.robinfriend.co.uk

NOTES1. In the context of this book ‘American artist’ refers to an artist living and working in the USA,

irrespective of nationality.

ART STUDIO AMERICAContemporary Artist SpacesEd. Hossein Amirsadeghi / Maryam EislerThames & Hudson Large Format HB. 600pp. 597 illustrationsISBN: 978-0500970539



BOOKNOTES

Startling Detective Adventures, April 1930

TRUE ‘ROMANCE’ 2

ONCE UPON A time the term ‘artist’ would be synonymous with ‘commercial artist’, a role that still commanded respect and envy and much preferable to a factory floor existence. Even in the ‘50s and ‘60s era of ‘Mad Men’, graphic artists and their skill

as draughtsmen were an integral part of any agency. Today, the advances in reprographics and photography have all but eliminated the hand-drawn in advertising and publishing. But there was a hey-day and no finer examples exist than those created for what is now a collector’s genre – the pulp crime novel. In America, the cult classics (leaving aside the stylised comic book heroes of Marvel or DC) were the ‘true crime’ paperbacks that sold for a few cents. Periodicals like True Detective Mysteries, Smash Detective Cases, Startling Detective, True Gang Life, and True Cases of Women in Crime. Written in a Sam Spade guttural style, all claimed to be authentic insider stories from police files or prison cells, and launched the punchy, provocative cover lines that still thrill to this day: The Gutter Waits for Girls Like Me; Miss Double X and her Killer Gang; I Dated Danger...

Although by the 1950s the photo-jacket was quicker and cheaper to produce, these still imitated the overtly sexy (invariably a sultry female in various states of déshabillé) covers that had got progressively more suggestive since 1924, when True Detective launched (which often used touched-up film stills and posed photographs). Talented fine artists of the time thought this cover work demeaning and only a few signed the images they made, Harold Bennett being one. These low budget magazines relied totally on the immediate impact of the cover at the point of sale and no trick was omitted to tempt a purchase. In the ‘30s, real gangsters like Al Capone stimulated an interest in police activities and it was a Golden Age for sales. Criminals and the police alike courted the instant fame a feature in a leading title could bestow. But by the 1940s, with a war on, interest faltered and the publishers responded by upping the content sure to sell: sex! It also ushered in the posed photo covers which would eventually dominate. Silk negligees and stocking tops were still the order of the day for these damsels in distress. Taschen’s West Coast editor, Dian Hanson, specialises in these fabulous, niche concepts that marry brilliantly hypnotic visuals and a succinct, informed text. It is interesting to note just how little the cover essentials changed in 50 years of heaving breasts, big hair and horrible crimes. But some of these covers are clearly art works of true genius. And timeless classics.

George Cross original, 1950

Best True Fact Detective, September 1953


NOW THE PASTTwo diverse cult subjects reinstated for today by the genius that is

Taschen’s contemporary culture programme

TRUE ROMANCE 1

IT IS HARD FOR anyone English to understand just how iconic Serge Gainsbourg was in France. His appeal spanned generations. Somehow like Marianne, his anti-establishment, Renaissance-man persona epitomised something intrinsic in the way the French see themselves. The fact that he was not conventionally handsome, or athletically built, only added to

his popular appeal. If Jane Birkin’s brother, Andrew, had proposed this book to any other publisher it would have died in some slush pile on some anonymous desk somewhere. A book of family snaps of Jane and Serge – fashionable lovers for a decade and heavy breathers on a very catchy tune, Je t’aime... moi non plus – already sounds dull, soporific and dated. But in the hands of the Taschen creative department and designers M/M (Paris) it becomes an instant collector’s item, incorporating a folder of facsimile contact sheets, explanatory notebook, fold-out poster, 5 photo prints, a sticker sheet and a ‘60s style embroidered patch; all inside a custom plastic jacket. The book itself is a chronological series of intimate and candid unpublished images taken by Andrew Birkin of the Jane and Serge relationship – a ‘60s version of Sartre and de Beauvoir – edited from the thousands available. Gainsbourg died in March 1991 of a heart attack and now enjoys legend status in France. His funeral brought Paris to a standstill, and French President François Mitterrand declared: ‘He was our Baudelaire, our Apollinaire... He elevated the song to the level of art.’

Jane & Serge. A Family AlbumAndrew Birkin. Alison Castle (ed)Taschen HB: 176 pp + extrasISBN: 978-3836549974

In Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, 1978

Going on the sleeper train to Paris, 1969

A London cab in 1969

True Crime Detective MagazinesEric Godtland, Dian HansonTaschen PB. 336 ppEnglish, French, GermanISBN: 978-3836534871


OPINION DAVID LEE

P

HOTOGRAPHY IS NOW magnificently out of control. It is costless and more immediately broadcast than ever before – a beautiful anarchy has been born. Anyone can publish virtually any

picture they like on social networking sites, or in books using free website publishing programmes such as Blurb.(1) In the last dozen years, for example, I’ve published ten books of my own with no more than a couple of copies of each. Combining photographs with diaries, I give them as Christmas presents to my children and friends. Constituting my own personal record of the times I have lived through, they are addressed, at least in part, to the future: this is what I saw and what I thought. Subjects are usually pedestrian: bus and train journeys, bad bird photographs, a cyclist in London, and more recently power stations and coach passengers. One is called Truck Drivers in Spring. Some concern an individual day, which, by a trick of light and mood, seemed at the time happier and more worth remembering than other days. These books are undoubtedly of negligible merit, but they do exist.

The principle beauty of this revolutionary development is that we no longer have to submit to the personal whims and tastes of those self-appointed arbiters of photography. These few – and not all of them know what they are doing – still play their exclusive little games but don’t matter nearly so much as they once did. The most interesting and lasting books of photographs are not those issued by mainstream publishers, but are works printed for their own interest by intelligent, unpretentious and often visually astute outsiders. Look, for example, at the curiosity that is Preston is my Paris on the Internet. The web is full of these left-field personal accounts of banal, everyday life. Thus is history being written and illustrated by those who formerly were voiceless.

The current fashion for interminable digital snaps and ‘selfies’ published to the world via social media might be condemned by serious photographers, but David Lee sees some merit in the madness.

▲ David Lee from the ongoing series Power

▲ David Lee from the ongoing series Power

SNAP HAPPY

worthy of preserving – in those distant Kodak days, the typical film reel contained summer holidays punctuated by Christmas – this can now be rectified. Previously ordinary events were never recorded; the majority’s experience in the 19th and 20th centuries was, at best, poorly documented as a result. Today we can show everything about the way we live.

The problem is that we don’t. Courtesy of Instagram, Facebook etc., cyberspace is full of limited variants of the same images, dominated

Almost all people in developed countries are now armed with a camera every day of their lives. Whatever they do, they walk along nursing camera phones ready for deployment. This has led to the claim that, since 2008, more photographs have been taken than were created between 1839 (the invention of photography) and 2007. From now on, history in pictures will be seen from many unofficial points of view, we can each show life how we experience it and how we want it to be remembered in the future. Whereas once only special events were

by young people grinning and gawping at the camera. This is a tedious abuse of a potentially stimulating advance. The sheer banality of lives, something long ignored as a subject, could now be recorded. A problem arises here: it is comparatively easy to take a picture of something obviously significant but extremely difficult to take an interesting image of a non-event, those ‘temporary deaths’, as Orwell dubbed them, when nothing much is happening.

The potential of photography and the inconsequential is a marriage made in heaven. The future deserves better access to what real life is like, told by those who lived it. In a world of un-improving semi-literacy, photography is best placed to accurately convey personal experience. Somehow we need to encourage others to take more stimulating pictures of not particularly eye-catching subjects. By all means tell me how boring your life is – but at least surprise me into paying attention, instead of sending me to sleep.

NOTES(1) Blurb.com is the print-on demand service of choice for independent photographers, offering a library quality book creation

David Lee is editor of the uncompromising and fiercely independent art journal, The Jackdaw.

▲ David Lee from the ongoing series Power ▲ David Lee from the ongoing series Power


Here’s one I took 25 years earlierTate Modern Dinner

Hmmm...bit of lens distortion hereIndonesian Eye at Saatchi Gallery

Er, sorry Jeff, it’s actually a SELFIEFrieze. Regent’s Park

How to enjoy Modern ArtIndonesian Eye at Saatchi Gallery

Just in case I get thirsty later onIndonesian Eye at Saatchi Gallery

Get the T-shirt and haircut first, dude...Alison Jacques Gallery. Berners St.

This is one I’ll make later...Indonesian Eye at Saatchi Gallery

Hey - it’s the synchronised SELFIEIndonesian Eye at Saatchi Gallery

CAPTURED BY DAFYDD JONESdj@state-mediai SPY

So you thought the SELFIE was the exclusive province of juvenile bubble-heads and Japanese tourists outside the Hard Rock Cafe?

MAYBE THE OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY HAS CLEARED IT FOR THE AB1’S OF THE ART WORLD


PEOPLE: KAREN STUKE15—19 JANUARY 2014 Business Design Centre Islington London N1

Book Ticketslondonartfair.co.uk


PROJECTS: PHOTO50

ONE OF THE most anticipated sections of the London Art Fair is the Art Projects arena, which has received acclaim and positive reviews since its inauguration.

Within this is PHOTO50, which also engenders much attention and critical debate. The organisers presumably had in mind a contained exhibition showing current in vogue images, but since Sue Steward presented her interpretation of the brief in 2012, followed by Nick Hackworth in 2013, this division has become decidedly the province of visionary and provocative curating.

The baton for 2014 has been handed to the two partners in trending Victoria-based gallery, Edel Assanti. And Jeremy Epstein and Charlie Fellowes fully intend to take PHOTO50 visitors on a journey into the unexpected. Although Fellowes (as ex-Hamilton Gallery staffer) is ostensibly the photography expert, Epstein (formerly of Gagosian Gallery) has taken the reins with enthusiasm and explains why, how and what they have in store for January.

‘Of course Charlie is on a number of committees and panels to do with photography, but it is fair to say these are mainly concerned with lens based work. So this brings together an area of major interest for Charlie and one that definitely interests me. It has been a joint endeavour. But we have both become involved with the internet generation – almost post-internet generation – and artists who are critically engaged in this area. We had the idea for PHOTO50 about the impact of the advent of the internet and digital age on the dissemination of artworks. The vast majority of inclusions are made not using a camera; although they use photography, most are print based using stock or appropriated imagery. PHOTO50 defines itself by medium, ours is a show that says if you want to talk about

photography now you have to talk about the fact that the medium has shifted its focus – now there are a lot of people working with the photographic image who are definitely not photographers. There is definitely a comment on the abundance of imagery in the show.’

The exposition is entitled Immaterial Matter and the official release notes that it will: ‘demonstrate the irrevocably altered state of photography as a classification in the post-internet era, in which images exist in potentially infinite alternative manifestations. This exploration is enacted playfully at times, in work that attempts to situate itself on the boundary between the ascribed realms of the digital and material, and progressively elsewhere, in works that describe new ontologies and geographies that are developing as a result of the prevalence of free circulating digital information.’

A proposition sure to exercise the photography anoraks. But as Epstein observes, once contracted, they took the opportunity seriously.

‘Edel Assanti had contributed to Art Projects for a couple of years running. We were contacted last July about PHOTO50 and the organisers ask you to create an essay on your concept once it has been formulated. We jumped on a plane to the USA – where a lot of the art we were contemplating originates – and then decided we could indeed make it happen. We included every artist in our show in the essay to demonstrate where they fitted into the profile. It is a lot of work but this year we think we have created a real headline-grabber!

‘We will also be running an exhibition at the gallery not unrelated to this to coincide with the London Art Fair. But, actually, our programme doesn’t hugely address this sort of material. We

ONE STEP BEYONDPHOTO50 is already established as a radical take on the art of photography. 2014 curators, Charlie Fellowes and Jeremy Epstein, do not disappoint

▲ Brenna MurphySkymandala 2013Archival pigment print© the artist courtesy Future Gallery

▲ Constant DullaartThomas Knoll (Eagle + Spectrum Clear Hammered) 2013Framed archival pigment print on hahnemühle paper, custom structured glass© the artist courtesy Future Gallery

▲ Joe HamiltonDIV / CONTOUR 2012Tumblr page© the artist

▲ Aram BarthollGreetings from the Internet 201348 post card digital prints© the artist

▼ Kate SteciwBackground, Basic, Bright, Burlap, Closeup, Color, Couch, Crust, Dessert, Drink, Exotic, Food, Formal, Fox, Fresh, Freshness, Fruit, Garnet, Glass, Gourmet, Grain, Granite, Healthy, Ingredient, Isolate, Juice, Juicy, Nature, Organic, Pink, Plant, Pomegranate, Racing, Raw, Red, Relax, Romantic, Seed, Speed Sweet, Tasty, Tropical 2013C-Prints, Oak Frames, Bumper Stickers. Unique© the artist

have lately become very interested in the post-internet generation, the 25-35 year old artists, but we do not really have that much of a commercial programme in Victoria. Art fairs are more about expansion than consolidation for Edel Assanti. 2014 is going to be an important year for us, we have a lot happening!

NOTESTo hear Sue Steward discuss her 2012Photo50 feature go to f22 VIDEOS atwww.state-media.com/f22

Other galleries exhibiting work by contemporary photographers will include: 21st Editions; Purdy Hicks Gallery; Crane Kalman Brighton; Cynthia Corbett Gallery; Danielle Arnaud; Flowers Gallery; GBS Fine Art and Jack Bell Gallery.

LINKSwww.londonartfair.co.ukwww.edelassanti.com

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robin friend julian schnabel 12 - state-media.comfrida’s father, carl wilhelm kahlo, was a...

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