So what was the exhibition like? Actually, it was great and there was a lot to see. It had been extremely well curated and followed a logical and (mostly) chronological sequence from 1930s to the present day, and there were some very interesting contrasts and juxtapositions, both within each photographer's series, and in between photographers.
The real highlight for me was the work by Nadav Kander who had images from two series on display taken in the 2000s: Chongqing Municipality and Hubei Province. I found the Chongqing Municipality in particular an astonishing set of images. Amazingly gentle exposures in contrast to the ugly constructions depicting life by a polluted river. In Chongqing IV (Sunday Picnic) a family are having a picnic by the water's edge; they all look to be enjoying themselves with the exception of one person set apart from the main group who is glaring at the camera. The construction of this image is beautiful; the eye takes you from the family through the bridge supports to the back of the image where everything is soft and delicate despite being ugly and industrial looking. In Chongqing XI, there is the same soft exposure, but the scene looks very polluted; a lady is wearing a face mask, yet people are fishing in the river. A delicate scene showing vast spaces, yet with an enormous bridge construction going on in the background. Huge photographs showing huge ideas!
More about Nadav Kandar is available from Sean O'Hagen's review in The Guardian from 20 October 2010.
Of the other photographers displayed, I have made some notes and asked a few questions:
- Berenice Abbott
- 1930s New York images showing the contrast between poverty and power, old and new, extreme height vs ground level, social change, grid structures, unemployment, American economy, industrial development (cars / bridges)
- Iwan Baan
- Scenes captured in 2000s of Torre David in Venezuela depicting an interesting and normal life of the building's infamous squatters: parties, balloons, barbers, dogs. Nice perspectives but I prefer significantly the visualisation of this community by Alejandro Cegarra.
- Bernd and Hilla Becher
- I loved these images. Documented over five decades, a showcase of twenty one water towers showing a variety of architectural styles, with consistent vertical and central framing and soft monochrome mid-tones. The positioning of the foreground made me feel that I could walk into the images and in to the towers! (Some of the towers looked like weird space craft). This series reminded me of the Israeli Watchtowers body of work by Taysir Batniji.
- Hélène Binet
- Taken in 1990s of the Jewish Museum in Berlin, these were beautiful abstracts of light and shade, again with strong graphical shapes, but showing a great sensitivity.
- Walker Evans
- 1930s images from America's "Deep South", also showing social change but behind that of New York shown by Berenice Abbott. I wondered if the Frame Houses from New Orleans are still there post Hurricane Katrina. Evans images gave an insight into the daily life of the inhabitants, the simplicity of their religion (i.e. very simple and humble structured churches unlike other religions), and the shocking nature of terminology like "Negro Housing" showing that segregation was still an aspect of life back then. I was particularly struck by the image of Floyd Burroughs and his very striking eyes. It reminded me of the Afghan Girl image by Steve McCurry (in Portraits) - a worn and tired face, but piercing eyes looking straight through you.
- Luigi Ghirri
- 1980s images of a cemetery which to me seemed more like a storage unit or even a prison BUT these images were made beautiful by the presence of squares of light in each image. I really liked the abstract and graphic shape design of the images.
- Andreas Gursky
- What can you say about Gursky that hasn't already been said? Enormous and strange (altered reality) but interesting!
- Lucien Hervé
- 1950s images of concrete and boxes, which seems strange given the heritage and beautiful architecture of the location of the architecture (India), but when you realise how the light interacts with the buildings, you understand that in actual fact, the architecture is a canvas for the light creating beautiful abstract scenes of light and shade.
- Nadav Kander
- (see above)
- Luisa Lambri
- I didn't get these series from 2000s. One abstract is nice, but why four that all look the same?
- Simon Norfolk
- Shot over the past 15 years or so, these images of Afghanistan and Bagdad are very interesting showing the post-war effects, and the incongruence between modern life and a war-ravaged scene. Glimpses of a modern life inherited from the very regime (the West) these locations were at war with.
- Bas Princen
- Princen's images were fascinating. Taken in 2009, Princen shows five different cities in such a way that the context is altered - showing the urban structures in semi-urban spaces. In Cairo for instance, which essentially shows how the space of an urban wasteland has been used, there is so much to see. You begin by feeling overwhelmed, not knowing where to look first. Finally you focus on the distant and soft buildings in the horizon searching for an anchor, somewhere to start. Then you start to notice details: animals on rooftops, people sifting through rubbish, laundry drying, satellite TV discs (modern poverty), there is just so much to see. In Istanbul, there is a real juxtaposition of old vs new, straight vs muddled, again lots to look at. In Dubai, a beautiful, yet absurd black dominant structure and then workers around it all dressed in blue, reminding us of the context. In (ring-road) Cairo - very different - juxtaposition of construction yet herding animals. Finally, in Amman - what happened? Did the land collapse neatly at the edge of the buildings, or did they decide to construct right on the edge of a landslide?
- Ed Ruscha
- Aerial photographs from the USA taken in 1960s, showing enormous spaces and what shapes look like from a height - you would never appreciate this driving around at ground level!
- Stephen Shore
- 1970s images of everyday USA scenes, except that to me, these look like TV sets, open air museums - almost "Toy Town" like structures. But as the exhibition progresses, it seems like we are moving more into a civilisation that we recognise.
- Julius Shulman
- 1960s images of case study houses and in particular #22 - a very strange set of images. For a start the people in the images look like "Stepford Wives" characters! None of them are looking at the camera - they appear to be the American idea of the perfect couple with the perfect house. The photographs themselves are very neat - clean straight lines, right angles, sharp corners, space, balance, sparseness, steel, precision. It seems as if the people aren't allowed to change the concept of space; even the shadows are perfectly angular! The whole effect seemed very contrived, but what a view from #22 over Los Angeles!
- Thomas Struth
- Struth's collection from 2000s was a series of typical street scenes from various parts of the world. I enjoyed looking at these - I found that by the end I was trying to guess the location before looking at the caption! I liked the way that one photograph led to the next through use of consistency of composition and similar lines. Strange that these streets were deserted - in some photographs - the only evidence of people is the car number plates that would be attributed to living people. The contrast between the cities is also interesting: neat Germany, precise Tokyo, untidy Naples, historic St Petersberg, and then almost Soviet looking Geneva and Dessau, and in Pyongyang no gaps between the buildings. These were very interesting.
- Hiroshi Sugimoto
- A very strange set of out of focus iconic buildings shot in 2000s, which left me cold. Might have been better in colour maybe, but these images did nothing for me.
- Guy Tillim
- A series of photographs from modern Africa shot in the 2000s; broken dreams, dull colours, depressing scences, graphic shapes, stark bareness. Not the colourful, noisy, chaotic Africa that I've seen for myself.
Websites:
- Alejandro Cegarra available from http://www.alecegarra.com/ [accessed 15 November 2014]
- Constructing Worlds: Photography and Architecture in the Modern Age available from http://www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery/event-detail.asp?ID=16264 [accessed 15 November 2014]
- Gill Golding / Photographer available from http://www.gillgoldingphotography.com/ [accessed 15 November 2014]
- Nadav Kander available from http://www.nadavkander.com/# [accessed 15 November 2014]
- Steve McCurry Portraits available from http://stevemccurry.com/galleries/portraits [accessed 15 November 2014]
- The Guardian: Sean O'Hagen On Photography Nadav Kander's Yangtze photographs show a people sold down the river available from http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/oct/20/nadav-kander-yangtze-river-china [accessed 15 November 2014]
- Taysir Batniji: Watchtowers 2008 available from http://www.taysirbatniji.com/en/photography/watchtowers,-2008 [accessed 15 November 2014]
