Galerie Thierry Bigaignon presents Thomas Paquet’s ‘Fragments #1’, a meditation on photography as a form of recording light. Paquet experiments with traditional film processes, manipulating emulsions and chemicals to create poetic plays of light. The results are gradients of colour that emulate peaceful horizons. Similar to Mark Rothko’s paintings, Paquet aims to create a distilled experience of emotion while viewing his imagined landscapes. Until 10 March.
Pictured: Etude pour un horizon #2, by Thomas Paquet, 2015. @ the artist, courtesy of Galerie Theirry Bigaignon
Writer: Lynsie Robets
Swiss photographer Jules Spinatsch investigates the role of technology and security in the age of contemporary digital photography. Currently on view at Christophe Guye Gallerie, ‘Summit’ is an exhibition of detailed large format photographs, some specially made, others from Spinatsch’s two decade career. Using his camera as a tool to imitate modes of surveillance and image recording, the series ‘Temporary Discomfort’ (pictured) looks at forms of security and control surrounding world leader summits. Throughout, he questions the role of the camera in image authorship, and its power to survey behaviour across urban centres. Until 21 April.
Pictured: Around Hotel Astoria Sector B, by New York, by Jules Spinatsch, 2002. © the artist
Writer: Lynsie Roberts
‘It’s the spirit of these photographs – sometimes ironic, sometimes tender, always truthful – that guided our September collection,’ says Christopher Bailey, (Burberry’s President and Chief Creative Officer) of the fashion house’s exhibition ‘Here We Are’, which opens today in Paris after showing to great acclaim in London and Hong Kong last year. Curated by Bailey, along with British photographer Alasdair McLellan and Claire de Rouen director Lucy Kumara Moore, ‘Here We Are’ is a celebration of British culture, and all its idiosyncrasies. Spotlighting 30 photographers including Martin Parr, Dafydd Jones, Karen Knorr, and Janette Beckman, it commemorates British social portraiture and photojournalism across the 20th century, documenting subcultures, ‘tribes’, and classes that make up the British Isles. The photographs are displayed alongside Burberry’s September 2017 collection, providing insight into the brand’s varied inspiration from the worlds of art, music and culture. Until 4 February.
Pictured: Ballroom Dancer, by Brian Griffin, Blackpool, 1972. © the artist. Brian Griffin will be in conversation with Sam Stourdzé (Director of Rencontres D'Arles) on the 31 January at ‘Here We Are’.
Writer: Lynsie Roberts
Jim Goldberg’s ‘Rich and Poor’ portrait series – in which he looked at wealth disparity in 1970s and 1980s America – garnered national attention in 1985. Currently on view at the Ryerson Image Centre as part of ‘Collaboration: A Potential History of Photography’, which features photography projects that reconsider the dynamics between photographer and subject. The seminal body of work asked sitters from both ends of the wealth scale to write a comment on their portrait. Observations of self-presentation, and the disconnect between appearances and reality is evident across portraits, despite differences in economic and social positions. Until 8 April.
Pictured: Vickie Figueroa, San Francisco, California, by Jim Goldberg, 1982. Courtesy of the artist, and Pace/MacGill Gallery (NY)
Writer: Lynsie Roberts
‘Merrie Albion – Landscape Studies of a Small Island’ by Simon Roberts, now on view at London’s Flowers Gallery, looks at the collective British identity as witnessed in social environments. Roberts’ large format photography documents community gatherings across the UK with a detached perspective and deadpan aesthetic. The showcase, in which his images are part of a dialogue of current events, features the series Grenfell Tower (pictured), which depicts the community’s feelings of injustice and social disparity. Until 10 March.
Pictured, Grenfell Tower, North Kensington, London, 19 June 2017, by Simon Roberts. © The artist. Courtesy of Flowers Gallery London and New York
Writer: Lynsie Roberts
For Lumiere London – a weekend of after-dark interventions, installations and atmospheric screenings – filmmaker and master of monochrome George Harvey has cast a mesmeric glow over 18montrose’s Stable Street store. His bespoke wall, created in collaboration with VFX artist Adam Aftanas, spans 132 interlinked video screens, each throwing hypnotic shadows across the boutique’s choice selection of fashion, objet and sneakers. Until 21 January.
Pictured, a still from George Harvey and Adam Aftanas’ Lumiere London installation, for 18montrose. Courtesy of the artists
Writer: Elly Parsons
From today, the Museum of Contemporary Photography (MOCP) at Columbia College Chicago presents ‘Traversing the Past’, which features three photographers who use their photographic practices to mediate family histories of political turmoil, violence, and displacement. Adam Golfer, Diana Matar, and Hrvoje Slovenc reconsider their generational narratives, reframing and re-contextualising memories and research in their personal projects. Golfer’s series – A House Without a Roof – looks at conflicting histories of trauma throughout Europe, Israel, and Palestine. His multi-layered practice involves first-hand experiences, fictional texts, archival imagery, and photographing sites of conflict to investigate a convoluted history. Until 1 April.
Pictured, Settlers Planting Trees on Tu’bshev, by Adam Golfer, 2012. Courtesy of the artist
Writer: Lynsie Roberts
Founded in 2012, Paris’ Prix de la Photo Camera Clara celebrates large format photography, awarding an annual cash prize to a series made with a viewfinder camera. The founders wanted to provide an antidote to the current photography climate where images are both created and consumed at a rapid rate. Using a viewfinder with a reverse composition, the image making process is slowed down. Won by Guillaume Zuili, another of this year’s finalists is Patrick Tourneboeuf, whose series Next City addresses universal housing through photographing large buildings on the outskirts of the urban centres of Beijing and New Delhi. Until 17 March.
Pictured, (Untitled), Next City, by Patrick Tourneboeuf, Beijing, 2008. Courtesy of the artist
Writer: Lynsie Roberts
Foam’s ‘Back to the Future’ exhibition spotlights contemporary and 19th century photographic pioneers, who have hunted out new ways of visual recording. Matthew Brandt, for example, incorporates the subject matter in the process of his picture making. In Stepping Stone Falls (pictured), several CMYK prints were exposed to the erosion of Michigan’s Flint River. Water flowing over them before they were reassembled in a light box. To each of the photographers featured, the process is as important as the final art object. Until 28 March.
Pictured, Stepping Stone Falls (Triptych), Matthew Brandt, 2016. © The artist. Courtesy of Yossi Milo Gallery, New York
Writer: Lynsie Roberts
The Jerwood/Photoworks Awards – now in its second year – acts as a platform to support emerging and mid-career photographers in producing a new body of work, to be shown in a nationally touring exhibition. This year’s awardees Alejandra Carles-Tolra, Sam Laughlin and Lua Riberia explore various concerns, including death, belonging, and the fragility of the natural world. Pictured is a shot from Sam Laughlin’s series A Certain Movement, which considers delicate processes and fragile places in nature. The photographers also receive a bursary and mentorship to aid in production of the new work, in support of their ongoing success. Until 11 March.
Pictured, Adders basking (Vipera berus), from the series ‘A Certain Movement’, originally commissioned through the Jerwood/Photoworks Awards, 2017. © Sam Laughlin
Writer: Lynsie Roberts
Mahtab Hussain confronts representation and identity in his portrait series ‘You Get Me?’ on show at Impressions Gallery this month. Questioning, ‘What does it mean to be a British Muslim male today?’, Hussain considers the intersectional identity politics of race, religion, and masculinity amongst males in the UK. In the series, he approached his subjects with his camera and had a discussion about their experiences – the exhibition displays these direct quotes beside the large-scale portraits. Through his work Hussain aims to bring insight into personal narratives without discrimination and racism. Until 24 March.
Pictured, Red t-shirt, baseball jacket, car, Mahtab Hussain, 2012. Courtesy of the artist
Writer: Lynsie Roberts
Martin Klimas is known for his experimental, high-speed photography of sound waves, shattering porcelain, and exploding flowers. In ‘Radiant & Polarization’, his most recent solo exhibition at New York’s Foley Gallery, he examines light refractions and polarisations, creating ‘temporary sculptures structured by motion, time, and light’. Playing with transparent films and white light to manipulate wavelengths and colour spectrums, the series is a visually striking insight into light forms usually missed by the human eye. Until 18 February.
Pictured, Polarization 10914, 2016, by Martin Klimas. Courtesy of Martin Klimas and Foley Gallery
Writer: Lynsie Roberts
A new exhibition at New York’s Steven Kasher Gallery examines the political activism and cultural shifts of 1968 – a landmark year for both. Methodically, an image made on each day of the year has been selected, to reflect key news stories and important, unfolding events. The resulting collection, comprising black and white news photographs sourced from American press agencies, has been framed in a calendar grid, where we find photographs of Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination, anti-war movements, Black Power affirmations, the Beatles’ White Album debut, equal rights conferences, and portraits of protestors across the world. Until 24 February.
Pictured, Tommie Smith And John Carlos Give The Black Power Salute At The Medal Ceremony At The Olympic Games In Mexico City, 17 October. Courtesy of Steven Kasher Gallery, New York
Writer: Lynsie Roberts
From this week, Nailya Alexander Gallery presents ‘Boris Ignatovich: Master of Russian Avant-Garde Photography’ – the first solo exhibition in New York of the Russian photographer. Ignatovich was an early Soviet experimental photographer who captured the changing urban life of the 1920s and 1930s in Russia. The show will feature large-scale silver gelatin prints of his black and white photography, including reportage, portraits, and constructivist snaps of the industrialised city. Until 17 March.
Pictured, Holiday Illumination, Boris Ignatovich, Russia, 1932. © Boris Ignatovich Estate. Courtesy of Nailya Alexander Gallery, New York
Writer: Lynsie Roberts
Photography exhibition ‘In Your Dreams’ addresses issues of wealth inequality across the globe. Hosted by the Australian Centre for Photography, it features 14 international photographers, each exploring the effects of poverty, war, and displacement. The exhibition aims to highlight global concerns that often go ignored, while bringing to light personal stories of those affected. The vivid portraits of Nigerian photojournalist George Osodi, for example, capture both the lives of royalty and those that serve them. Until 7 April.
Pictured, HRH Oharisi III Ovie of Ughelli, by George Osodi, from the series ‘Nigerian Monarchs’, 2006-13. © The artist
Writer: Lynsie Roberts
‘Robert Frank: Books and Films, 1947-2017’ has been on view for the past month at Houston Center for Photography, showing a selection of images from the photographer’s oeuvre, including prints from his renowned book, The Americans. As an antidote to old and fragile silver gelatin prints, here Frank has printed his photographs on newsprint, making them (in his own words) ‘cheap, quick and dirty – that’s how I like it!’. Now, with the exhibition coming to a close, the Centre invites us to a so-called ‘Destruction Party’, where the prints will be burned in trashcans, so as to avoid a future of speculation and commodification in the art market. The ‘Destruction Party’ takes place on 5 January, 6-8pm.
Pictured: Frank’s wife June Leaf in Mabou, Canada, 2009, by Robert Frank, from the book Household Inventory Record, 2013. © The artist
Writer: Lynsie Roberts
Krista Wortendyke is interested in the collective, fragmented voice of social media in relaying news of world events. In particular, she questions the casualness with which we, untrained observers, have come to capture moments of violence. A new exhibition at Chicago’s Filter Space gallery collects a series of images of racial riots across America, cropped to mimic an Instagram feed, bringing digital images into a dynamic, physical form. In doing so, Wortendyke raises issues of violence and brutality, while examining social media as a problematic lens through which we view breaking news stories, and the experiences of others. Until 3 February.
Pictured: #Mass_Observation, 2016, by Krista Wortendyke. © The artist
After requesting access for over a decade, photographer David Maisal was finally granted entry into the classified chemical and biological weapons site of Dugway Proving Ground in 2014. The resulting imagery, on display at Haines Gallery in San Francisco, documents how the vast Great Salt Lake Desert of Utah has been exposed, measured and marked by the tests, through Maisal’s trademark style of aerial photography, along with closed-door interior shots. The clinical facilities and Live Agent Testing Chambers (pictured) are eerily devoid of human life. ‘Proving Ground’ continues until 24 February.
Pictured, Referee Module Interior (5370_04), Whole System Live Agent Test Laboratory, David Maisal, Utah, 2014. Courtesy of the artist and Haines Gallery
Writer: Lynsie Roberts