Photography Exhibitions Roundup - April 2011

An occasional, and highly selective, pick of current and forthcoming exhibitions. This is a photography 'special' supplement to the previously posted April list (see below).

Wim Wenders, Street Corner, Butte, Montana, 2003

Wim Wenders: Places Strange and Quiet is an exhibition of nearly 40 images made by the filmmaker between 1983 and 2001 at Haunch of Venison until 22 April.

Vera Lutter,  Pyramids, Giza, April 12, 2010

Vera Lutter: Egypt is at Gagosian, Davies Street until 21 May. When Lutter visited Egypt she turned her suitcase into a pinhole camera: "I packed all my clothes, suntan lotion, developing trays, and photographic paper. The suitcase doubled as my luggage and a camera. Then of course I had to empty it all to create an optical device... It's basically an old 'trunk' style suitcase with a hole to let the light in that is opened and closed by hand to control the exposure. I got some very strange looks from tourists as I placed my suitcase on the sand in front of the pyramids. The sun is very strong and it took about a minute for an exposure. Then I dashed back to the hotel to develop it into a print, before I could reload the suitcase for the next exposure."(Quote from article by Charlotte Cripps in The Independent) See also Guardian "Artist of the Week".

Dieter Roth, from Reykjavik Slides, 1973-75/1990-98 

Dieter Roth: Reykjavik Slides (31,035) Every View of a City is at Hauser & Wirth until 30 April and will present 31,035 slides shown on multiple projectors operating simultaneously.

Figures & Fictions: Contemporary South African Photography is at the V&A until 17 July. The exhibition features 17 South African photographers, "all of whom live and work in the country and whose images were made between 2000 and 2010. Each photographer is represented by one or more projects that are linked by the depiction of people and a self-conscious engagement with South Africa's political and photographic past." (From the V&A website). Read review by Sean O'Hagan. The following images are selected from the work on show:

David Goldblatt, Blitz Maaneveld (from the Ex-Offenders series), 2008

Jodi Bieber, Gail (from the series Real Beauty), 2008

Hasan & Husain Esso Night Before Eid, 2009

Kudzanai Chiurai, Untitled I, 2009

Guy Tillim, Petros Village, Malawi, 2006

Nontsikelelo Veleko, Lesego, Miriam Makeba Street, Newtown, Johannesburg, 2007

The National Portrait Gallery is currently featuring two photography exhibitions: Hoppé Portraits: Society, Studio and Street (until 30 May) and Ida Kar: Bohemian Photographer, 1908-1974 (until 19 June). Read review of Ida Kar by Sean O'Hagan, and article by Margaret Drabble.

E.O. Hoppé, Dutch West Indies, 1921

Ida Kar, Bridget Riley, 1963

A contemporary portrait photographer, Nadav Kander, is the subject of an exhibition at The Lowry: Nadav Kander: Selected Portraits, 1999-2011. Read article by Sandy Nairne.

Nadav Kander, Erin O’Connor as Millais’s Ophelia, 2004

Magnum photographer Ian Berry, was commissioned by the Whitechapel Gallery, in 1972, to document life in the local streets. Now the gallery is showing more than 30 pictures from that commission, This is Whitechapel, until 4 September.

 

Ian Berry, Whitechapel, 1972

Also at the Whitechapel, until 19 June, is Paul Graham: Photographs 1981-2006. Read interview with Sean O'Hagan and writings by Graham at American Suburb X; see also review by Adrian Searle.

Paul Graham, from A1-The Great North Road, 1981-2

Graham is also showing Films at Anthony Reynolds until 4 June. The work is described as follows by the gallery: While examining his work of the past 30 years for the major survey exhibition arriving at the Whitechapel Gallery this month, Graham became enraptured with the base material of his craft and began to reflect upon the physical substance with which his images were made. Scanning the negatives for the exhibition, he began also to scan the blank film ends and unexposed frames from each body of work. What Graham gathered in the process he saw as a ‘negative retrospective’ of his practice. These luscious and beguiling abstract images are nothing more than greatly enlarged images of raw film emulsion, the colour dye clouds formed in the exposure and development of film. Kodacolour, Fujicolour, TriX;Ektacolour, Kodachrome – all have gone for good or are fading fast. So here is a homage to the history of film photography…

Paul Graham, from Films

Finally,  The Deutsche-Börse Photography Prize exhibition is at Ambika P3 until 30 April. See below for discussion and pictures.