William Klein - Outstanding Contribution to Photography

William Klein, Antonia Simone Barbershop, New York, 1961

William Klein has been given the Outstanding Contribution to Photography Award  at the Sony World Photography Awards 2012 (see below).

A great photographer; a great artist. 
Some work is on show at Someret House as part of the Sony World Photography Awards exhibition until 20 May. More excitingly he will be the subject of  joint retrospective with Daido Moriyama at Tate Modern in October. The pairing seems a good one, but Klein's comment to Sean O'Hagan was "I think it's kind of stupid". Read the full article here.

I would look at my contact sheets and my heart would be beating, you know. To see if I’d caught what I wanted. Sometimes, I’d take shots without aiming, just to see what happened, I’d rush into crowds – bang! bang! I liked the idea of luck and taking a chance. Other times I’d frame a composition I saw and plant myself somewhere, longing for some accident to happen.
Klein, William (1981) Photographs: An Aperture Monograph, New York: Aperture, p16

William Klein, St Patrick’s Day, Fifth Avenue, 1954-5

William Klein, Club Allegro Fortissimo, Paris, 1989

William Klein, Candy Store, 1955

William Klein, Bikini, Moscow, 1959

William Klein, Selwyn, 42nd Street, New York, 1955

William Klein, Dance Happening, Tokyo, 1961

William Klein, Crowd, Broadway and 103rd Street, NY, 1954-5

Sony World Photography Award - Somerset House

Bernard Pieterse, Sossusvlei (winner, Youth Category: Environment)

The 2012 Sony World Photography Awards have been announced: the winners and runners up will be on dispaly as part of World Photo London at Somerset House until 20 May 2012.

Below is a selection from the winners -  see details of all Professional category winners here and Open Competiotion winners here. Click on images to enlarge.
The Outstanding Contribution to Photography Award went to William Klein - see separate blog entry, here.

Ana Gregoric, In Between, (winner Open Competition: People)

Giovanni Frescura, Upupa (winner Open Competition: Nature & Wildlife)

Karina Sembe, Cécile (winner Youth Category: Portraits)

Mitch Dobrowner, Cell-Lightning, Dundee, Texas winner of the L’Iris d’Or - the 2012 Sony World Photography Awards Photographer of the Year

Natalia Belentsova, Symphony of Fire (winner Open Competition: Low Light)

Piotr Stasiuk, Marriage (winner Open Competiton: Smile)

Sanket Khuntale, indifest (winner Open Competition: Art & Culture)

Simon Norfolk, Afghanistan: 10 Years on after the War (winner Professional Category: People)

Out of Focus: Photography - Saatchi Gallery

Matt Collishaw, Madonna, 2002

Out of Focus: Photography at The Saatchi Gallery is a wide ranging, but selective, survey of contemporary art photography. 38 artists are featured, including both familiar and unfamiliar names; approaches are varied and include artists using found images and working in collage and montage and, as in the Collishaw example above, ceramic, cement, wood and paint!

A selection of examples is shown below: click on images to enlarge; see the Saatchi website for full details.

Ryan McGinley, Untitled (Morrisey 15), 2006

Katy Grannan, Anonymous, Los Angeles, Boulevard 24, 2009/11

Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin, ALIAS: Dora Fobert (1925-1943). Image 5 from the archive of Adela K, Ca 1942, 2011

Andreas Gefeller, Untitled (Academy of Arts, R 209), 2009

Mikhael Subotzky, Residents, Vaalkoppies (Beaufort West Rubbish Dump), 2006

Pinar Yolaçan, Untitled, 2003

Laurel Nakadate, Lucky Tiger #9, 2009

David Benjamin Sherry, Ultimate Earth, 2011

Alex Prager - Michael Hoppen Contemporary

Alex Prager, Eye #1, 2012

Alex Prager - Compulsion is at Michael Hoppen Contemporary until 26 May.

The exhibition comprises photographs of constructed scenes inspired by tragedies in the media, interspersed with close-ups of eyes. The work is influenced by that of  Weegee and Enrique Metinides as well as films such as Metropolis and Un Chien Andalou. The exhibition will also feature a short film:

La Petite Mort declares that “the act of dying, and the act of transcendent love, are two experiences cut from the same cloth - the former a grand exit, and the latter a slow escape. Indeed, many of the world’s greatest poets have long considered a passionate interlude as man’s closest moment to seeing god.”

(From the gallery website.)

 Read a review by Sean O'Hagan.

Alex Prager, 4:01pm Sun Valley, 2012

Alex Prager, 4:29pm Van Nuys, 2012

Alex Prager, Film Still #1, 2012

Alex Prager, Compulsion #1, 2012

Alex Prager, 3:32pm Coldwater Canyon, 2012

Alex Prager, Film Still #2, 2012

Stan Douglas - Victoria Miro

Stan Douglas, Demobilisation Suit, 1945

Stan Douglas: Midcentury Studio is at Victoria Miro until 26 May.

Douglas' enigmatic, constructed images represent the work of a fictional photojournalist working in 1940s and 50s America; Douglas uses authentic 1950s technologies and costumes to, in the words of the gallery's website, 'choreograph the underlying tension of the era'.

Read a review by Sean O'Hagan.

Stan Douglas, Suspect, 1950

Stan Douglas, Juggler, 1946

Stan Douglas, Flame, 1947

Stan Douglas, Actress, 1947

Stan Douglas, Trick or Treat, 1947

Jamie Shovlin - Haunch of Venison

Jamie Shovlin, Derrida by Christopher Norris (Variation 3), 2011-12

Jamie Shovlin: Various Arrangements is at Haunch of Venison until 26 May.

The exhibition presents a series of seventeen large-scale paintings based on the cover designs of the Fontana Modern Masters series published in the 1970s. The paintings represent titles that were scheduled for publication but never appeared. Shovlin's elaborate methodology for producing the paintings is explained on the Haunch of Venison website.

Shovlin is an interesting artist whose previous projects have included the 'curation' of exhibitions of work by the missing schoolgirl Naomi V Jelish, and of the memorabilia of a German glam-rock band called Lustfaust. In both cases they were entirely the creation of Shovlin - though, he claimed on Front Row (18 April) that the band does now exist! Listen to the band here.

Jamie Shovlin, Berlin by JohnGray (Variation 1), 2011-12

Jamie Shovlin, Various Arrangements, installation view

Jamie Shovlin, Various Arrangements, installation view

Jamie Shovlin, Various Arrangements, installation view

Predicate - Xposed Club, Friday 20th April

Poster by Mark Unsworth

Predicate - Alex Ward (guitar), Tim Hill (saxophones), Dominic Lash (double bass) and Mark Sanders (drums) - will play Xposed Club (in the Centre for Art & Photography, St Paul's Road) on the 20th April.

Predicate will play pieces from their recently released debut album as well as not-yet recorded material.

Alex Ward recently demonstrated his virtuoso, and sometimes ferocious, guitar playing as part of N.E.W. who played Xposed Club in January. 

Support will come from MkIII - Mark Unsworth with Mike Adcock and Peter Robson and Drachmae Lucky Strength - Stuart Chalmers, David Grundy and Martin Hackett.

£5.00 (students £3.00) on the door, starts at 8.00pm.