Art & Photography: July 2012

Tuesday, 31 July 2012

Another London - Tate Britain

Neil Kenlock, The Bailey Sisters in Clapham, c1970

Another London: International Photographers Capture City Life, 1930-1980 is at Tate Britain until 16 September.

The exhibition features work by photographers for whom London was a foreign city. The pictures all come from the collection of Eric and Louise Franck and have been donated to the Tate. Among the 41 photographers represented are Bill Brandt, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Frank.

Read an article by David Campany and reviews by LauraCumming and Richard Dorment.

Wolfgang Suschitzky, Bishopsgate Road, Paddington, London, 1934

Wolfgang Suschitzky, Lyons Corner House, Tottenham Court Road, London, 1934

Bruce Davidson, Girl Holding Kitten, 1960

Lutz Dille, Untitled, 1961

Marketa Luskacova, People around a fire, Spitalfields Market, London, 1976

Al Vandenberg, Untitled, 1975

Karen Knorr and Olivier Richon , Roxy 4 from the ‘Punk series’, 1976

Friday, 27 July 2012

John Rafman - Saatchi Gallery

Jon Rafman, 9 Rua Pereira da Costa, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, 2010

Jon Rafman: The Nine Eyes of Google Street View is at The Saatchi Gallery until 29 August.

These are photographs that no one took and memories that no one has. (Jon Rafman quoted by Geoff Dyer)

When Michael Wolf was given an hounourable mention in the 2011 World Press Photo Awards for his project, A Series of Unfortunate Events: Google Street View it provoked a some controversy (see below) - Wolf's 'method' of setting up his camera on a tripod pointing at the computer screen, as he surfed and selected from the images created for Google's Street View, offended some who dismissed it as not even proper 'photography' let alone photojournalism or art.

Wolf is not alone: Doug Rickard and Jon Rafman have also put in hours mining the database. A selection of Rafman's work is now on show at the Saatchi Gallery.

Read Geoff Dyer's interesting article How Google Street View is inspiring new photography, in which he notes amomng other things that Wolf and Rafman have even used some of the same images!

Interesting stuff, I think.