ANDREA MODICA – BEST FRIENDS

Posted on 2012-07-02

With her recent series, Best Friends, Andrea Modica took her 8×10 camera into high schools in the US and Italy for a compelling group of photographs of young men and women. The project began as individual portraits, but it quickly developed into photographs of two students together. As several of the subjects arrived for their appointment with a companion, Modica readily saw that the two friends offered something much more interesting than the single figure. The interaction between the friends, the physical and fashion similarities/contrasts, and the way the students reacted to Modica, provided an opportunity to look at friendship and sense of self among adolescents today, as well as how they differ between countries. Capitalizing on the slow, interactive nature of 8×10 portraiture, Modica was able

to penetrate some of the defensive masks and behaviors of the students to show fragments of who they are as friends and individuals. Beyond the obvious surface information (physical opposites drawn together; mirrored pairs who have found each other), Modica’s images let us see things like the bravado which has slipped for one boy, yet remains intact for his friend, or the defensive, protective pose one girl takes on behalf of the other. Notably, Modica is able to reveal elements of the personal, which elevate the pictures well beyond social observation. The subjects engage us as individuals, and through that connection we are briefly drawn into the complexity, anxiety and excitement of adolescent life.

Opposite – Loomis Chaffee School, Windsor, CT, 2009

Exhibition runs through till July 21st, 2012

Gallery 339
339 South 21st Street
Philadelphia
PA
19103

www.gallery339.com

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WILLIAM ECKERSLEY – DARK CITY

Posted on 2012-07-02

Dark City offers a stark contrast to the glossy marketing of Olympic fervour with a documentary-style photographic presentation capturing London’s less watched moments.
Eckersley has, with Becher-esque discipline, spent four years photographing car parks, industrial plants, underpasses and council estates, working only in the pitch black of night, armed with his (5×4 tungsten- balanced Fujifilm). The exhibition, and the accompanying publication, is the product of this work.

Eckersley’s acute awareness of the contrasts between the street halogen lights and the looming darkness have led him to be described as a “master of light”, and in his continued investigation of the built environment and de-peopled cityscapes he has developed a recognisable style similar to the Düsseldorf school with its vivid colours and stringent German precision.
But if the aesthetic is German, then the scene is most certainly London. Locals may recognize a scene inside the underground, a shot beside the canal, or a view on a bridge. Indeed the body of work can be seen as a typology of London space at night, though in Eckersley’s London he captures moments so quiet, so perfectly static, that they could be likened to film sets. Stranded shopping trollies appear choreographed, and stacked tyres are so poised as to be deliberately placed. Even the most throwaway arrangement suddenly becomes loaded with intent. In fact it is hard to imagine a London like this, so different to the bustling reality of everyday life. But in capturing these moments Eckersley has created a new reality, a reality that, whilst eerie, may yet become more attractive in the raucous hubbub of the Olympic Games.

Exhibition runs through till August 18st, 2012

Vegas Gallery
274 Poyser Street
E2 9RF
London

www.vegasgallery.co.uk

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