PAUL GRAHAM – A1 – THE GREAT NORTH ROAD

Posted on 2020-10-19

A1 – The Great North Road was Paul Graham’s first book, published in 1983. Uniting the tradition of social documentary with the fresh approach of new colour, A1 – The Great North Road was transformative on photography in the UK and paved the way for a new generation of British colour photographers to emerge. Spanning the full length of England and into Edinburgh, Graham travelled repeatedly along the ‘Great North Road’ with a large format camera, to record the people, buildings, and landscape of early 1980’s Britain. Now 40 years old, this book is as much art as it is a historical document of the years of Margaret Thatcher’s government and the UK’s declining industrial base.

To coincide with the book’s republication, an exhibition of vintage prints from the series will be on show from October at Huxley-Parlour Gallery.

Originally self-published, MACK Books have published a new edition of the book which celebrates the seminal series.

Opposite – Café Assistants, Compass Café, Colsterworth, Lincolnshire, November 1982

Exhibition runs through to December 18th, 2020

Mitchell Giddings Fine Arts
183 Main Street
Brattleboro
VT 05301

huxleyparlour.com

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ANDREA TORRES BALAGUER

Posted on 2020-10-19

Andrea Torres Balaguer’s passion for photography remains deeply rooted in her preoccupation with the mystery and ambiguity the medium oftentimes provides. Looking to masters like Duane Michals, Sally Mann and Annie Leibovitz, Torres has developed a distinct quality to her works that alludes to a dark and moody aesthetic while pushing the boundaries of portrait photography beyond its traditional limitations.

Working as a fashion photographer in Barcelona, Torres intersects this aesthetic with elements of couture in the series’ The Unknown and Hivernacle. The self portraits are photographed in natural light, and draped in provocative silks, lace, and velvets. Torres’ execution of the composition creates a painterly portrait that triggers all of the senses – so rich in texture and their brilliant, jewel-toned colors. The narrative is pushed one step further with the unique brushstroke that is applied across the subject’s face post-production, making each image slightly different from the others in its small edition. The viewer is left to create their own interpretation and decipher for themselves what is reality and what is fiction.

Opposite – From the series, the unknown

Exhibition runs through to November 5th, 2020

Jackson Fine Art (Online Exhibition)
3115 East Shadowlawn Avenue
Atlanta
GA 30305

www.jacksonfineart.com

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POLAROIDS – STEVE KAHN (1974-77)

Posted on 2020-10-19

Casemore Kirkeby presents Polaroids Steve Kahn (1974-77)

Exhibition runs through to November 21st, 2020

Casemore Kirkeby
1275 Minnesota Street, #102
San Francisco
CA 94107

casemorekirkeby.com

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AMY ARBUS – ON THE STREET 1980-1990

Posted on 2020-10-12

In 1980 when I started working for The Village Voice I didn’t think of myself as an artist, in part, because I was working for a newspaper. I also didn’t consider myself a journalist because I wasn’t covering the news. I was making photographic portraits for a style page called, “On the Street.” My page ran every six weeks with the tagline, “There are eight million fashions in the Naked City and Amy Arbus is going to photograph all of them… a few at a time.” It felt like a tremendous undertaking. After making these images for ten years, I realized that what I had created was a chronicle of a seminal time in New York City’s history.

The young people in downtown Manhattan in the 1980s didn’t have much money but they were tremendously creative and determined to succeed as artists. Among my subjects were musicians, clothing designers, performance artists, writers, and painters. They dressed to be noticed, as if it were their calling card. There was a palpable sense of romance about life and all it had to offer, an innocence the likes of which we have not seen since.

Amy Arbus

Opposite – The Clash, 1981

Exhibition runs through to November 22nd, 2020

Mitchell Giddings Fine Arts
183 Main Street
Brattleboro
VT 05301

mitchellgiddingsfinearts.com

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TOM ZETTERSTROM – MOVING POINT OF VIEW

Posted on 2020-10-12

Raising questions about established photographic realities, Tom Zetterstrom’s silver prints, made throughout the 1970s and 80s, synthesize traditional landscape photography with a cinematic sweep of motion. Shot from a car, a train, or airplane, the unique combination of elements that results – some adrift, some still – makes the viewer acutely aware of his lagging eyes and mind when confronted with the more efficient oculus of the camera.

Going to considerable lengths to facilitate his artistic fiction, including wiring strobe lights to the front of his car and carefully setting the camera tripod in the center of the front seat, Zetterstrom reveals the beauty and surprise inherent in his photographic portrayal of movement.

Opposite – Departing D.C., 1980

Exhibition runs through to November 7th, 2020

Joseph Bellows Gallery
7661 Girard Avenue
La Jolla
CA 920372

www.josephbellows.com

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ALICE GREBANIER – EPHEMERA

Posted on 2020-10-12

The magic act of photography is that it captures the appearance of something at a specific time and place. The image captured is itself something new: a long-lasting record of the ephemeral observations of our eyes and brains. This exhibit explores the concept of ephemerality, as well as how photography itself both expands and disrupts our experience of the ephemeral nature of material and non-material things.

Exhibition runs through to October 30th, 2020

Gallery 14
14 Mercer Street
Hopewell
NJ 08525

www.gallery14.org

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