The complicit image
New photography from 2010 Graduate Shows
For the last couple of months I have been reviewing photography graduate shows, taking notes and spotting trends in a quest for exciting work by new photographers, soon to be the next big thing. This a tentative list that I’ve written and edited several times, but that I think stands true to the spirit of this new generation. Although one can find a blatantly diverse production, I noticed there is a newfound interest for portraiture. This resurgence of the portrait, both with sitters and self-appointed, is the connecting thread of my search.
I start with the Free Range Show, a massive exhibition featuring the work by recent BA graduates from photography programmes all around England. Their display changes every week, and showcases everything from documentary to experimental photography. The following works caught my eye, not only because they are impeccably shot portraits, but because of the honesty and heartfelt connection of the photographer with his sitters. The work by Goshka Gajownik is a very tactful and sensitive approach to an elder generation, living in the countryside of her native Poland. The colours and textures set the mood for these intimate, yet unintrusive portraits.
Similarly, the portraits of WW2 veterans by Konstantin Suslov carry the admiration and honour he sees in the former servicemen. His subtle use of lighting and composition imbue his images with a strange familiarity, and at the same time a sensation of distance and nostalgia.
On a more familiar ground, the series street dance by Jade Hackett is a very personal account of a community in inner city London. As the previous works, this project entails an intimate approach to the different sitters, infusing empathy and respect for their story. It is an invaluable document of an urban community, skilfully shot to convey its atmosphere and spirit.
From the Fresh Faced and Wild Eyed show at the Photographer’s Gallery, I’d like to mention James Cant’s Divided to the Ocean, portraits of people who have migrated to England by sea. A story of identity and displacement, these portraits were shot against the seascapes that once saw the arrival of migrants from foreign nations. The sum of multiple exposures in a single image allows one to connect the sitters with the sea through the suggested movement of the waves and the fluctuating level of the tide. According to the Cant, the ebb and flow of the high tide is a metaphor for the emotional and psychological push and pull of migration.
One other work that caught my attention is net_portraits by Luz Marina Trellez, from the Central Saint Martins graduate show. Her portraits are delicately lit, using the pale light from a laptop computer screen. Their intimate scale and dim atmosphere are reminiscent of Dutch Baroque portraits, most notably the work by Jan Vermeer. Trellez’s sitters are absorbed by the glow of the screen, lost in their thoughts. Each image is accompanied with statistics about the sitters’ social network, making a comment on contemporary ways of social interaction and the inherent isolation of these individuals.
There are some common traits throughout these various examples that draw my attention. I find there is a certain warmth created by such intimate approaches. In many of the works the photographers are personally related to the sitters and their surroundings, making them direct participants in the image. Not only is there a new emergence of portraiture, but a newly found appreciation for its humanistic, even poetic dimension. Perhaps with time one could see how this trend turns into a stronger stand in contrast to the more de-personalized work of an older generation of contemporary photographers. It will be very interesting to keep track of these photographers’ future projects; I for one believe there is a lot of potential in their notion of photographic portraiture.
All images © the authors