What
an amazing exhibition this proved to be.
The exhibition booklet tells us that it celebrates photography in all
its myriad forms, as revealed by the remarkable Collection of the Royal
Photographic Society. Eclectic, moving,
intriguing, often surprising, it embraces the many different ways of seeing
that photography represents. (Harding, 2015)
The
exhibition is another example of the use of an archive. I don't know how the RPS store and catalogue
their images but they were extracted from their archive to tell a particular story. They were spread over two galleries, although
this was most likely due to space constraints.
Gallery one was in two sections:
Continuity and Change and A Period of Optimism and Progress. Continuity and Change showed photographs from
different genres and periods displayed alongside each other, creating dialogues
which reveal both continuity and change in vision over nearly 200 years. In A
Period of Optimism and Progress a replica of an early RPS exhibition has been
set up to illustrate the importance of exhibitions to the society. The work in Gallery two is entitled Personal
Vision where pairs of groups of photographs by individual photographers are
displayed alongside each other. These
juxtapositions show how an individual's work has evolved over time. (Harding,
2015)
I
was amazed to see so many images represented in this exhibition and thrilled to
find work by so many photographers that I had researched over recent
years. The absolute highlight for me,
and perhaps my favourite photograph of all time, was the large print by Steve,
McCurry of Afghan Girl, Sharbat Gula. I researched this image as part of my workfor PWDP and was so inspired by it that I purchased, on e-bay, the whole set of
1985s National Geographic in order to get that one magazine. Next up on my list of favourites were two of
Ansel Adams' images: Aspen, New Mexico 1958
and Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941 I like the way that the aspens in the
foreground of the first shot are lit up and in the centre with those in the
background receding into shadow giving a triangle structure to the image. It was good to see images by Edward Weston,
who I have always admired, and a particular thrill to see famous images by
Alfred Stieglitz: The Terminal, 1892
and The Steerage, 1907.
Roger
Fenton, appointed honorary secretary of the RPS, was well represented and it
was fascinating to see not only some of his famous war photography, but some
excellent landscapes such as View on the
Lugwy, North Wales and Nat Francon
pass both from 1857. It ws also
interesting to see his 1856 portrait of Queen Victoria as well as a still life
from 1860: Still Life with Ivory Tankard
and Fruit. I liked the way that the
tankard in the centre of the shot was pin sharp, whist sharpness decreased
towards the edges of the picture and the background was out of focus and plain
to reduce distraction.
I
have always been a fan of Don McCullin and two of his photographs were shown to
illustrate is contrasting styles: Still
life with Bird's Nest, 1991 and
Refugees from Pakistan on the Indian Border, 1971. The former is quiet and calming, whilst the
latter is full of horror, pain, despair and fright.
I
was fascinated to see an image I used to illustrate my essay in PWDP, A Sea of Steps 1903 by Frederick Henry
Evans. This is his most famous photo and
took him several attempts in order to be satisfied with the result. It is a shot of the steps in Wells Cathedral
and must have taken some doing to be devoid of people, or perhaps a very long
exposure. I love the contrasting curving
lines of the steps in this shot.
Other
photographs I enjoyed included work by Yousuf Kaosh of Churchill, Julia
Margaret Cameron, Martin Parr, Peter Henry Emerson, Lewis Carroll, Albert
Renger-Patzsch, Edward Steichen, Paul Strand, Ed Lacey's Streaker from 1974, Margaret Bourke White and Brassai's image of
dew on nasturtium leaves. Of course, of
particular interest were the rarest and oldest photographs in the world: the
1826/7 heliographs on pewter by Joseph Nicephore Niepce
Having
just been researching the genre of Tableaux for the Body of Work part of the
course, I was fascinated to find several examples in the exhibition. The first of these was Henry Peach Robinsons
narrative Tableau from 1858 Fading Away.He
combined five negatives to produce his final set piece where a young woman lies
dying, probably of tuberculosis, surrounded by her family with her father
staring out of the window in despair.
When this was first shown it was a very controversial image because of
the subject chosen. The same
photographer also produced The Lady of
Shallott, a tableau made from two negatives. Another tableau that courted controversy
because of the subject matter was the 1898 self portrait of Fred Holland Day as
Christ on the cross, The Crucifixion. It was meticulously stage managed and he
starved himself for months in preparation.
The most popular and widely produced image by Francis James Mortimer was
a 1917 tableau entitled The Gate of
Goodbye which depicts soldiers going off to war from Victoria Station. It is a composite of 20 different negatives.
Harding,
C. (2015) Drawn by Light: The RPS
Collection Bradford: National Media Museum
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