RPS International Print Exhibition
Friday’s study visit to the RPS annual print exhibition was an interesting exercise. All previous study visits have been to either single person or strongly thematic exhibitions and Jose, Maggy and I had spent quite a bit of time discussing what students would get out of visit to an exhibition without any linking theme. In the end the answer seemed to be, quite a lot.
Firstly, the work was presented without much background information, which certainly helped encourage the ‘what is this about, if anything’ debate. A good example of this was the work by Tobias Slater-Hunt, who had two beautifully lit but challenging nudes selected for exhibition, one of which is here.
Secondly, the range of work created plenty of opportunities for visitors to find work they personally could relate to, or aspire to. Certainly, there were the ends of threads that could be picked up and explored later, such as a carefully constructed image by Luke Smith which combined a kitchen foreground and a church interior and forms part of his isolation series. Frustratingly, there were also images which intrigued but which do not surrender to Google searching, such as this image by Feng Zhang, called ‘Recess’
Despite considerable effort I can find nothing about the photographer on the web and viewers will need to make their own minds up as to whether this is a overly sentimental photograph, a comment on globalisation or both.
If there was one photograph that caused the most debate however it would have to be The Dolls’ School by Aaron Dempsey (image 1 in this series on Aaron’s Facebook page) Aaron himself, quotes a young girl who talks of creeping into her mother’s bed when her father was away. Without this explanatory text, one student who works in counseling saw it quite differently – alerting us to the possibility that sometimes photographers do not understand themselves the connotations of their work.
There are some student reactions here from Stan Dickinson, Jeff Hurst and here from Martin Lyons who caught the image at the top of the post.
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Here is a very interesting observation from a student who emailed me yesterday:
‘In touring the exhibition I noticed that pictures which I would have previously found attractive were not of any interest to me. For example, some excellent shots of wildlife or scenery. Pictures which, had I taken them myself, I would previously have been proud of. Now I am questioning is it the object or the image which is beautiful in these ‘chocolate box’ pictures? They do not contain much of a message. They are (just?) pretty pictures. There is undoubtedly skill in taking pictures of beauty that are technically excellent, but what are we valuing, the photograph or the subject matter? What do I value? I feel a little adrift now, but it’s a good feeling and I think indicates progress.’
I am sure many students will recognise the feeling of being adrift. It’s not necessarily comfortable but it definitely is a sign of progress and it will resolve itself with time and study.
I understand this feeling of being adrift. It seems to be about unfreezing from previous beliefs and being willing to let go of them to explore new viewpoints. Maybe this will just result in a new set of views, but more hopefully result in a wider perspective.
“…exhibition…will follow tradition and provoke comment and discussion…” says Rosemary Wilman, President of the RPS, in the introduction to the 154th International Print Exhibition catalogue – PDF available here http://www.rps.org/resources/downloads/Catalogue_RPS_154_IPE_web.pdf
And that’s exactly what this study visit did: provoke comment and discussion. Personally, what I got out of it was a fresh reminder of the value of the single image. My initial disappointment at seeing what looked like a random layout of images on the wall rapidly changed after listening to the perceptive comments of our students. The seemingly method-less arrangement of exhibition prints invite the viewer to appreciate the display on an image-by-image basis, valuing every photograph, every print, on its own individual aesthetic and narrative merits.
I was also pleasantly surprised to see challenging contemporary work. Certainly a thought-provoking exhibition study visit. An excellent way to mark the very recent recognition of the OCA by the RPS. Those with OCA BA(Hons) photography degrees can now apply for ARPS exemption.
Well done Gareth, Jose and Maggy!
In the RPS catalogue, David Cambell of Allen and Overy states,
That ‘this year the theme was ‘Challenging the Norm’. The last two years have seen an unprecedented amount of change. Allen & Overy wants to celebrate how new ideas have made a positive impact, where change has been seen as an opportunity for improvement or renewal’.
Yes, it was a surprisingly diverse show, which as Stan puts so well on his blog.
http://stansocablog.blogspot.com/2012_03_01_archive.html
Like Stan, I’m sure many of us felt that the show was not what we were expecting. The more predictable RPS images were still to be found but there was some very thought provoking work. I particularly like his comparison of two types of work. (hope you don’t mind me quoting you, Stan)
‘There was a lot of ‘over-processing’ (in my opinion), though it wasn’t as prominent or dominant as I had feared. It was no bad thing to be able to make direct comparisons between heavily HDR-ed landscapes/cityscapes and those images with more obvious ‘purpose’. I don’t recall any of the former generating discussion amongst the group!’.
Perhaps we could say that Stan has pinpointed what is at the ‘nub’ of a good image. The ‘purpose’; the ‘intent’; the ‘idea’. What’s in the photographer’s mind? What does he or she wish to communicate? Does the message come across? How much can the photographer/artist leave to the viewer to interpret? These are all things that we discussed.
We also talked about whether images should stand alone or should the viewer be given explanatory text. We talked about a couple of the prize winning images.
The Under 25’s Gold prize winner, on of a series of images titles Angelus Novus by Alex Skrzynski . This image was ‘intended to represent memory as a broken form’. Without the text, would we have got it? But perhaps we should assume that had we seen the entire series of images the message would have communicated effectively. It is difficult to judge a single image that is intended as a series. I can’t find any other work by this photographer on line.
We had a similar discussion about an image by Charley Murrell.Titled Melissa, 10yrs, I believe this image does communicates the photographer’s intent because of the well chosen title. The subject of the portrait is 10 years old but appears as a sophisticated young woman in luxurious surroundings. A hotel room or child’s bedroom?. She’s holding something. A handmirror? An electronic game? I have just found her web site
http://www.charleymurrell.com/personal-projects#!__personal-projects/–childs-play-2
For me this communicates as a body of work! The series is called Child’s Play and shows children in various guises taking on the roles of adults (as children do!) but presumably in collaboration or under the direction of the photographer … Food for thought!
I am very pleased that the RPS now recognises the degree – because we can now register as students & get a greatly reduced membership fee.
I can’t tell you anything about the photographer, but I can tell you something about the content of ‘Recess’ by Feng Zhang.
This is a photo of children at a rural primary school in China. The building and furniture are what you will still see in a poor rural area of China. Their desks and stools are absolutely typical. In almost all parts of the country, especially the warmer parts, there is a long lunch break with siesta time afterwards, when it’s normal (like in Mediterranean countries) to sleep for an hour. From their clothes you can tell this is in a hot part of the country. If you live too far from home to go back there for lunch, this means you need to siesta at school, and children will sleep on desks because this is off the floor, clean, dry, etc. Also, some children walk many miles to their school, and the school day is long – like an adult’s working day – so you really do need this sleep to get you through to the end of the school day.
This might have been posed, but it looks very much natural, unposed, to me. The photographer was looking over a balcony, or something like that, probably.
Hope that adds to it for you!
Thanks Jennifer. Your comment explains something that puzzled a number of us at the exhibition, namely, why would children be sleeping on their desks?