Ashes and Snow [2023]
Eyes Dazzle As They Search for The Truth [2022]
Life, Death, and Other Similar Things [2019]
Foam Talent: Feb 23 — May 22, 2024
Circulation(s): April 6 — 2 June, 2024
Peckham 24: May 17 — May 26, 2024
Belfast Photo Festival: Jun 6 — Jun 30, 2024
Kranj Photo Fest: Aug 21 — Sep 28, 2024
Deutsche Börse Photography Prize – Review
The Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize is awarded annually to a living artist of any nationality who has made the most significant contribution, either through an exhibition or publication, to the medium of photography in Europe in the previous year (Deutsche Börse, n.d.). The exhibition is being held with works by Anastasia Samoylova, Jo Ractliffe, Deana Lawson and Gilles Peress on two floors of the Photographer’s Gallery in London. From making a linear story in Northern Ireland to Florida urban spaces, each project presents a unique image of the community the photographer is dealing with. If we consider the fifth floor as the starting point of the exhibition, entering the first hall, we will encounter a dark space where colour is the first thing that attracts our attention. Anastasia Samoylova’s works, which often include sharp colours like pastel pink, are placed on green and purple backgrounds on the wall. She started FloodZone in 2016 when she moved to Miami. Her large-scale works are about responding to the rising sea levels in Florida. However, the images she shows in the first layer are as beautiful as Florida, but when we find the signs, we realise that Miami is steadily slipping underwater. A post-apocalyptic city after a catastrophe that has left the city's body abandoned.
In contrast, South African photographer Jo Ratcliffe space is bright and elegant with her black and white photographs. She is nominated for her long-term project “Photographs 1980s - Now,” Which includes more than 40 years of photography in South Africa. Ractliffe’s images deal with the complexities of South Africa, scarified by the violence of Apartheid and the aftermath of the civil war in neighbouring Angola. Unlike Anastasia's photographs, her photos are quiet, sometimes melancholy, like the head of a doll on a stick on a plain and sometimes sad, like the body of a dead animal. All these images are a testament to the region's history she has photographed over the years. On the fourth floor, we encounter large-scale photographs placed in a mirror frame. Portraits, Holograms to the image of Sirius, the brightest star of the galaxy, all create a complex collection of images reflecting Black diasporic identity. By combining family album photos and intimate images, she creates a form of narrative that takes the viewer into the private space of her subjects. In the last exhibition hall, we see the work of Magnum photographer Gill Press, who was shortlisted for the publication Whatever You Say, Say Nothing by Steidl in 2021. In more than 2,000 pages, two clothbound hardcovers and a brochure packed in cardboard boxes, Press demonstrates a documentary fiction. A decade of photographs is organised across 22 semi-fictional days. (“DBPFP22: Gilles Peress | The Photographers Gallery”) Photographs that seem to come out of the film noir expose all aspects of the Northern Ireland riots, from graffiti and political slogans to children playing in the streets and Gill Press’s curiosity with shadows on the wall. He explains that “there are days of violence, marching and mourning, diverting 'craic' and even boredom. Time is not linear in such a protracted conflict zone; it spirals and repeats, and 'today is not only today but all the days like today”. The Deutsche Börse photography Foundation prize 2022 is at the London Photographers’ Gallery from 25 March until 12 June 2022.
References:
Deutsche Börse (n.d.). Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2021. [online] Available at: https://www.deutscheboersephotographyfoundation.org/en/support/photography-prize/2021.php
Photographers' Gallery (n.d.). DBPFP22: Gilles Peress | The Photographers Gallery. [online] thephotographersgallery.org.uk. Available at: https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/dbpfp22-gilles-peress.
The Photographers' Gallery (n.d.). Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2022 | The Photographers Gallery. Available at: https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/whats-on/deutsche-borse-photography-foundation-prize-2022