A long overdue trip to London and a whirlwind tour around some of the best current exhibitions on offer.
Firstly, there was Richard Avendon at the Gagosian, a gallery I’d never been to before. These images of often-forgotten people, such as miners and drifters, were incredibly powerful. I was particularly stuck by how he had lit the eyes of the subjects, clearly using light to shine into the eyes in ways to arrest the viewer.
Lee Miller at Tate Britain was very busy, which always makes the experience more challenging, but the decision to run to the end of the work and see them backwards meant that we had half of the show to ourselves. A cunning plan. I knew Miller as a fashion icon, but her photography was fairly new to me, and considering when it was taken, it was astounding. Her eye for composition and light and dark was very impressive. We often forget that the early photographers had to see in black and white and ignore the colour.
The battle between the old rivals, Constable and Turner, was presented to us at Tate Britain as well. I was most interested in the early work and sketches, the time when an artist is forming ideas, I find that the most informative. Much as I love pencil sketches, I still struggle to get the depth and finesse that I want. There is much to learn from the early masters of the art.
Finally, we had two exhibitions at the Photographer’s Gallery: Zofia Rydet: Sociological Record, Portraits of Polish domestic life and Boris Mikhailov: Ukrainian Diary. Different countries, but both documenting everyday life in fascinating periods of history. Long may photography be the stalwart recorder of our long-forgotten cultures.
