Review
The annual Deutsche Börse
Photography Prize is awarded to a living photographer, of any nationality, for
a specific body of published or exhibited work “that has significantly
contributed to photography in Europe” during the previous year. The award has
many similarities with Britain’s Turner prize: four photographers are
short-listed early in the year, following which their work is exhibited (in
this event at The Photographers' Gallery) before the winner of the impressive
(£30,000) prize is announced later in the year. The selected candidates often
have tenuous links with mainstream photography and photographic genres,
favouring a conceptual and/or experimental approach to their work. Indeed, artists
who do not take photographs but merely use the photographs of other people have
been short-listed in the past.
I visit this exhibition every
year and found this year’s selection to be the most enjoyable so far, perhaps
because there was a heavier than usual emphasis on photojournalism, with important and relevant current social issues
being highlighted – in previous
exhibitions the work has been more conceptual and consequently more difficult
to enjoy as a visual experience.
I was particularly impressed by
the work of the Egyptian artist Laura
El-Tartawy, who was nominated for her photo-book “In the Shadow of the Pyramids”.
Whereas her work, which in the exhibition consists of a slide show of images
with spoken commentary, covers a ten year period and incorporates old family
photographs, it was her street photography, taken in the build up to and during
the Cairo Tahrir Square protests, which really impressed me. The night time
images, with their ethereal quality enhanced by blurring (presumably as a
result of the relatively long exposure times and rapid movement of the
protesters – see Image 1 – conveyed great atmosphere and captured the spirit
and essence of the protests. However, she showed equal skill in handling
intimate portraits, such as that shown in Image 2. It requires courage and
skill to be present in the “front line” when momentous events, such as the
Tahrir Square demonstrations, are occurring and to come away with images that
capture the essence of these hugely important events. However, despite my enjoyment
of El-Tartawy’s work, I do wonder whether it will be a little too “mainstream”
for the judges (at the time of writing the winner of this year’s prize had not
been announced).
Image 1 (Laura El-Tartawy)
Image 2 (Laura El-Tartawy)
Tobias Zielony’s work also uses a photojournalistic approach to
deal with an important social issue, that of the lives and struggles of African
migrant activists in his native Germany. Zielony’s images, which are
predominantly portraits of the migrants (see Image 3), are quieter than those
of El-Tartawy but, in combination with his interviews with the migrants, they
have been important in raising the profiles of this community in his home country. His work reminds
me of that of short-listed artists from previous years and must stand a chance
of winning.
Image 3 (Tobias Zielony)
Trevor Paglen’s work deals with mass surveillance and data
collection. The American was nominated for a multi-media project, “The Octopus”, exhibited in Germany, in which he has collaborated with scientists and
activists to produce, among other things, pictures of government restricted
areas and the flight paths of drones. Paglen’s work is more conceptual than
that of the others and therefore more in line with the normal criteria for
selection. Here, the exhibition consists of small sub-sets of images that would
have made no sense without the accompanying text. As an example Image 4, which
has some aesthetic appeal, represents the flight paths of military drones.
Whereas I found Paglen’s work rather “bitty” and lacking in appeal, his
conceptual and adventurous approach towards a very difficult subject will, I am
sure, appeal to the judges.
Image 4 (Trevor Paglen)
Like John Stezaker, a past winner
of this prize, Erik Kessels usually
relies on the appropriation of others’ images to produce his art. I have
previously found Kessels’ work rather grating and lacking in any kind of
artistic appeal, so it was no surprise to see his work featured here! What was
a surprise was to find some of his own photographs and a very moving portrait
of the life of his father, who had recently suffered a severe stroke that had
left him paralysed and unable to continue with his hobby of restoring old cars.
Kessels’ exhibition consists of actual parts from the car that his father was
constructing when he suffered his stroke, together with many photographic
prints (mainly his father’s) of the various parts that were being used to put
the car together. This exhibition was certainly very different to any that I
have seen at previous Deutsche Borse exhibitions: it would be interesting to
know what the judges made of it!
Image 5 (Erik Kessels)
Visitors were asked to fill in cards to indicate which was
their favourite work featured in the exhibition and why they chose it. Although
my partner and I both chose El-Tartawy (by some distance) it was interesting to
note that opinion was divided across all four artists. Of course the judges
will look at the works from a very different perspective to ours – their decision
is awaited with interest.
Learning Points
What did I learn from the exhibition? Firstly, I still tend
to judge works based on their aesthetic appeal, rather than the importance of
the subject matter or the brilliance of the concept. In doing so I probably
place myself alongside 99% of the general public, although I have learnt over
the last few years that the strength of concept and the way in which it is
conveyed to others by the artist takes priority in the world of photographic
art. If it is possible to combine all these features within a single project
that would, for me, be artistic nirvana! Secondly, I must follow up the work of
Laura El-Tartawy. Although her book is ridiculously expensive to buy her use of
blurred and/or distorted images to express the events happening in Cairo, which
echo the more extreme images of the
American photographer Susan Burnstine (who uses home-made, deliberately
distorted lenses to capture her images), provides me with ideas for future
work, if not for my current project work.
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