Peter Fraser and E J Bellocq
dal 13/6/2002 al 3/8/2002
Segnalato da
13/6/2002
Peter Fraser and E J Bellocq
The Photographers' Gallery, London
Peter Fraser: "With each series of photographs I choose a different strategy to approach the same underlying preoccupation...". Susan Sontag about E J Bellocq: "So much about these pictures affirms current taste: the low-life material; the near mythic provenance (Storyville); the informal, anti-art look..".
Peter Fraser and E J Bellocq: Storyville Portraits
_________
Peter Fraser
"With each series of photographs I choose a different strategy to
approach the same underlying preoccupation, which is, essentially,
trying to understand what the world around me is made of through
the act of photographing it."
Over nearly twenty years, Peter Fraser has established himself as
one of BritainÃs most influential photographers. One of the first to
recognise and embrace the poetic possibilities of colour
photography, Fraser has created an extraordinary body of work
whilst looking, most often, at the most ordinary of things. From his
earliest series, collected in his landmark monograph Two Blue
Buckets (1988), through Ice and Water (1993) and Deep Blue (1997)
to his most recent Material (2002), Fraser's work has been
characterised by a sense of exploration that is at once patient and
committed. Now, for the first time, this exhibition will bring Fraser's
work together in one striking installation, allowing us the opportunity
to appreciate more clearly this artist's intense unity of vision.
This exhibition is curated by Jeremy Millar, writer, and Director of the
Brighton Photo Biennial 2003.
__________
E J Bellocq: Storyville Portraits
"So much about these pictures affirms current taste: the low-life
material; the near mythic provenance (Storyville); the informal,
anti-art look, which accords with the virtual anonymity of the
photographer and the real anonymity of the sitters; their status as
objets trouvés, and a gift from the past."
Susan Sontag
Bellocq - a figure surrounded by mystery and known only through
anecdote - was a commercial photographer working in Storyville,
New Orleans between 1895 and 1930. Only a few of his pictures
survive and no known original prints are believed to exist. After his
death 89 glass plate negatives - mostly of prostitutes - were
discovered in his desk; many were broken or damaged and
intentionally defaced, by, some believe, the artist's brother, a Roman
Catholic priest, or by Bellocq himself to maintain the anonymity of
the sitters. These photographs record a remarkable moment in
history, during Storyville's most notorious epoch when prostitution
was legalised in an attempt to confine it to the streets close to the
French Quarter of New Orleans.
With thanks to Julie Saul Gallery, New York.
Image: A portrait by E J Bellocq
ThePhotographers'Gallery
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