Grace Lau: Portraits In a Chinese Studio

Innovative exhibition/installation at the Centre for British Photography based around a recreated Chinese photographic studio.

The blurb explained how these studios were set up in China by travellers to record exotic people. The artists Grace Lau has turned this around to record people in Britain and create an archive of 21st century types.

Around the walls were photographs taken at sessions in Hastings and Southampton and in the centre was a recreation of a studio with a back drop and accessories which you could be photographed in. I loved the way people were put in static Victorian poses but with modern clothes and belongings. They all looked just as proud as Victorians.

When I was there it was one of the days it was operating. I wasn’t brave enough to join in but watched a group of diverse, older friends enjoying the experience.

Closed 17 December 2023

 

 

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