Andreas Gursky

Fascinating exhibition at the Hayward Gallery exploring the work of the photographer Andreas Gursky.
These are grand, large pictures giving them a feeling of old master paintings. This was enhanced by the line on the floor in front of the works giving them the gravity of art objects.
Some of the works are made from a colleague of images but have the effect of one cohesive image but it’s worth remembering that what you are looking at may not be as real as we expect a photograph to be. A good example of this came late in a stunning photograph of the Rhine with the image divided in three with the river splitting the land and the sky however it turned out a power station had been edited out.
I liked the things Gursky had to say about the relationship between art and photography and his way of looking at the world. There was a mix of works some had the effect of a sublime urban landscape such as a view of the port of Salerno with patterns of cars parked in the dock and the city and hills behind or a flat picture of a block of flats in Paris. Others treated crowds of people like a landscape such as one of a May Day event where the crowd takes up the whole picture but your eye is drawn to individuals and groups with a rhythm set by people in orange t-shirts.

My favourite image was one of three Turner paintings in a gallery photographed from the distance you were standing from the image so it was like being in the gallery with them. I also one with a road flyover cutting across the top of the picture cutting into a gentle countryside image.


Closed on 22 April 2018

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