Photography: A Living Art – Then and Now


Interesting exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery looking at recently acquired photographs by contemporary artists reviving early photographic techniques.

These works were unique pieces rather than mass produced objects which highlight the moment of creativity and they were shown with historic examples of the techniques and good explanations. I’m afraid I found the early examples more interesting than new ones.

I loved some silhouettes by Hubert Leslie who worked in Brighton Pier in the 1920s which were shown with “Brothers” by Adam Fuss, shown here, which placed children between the paper and the camera. The white of their hands is where they touched the paper.

I liked Fuss’s picture of a baby in water which had been created without a camera just a flash of artificial light over light sensitive paper. He created a lovely ripple effect of the water around the silhouette of the baby.

There were also modern versions of seaside pictures on tin by Joni Sternback using surfers as the subjects and one by Christopher Barlow with a complicated description which I never understood!

Closed on 1 September 2019

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