The RPS’ International Photography Exhibition, now in its 167th edition, is the world’s longest running photography show. This year, 48 photographers with 113 artworks have been selected from more than 5,000 submissions. The artists reflect our current moment, focusing on themes that include environmental issues; identity; conflict; memory; community; family; and culture. They remind us that contemporary photographers capture aspects of the world that are not only visually compelling, but also socially and culturally significant. We highlight five photographers from the exhibition that embody this sentiment.
Beacons of Refuge | Felicity Crawshaw
Felicity Crawshaw captures the ephemeral nature of the landscape and the stories of the people who inhabit it. Beacons of Refiuge shines a light on the spaces from which organisations provide shelter, support and hope to those who need it. From a food bank supporting 1500 people a week with emergency food, to a women’s refuge providing emergency accommodation for women and children who need a place of safety. These illuminated structures stand as beacons in the darkness, symbolising the warmth they emit.
Love Like a Monster | Alex Huda
This documentary and speculative fiction portrait series is born from the artist’s experience of displacement in Hong Kong. Collaborating with the Voidpunk counterculture – individuals who reclaim dehumanisation by embracing non-human identities – this work explores identity, mythology and radical self-love. Huda uses an analogue medium format camera, motion picture ilm, thermal imaging and inverted negatives, to create cinematic portraits where subjects maintain full agency over their bodies and gaze.
5 Superheroes | Thomas Mandi
Thomas Mandi is a photographer based in Munich, Germany. He studies geography and politics, exploring his home country’s past as well as his personal sense of belonging in Europe. 5 Superheroes depicts children displaced from Eastern Ukraine, wearing self-made costumes during a project trip with the NGO ArtHelps, which helps support communities through creative projects. The artist wanted the image to reflect how: “growing up amid war demands extraordinary resilience and real superhero strength.”
Lullabies gone by | Julia Lê
“Far from the universalised imagination of a carefree, protected childhood, non-white children grow up in-between, too fast, too soon, and these experiences leave lasting marks on their bodies, voices and ways of inhabiting the world.” French photographer Julia Lê draws draw on the stories of children whose life circumstances forced them to grow up too quickly. The images consider the conditions of childhood at the intersection of identity, belonging and the systemic violences that shape postcolonial French society.
The Anthropocene Illusion | Zed Nelson
Since the Industrial Revolution, humanity has broken the ancient bonds between people and the natural world, devastating the environment as a result. Zed Nelson explains: “While we destroy the natural world around us, we have become masters of a staged-managed, artificial ‘experience’ of nature – a reassuring spectacle, an illusion.” This work reflects on how, at a time of environmental crisis – a consoling version of “nature” has been packaged as a commodified “experience,” an illusionary spectacle designed to reassure.
RPS’ International Photography Exhibition is at Saatchi Gallery, London from 7 August – 11 September.
Words: Emma Jacob
Image Credits:
1&6. Zed Nelson, Car park. Parkroyal Pickering hotel. Singapore © Zed Nelson. Courtesy of The Royal Photographic Society.
2. Felicity Crawshaw, Foodbank. From the series Beacons of Refuge © Felicity Crawshaw. Courtesy of The Royal Photographic Society.
3. Alex Huda, Sound of Silence. From the series Love Like a Monster © Alex Huda. Courtesy of The Royal Photographic Society.
4. Thomas Mandl, 5 Superheroes © Thomas Mandl. Courtesy of The Royal Photographic Society.
5. Julia Lê, Piñata. From the series Lullabies gone by © Julia Lê. Courtesy of The Royal Photographic Society.
