Britain’s preeminent photography fair returns to Somerset House this month for its seventh edition, highlighting an array of international galleries and publishers. This year’s vibrant programme focuses, in part, on fashion – featuring exhibitions of vintage works by Frank Horvat and contemporary images by this year’s Master of Photography Nick Knight. Elsewhere is the Discovery section, curated by 1000 Words editor Tim Clark, which shines a light on current work that incorporates sculpture and installation. Here are five not to miss, selected from this year’s extensive programme of exhibitors.
Robert Morat Galerie, Berlin
London-based Hannah Hughes is showing work that blends photography with collage and sculpture. Often created using discarded materials that have been artistically reclaimed, these images formally experiment with the effects of negative and positive space. Many of her works could, she told Photomonitor in 2021, be described “as flat sculptures or vice versa, or something in between the two, like the spaces we have got used to inhabiting and sharing on flat screens. Regardless of medium, the most important aspect for me is that everything is built from fragments, so they feel fluid rather than whole or fixed.” robertmorat.de
Alzueta Gallery
In Andrea Torres Balaguer’s immaculately executed and profoundly mysterious pictures, faces are obscured with smeared brushstrokes. By combining analogue and digital in this way, Torres Balaguer draws the viewer’s eye – then quickly subverts the gaze by obscuring the subjects’ identities. Opulent golds, deep reds, dark greens and blues form the colour palette, with each character sitting or standing as if posing for a large-scale oil painting. Alongside Torres Balaguer, who featured previously in Aesthetica, the Barcelona space will show monochrome images from the 1990s and 2000s by Maria Espeus. alzuetagallery.com
AFIKARIS
Established with the aim of championing work from Africa and the African diaspora, this gallery is located in Paris. Particularly resonant is the beautiful blue-tinged work of Ghanaian image-maker Nana Yaw Oduro. “All my images are basically based on the concepts of boyhood, masculinity and self-acceptance,”’ he explained in a Q&A last year with Something Curated. “My images are about myself and my feelings about what I’ve been through growing up. It’s also an exploration of the character I’ve become.” Elsewhere, more bold, beautiful portraiture abounds – in images by Saïdou Dicko, Asiko and Marc Posso. afikaris.com
Bildhalle Zurich and Amsterdam
One of Switzerland’s best-known photography venues since 2014, Bildhalle has a sister space in Amsterdam which opened in 2020. Both galleries are here, showing images by Casper Faasen, Ilona Langbroek, Cig Harvey, Paul Cupido, Jeffrey Conley and the duo Albarrán Cabrera – Anna Cabrera and Angel Albarrán. They explain their practice in the following statement: “Using photography we might not be able to answer the big questions about time, reality or space, but we are interested in exploring how a photographic image can make people think about their reality. Being aware is not just an important part of life, it is life as we know it.” bildhalle.ch/en
Fisheye Gallery, Paris
The Parisian space presents compelling portraiture by French-Senegalese artist Delphine Diallo. “The black female body has been photographed as sculpture, form, and cultural furniture for a white gaze,” Diallo said in a 2020 interview with Museum Week. “I am creating space for a language of photography that presents black women the way they see themselves.” Also on show are ecologically-motivated photographic experiments using organic matter by Almudena Romero, striking silhouettes of bodies by Gabriel Dia and misty landscapes by Stéphane Lavoué. fisheyegallery.fr
Photo London runs from 12 – 15 May at Somerset House, London
photolondon.org
Words: Rachel Segal Hamilton
Image Credits:
1. Delphine Diallo, The Oracle, 2020 Edition 1 of 8, Pigment inkjet print on archival paper (Fisheye Gallery)
2. Hannah Hughes Mirror Image #37, 2019 Unique collage 12.3 x 19.7 cm © Hannah Hughes, courtesy of ROBERT MORAT GALERIE, Berlin.
3. Delphine Diallo, The Oracle, 2020 Edition 1 of 8, Pigment inkjet print on archival paper (Fisheye Gallery)
4. Behind my back, 2019 Nana Yaw Oduro Photography 30x45cm: edition of 8 + 2 AP 50x75cm: edition of 4 + 2 AP
5. Albarrán Cabrera, The Mouth of Krishna #60055, 2018 Pigments, Japanese gampi paper and gold leaf
6. ANDREA TORRES BALAGUER Satsuma, 2021 – Digital photograph on Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308 gr paper intervened with acrylic paint 142 x 112 cm
