Jason Bell
Richard Cannon
Vladimir Mayakovsky
Seydou Keita
Paul Wenham-Clarke
On Thursday I headed up to London to go and have a look at a few exhibitions. The day was more laid back than exhibition cramming that I normally do when I go home for a day or two. The first thing I do when I get off the train at Waterloo Station is cross of the river and go to the National Portrait Gallery. I find this place to be very inspirational, when I was there this time I looked at Jason Bells exhibition 'An Englishman in New York' and Photograph of the Month, which had Richard Cannon's photograph there. Both exhibitions are just fantastic and I can just sit and look at all the photographs for such a long time. Overall I love going to the National Portrait Gallery and feel that everyone should pop along.
I then headed over to the Tate Modern to view my favourite on going exhibition in London, State of Flux. Every time I visit there is always something new and exciting to look at this time round was 'Red Star Over Russia' in room 11. One of the many posters there was Vladimir Mayakovsky, a long with many others which I have struggled to find on the internet as I would love to do just a blog post on that room. The propaganda posters where just fantastic, so much detail, information and a great insight in to the communist countries way of recruiting its large army during the many struggles that Russia went though throughout the 20th century. The first time I went to the exhibition Seydou Keita work caught my eye and from the two images above you can just see how great State of Flux is as an exhibition and how it looks at all forms of art and brings them under one roof.
The final exhibition I went to was that of one of my senior lectures at university. The AoP Gold Award winning photographer Paul Wenham-Clarke. His current exhibition is a St Martin's in the Field and was a commission by the Big Issue to photograph their vendors. The series called 'Hard Times' is a very moving, overwhelming and makes you step back and truly understand the harsh reality of Big Issue vendors. The photographs alone hit the spot but when accompanied by text make them even more hard hitting. They make want to find out more about the people and how you can help. Hopefully this series will bring much more light to the Big Issue and what they are doing to help the homeless. I was lucky enough to be able to attend the opening night, which not only had Paul speak about his series but also many influential people behind the Big Issue and the project. The exhibition is up for another four months so all I can do is recommend that you pop along to St Martin's in the Field and have a look, it would be worth your time.
The Galleries
The Photographers
The Big Issue
