REVOLUTIONARY. IN EVERY WAY - Female in Focus

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REVOLUTIONARY. IN EVERY WAY - Female in Focus
Capital culture: Photo London,           How do women photograph         Laia Abril, Zuza Krajewska,
                                                                                                                                                               Peckham 24 and Prix Pictet               women differently to men?     Endia Beal, Riposte magazine

                                                                                                                                                                                                            Established 1854

                                                                                                 Female Gaze

REVOLUTIONARY. IN EVERY WAY.
                                                                                                 Issue 7859 May 2017

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REVOLUTIONARY. IN EVERY WAY - Female in Focus
Editor’s Introduction
                                                  Female Gaze
                                                   The leading source of inspiration
                                                   and insight into cutting-edge
                                                   contemporary photography.
                                                  How do women photograph women differently to men? It’s one of
                                                  theGet
                                                       questions  we asked
                                                           12 issues        Charlotte
                                                                        of BJP        Jansen,
                                                                               with our       a London-based
                                                                                         no-risk,             writer and
                                                                                                    full back money     guarantee*
                                                  curator who is the author of the recently published Girl on Girl: Art
                                                  and Photography in the Age of the Female Gaze.
                                                      She argues that as more female photographers get behind the
                                                  camera and find their audience directly through social media, it
                                                  will have an effect on the way we see women. Put another way, as
                                                  women gain more control of how they are represented, they change
                                                  how women are perceived. “Photography is an expression of power,”
                                                  writes Jansen in our cover story. “The photographic act is often
                                                  viewed as an assertion of masculine dominance; a predatory point-
                                                  and-shoot action.” What is more contentious is the extent to which
                                                  women bring a ‘female gaze’ to the subject.
                                                      The phrase was first used in opposition to the ‘male gaze’, a term
                                                  coined by feminist film critic Laura Mulvey in the 1970s to define the
                                                  dominant masculine point of view, in which women are presented
Photo © Fredrik Lerneryd

                                                  as objects of male pleasure. However, many didn’t like the idea of a
                                                  female gaze defined by its male counterpart, or argued that women
                                                  couldn’t simply disengage from the influences of society and were as
                                                  likely to objectify female bodies as men.
                                                      Jansen says the current generation of women photographing
                                                  men are different to the second-wave feminists of the 1970s. “It’s
                                                  harder for women photographers working now to move against the
  CALLING ALL STUDENTS     DEADLINE FOR ENTRIES   patriarchal system because wherever you put your pictures, you are
                                                  invariably consumed by that system,” she writes. But despite the fact
  AND GRADUATES            08 MAY 2017            that women are expected to conform with or counter the male gaze,
  EXHIBIT YOUR WORK        BJPBREAKTHROUGH.COM    she says, “they see the world differently – in just as muchwww.bjpsubs.com
                                                                                                             colour and
  GET FEATURED IN BJP
                                                  nuance. We are beginning to see that world, everywhere we look”.
                                                  Simon Bainbridge,                                                  SAVE   PROMO CODE: MAY17A

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                                                  Editor
                                                                                                                     37%       Introduction: May 2017   3
REVOLUTIONARY. IN EVERY WAY - Female in Focus
36                                                                                                         50

                                                                         76                                                                                                         68
Photo © Fredrik Lerneryd

                           JUDGES INCLUDE
                           EMMA LEWIS
                           ASSISTANT CURATOR, TATE MODERN

   CALLING ALL STUDENTS    DIANA MARKOSIAN                                    Featured   36 – 49                                      50 – 66
                                                                                         I'll be your mirror                          Lost boys
                           PHOTOGRAPHER, MAGNUM PHOTOS
   AND GRADUATES                                                                         Charlotte Jansen explores the work of
                                                                                         the new generation of women artists
                                                                                                                                      In breaking away from her usual work
                                                                                                                                      in commercial fashion, Zuza Krajewska
                           EMMA BOWKETT                                                  and photographers who are thriving           spent a year uncovering the sensitive
   DEADLINE FOR ENTRIES    DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY,
                           FT WEEKEND MAGAZINE
                                                                                         in the image-saturated world of social
                                                                                         media, and asks whether this will be a
                                                                                                                                      and, at times, tragic backstory of 32
                                                                                                                                      teenage boys growing up in a youth
   MONDAY 08 MAY 2017                                                                    catalyst for a new era of the female gaze.   detention centre near Warsaw.
                           VIVIENNE GAMBLE                                               68 – 75                                      76 – 81
                           DIRECTOR, SEEN FIFTEEN GALLERY & PECKHAM 24
   BJPBREAKTHROUGH.COM                                                                   Am I what you're looking for?
                                                                                         Endia Beal taps into the unwritten codes
                                                                                                                                      Secret history
                                                                                                                                      Approaching provocative issues
                           MAISIE SKIDMORE                                               of the corporate ‘look’ in a work that       to expose challenges faced by
                           ONLINE EDITOR, ANOTHER                                        combines testimonies and portraits           vulnerable women around the world,
                                                                                         to expose prejudices and judgements          Laia Abril gives an insight into her
                           LISA FARRELL                                                  women of colour experience in an
                                                                                         office workplace.
                                                                                                                                      new project on misogyny, starting
                                                                                                                                      with On Abortion.
                           HEAD OF EXHIBITIONS & EVENTS,
      Supported by         BRITISH JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY
                                                                                                                                                           Featured: May 2017   5
REVOLUTIONARY. IN EVERY WAY - Female in Focus
Index

                                                                                            WATCH THE XMT
                                                                                            BEHIND-THE-SCENES
                                                                                              VIDEO NOW

                                       Projects
                                    23 Lena Mucha captures life
                                       for female army cadets in
                                       Nagorno-Karabakh.
                                    26 Tania Franco Klein explores
                                       the culture of convenience in
                                       her autobiographical project
                                       Our Life in the Shadows.
                                    30 Jennifer Niederhauser Schlup
                                       mixes archival and digitally
                                       manipulated images to
                                       question notions of reality.
                                                                             16 – 19

                                                                                                                                                                                                   ©Steve Brown - stevebrowncreative.com
                                         Features
                                    36   Charlotte Jansen looks at
                                         the ways in which female
                                         photographers choose to
                                         represent women in their work.
                                    50   Zuza Krajewska takes a              38 – 39
                                         deeper view of youthful male
                                         vulnerability in her record of a
                                         Polish correctional institute for
                                         troubled boys.
                                    68   Endia Beal examines gender
                                         and race in the corporate
                                         world.

                                                                                       Unmatched
                                    76   Laia Abril delves into the
                                         history of misogyny with her
                                         project On Abortion.

                                       Intelligence                          86– 87

                                                                                       Creative
                                    83 Discovering a little-known
                                       collection of Irving Penn's
                                       early work.
                                    86 Creative Brief: Shaz Madani is

                                                                                       Freedom
                                       the co-founder and art director
   Agenda                              of women's magazine Riposte.
10 Photo London returns for its
   third, and biggest, edition.        Technology
14 South London's upstart           89 Focusing on the latest
   24-hour photofestival               lenses announced at CP+ in
   Peckham 24.                         Yokohama, along with new                        Generation X is a revolutionary and uncompromising range of flash products
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16 The seventh edition of the          glass from Irix and Nikkor.
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   annual Prix Pictet launches at
                                                                                       designed to provide photographers with limitless creative opportunities.
   London's V&A with a shortlist       Archive
   of photographers exploring       98 Lise Straatsma's use of                         Includes TTL, HSS, Strobe mode (up to 100 flashes), 2.4GHz radio control,
   the theme of Space with             survivalist video tutorials and                 Lithium-ion battery (500 full power flashes), integrated reflector, easy-open     Twitter.com/BowensFlash
   diverse and surprising work.        her own research materials                      and quick-lock angle adjustment latch, foldaway stand mount.                    Facebook.com/BowensFlash

20 Any Answers:                        mix order and chaos to                                                                                                          Instagram.com/BowensFlash

   Anders Petersen.                    intriguing effect.                    90 – 91
6    Index: May 2017
                                                                                       Bowens.co.uk
REVOLUTIONARY. IN EVERY WAY - Female in Focus
Contributors                                                                                                                                  Zuza Krajewska
                                                                                                                                              One of the standout fashion and commercial
                                                                                                                                                                                                     Editorial Director
                                                                                                                                                                                                     Simon Bainbridge
                                                                                                                                                                                                     Digital Editor
                                                                                                                                              photographers in Eastern Europe, the Gdansk            Diane Smyth
                                           Capital culture: Photo London,       How do women photograph         Laia Abril, Zuza Krajewska,
                                        Peckham Twenty-Four and Prix Pictet      women differently to men?     Endia Beal, Riposte magazine

                                                                                                                                              Academy of Fine Arts graduate has produced             Lead Feature Writer
                                                                                                                                                                                                     Tom Seymour
                                                                                     Established 1854
                                                                                                                                              work that has appeared in Elle, Harper’s
                                                                                                                                                                                                     Assistant Editor
                                                                                                                                              Bazaar and InStyle, to name but a few.                 Izabela Radwanska Zhang
                                                                                                                                              However, her featured project, Imago, set in a         Creative Director
                                                                                                                                              Polish youth detention centre, belongs to the          Mick Moore
                                                                                                                                              other side of her more personal documentary            Senior Designer
                                                                                                                                                                                                     Nicky Brown
                                                                                                                                              practice. “I did it for the people living in Poland,
                                                                                                                                                                                                     Contributors
                                                                                                                                              also for the kids, so they could learn that life       Rob Alderson, Gerry Badger, Taco Hidde
                                                                                                                                              can be cruel,” she says. The project is a step in      Bakker, Kathy Ball, Emma Bowkett,
                                                                                                                                                                                                     Laurence Butet-Roch, David Campany,
                                                                                                                                              a new direction for Krajewska, whose previous          Federica Chiocchetti, Lucy Davies,
                                                                                                                                              work has addressed stereotypes of gender,              Damien Demolder, Martin Evening,
                                                                                                                                                                                                     Paul Fairclough, Marc Feustel, Jessica
                                                                                                                                              marginalised groups and the nude.
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                                                                                                                                              zuzakrajewska.com                                      Lauren Heinz, Charlotte Jansen,
                                                                                                                                                                                                     David Kilpatrick, Richard Kilpatrick,
                                                                                                                                                                                                     Stephen McLaren, Donatella Montrone,
Female Gaze issue                                                                                                                             Charlotte Jansen                                       Gemma Padley, Colin Pantall, Juan Peces,
                                                                                                                                                                                                     Rachel Segal Hamilton, Maisie Skidmore,
May 2017                                                                                                                                      A British Sri Lankan journalist and editor-at-         Shana Ting Lipton, Eliza Williams, Paul
Issue 7859, Volume 164                                                                                                                        large of Elephant magazine, Jansen writes              Wombell, Sophie Wright, Sonia Zhuravlyova
Cover                                                                                                                                         about contemporary art and culture for                 Editorial Enquiries
Untitled, from Like a Stone series                                                                                                                                                                   editorial@bjphoto.co.uk
© Pinar Yolacan.
                                                                                                                                              The Guardian, Vice, Wallpaper*,
                                                                                                                                                                    Wallpaper* Artsy and
                                                                                                                                                                                                     Sales Enquiries
                                                                                                                                              Contemporary Art Review LA, among others,              sales@apptitudemedia.co.uk
                                                                                                                                              and also runs the art agency No Way. She is            Head of Commercial
                                                                                                                                              the author of Girl On Girl
                                                                                                                                                                      Girl, a new photography        Pax Zoega
                                                                                                                                              book made under the female gaze, which                 Commercial Campaign Manager
                                                                                                                                                                                                     Ameena Rojee
                                                                                                                                              she deconstructs in this month’s issue. “I’ve
                                                                                                                                                                                                     Marketing Director
                                                                                                                                              learnt that photography is very important              Marc Ghione
                                                                                                                                              as a transformative social tool, and that this         Head of Exhibitions & Events
                                                                                                                                              moment is particularly important for women,            Lisa Farrell

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       More Photos.
                                                                                                                                              for both the bad and good,” she says. “I also          Media Consultant
                                                                                                                                                                                                     Harry Rose
                                                                                                                                              understood selfies aren’t always vapid, and
                                                                                                                                                                                                     CTO
                                                                                                                                              that there really is such a thing as sisterhood.”      Tom Royal
                                                                                                                                              She is now working on a very different project:        Founder & CEO

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      More Features.
                                                                                                                                              the biography of a 74-year-old Japanese                Marc Hartog
                                                                                                                                              erotica artist. In May, she will be speaking at        Subscription Enquiries
                                                                                                                                                                                                     01795 414682
                                                                                                                                              Fotogalleriet in Oslo alongside Anja Carr and          bjp@servicehelpline.co.uk
                                                                                                                                              Tonje Bøe Birkeland, who both feature in Girl          Distribution & Marketing Enquiries
                                                                                                                                              On Girl.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       More Motion.
                                                                                                                                                                                                     marketing@apptitudemedia.co.uk
                                                                                                                                              @omfg_NOWAY

                                                                                                                                                                                                     Apptitude Media
                                                                                                                                              Donatella Montrone                                     9th Floor, Anchorage House,
                                                                                                                                              Montrone tells the story of the remarkable             2 Clove Crescent, London E14 2BE
                                                                                                                                                                                                     020 7193 2625
                                                                                                                                              uncovering of Irving Penn’s early work. She
                                                                                                                                              explains: “Many years ago, I worked for a              Distributed by Comag
                                                                                                                                              publisher in Manhattan and shared a cubicle            Printed by Park Communications Ltd
                                                                                                                                              with Peter Homans – copy editor by day,                parkcom.co.uk
                                                                                                                                                                                                     @ParkCommLondon
                                                                                                                                              composer by night. Peter is Katie Cangelosi’s          #PrintedByPark
                                                                                                                                              husband and Katie is the daughter of Nonny
                                                                                                                                                                                                     ISSN: 0007-1196
Our new print partner is an award-winning                                                                                                     Gardner, Irving Penn’s first wife. Katie and
London company celebrated for its                                                                                                             Peter visited London a year ago and the three          Published by Apptitude Media Limited
                                                                                                                                                                                                     © Apptitude Media Limited, 34a Watling
uncompromising attention to quality and detail.                                                                                               of us met for a catch-up at the Ace Hotel in           Street, Radlett, Herts, WD7 7NN.
Producing everything from auction catalogues                                                                                                  Shoreditch. I was enthralled listening to Katie        UK Company No: 8361351.
                                                                                                                                                                                                     No part of this publication may be
and annual reports to high-end magazines and                                                                                                  tell how she and her siblings sifted through           reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or
photobooks, Park’s clients include Pentagram,                                                                                                 their mother’s belongings after her death and          transmitted in any form or by any means
                                                                                                                                                                                                     without the express permission of the
Christie’s, Mulberry and Lloyd’s of London. Park                                                                                              found this trove of images, and of the journey         publisher or editor. This is considered breach
is the go-to printer for Mondial, Boat Magazine                                                                                               to getting them authenticated, which involved          of copyright and will be acted upon.
and Riposte and is also active in supporting                                                                                                  Penn’s brother, the filmmaker Authur Penn.”                                                                          www.thebjpshop.com
                                                                                                                                                                                                                 A member of the
cultural initiatives with partners including                                                                                                  She adds: “This may well be my biggest story                       Audit Bureau of Circulations               Print | Online | iPad | iPhone | Social
The Photographers’ Gallery, It’s Nice That,                                                                                                   ever, and I content myself in the knowledge            Philanthropic & Media Partner
Stack and magCulture. BJP looks forward to                                                                                                    that my long-lost friends in New York entrusted
deepening our relationship.                                                                                                                   it to me.”

8                                               Colophon: May 2017
REVOLUTIONARY. IN EVERY WAY - Female in Focus
Agenda                       Photo London co-founder Michael                                                                                2

                             Benson reflects on the hard work
                             behind establishing the fair as a key
                             date in the photography calendar

                             Photo London                                           35,000 visitors over its five-day run, with
                             Words by Tom Seymour                                   collectors and VIP photography professionals
                                                                                    visibly active. Most of London’s commercial
                                                                                    photography dealers will be represented
                                                                                    among the 100 or so galleries booked so far
                                                                                    for this year’s edition (from 18 to 21 May);
                                                                                    many public institutions are either directly
                                                                                    involved or programming in response to the
                                                                                    fair, following the lead of Tate Modern, which
                             Spring is in the air in London and for the             has staged Offprint London in its Turbine
                             first time this year the sun is shining on the         Hall since the fair’s inception in 2015. “The
                             courtyard of Somerset House. Michael Benson,           industry has a habit of almost talking itself to
                             one of the two founding directors of Photo             a standstill,” says Benson. “We had to deal
                             London, sits in its centre, drinking a morning         with a lot of scepticism. But I think we’ve had a
                             coffee and soaking up the rays. He could be            rather good start.”
                             forgiven for feeling a little smug but today he               That scepticism was not without merit
                             seems merely quietly content that later this           – after all, Photo London had been tried
                             month the art fair will be back for its third          before. A photography fair with the same
                             edition, its biggest yet.                              name, initiated by UK-based dealer Daniel
                                    “We kept hearing from people that ‘there’s      Newburg, ran at the Royal Academy’s
                             no market for photography in London, there’s           Burlington galleries annually for three years
                             no interest’,” says Benson. “These were people         between 2004 and 2006 before it was bought
                             in the industry and they should have known             by Paris Photo owners, Reed Exhibitions, who
                             better.” In fact, the fair established itself as a     closed it after just one failed edition. But
                             key fixture on the international photography           Reed had relocated it to Old Billingsgate on
                             calendar and soon this grand old courtyard             a Bank Holiday weekend – it’s fair to say the
                             and the labyrinthine rooms of Somerset House           events organiser misjudged the date and
                             will be filled with gallerists, collectors, artists,   location – while the mood of confidence from
                             curators and exhibitors once again.                    the first edition had been dimmed by the
                                    Last year’s edition featured 84 galleries       absence of North American galleries, some
                             from 19 countries, welcoming more than                 of which complained they had been burnt by

                                                                                                                                        1

Photo London gears
up for its third
edition, bringing in
its wake Peckham
                                                                                                                                                                                               import and export duties. However, the wider       cultural producers and entrepreneurs to
24’s non-stop fringe                                                                                                                            1   CHAPTER XI, A Living Man Declared
                                                                                                                                                    Dead and Other Chapters I-XVIII, 2011
                                                                                                                                                                                               consensus at the time was that London simply       create commercial partnerships with sponsors.
show. Plus we                                                                                                                                   2
                                                                                                                                                    © Taryn Simon, courtesy Gagosian Gallery
                                                                                                                                                    Dorothy with light face, 1962 © William
                                                                                                                                                                                               couldn’t sustain a photography fair without        “When we started off trying to persuade
preview the work                                                                                                                                    Klein, courtesy HackelBury Fine Art,
                                                                                                                                                    London.
                                                                                                                                                                                               the backing of local institutions or the kind of   people to come, they had some bad memories
                                                                                                                                                                                               grass-roots enthusiasm the medium enjoys in        of being in London from the previous fair,”
in the running for                                                                                                                                                                             France or Germany.                                 Benson admits today. “It was a very tough
the Prix Pictet and                                                                                                                                                                                 Benson and his partner Fariba Farshad         sell. A lot of people had come to London from
hear from Anders                                                                                                                                                                               (who together co-founded Candlestar, the           abroad and discovered that nothing much
                                                                                                                                                                                               producer of Photo London and the Prix Pictet)      was happening. I had to act as an evangelist
Petersen about                                                                                                                                                                                 have since gone a long way to confound             for something that didn’t then exist. But I also
what makes a                                                                                                                                                                                   those assumptions, bringing to bear years          had to convince them that, this time, their faith
photographer                                                                                                                                                                                   of expertise gained working as curators,           would be repaid.”

10   Agenda: Photofestival
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Agenda: Photofestival   11
REVOLUTIONARY. IN EVERY WAY - Female in Focus
3
                                     3   Cafe with photo of Dylan Thomas,             might one day rival that of Paris. “Our plan         by indexing top image results for given search
                                         Laugharne, Wales, G.B. 1974 © David
                                         Hurn, courtesy Magnum Photos.
                                                                                      was to act as if we’d been around for a long         terms across local engines throughout the
                                     4   Thresholds early test visualisation
                                                                                      time: as if we were an established part of the       world. It is a great example of Taryn’s ground-
                                         © Mat Collishaw, courtesy the artist.        cultural fabric of London,” says Benson. “Since      breaking artistic practice and confirms her as
                                     5   Drifting Over the Italian Riviera, 2016      then a lot of sceptics have become supporters.”      an outstanding, pioneering artist.”
                                         © Joshua Jensen-Nagle, courtesy
                                         Bau-Xi gallery
                                                                                            Photo London still has its critics but the           And while a lot of the paying galleries
                                                                                      voices that complained of conservatism in            seemed to be playing it safe during the first
                                                                                      both the programme and the work shown by             two editions, Photo London has encouraged
                                                                                      many of the selected galleries seem to have          younger dealers in. This year it has introduced
                                                                                      been heard. For a start, this year’s Master          a new Discovery section, led by Tristan Lund.
                                                                                      is a 42-year-old woman, Taryn Simon, who                   “The expansion of the Discovery section
                                                                                      works with conceptual themes guided by               is very much in line with our determination
                                                                                      extensive research, presented in museum-style        to establish Photo London as the global
                                                                                      installations. She will show Image Atlas, a work     destination for anyone with an interest in
                                                                                      created in collaboration with the late computer      the future of photography,” Farshad says.
                                                                                      programmer and activist Aaron Swartz.                “We want visitors to learn about the latest
                                                                                            The exhibition will “index top image results   developments in the market and, in doing so,
                                                                                      for given search terms across local engines          discover new galleries and artists from around
                                                                                      throughout the world”, Benson says, alongside        the world. We hope seasoned collectors will
                                                                                      a display of Simon’s books — spanning from           find something new, and the Discovery section
                                                                                      The Innocents, first published 2002, through         is a great place to start.”
                                                                                      to Paperwork and the Will of Capital, released             Photo London continues to court a
                                                                                      last year.                                           younger crowd of fledgling collectors. “Music
                                          Photo London grew out of the founding             Fariba Farshad, co-director of Photo           and dancing events,” in Benson’s words, will
                                     of Candlestar, which helps corporate clients     London, says of Simon’s accolade: “The first         take place in the vaults of Somerset House
                                     sponsor major arts projects, and its flagship    two Masters of Photography – Sebastião               during the fair in an attempt to reach a more
                                     project the Prix Pictet, which nine years        Salgado and Don McCullin – are extremely             garrulous, less monied crowd. “Young people
                                     ago brought together a Swiss bank and a          hard acts to follow. So we decided to turn           are fascinated by photography,” he says. “They
                                     major media partner in the Financial Times       instead to Taryn Simon, an artist who is widely      have a very different relationship to it than
                                     to create “a global award in photography         recognised as one of the most important              people of my age and generation. There’s an
                                     and sustainability”. Both institutions are       photographers of her generation.                     enormous swell of excitement about it and a
                                     also partners in Photo London and it was               “We’re delighted she has selected Image        thirst to understand the history of the medium
                                     through that relationship that Benson met        Atlas for her Masters exhibition. The work           among younger people. For a long time this
                                     Maja Hoffmann, a Swiss philanthropist with       pushes the boundaries of what photography            has gone unnoticed, or even been dismissed,
                                     interests spanning the worlds of art, film and   can be – and is, therefore, in tune with our         by certain sections of the photography
                                     photography. She agreed to funnel some of her    thinking about this year’s edition. The work         community. But attracting that demographic is
                                     formidable funds into a London art fair that     investigates cultural differences and similarities   an extremely important part of what we want
4
                                                                                                                                           to do.”
                                                                                                                                                 Elsewhere, William Klein will develop a
                                 5
                                                                                                                                           new 18-metre-wide mural in Somerset House,
                                                                                                                                           while Juergen Teller will present a special
                                                                                                                                           exhibition in the Great Arch Hall and, “using
                                                                                                                                           the latest virtual reality technology”, Mat
                                                                                                                                           Collishaw will re-stage British scientist William
                                                                                                                                           Henry Fox Talbot’s first public exhibition,
                                                                                                                                           when he showed his photographic prints to
                                                                                                                                           the people of Birmingham at the city’s King
                                                                                                                                           Edward’s School in 1839.
                                                                                                                                                 Magnum Photos will be celebrating its
                                                                                                                                           70th anniversary, with Martin Parr and David
                                                                                                                                           Hurn curating a selection of works that the
                                                                                                                                           latter has compiled over six decades through
                                                                                                                                           a series of swaps with fellow photographers.
                                                                                                                                           Hurn’s own images will be juxtaposed with
                                                                                                                                           prints from photographers including Bill
                                                                                                                                           Brandt, Bruce Davidson, Sergio Larrain and
                                                                                                                                           Diana Markosian.
                                                                                                                                                 It augurs well for another year of growth
                                                                                                                                           and a further entrenchment of the fair into the
                                                                                                                                           cultural fabric of London. For now, it seems, the
                                                                                                                                           sun will continue to shine.
                                                                                                                                           photolondon.org

    12   Agenda: Photofestival
                                                                                                                                                                        Agenda: Photofestival   13
REVOLUTIONARY. IN EVERY WAY - Female in Focus
In the past decade Peckham has blossomed with the help
                                                                                                                                         2
                                                                                                                                                                        Mack First Book Award), Jill Quigley and BJP
                                                                                                                                                                        Breakthrough winner Jan McCullough all
    of a community of artists, making for a singularly vibrant                                                                                                          afforded solo exhibitions and the gallery has
                                                                                                                                                                        established itself as a stalwart of the Peckham
    cultural scene. The area’s 24-hour-long photography festival,                                                                                                       scene. “It’s been challenging,” Gamble says of

    set during Photo London, celebrates their creativity                                                                                                                founding the gallery. “There have been times
                                                                                                                                                                        when I felt like I could have given up, when the
                                                                                                                                                                        going got tough; there’s a lot of uncertainty in
                                                                                                                                                                        running your own gallery. But it’s a dream for
    Peckham 24                   In 1999, when she first arrived in Peckham as       long been an artistic centre and, over the                                         me and something I care about a lot.”
    Words by Tom Seymour         a recent graduate in modern history from the        past two decades, has undergone a process                                                Peckham 24 later started to take shape
                                 University of Glasgow, Vivienne Gamble found        of gentrification to become one of London’s                                        as Gamble gained confidence within the
                                 that taxi drivers would refuse to take her to       hippest neighbourhoods. During that time, a                                        photography industry. It launched for the first
                                 the south London neighbourhood, such was            disparate community of artists and creators                                        time last year and, although small compared
                                 its reputation for crime. “It was much rougher      used the cheap warehouse spaces Peckham                                            with this year’s edition, it attracted 2000
                                 than what I was used to,” she says. “But it’s       afforded, while developers updated the                                             visitors over its 24-hour run. “I realised there
                                 changed so dramatically.” The area, which           area’s grand but crumbling Victorian housing                                       was no fringe around Photo London,” Gamble
                                 gained particular notoriety following the killing   stock; the area has become, according to a                                         says. “The photography community descended
                                 of 10-year-old Damilola Taylor in 2000, and         recent survey by The Sunday Times, the most                                        on the city for that week and there was a huge
                                 then again during the 2011 London riots, has        desirable place to live in the capital, not least                                  opportunity for artists to initiate their own
                                 always endured a spurious reputation as             for its burgeoning cultural and party scene.                                       events on the fringes of the main festival.”
                                 one of the capital’s ‘no-go’ areas. Yet it has            This is encapsulated in Peckham 24,                                                Hosting the event in the Bussey Building
                                                                                     a round-the-clock celebration of the                                               was important – it was saved from demolition
                                                                                     neighbourhood’s contemporary photography                                           in 2007 only after a concerted effort by the
1
                                                                                     scene, which takes place during the weekend                                        local artistic community. The site has long
                                                                                     of Photo London and Offprint. The two-day                                          been the cornerstone of Peckham’s creative
                                                                                     event, which is this year supported by British                                     scene. “I don’t think there’s anywhere else in
                                                                                     Journal of Photography as its official media                                       London quite like the Bussey Building,” says
                                                                                     partner, will be centred around the Bussey                                         Gamble. “There’s a real sense of pride that
                                                                                     Building in Copeland Park – the red-brick                                          we managed to save the space.” Her hope
                                                                                     former cricket-bat factory and warehouse                                           is that Peckham 24 becomes an established
                                                                                     complex that has been at the heart of                                              part of Photo London week, and that visitors
                                                                                     Peckham’s creative metamorphosis.                                                  to the festival will make the trip south to “see
                                                                                           In contrast to the grandeur of Photo                                         an area of London where artists are actually
                                                                                     London’s home at Somerset House, the festival                                      working on a day-to-day basis”.
                                                                                     will make use of some rather unconventional                                              Peckham 24 will also see the launch, at
                                                                                     gallery spaces, such as DKUK Salon, where                                          Seen Fifteen, of a new exhibition by Egyptian-
                                                                                     clients can get haircuts in front of artworks,                                     born photographer Laura El-Tantawy, who
                                                                                     and the Safehouses, a pair of derelict                                             grew up in Saudi Arabia and studied in the US
                                                                                     properties on Copeland Road now taken over          3                              before moving to London. She was nominated
                                                                                     for art exhibitions and music-video shoots. The                                    for the Deutsche Börse prize in 2016 for In
                                                                                     Nines bar, a teeming local drinking hole, will                                     The Shadow of the Pyramids, her photographic
                                                                                     host a six-hour continuous screening of video                                      meditation on the Arab Spring in Egypt.
                                                                                     art through to midnight on the Friday before                                            “The series started as a personal journey
                                                                                     the programme continues into Saturday with                                         into her own identity as an Egyptian woman,”
                                                                                     artists’ talks, workshops and exhibition tours.                                    Gamble says. “And then it changed when she
                                                                                     The venue is also due to host the Peckham 24                                       witnessed, very closely, the events in Tahrir
                                                                                     closing party.                                                                     Square. Now she has circled back to what she
                                                                                           Peckham 24 is the creation of Vivienne                                       was originally exploring. I’m very excited about
                                                                                     Gamble, founder of Seen Fifteen, one of a                                          showing this new work for the first time.”
                                                                                     number of galleries in the Bussey Building,                                              One of the most anticipated exhibitions is
                                                                                     which she founded in 2015 during the week of                                       curated by Tom Lovelace, a photography artist
                                                                                     the inaugural Photo London. After years spent                                      who is a long-term member of the Peckham
                                                                                     in the television industry, she decided to act on       1   Merry Widow ©
                                                                                                                                                                        creative community. For Peckham 24, he has
                                                                                     her love for the still image and worked towards             Julie Cockburn.        devised a show displaying various artists’ work,
                                                                                     a history of photography MA at Sotheby’s                2   Beyond Here is         titled At Home She’s a Tourist, and available
                                                                                                                                                 Nothing © Laura
                                                                                     Institute. She then gained an internship at                 El-Tantawy.
                                                                                                                                                                        to view in the Copeland Gallery of the Bussey
                                                                                     Candlestar, the agency behind Photo London.             3   The Open Door,
                                                                                                                                                                        Building. “The show is a mix of established
                                                                                           Gamble is originally from Belfast and                 Closed and Inverted    artists, like Clare Strand, Eva Stenran and
                                                                                                                                                 © Tom Lovelace.
                                                                                     has used her space to give a platform to                                           Tereza, with lesser-known but exciting names
                                                                                                                                                 Images courtesy
                                                                                     Irish and Northern Irish photographic artists.              Seen Fifteen and Tom
                                                                                                                                                                        like Emma Bäcklund and Dominic Till.”
                                                                                     Ciaran Og Arnold (a recent recipient of the                 Lovelace.              seenfifteen.com

    14   Agenda: Photofestival
                                                                                                                                                                                                    Agenda: Photofestival   15
REVOLUTIONARY. IN EVERY WAY - Female in Focus
The seventh cycle of the award, on the theme of Space,
                         launches its worldwide exhibition tour at the V&A, where
                         the winner of the £80,000 prize will soon be announced

                         Prix Pictet             Dubbed “the global award in photography and          “The intention was never to just feature
                         Words by Tom Seymour    sustainability”, the seventh cycle of the Prix   photojournalism, much as we all love it,” says
                                                 Pictet opens at the Victoria & Albert Museum     Michael Benson of Candlestar. “It was about
                                                 (V&A) in London this month, showcasing the       opening up to all genres of photography.”
                                                 work of a dozen artists and documentarists       This year’s Prix Pictet comes through on
                                                 under the common theme of Space. Founded         that promise, straddling the breadth of
                                                 nine years ago by Swiss private bank the Pictet  photographic discourse.
                                                 Group and Candlestar – the company behind              Among this year’s shortlist is classic
                                                 Photo London, which opens a fortnight later      reportage in the form of Sergey Ponomarev’s
                                                – the prize draws attention to environmental      series Europe Migration Crisis, created in
                                                 issues but also reflects the strategies and      association with The Sunday Times and on
                                                 approaches used by photographers to tackle       show at the Imperial War Museum from
                                                 socio-political concerns.                        27 April to 03 September. For the Russian
                                                      The first edition, in 2008, was themed      photographer, the migrants’ journeys across
                                                 Water and was awarded to Canadian                Europe represented a transgression of space
                                                 photographer Benoit Aquin for his photo         – the crossing of literal borders as well as
                                                 essay The Chinese Dust Bowl, while Munem         something much more personal, moving from
                                                 Wasif was commissioned to shoot a story          home to a place both unknown and idealised.
                                                 on water shortages in his homeland,             “Their pasts were no more than a memory
                                                 Bangladesh. Among the shortlisted names          immortalised in the bright family photographs
                                                 was Edward Burtynsky, a photographer             they’d saved on their smartphones,” he says.
                                                 whose commitment to documenting                 “Their whole lives were encapsulated in the
                                                 environmental issues through the prism of        few possessions they’d managed to bring
                                                 stunning landscape photography seemed to         along in their rucksacks. These fragments of a
                                                 encapsulate the Prix Pictet’s ideals. Indeed,    broken, far-off land that each migrant carried
                                                 he was nominated for the first three cycles of   with them are now scattered across Europe
                                                 the award but never won. Over subsequent        … The refugees continued forward, entering
                                                 years more conceptual approaches have been       into a strange, unknown but sheltered space.
                                                 shortlisted in response to changing themes,      Sometimes they didn’t really know where they
                                                 which have included Power, Consumption and       were or where exactly they were headed.”
                                                 Disorder, won by Lucas Delahaye, Michael               Others have taken on the idea of space
                                                 Schmidt and Valérie Belin respectively.          to explore transgression of both territory and
                     2
                                                                                                  of the relationship between photographer
                                                                                                  and subject. Munem Wasif (nominated for a
                                                                                                  second time since the Water commission in
                                                                                                  2008) photographs the unmarked edges of
                                                                                                  the blurred boundary between Bangladesh
                                                                                                  and India. In Land of Undefined Territory
                                                                                                  this “mundane land” simultaneously hides
                                                                                                  and represents the ongoing struggle between
                                                                                                  dominance and subjugation, and ideals of
                                                                                                  liberty and independence.
                                                                                                        Richard Mosse is shortlisted for Incoming,
                                                                                                  showing at the Barbican’s Curve Gallery
                                                                                                  in London until 23 April. The Irishman also
                                                                                                  photographed migrants’ journeys through
                                                                                                  Europe using a military-grade thermal camera,
                                                                                                  capturing them from miles away, oblivious
                                                                                                  to his presence. The heat signatures of the
                                                                                                  camera deprive Mosse’s subjects of facial
                                                                                                  expressions and cultural demarcations – even
                                                                                                  of gender, race, age or sex. By inverting the
                                                                                                  sense of space between photographer and

16   Agenda: Award
                                                                                                                                  Agenda: Award   17
REVOLUTIONARY. IN EVERY WAY - Female in Focus
3   subject – when so much of documentary                work she is nominated for presents unique          planet’s geology and plot potential landing
                                                  photography is defined by closeness and             ‘specimens’ that echo the pioneering                sites, reveal extreme close-ups of the red
                                                  intimacy – the idea is that he elevates the          discoveries made by marine biologist John          planet’s rugged surface, until recently unseen
                                                  people at the heart of the migration crisis to       Vaughn Thompson in the same area during            by anyone. He makes what he calls “visual
                                                  symbolic, parabolic stature. “We captured            the 1800s. Thompson conducted pioneering           statements that are at once documentary and
                                                  people asleep, people embracing each other,          research on plankton while living in Cobh,         fictional” by transforming the originals via
                                                  people at prayer,” says Mosse. “There’s a            documenting the microscopic organisms              chromogenic printing techniques. “Indicative
                                                  stolen intimacy to it. There’s no awareness,         using the photographic technology of the           of Nasa’s own efforts to measure topographic
                                                  there’s no self consciousness. They are,             time; Barker’s plastic particles are presented     highs and lows,” Ruff says, “these works add
                                                  instead, authentic gestures.”                        as microscopic samples that recall Thompson’s an aspect of the absurd, in that you can
                                                       Michael Wolf and Benny Lam provide              early scientific investigations.                   actually recognise deep relief on the surface of
                                                  a more direct interpretation of space – or                 Germany is particularly well represented     another planet with cheap 3D glasses.”
                                                  the intense lack of it. Wolf’s series Tokyo          on this year’s shortlist, with photographers               The Jewish-Russian photographer
                                                  Compression was photographed largely on              Saskia Groneberg, Beate Gütschow and               Pavel Wolberg was born in Leningrad and
                                                  commuter trains at Shinjuku railway station,         Thomas Ruff all in line for the prize. Groneberg grew up in southern Israel. Now living
                                                  capturing rush hour at a rail hub that averages      is nominated for her mediations on “artificially and working in Tel Aviv, he is ostensibly
                                                  3.6 million passengers a day, making it the          moulded nature”, photographing manmade             a documentary photographer but his
                                                  most crowded in the world. His images, he            parks, landscapes and ornamental plants            nominated work, Barricades, is driven by
                                                  says, depict “complete vulnerability in the most     designed to mimic the natural world. Here          personal exploration of his identity. The series
                                                  extreme of cities”. Lam, meanwhile, focuses          she focuses on a very specific German term,        comprises panoramic photographs taken
                                                  on the private spaces of a city. Commissioned        Büropflanze, which translates as ‘office plant’.   from within Israel and the West Bank and in
                                                  by the Society for Community Organisation                 “These bits and pieces of nature, almost      Ukraine during the recent conflict. Each of the
                                                  (SoCO), he created a series of overhead              unconsciously brought to the workplace,            images focus on barricades, dividing fences,
                                                  images of poor families, singletons and elderly      seem to reveal lot about the basic needs of        separating walls and improvised borders
                                                  people living in Hong Kong’s cramped outer           human beings when artificially placed into         as “living signifiers” of conflicts and disputes.
                                                  slums. “Hong Kong is regarded as one of              an inorganic, standardised environment            “This is a photographic journey that focuses on
                                                  the world’s richest cities but lurking beneath       where everything present is assigned to fulfil     two contemporary conflicts: Israel-Palestine
                                                  the prosperity is also extreme poverty,” says        a specific function,” she says. By focusing on     and Russia-Ukraine,” he says.
                                                  Ho Hei-Wah, director of SoCO, referring to the       such organic forms, often in the context of                Both his Russian and Israeli heritage
                                                  thousands who live in caged homes and wood-          highly institutional environments, Groneberg       comprise active parts of his identity. “Both
                                                  partitioned cubicles, as well as the constant        hopes to capture “a tiny bit of anarchy amid       places are controlled by a human need to
                                                  flow of new arrivals from mainland China.            the rigid clockwork, something amorphous           constantly formulate, define and separate
                                                                                                       among the geometric forms, a spark of life         spaces for living, of nations or communities,”
                                                  Outer limits                                         within the mechanisms of control”.                 he says. “Barricades is, therefore, a personal
                                                  From the space between photographer and                    Gütschow interprets space in a way that      project – a research into landscape imagery
                                          4
                                                  subject to how a photographer understands            might be considered in the canon of Bernd          and its transformation into an emblematic,
                                                  the space around him: Sohei Nishino is               and Hilla Becher. Her images are architectural disordered space during territorial disputes.”
                                                  nominated for his ‘diorama maps’ of cities,          studies of the borders that exist in a highly              Finally, Prix Pictet has shortlisted
                                                  each painstakingly created from thousands            built-up environment, inspired by a line from      Japanese photographer Rinko Kawauchi,
                                                  of images taken on solo urban wanderings.            Georges Perec’s book Species of Spaces: “To        based in Tokyo, for a somewhat existential
                                                  Once back home in Tokyo, Nishino edits down          live is to pass from one space to another while    project. Her series focuses on a Japanese
                                                  handprints in his darkroom and pieces the            doing your very best not to bump yourself.”        farming practice called yakihata, in which
                                                  images together in a mosaic. The photographs              “The built environment is the greedy          fields are burned before planting. Yakihata,
                                                  are detailed studies of buildings, streets,          counterpart of the natural realm,” Gütschow        Kawauchi says, has been practiced for 1300
                                                  people and everything else that goes with city       says. “A space is defined only by differentiation years and still takes place every year in March.
                                                  life. A composite map emerges from each              from another space, for which it needs walls       The inspiration came from a dream in which
                                                  but such studies share little with geometric         that serve as barriers or borders.”                she stood in front of burning fields, prompting
                                                  ordnance surveys. This is a more psychological             Thomas Ruff, the celebrated student          her to travel to the southern Japanese town of
                                                  understanding of space – one in which                of the Bechers and the Art Academy in              Aso to take these pictures. “Standing by myself,
1    S#1 © Beate Gütschow,                        perspective, scale and proportion give way to        Düsseldorf, the city in which he still lives,      solitary in that vast land, the feeling that I
     courtesy VG Bild-Kunst Bonn.
                                                  mood, experience and emotion.                        is also represented on the shortlist. His          was living on this planet called Earth suddenly
2    Police on horseback escort
     hundreds of migrants after
                                                        Space has also been used in highly             interpretation of space veers dramatically         welled up inside me,” she says. “Since I never
     crossing from Croatia in Dobova,             conceptual ways by photographers selected            from others on the shortlist, understanding        paid attention to such thoughts in my everyday
     Slovenia. Tuesday 20 October
     2015, from the series Europe
                                                  for the Prix Pictet shortlist, not least by Mandy    the term from a different etymological             life, it was an odd sensation: the awareness
     Migration Crisis © Sergey                    Barker. Her images could be mistaken for             perspective in his ma.r.s. series, which           that my legs were, at that very moment, being
     Ponomarev.
                                                  Victorian glass-plate photographs; in fact           considers photography’s relationship with the      pulled by gravity toward the Earth.”
3    From Land of Undefined Territory ©
     Munem Wasif, courtesy Project 88.
                                                  they are ornate, long-exposure studies of the        universe – the infinite space beyond Earth.                The work of the finalists goes on show at
4    Trapped 03 by Benny Lam, from
                                                  plastic debris that pollutes beaches in and                Ruff’s images are based on black-and-        the V&A on 04 May, when the winner will be
     the series Subdivided Flats, 2012            around Cobh in Cork Harbour, Ireland.                white satellite photographs of the surface of      announced by Prix Pictet Honorary President
     © Benny Lam (photographs),
     Kwong Chi Kit and Dave Ho
                                                        The series is part of an ongoing               Mars taken by the high-resolution camera           Kofi Annan. The exhibition runs until 28 May,
     (concept).                                   photographic study of human contamination            aboard Nasa’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.         before a global tour throughout 2017.
     All images courtesy Prix Pictet.             of the world’s oceans and coastlines. The            These pictures, used by scientists to study the    prixpictet.com

18   Agenda: Award
                                                                                                                                                                                           Agenda: Award   19
Any Answers                            My earliest memory is of sitting alone in my grandmother’s cherry tree in her pink
Anders Petersen                        underwear. I was four years old. Nobody could see me behind the leaves but I could see the whole
Words and portrait by Michael Grieve   garden beneath, with apple trees and a cat running over the street far away. It was my paradise.

                                       I was brought up in a privileged and bourgeois family. We lived in the countryside
                                       surrounded by forest and I spent a lot of time there. I must have been a disappointment for them.

                                       The first photograph to make an impression on me was a picture of a cemetery with
                                       footsteps in the snow, surrounded by graves. The photographer must have been there very
                                       early in the morning to capture that dead people met each other during the night...

                                       For me, this was fantastic. It was both a symbolic and a literary way to use photography.
                                       I didn’t know the photographer’s name. Many years later I found out it was Christer Strömholm.

                                       I first met Strömholm when I was illegally using the photography lab at his school.
                                       I had been using it for many months, making many mistakes printing and developing. One night
                                       at 3am he stood at the door and found me.

                                       I looked around and saw only a mess. But he asked to see my pictures. He told me to visit
                                       him the next day, when I thought I would surely end up in prison. But instead he asked if I wanted
                                       to join the school. He became not only a teacher but a close friend. I miss him a lot.

                                       When I was a young man photographing Café Lehmitz, I learned that photography is
                                       not about photography. And being strong is not going to help you much. But being weak – just
                                       enough – opens up a presence. Then you begin to understand that we belong to a big family.

                                       Since the 1970s, I’ve dreamt about a ‘Lehmitz Family Album’. When I was shooting in
                                       the bar I felt like it was a big and warm family. I finally hope this can be realised with a revised
                                       version of Café Lehmitz. It’s a desire to give back something to those I photographed.

                                       I have a profound fear of intolerance. But also a profound excitement at the diversity of
                                       people and different cultures. I profoundly miss a world built on equality and justice.

                                       Failure must be a part of everything. If you are lucky enough to survive a failure or a loss,
                                       you will be stronger. And your new self-confidence makes the impossible suddenly more possible.

                                       I am a father. My son is called Jens and I love him. He brought responsibility into my life.

                                       I was married recently and it feels fine. To experience love is a favour, a present everyday.
                                       Though my wife does keep me awake at night.

                                       I like being Swedish. Emotionally and for many other reasons, such as the stillness of nature.
                                       It doesn’t mean that I’m for everything that happens politically or culturally here. But compared
                                       with other countries, Sweden is privileged. We haven’t been in a war for more than 200 years.
The Swede made
his seminal work                       I am interested to see what is hidden; what you cannot see. That is a decent explanation
                                       of why I spent so many years photographing behind closed institutions, such as a prison, a
in the late 1960s,                     psychiatric hospital and a home for old people.
photographing the
                                       I had four walls and my time. I could focus on the people and get to know their personalities,
denizens of a bar on                   their dreams and secrets and vulnerabilities, their innermost longings.
Hamburg’s infamous
                                       To know I exist, I need to be at touching distance. Not only when I’m shooting. It’s often a
Reeperbahn. Café                       question of approaching a reality I’m aware of but don’t want to know. This behaviour has many
Lehmitz, published                     names; one of them could be curiosity.
eight years after                      In life there is a constant movement between feeling up or down. Between presence
he finished, is                        and absence, love and hate, defying the natural meaninglessness, as I got to know it. If you are
now considered a                       unprotected and curious you easily suffer, you are a target.

classic. Petersen                      When you are older, people expect you to know how things are. But the truth is you don’t
has produced more                      know at all. The more you know the less you know. When I was younger, I knew everything.

than 20 books since                    My advice to younger photographers is not to be a photographer but to be a human.
then, and has been                     It is about you: your emotions, experiences and knowledge. The camera is just a tool. So find a
                                       language with your own distinct smell. It is important to be weak enough to feel and innocent
particularly prolific                  enough to enter the confusion.
over the past decade                   anderspetersen.se

20   Agenda: Any Answers
                                                                                                                                              Intelligence: New Media   21
Lena Mucha              All images © Lena Mucha.                        media and, more and more, investigations
                                                                                                                    into gender roles – which led her to the
                                            befriends female                                                        female cadets in Karabakh.
                                            army cadets in

                          To
                                                                                                                          Their motivations to join the army vary;
                                            Nagorno-Karabakh                                                        some yearn for the frontline and some to be
                                                                                                                    peacekeepers. They are all, however, deeply
                                            while Mexican                                                           patriotic. “They grew up in the context of war,”
                                            photographer                                                            says Mucha. “Many of their family members
                                            Tania Franco Klein                                                      died or they had parents or grandfathers
                                                                    “It’s what I miss in the media. Some people     fighting in the army.”
                                            explores the notion     don’t even know where Karabakh is.” The               Female training was introduced less than
                                            of isolation in our     Berlin-based photographer Lena Mucha            two years ago, so the majority of their facilities
                                            evermore connected      says this in reference to her newest project,   and accommodation is off site. In Karabakh,
                                                                    Women to the Frontline, which began when        they live a 50-minute bus ride away, “but
                                            world. And Jennifer     she flew to Yerevan in Armenia last September   they are happy to be there,” says Mucha. “I
                                            Niederhauser Schlup     with journalist Naomi Conrad. She was           think maybe they see it as an honour because
                                            probes how we           there on the back of a Reporters in the Field   they’re the first.” But some opposition and
                                                                    scholarship from the Robert Bosch Stiftung      scrutiny remains, particularly among the older
                                            construct knowledge     foundation in Germany. The duo drove for        male officers who rationalise their inclusion by
                                            and historical facts.

                                     your
                                                                    six hours across the border to Stepanakert      saying that “with the presence of women, the
                                            Interviews by Izabela   in Nagorno-Karabakh, a self-declared            men should be better behaved – they’re there
                                                                    independent state wedged between Armenia        to help the men be better,” explains Mucha.
                                            Radwanska Zhang         and Azerbaijan, defined for more than 20              “It’s a story about conflict and society,
                                                                    years by its frozen war.                        without showing the country as a conflict
                                                                          Mucha graduated with an MA in social      zone. More, it talks about the girls and
                                                                    anthropology and political sciences from the    their challenges. When they put away their
                                                                    University of Cologne in 2011. She has since    uniforms they are just ordinary girls. I became
                                                                    been mentored by Max Pinckers, Cristina         very close to them and hope that the people
                                                                    de Middel and David Alan Harvey, among          who will see the photos can connect and
                                                                    others, and had her images published in Geo     identify with them. That’s what I’m looking for

                                   door.
                                                                    and Der Spiegel. Her work draws attention       with my work – to connect.”
                                                                    to stories that go unreported by mainstream     lenamucha.com

Buy the next issue of
BJP direct from us
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www.thebjpshop.com                          Projects                Lena Mucha
96   Intelligence: Robbie Cooper
                                                                                                                                                                   23
Projects: Personal   25
All images © Tania Franco Klein.

                          We are living in a world where we are more connected than
                          ever and yet we can still be left feeling completely alone. In
                          his book, The Burnout Society, the philosopher Byung-Chul
                          Han explores this, and the idea that the overload of modern
                          technology and the “culture of convenience” are catalysts
                          for depression and various personality disorders. Drawing
                          inspiration from his theories, Mexican photographer Tania
                          Franco Klein places this contradiction at the centre of her
                          ongoing autobiographical project, Our Life in the Shadows,
                          which also explores the pursuit of the American Dream and
                          facets of perfection. “We have these compulsions to perform
                          and we live in a society of achievement and positivity that has
                          led to a constant fatigue,” she says.
                               The need to escape from media overstimulation is seen
                          through the eyes of fictional female characters placed in
                          vulnerable, hunched positions, shot in different rooms of
                          a 1970s-style house. They smoke cigarettes, stare at the
                          television and lie on the floor. Some were cast from the street,
                          with Franco Klein particularly looking for individuals “trying to
                          be invisible and avoid any attention from the crowd”, but most
                          are self-modelled. Her clever use of bold, dramatic colour
                          blocking, which engulfs each image in a separate tone, serves
                          as a contrast to their introverted behaviour.
                               “Emotions are the most important for my work. If you can
                          connect through emotions and the experience of the visual,
                          sometimes it opens up the door to imagine smells and sounds
                          and a whole 4D experience.” She adds: “It’s funny because
                          I’m talking about isolation, but at the same time I realise that
                          doing self-portraits isolated me more.”
                               The photographer pays meticulous attention to the
                          spaces used as backdrops for the sensitivity she seeks to
                          communicate. She finds specific rooms and locations by
                          knocking on neighbours’ doors, and constructs her own
                          sets and props – often entirely from scratch. It is perhaps
                          no surprise, then, that she came to photography through
                          architecture, which she studied in Mexico before moving to
                          London to do an MA in fashion photography at the University
                          of the Arts London in 2014.
                               Crucially, although relatable, her narrative carries an
                          ambiguity, which encourages the viewer to apply their own
                          story and interpretation, and hopefully think about our
                          modern-day dual identities. “We are always trying to create
                          identities with social media to express the good part of
                          ourselves, as if there is some kind of shame in knowing what
                          we are on the other side… because we feel that we have failed
                          in what we are supposed to be.”
                          taniafrancoklein.com

                          Tania Franco Klein
26   Projects: Personal                                                   Projects: Personal   27
28   Projects: Personal   Projects: Personal   29
It’s nearly a half-century since man first set foot on the moon, yet
many remain sceptical it ever happened. Countless conspiracy
theories speculate about inconsistencies and inaccuracies in
the footage of that “one small step for man, one giant leap for
mankind”, ultimately arguing that the Apollo missions were a
highly elaborate hoax.
       For Swiss photographer Jennifer Niederhauser Schlup,
it’s a fascinating example of our innate dependence on film
and photography to authenticate – or debunk – perceptions of
historical fact. It’s also the basis of her latest work, Do you really
believe they put a man on the moon?, for which she amalgamates
archival and digitally manipulated imagery with straight
photographs to challenge our assumptions of reality.
       The series evolved following an invitation to teach a semester
at Alfred University in upstate New York last year. Niederhauser was
thrilled to discover that not only does the small village of Alfred have
one of the oldest observatories in the country, but that it is also
just a few miles from the birthplace of Glenn Hammond Curtiss,
the aviation pioneer and founder of the American aircraft industry.
It is also the site of the first public demonstration of a powered
aircraft flight in the US. “From this decisive historical fact I drew up
a fictional character, telling an abstract story that combines strange
experiments and discoveries,” writes Niederhauser in her project
statement, entered into BJP’s International Photography Award last
year. “It is a utopian tale of seemingly unattainable dreams, which
alludes to a place of hope and togetherness in a common effort to
transcend natural frontiers, to the moon and back.
       “Examining visual and written archives; building useless tools
and an escape vehicle bound to crash as a metaphor for happy
failure; mixing replicas and artefacts with scientific records to
confound their veracity while embodying the wildest of ideas,
Do you really believe they put a man on the moon? questions the
construction of knowledge and the interpretation of history seen
through a specific prism. Borrowing devices that enhance our
perception of the world, it aims to open our eyes to the possibility
of utopia and dreams.”
       As well as raising questions of complexity, Niederhauser is
playful in the techniques and devices she employs to enhance
her narrative, which treads the line between fact and fiction. For
example, there is one image of two circular frames of mountains
viewed through a stereoscope, a device that presents a pair of
photographs of the same subject taken from subtly different
angles, creating an optical illusion of a 3D image when viewed
together. “It’s a very old process and another device to enhance
your vision, and,” she says, “it’s actually just a pile of flour –
everything is constructed.”
       Although Niederhauser is far from finished with this
project, she hopes to eventually publish it. A selected edit of her
investigations will be shown at Les Boutographies festival in
Montpellier this May. The question remains, does she believe that
man walked on the moon? “Now that I know how I am able to
make things up, I shouldn’t trust it. But I do believe it, because I
want to.”
jennifer-niederhauser-schlup.com

Jennifer Niederhauser Schlup
30     Projects: Work in Progress                                          Projects: Personal   31
All images © Jennifer Niederhauser Schlup.

32   Projects: Work in Progress
Image © Isabelle Wenzel.

                           FEMALE
                            GA ZE
        Charlot te Jansen considers a new generation
         of female photographer s who make women
          their subjec t. Zuza K rajewska goes inside
         a y o u n g m e n’s c o r r e c t i o n a l i n s t i t u t e . E n d i a
           Beal addresses themes of race, gender
            and corporate culture. And Laia Abril
        uncovers secret histories in her wide - ranging
                     e x a m i n a t i o n o f m i s o g y n y.

34
I’LL BE
                                  YOUR
                                 MIRROR
                                  Charlot te Jansen looks
                                 at how a new generation
                                 of female photographers
                                 are choosing to represent
                                    women in their work

36   Female Gaze: Girl On Girl                               Habitat: Format Festival   37
Three years ago, I got into a Twitter fight         iPhone. I wanted to find out why and how               I don’t know if a woman took the picture   from early on to represent themselves. It was        frame the artists as bra-burning, man-hating       through photographic imagery, making
about selfies. A fiery debate had ensued            they photographed women and what the effect      of Azalea but most of the photographs of         a tool of crucial importance in the Suffragette      psychopaths to be feared. To get noticed in the    a significant impact on everyday media.
about an article I had written, suggesting that     might be on the way we perceive women in         women we see daily are made to appeal to the     movement (Christina Broom, dubbed                    world in the 1970s, artists had to go out and      Suddenly it was possible to be a woman and
photographs – especially sexy ones – that           society. This is what the book, titled Girl on   heteronormative male gaze. We’re supposed        ‘Britain’s first female photojournalist’, recorded   confront it. Valie Export strapped a box to her    photograph yourself or the women around
women took of themselves and shared online          Girl: Art and Photography in the Age of the      to see Iggy Azalea’s bum, compare ours to        some of the movement’s landmark events)              bust and invited people to touch her breasts,      you as you wanted.
couldn’t be feminist. Several feminist selfie       Female Gaze, is all about.                       it, panic and then buy things to prevent a       but it was perhaps not until the 1970s, during       or in another action, thrust her bare groin
artists, including a former Australian TV star            The research soon led me beyond the        similar physical ‘disaster’. The message such    the so-called second wave of feminism, that          into a cinema audience’s faces. Photography        A new generation
turned feminist magazine editor, disagreed.         realm of feminist selfies. There is a wider      photographs of women give us is still very       women’s photography became a force for               in their day was often rooted in performance,      In 2017, the age of social media, our
      I saw this as an opportunity to try to        shift happening in photography as more and       narrow. Photography undoubtedly has an           change in its own right. Experimental artists        which was then really the more effective form      context is totally different. On the internet,
understand the female gaze and how it was           more women get behind the camera and more        effect on the way we understand people so, as    such as Renate Bertlmann, Valie Export,              of disruption.                                     photographs are seen together, juxtaposed,
being used. For the next three years, I began       of their work is out in the public domain.       more women create photographs of women,          Lynda Benglis and Birgit Jürgenssen – all                  In the 1990s, as Naomi Wolf ’s bestselling   with their only frame created by the device
to look at the photographs women take of            Photographers no longer have to wait to          will it change how we understand them?           included in the Feminist Avant-Garde of the          The Beauty Myth was published, photography         used to view them. It’s almost as if we have
women – either of themselves or of other            have their work published to reach a wide              In the patriarchy in which we live,        1970s (2016) exhibition at The Photographers’        was seen by artists as a more malignant            to start again. Online, photographs women
women – more closely. It’s not hard to find         audience. Women are able to control how          photography is an expression of power.           Gallery – used photography in their practice         power. Images of women in the media were           take of themselves and of other women still
them. They are everywhere. But how many             they are represented more than ever before in    The photographic act is often viewed as          to reclaim their bodies and reveal the artificial    selling a lie: the women shown in ads for the      have the same connotations: that they are
of those images are created by fellow women,        cultural history.                                an assertion of masculine dominance; a           construction of gender roles in mainstream           cosmetics and fashion industry were plastic,       narcissistic, flimsy, vain or vapid. It’s much
and do they photograph women differently                  I was recently perusing the magazines in   predatory point-and-shoot action. This           media to limit their position in both the art        manipulated, unreal. And they were still           harder for women photographers working
to men?                                             the women’s section in a newsagent. On the       control over a subject – what to show and        world and society as a whole.                        presented as objects of male desire. Finally the   now to move against the patriarchal system
      I interviewed more than 40 women              cover of one was a picture of a scantily clad    how to frame it – has made photography a               The photographs created by women               first female art photographers photographing       because wherever you put your pictures,
photographers from very different                   pop star on the beach with the text, “Iggy       duplicitous partner of colonialism, the sex      in the 1970s were mostly staged – posed              women broke through in a big way: Cindy            you are invariably consumed by that system.
backgrounds, countries and cultures. They           Azalea’s Bum Implants Are Sagging!”. We are      industry and the veiled agendas of advertising   against patriarchy – and they never really           Sherman, Carrie Mae Weems, Annie                   Petra Collins [above] is an obvious example
were at various stages in their lives and careers   so accustomed to this kind of portrayal of       and the mass media.                              made it to the mainstream. They were part            Leibovitz, Nan Goldin, Shirin Neshat, Sally        of this. When in 2013 she made a T-shirt
but have all emerged since 2010, the year the       women, and to it being so in our faces, that           Photography was introduced before          of a radical, intellectual movement that was         Mann, Rineke Dijkstra. Their work paved the        with a drawing of a menstruating vagina
front-facing camera was introduced to the           the horror of it almost escapes us. Almost.      women could vote but it gave women power         kept away from the press unless it was to            way for understanding women differently            for American Apparel, the resulting media

38                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Female Gaze: Girl On Girl   39
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