Saturday, 12 October 2013

Photographers Gallery


My favourite exhibition in The Photographers Gallery was titled Mark Neville: Deeds Not Words. I found this exhibition pertically moving because of the issues it was trying to address. Initially most of the pictures seems to be quite humours such as Corby Carnival Queens go bowling.  However the collection of work was trying to raise awareness of the issues around the handing of toxic waste and the reuse of contaminated land. People and culture was effected by this toxic wasted lead to several babies being born with serious birth defects. All of Neville's work in this collection are very strong aesthetically due to the saturation of the colours. The compassion of Cobry Carnival Queens go bowling is very full, which makes it interesting to look at as so much is going on. This is in strong contrast to other work in this collection such as Ben bursting a balloon, which is very simple aesthetically. 'Ben's' eyes create a contextion with the audiences as he is looking directly at the lens. This is also supported by the dark background the audiences is forced to focus on Ben. When I first looked at this photo I did not initially realise the birth defect on 'Ben's' hand. I think this is due to the action of popping a balloon and the look in Ben's eyes.



The Photographers Gallery also had an exhibiting across two floor which had asked people to take a photo on the same day every year over several years, this was called Mass Observation: This is your photo. This was interesting as you gained an insight into peoples lives from all different walks of life. It was interesting to see how their lives had changed over the years. I also thought what was engaging about the piece was what different people chose to be their picture of the day that year.

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