11th London Photo Festival - 17-19th May

The depths of a church in Borough plays host to a collection of incredible street photographs this weekend - entries into this year’s London Photo Festival.

Founders Emma Mapp & Kit Shah decided to set up the festival 11 years ago to showcase emerging talent and provide photographers with an opportunity to have their work appraised and sold to the public.

I’ve long since been interested in street photography immersing myself in the work of photographers like Matt Stuart, Trent Parke and Joel Meyerowitz.

I took a class last year with photographer Paul Russell and quickly realised it is so much harder than it looks. It takes incredible patience, observation and perseverance.

The London Photo Festival covers a complete range of styles from colourful portraits on the street to the use of techniques like layering, mirroring and great use of light and composition.

This year’s winner is Daniel Bradley with this image ( below) titled ‘Lost in the City’ taken at Canary Wharf. It's described as an image which reminds us we can all feel alone even in vastly populated area surrounded by people.

If you are in London and near Borough market over the next few days, this exhibition is well worth a visit. If you are interested in or new to street photography this will certainly inspire and give you ideas.

The London Photo Festival runs from Thursday 17th May until Saturday 19th from 11am- 6pm (late opening until 8pm on Friday) in the Crypt at St George the Martyr Church, Borough. Entry is free.

Andreas Gursky Exhibition (with my 4-year-old)

"The Gursky Exhibition is brilliant, you MUST see it!" a good photographer friend reported back to me after visiting with her baby soon after it opened. 

Her advice was to book tickets in advance and aim to go at the opening time - 11am. This was great advice and I would say the same - plan in advance - it gets busy.

I was a little unsure about taking my 4-year-old but figured it would be great mother-daughter bonding time - afterwards there was the promise of a new sticker book and pizza.

So we headed off together to see the work of Andreas Gursky at the newly renovated Hayward Gallery at the Southbank Centre.

Amazon
2016 

This exhibition explores the work of the photographer over the past four decades and is the first major retrospective of his work in the UK.

There are over 60 of the artist’s photographs, from the 1980s through to his most recent work. The images are packed full of detail, an Amazon warehouse, 99 cent store and huge, impressive landscapes. There's also the fascinating Paris, Montparnasse (1993), showing all 750 flats in the city’s largest apartment block, created using multiple shots taken from two different vantage points. It's one of Gursky's early examples of digital manipulation which he started experimenting with in 1992.

Review
2015 

SH- 1 Iron Man (2013) one of Gursky's more recent works

Pyongyang VI
2017 (2007) 

Tokyo
2017 

Though I originally planned to sneak out and see this exhibition on my own (leaving my young girls at home)  I loved having my 4-year-old for company. 

Although losing patience towards the end, she was really well behaved while we looked round and I loved watching her taking it all in. It was wonderful sitting and chatting on her bed later that evening, deciding which was her favourite photograph (the one with the cows, in case you're interested).

If you get the chance to see this exhibition, it's well worth it. The images (many of which are large in scale) are beautifully exhibited over several floors of the Hayward. I enjoyed it so much and plan to go back.

Andreas Gursky runs until 22 April 2018