Exercise 3.1 – Mirrors and windows (P.74)

For this exercise I have to select ten images from my archive and separate them into two sets, one that can be thought of as windows, the other as mirrors. These are the definitions used by John Szarkowski in the title of the 1978 exhibition he curated at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MoMA) in New York. The full title of the exhibition was ‘Mirrors and Windows: American Photography since 1960’ (Marien, 2014). The press release from 1978 states MIRRORS AND WINDOWS has been organised around Szarkowski’s thesis that such personal vision take one of two forms. In metaphorical terms, … Continue reading Exercise 3.1 – Mirrors and windows (P.74)

Julian Germain – For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness

Julian Germain (1962 – ) is a British photographer who studied at Trent Polytechnic in Nottingham and the Royal College of Art in London. His work For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness features images of Charlie Snelling taken over and eight year period from April 1992 until Snelling’s death in 2000. Germain met Snelling when he passed his house on his way to photograph a football match in Portsmouth. Intrigued by the brightly coloured yellow and orange house with plants, shells and things found on the beach for sale in the front window, Germain … Continue reading Julian Germain – For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness

Dave Heath

One of the photographers I came across whilst undertaking Context and Narrative was Dave Heath. I saw a small exhibition of his work at the Photographers Gallery and blogged about it here. Heath had a difficult childhood, his father leaving the family when he was one, his mother abondoning him when he was four and his grandparents declining to raise him. As a result he was raised in an orphanage and a series of foster homes in Philadelphia. It is possible that this difficult upbringing influenced his work much of which has a sense of sadness about it. Many of … Continue reading Dave Heath