Free Range Graduate Photography Summer Show
Words by Madeleine Feeny
Part of the eight-week graduate summer shows in the Old Truman Brewery, last week’s photography was a real treat. The sheer volume of work rendered it impossible for anyone but the most curmudgeonly and sceptical of visitors not to find something to love, something to hate, and lots to talk about. Plymouth College of Art’s offerings stood out for me, with some extremely strong and imaginatively presented fashion photography and engaging large-scale portraits such as Cieran Murphy’s large, wide-eyed black and white series.
A wide range of subjects were explored by all colleges, from the confrontational and visceral, to the romanticised or the uncompromisingly urban. Some works scraped perilously close to the inevitable and subjective boundary of cliché in their quest for beauty or discussion, yet often teetered there, and were rewarded for their bravery by extremely effective photographs, such as South East Essex College’s Elizabeth Drew’s caressing soft-focus lens in a dreamy Brontean sequence.
This exhibition offers bright hope for the future of photography, with only a muted mental query about ground re-visited and an element of repetitiveness. By the end of the evening, many fresh pieces I saw carried a vague sense of déjà-vu. But perhaps this is merely the impact of such a rich visual assault all at once. Even those whose work appeared a little limp in this context clearly had a masterful understanding of the potency of image and aesthetics, and were finding their feet in the execution of their ideas. Like Johanne Olsen’s palely haunting female portraits, Free Range photography 2009 makes its initial impact and then remains watermarked on your consciousness, an uplifting talisman for the future of the art form, and a joy to visit.
Free Range Graduate Photography Summer Show, The Old Truman Brewery, Brick Lane.
Posted Mon, June 22, 2009