Singularity
visual culture

Henri Cartier-Bresson | Marc Riboud | Jean Marquis | Werner Bischof |
Robert Capa | Inge Morath |
Ernst Haas | Erich Lessing

September 3rd – October 24th, 2008

The Flo Peters Gallery
Chilehaus C . Pumpen 8
20095 Hamburg, Germany
www.flopetersgallery.com
Monday to Friday 12pm-6pm
Saturday 11am-3pm

Magnum Photos and the Flo Peters Gallery present the sensational rediscovery of the first Magnum Group exhibition of 1955.

Research shows that the exhibition “Face of Time” was first shown in June/July 1955 in the French Cultural Institute in Innsbruck. Their existence forgotten, the 83 Magnum Vintage Prints lay hidden in two wooden boxes in the basement of the French Cultural Institute for more than 50 years. Only in 2006 was this treasure rediscovered and returned to Magnum Photos. This unique historical discovery revises the belief that the Magnum exhibition curated by Fritz Gruber for the Colonial photokina in the autumn of 1956 was the first.

This rediscovered original exhibition of 83 images from 8 photographers of the first Magnum-generation is now presented exclusively at the Flo Peters Gallery. Included are Henri Cartier-Bresson’s reportage on his encounter with Mahatma Gandhi shortly before his death, Marc Riboud’s picture series from the Balkans and Jean Marquis’ images from Hungary. Works by Werner Bischof and Robert Capa are also shown. Ernst Haas is presented with a series that emerged during the shooting of the Hollywood film “Country of the Pharaoes” under the direction of Howard Hawks while the London district of Mayfair is the subject of the works of Inge Morath. Erich Lessing’s pictures show the children of Vienna.

The catalogue “MAGNUM’S first” by Hantje Cantz, edited by Peter Coeln, Prof. Achim Heine and Andréa Holzherr with an introduction by Dr. Christoph Schaden, art historian, publisher and member of the executive committee of the German Society for Photography, shows a complete documentation of this historical exhibition.

3rd September – 7th October 2008

MICHAEL HOPPEN CONTEMPORARY
3 Jubilee Place, London SW3 3TD
www.michaelhoppengallery.com
Tues-Fri 12noon – 6 pm . Sat 10:30am – 5pm

“On my first trip to Greenland, I was told I would definitely be coming back. According to a Greenlandic tale, a human being can turn into a qivigtoq, run around the fells, live there and finally die there. My desire to return to Greenland goes beyond reason. On one of my trips there I tried to shake off this madness and leave wandering in the northern landscapes, like a qivigtoq. I did not succeed.”

These large-scale colour photographs capture the artist’s fascination with the cold, barren and infinite landscape of Greenland. Steeped in blue light many of these photographs show the human outposts, the dog sledges and brightly coloured houses, in this Ultima Thule, border of the known world.

There are no roads between towns in Greenland so travel is not easy. Itkonen journeys by helicopter, small plane, hunter’s boats and dog sledge but only if the weather permits, if not then maybe tomorrow – “immaqa agaqu”. She will wait for the right moment to shoot, sometimes for hours, sometimes for days, preferring to photograph when it is cloudy or foggy due to the variations in light quality.

“It is fascinating and comforting being able to see far away. No trees or tall buildings to block the view. A broad view can be hard to capture in a single frame. The picture does not tell what is far and what is near, nor what is large and what is small. An iceberg is the size of a house of flats. An island that looks like it is two kilometers away is actually ten times further. Even my eyes cannot tell these things.”

As global warming closes in on Greenland the shrinking glaciers reveal new land masses, the winters are milder and the ocean does not freeze for long periods. At Illulissat, where many of these photographs are taken, the ocean has not frozen for years and the ice in northern parts of Greenland is getting thinner. The ice now only supports the weight of a man for a few months a year, putting hunters and fishermen with their dog sledges in danger. This makes Itkonen’s photographs more poignant – she is now capturing a vanishing landscape.

Tiina Itkonen (b. 1968) lives and works in Helsinki where she studied photography at the University of Art and Design. Exhibiting in Finland and abroad since 1996, Tiina’s work has most recently been seen in Switzerland, Germany, Norway and England. Her works are held in collections at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Fundacio Foto Colectania in Barcelona, Helsinki City Art Museum, the Finnish State Art Collection, DZ Bank in Germany and the Saastamoinen Foundation Art Collection/EMMA amongst others. Winner of Finnish Young Photographer of the Year 2003 and a Fotofinlandia finalist in 2004, Itkonen has been photographing Greenland for the past ten years and her first book, Inughuit, was published in 2004.

Portraits taken in Greenland between 1998-2002 by Itkonen will be exhibited at the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, from 3rd September to 8th November 2008. www.spri.cam.ac.uk/museum/

National Portrait Gallery
16 October 2008 – 1 February 2009
Wolfson and Ground Floor Lerner Galleries
St Martin’s Place
London WC2H 0HE
Admission £11
Concessions £10/£9

A Photographer’s Life presents over 150 images by one of the world’s best-known photographers. Leibovitz’s celebrated portraits of public figures, including her famous images of Queen Elizabeth II, and the then-pregnant actress Demi Moore, are shown alongside personal photography, which documents intimate and moving moments from her life, including the birth of her children and rites of passage with her parents and extended family.

Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life, 1990–2005 includes over 150 photographs by the celebrated photographer, encompassing well-known work made on editorial assignment as well as personal photographs of her family and close friends. “I don’t have two lives,” Leibovitz says. “This is one life, and the personal pictures and the assignment work are all part of it.”

The exhibition features many of Leibovitz’s best-known portraits of public figures, including actors such as Jamie Foxx, Nicole Kidman, and Brad Pitt; athletes preparing for the 1996 Olympic Games; George W. Bush with members of his Cabinet at the White House; and her famous 1991 image of then-pregnant actress Demi Moore, one of the most recognisable photographs of its time. The show also highlights images of artists and architects such as Richard Avedon, Brice Marden, Philip Johnson, and Cindy Sherman. Leibovitz’s assignment work includes reportage from the siege of Sarajevo in the early 1990s and the election of Hillary Clinton to the U.S. Senate.

At the heart of the exhibition, Leibovitz’s personal photography documents scenes from her life, including the birth and childhood of her three daughters, and vacations, reunions, and rites of passage with her parents and extended family.

Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life, 1990–2005 threads together the two sides of Leibovitz’s work both chronologically and creatively, projecting a narrative of the artist’s private life against the backdrop of her public image as one of the world’s best-known portrait photographers.

The artist Hans-Christian Schink opened in spring 2008 his own show room in Berlin, where he intends to invite other artists for guest exhibitions. Parallel to the big “Tropics”-Show in the Martin-Gropius-Bau he is now pleased to present DAVAO, new work by Ingar Krauss. Davao is situated in the very south of the Philippine Isles and is after Manila its second biggest city, but it is more a huge conglomerate of villages than a metropolis like Manila and is therefore dominated by agriculture and country life. Due to colonial history Spanish Catholizism and American lifestyle are belonging to the Philippine identity. But in particular the country people still live with animistic cults and the traditional pre-colonial mythology, which consists of a collection of magic figures and creatures lots of the Filipinos are still believing in, despite the strong Western influence. Ingar Krauss brought from Davao a series of portraits and animistic still lifes which he printed on outdated East-German photographic paper. He treated the prints then with oil colours, to give them a bit of a tropical sultriness.

Showroom Hans-Christian Schink
Heidestr. 46-52, Building 2, first floor
10557 Berlin, Germany
September 5 – October 25, 2008
Opening hours: Wed – Sat 2 – 6 pm

Abigail O’Brien indulges our sweetest fantasies with this elegant body of work. Running like a glamorous ‘photo shoot’, each portrait uses a different color and pose to suggest the different personalities of the exquisite Bella. The petti coated fading Belle poised on her stilettoed pedestals, this ’Glamour Puss’ is at once complex and playful. With each new pose Bella appears sensuous and voluptuous, delicate and imperfect.
The Bella Series (2006/07) consists of fourteen pieces, each 130 x 90 cm / 52 x 36 inches. Seven works are in the exhibition at Galerie Bugdahn und Kaimer. Each photo is a Lambdachrome Print in an edition of 1 unique (+ 1 artist proof), mounted on dibond and framed under museum glass with coloured wood (148 x 108 cm / 59 x 43 inches).
With Bella, Galerie Bugdahn und Kaimer is presenting its fifth solo exhibition of works by Abigail O’Brien.

Abigail O’Brien (*1957) lives and works in Dublin. Her major piece of work to date, the extensive cycle The Seven Sacraments (1995–2004) consists of six individual works, each again of several parts, mixing media such as sculpture, photography and video. It was first exhibited in its entirety in 2004 in Germany, at the Haus der Kunst, Munich. It achieves a critical and complex questioning of the function and meaning of the Christian sacraments; and of the rituals of everyday life that run their course in mute seclusion.
The artists work is in many international private and public collections including IMMA The Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, the Caldic Collection in Rotterdam and the Volpinum Collection in Vienna.

Galerie Bugdahn und Kaimer
Mutter-Ey-Str. 5, 40213 Düsseldorf
Germany
www.bugdahnundkaimer.com
Exhibition to October 18, 2008.
Gallery open Tuesday – Friday 12 noon – 6 pm, Saturday 12 noon – 4 pm.

Martin Parr discusses his long career as one of the most original and innovative photographers of our time. From the early days of taking black and white photographs of Ireland, notably A Fair Day (1984), Bad Weather (1982), the groundbreaking The Last Resort (1986) and up to his most recent work exploring globalisation and tourism. Martin’s unique perspective on the follies and vanities of our time has consistently enlighted, amused and even alarmed. A photograph by Martin Parr is instantly recognisable as his: in a world in which we are bombarded by the visual media, his image always engage and can never be ignored.

Entries are still being accepted for the Ranelagh Outdoors exhibition of street photography to be judged by Martin Parr. Further details at the bottom of this page.

Date –Sunday 28th September at 2.00pm
Venue: Ranelagh Multidenominational School
Tickets: €10

Tickets must be booked in advance at The Ranelagh Arts Festival web site.

Ranelagh Outdoors – Photo Exhibition

Date – Friday, 26th September – Sunday, 28th September
Venue: Ranelagh Multidenominational School
Time: On view from 11am – 6.00pm, entry is free.

This exhibition is of original photographs taken outdoors in Ranelagh. Street photography has inspired and been the subject matter of many of the great photographers including Martin Parr who will be judging the exhibition and awarding a prize. We hope to have a large contribution from local amateur photographers.

We rarely have the chance to survey the photohistories of Eastern European countries, let along the life, culture, traditions, etc. of so many different countries in the eyes of 35 photographers, as in the 15th Noorderlicht International PhotoFestival. It is a unique opportunity to learn about the History of a great part of Europe that has been for too long ignored. It is an inmense insight to the works of many practitioners, but even better, to the life before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall in East Europe. Im already booking my flight…!

Have a look at the Press Release

BEHIND WALLS: Eastern Europe before 1989.
Behind Walls concludes the series of five editions of the festival that focused on photography from various non-Western regions and earlier looked at Africa, South America, the Arab world and South and Southeast Asia.

In 1989 the fall of the Berlin Wall heralded the end of the East Block. Socialism and totalitarianism made way for capitalism and democracy. A unique reservoir of photography was buried along with the old values. Over the years, each of the member states of the East Block had developed its own photographic vocabulary, which almost never extended beyond its national borders. Now that memories of the Communist era are no longer welcome, this historically important body of photography faces the threat of remaining unseen forever.

Two decades after the end of the East Block, Noorderlicht unlocks this forgotten treasure. In service of the regime, independently or working underground, photographers in the East Block documented a now vanished era, each in their own way. Behind Walls, the 15th Noorderlicht Photofestival, offers an overview of their work, which is generally being seen here for the first time outside its country of origin. Never before has photography from all the former East Block lands been brought together in one large-scale presentation.

Censorship and lack of freedom were a self-evident part of life in the days of the East Block. The totalitarian regimes propagated an heroic image of socialist society. Photographs of everyday scenes and personal interests were not appreciated. Only in periods of relative freedom, such as during the Prague Spring, but also in the DDR of the late 1970s, did photographers violate the unwritten rules, and then carefully. At other moments flight into a self-created reality offered solace, and this became a great stimulant for photographic experimentation.

Proud portraits of the ‘worker of the month’, clandestine photographs of staged people’s manifestations, advertising for products that were not available, forbidden photographs of nude women: Behind Walls provides a fascinating picture of life and photography in the Socialist paradise. In one international presentation the viewer can see how photographers throughout the East Block experienced the world around them, and how the absence of freedom affected their work. With contributions by 35 photographers from twelve countries, Noorderlicht brings to life a world that ceased to exist in 1989.

Beyond Walls – Eastern Europe after 1989
A new Eastern Europe arose after 1989. The Iron Curtain disappeared, the street scene changed unrecognizably. Some countries disintegrated, a majority have become members of the European Union. After four decades of Communism, capitalism is the new ideology. Individualism has replaced collectivism, opposition politics is again permitted. The heroic worker has had to become a critical consumer.

As a mirror held up to Behind Walls, a second exhibition, Beyond Walls, provides a picture of Eastern Europe after the fall of the Iron Curtain. Left opposes right, nostalgia for the old days faces off against the blessings of capitalism. Among the remains of the Communist era – from the gray architecture to the discrimination against ethnic groups – a frantic search for a new identity is going on.

These changes also leave their mark on photography. What was previously forbidden ground – literally, in the case of once heavily guarded border areas – or new phenomena such as a beauty contest in Poland or the rise of a Romanian tourist industry, can now be documented. Eastern European outcasts also have a chance to visualize their youth behind the Iron Curtain.

Together with Behind Walls, Beyond Walls forms a full-fledged diptych. In an extraordinary presentation, 35 photographers from East and West visualize the most recent history of Eastern Europe, with work from all the former East Block countries. Beyond Walls tells the intriguing story of a world full of contradictions in which a dynamic present still bears the traces of a charged past.

Fries Museum
Leeuwarden
7 Sept – 26 Oct
[Loads more information and photographs about this fantastic retrospective can be found here and here]

19th Internationale Photoszene
Köln 2008
1st September – 1st October 2008
www.photoszene.de

* * *

12th Photo Festival in Biel /Bienne
Make believe. Staged photography
5th – 28th September 2008

Istvan Balogh | Markus Bertschi | Jojakim Cortis / Adrian Sonderegger | Geoffrey Cottenceau / Romain Rousset | Catherine Gfeller | Roland Iselin | Elisa Larvego | Stefania Malorgio | Chantal Michel | Loan Nguyen | Taiyo Onorato / Nico Krebs | Olivier Pasqual | Annaïk Lou Pitteloud | Corinne L. Rusch | Christian Tagliavini | Herbert Weber | Schule für Gestaltung Bern und Biel.

Bieler Fototage
Postfach 83 . 2501 Biel
Switzerland
www.bielerfototage.ch

19th Internationale Photoszene
Köln 2008
1st September – 1st October 2008
www.photoszene.de

* * *

12th Photo Festival in Biel /Bienne
Make believe. Staged photography
5th – 28th September 2008

Istvan Balogh | Markus Bertschi | Jojakim Cortis / Adrian Sonderegger | Geoffrey Cottenceau / Romain Rousset | Catherine Gfeller | Roland Iselin | Elisa Larvego | Stefania Malorgio | Chantal Michel | Loan Nguyen | Taiyo Onorato / Nico Krebs | Olivier Pasqual | Annaïk Lou Pitteloud | Corinne L. Rusch | Christian Tagliavini | Herbert Weber | Schule für Gestaltung Bern und Biel.

Bieler Fototage
Postfach 83 . 2501 Biel
Switzerland
www.bielerfototage.ch