Barbican – Art Gallery: Strange and Familiar: Britain as Revealed by International Photographers, 16 March 2016 – 19 June 2016
The exhibition was curated by British photographer Martin Parr, Strange and Familiar considers how international photographers from the 1930s onwards have captured the social, cultural and political identity of the UK. Exhibition includes photographers Henri Cartier-Bresson, Rineke Dijkstra, Robert Frank and Garry Winogrand, Raymond Depardon, Jim Dow, Akihiko Okamura, Frank Habicht, Bruce Davidson, Candida Hofer, Henri Cartier-Bresson.
Parr has selected photographs by international photographer’s images that represent Britain. They are a mix from old to new images, everyday views that typify the UK from the 1930s to the present day. Petrol pumps, to people playing football at local community match, high street shops, people on the peace march of the 1960s. The common appear unusual as things have changed over time. The exhibition is not only a collection of interesting photographs, they are a documentary of social history and political and cultural events. Over time life styles and occupations have changed.
Details of the photographers and the list of thier photographs exhibited 17922strangefamiliarwalltexts
Newspaper reviews and reports about the exhibition
Two very different nations in one: Britain as seen by foreign photographers – review. Daily Telegraph review of the exhibition, including some of the photographs from the exhibition. By Mark Hudson, 14 March 2016 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/photography/what-to-see/two-very-different-nations-in-one-britain-as-seen-by-foreign-pho/
How Britain is really viewed by the rest of the world – in pictures. Monday 14 March 2016 Guardian review of the exhibition https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2016/mar/14/how-britain-is-viewed-by-the-rest-of-the-world-in-pictures
Britain through the lens of outsiders by David Chandler, 19 February 2016, FT Magazine http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/c2e6b93c-d4fe-11e5-8887-98e7feb46f27.html
Details of the event
https://www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery/event-detail.asp?ID=17922
Also http://www.barbican.org.uk/strangeaudio/ or https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/251960858 shows some of the images with recordings that accompany the photographs
Photographs from the exhibition on the Magnum Photos web site
http://pro.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&ALID=2K1HRG6JI2CN
Some of the photographers and their works that made an impression on me:
Raymond Depardon
Photographs of Glasgow taken in 1980. Colour photographs, very stark images showing a derelict Glasgow with steel skies and boarded up buildings. They are photographs that show a bleak and social down at heal Glasgow.
Jim Dow
Photographs of shops, buildings and the inside of buildings. I like this photograph, it looks like an aquarium that has jackets bobbing in the tank.
Covent Garden Tailor Shop, London, England 1986 by Jim Dow
http://jimdowphotography.com/, htp://jimdowphotography.com/England-portfolio.php
Akihiko Okamura
Tea and biscuits were provided by local citizens during the Battle of the Bogside. Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland. (August 1969) by Akihiko Okamura
http://www.barbican.org.uk/strangeaudio/photographs/akihiko-okamura/
Frank Habicht
Alice Ormbsy Gore, 1969 Hyde Park London. Photograph by Frank Habicht
Hyde Park Stones in the Park, London 1969 by Frank Habicht
Bruce Davidson
Photographs of London in 1960, plus photographs of people going about their business outside London, at the seaside Brighton.
Bruce Gilden
Portrait photographs taken 2013 and 2014, the images are unsettling because the heads virtually take up the whole frame, and the face of the subject are staring straight back at you, making me feel uncomfortable.
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Candida Hofer
B+W images of Liverpool and the people of Liverpool.
http://www.artnet.com/artists/candida-höfer/ http://www.barbican.org.uk/strangeaudio/photographs/candida-hofer/
Liverpool XVI (1968) by Candida Hofer
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Shinro Ohtake
The style of Ohtake and the everyday subject matter is reminiscent of William Eggleston, a photographic style I like.
Shinro Ohtake / Courtesy of Take Ninagawa Gallery. From the series UK77: Digging my Way to London, 1977
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