Photo London is back at Somerset House this May for its fifth instalment, with a special exhibition of new and unseen work by this year’s Master of Photography, Stephen Shore, plus Vivian Maier, Roger Fenton, Eamonn Doyle, almost 100 galleries from 21 different countries, and a giant egg sculpture.
Known for his pioneering use of colour photography, Shore’s newest body of work, Details, will be shown for the first time in the UK at the fair, as well as a series of 60 small photographs titled Los Angeles, taken through a single day in the city in 1969. “We are honoured to present Stephen Shore as our 2019 Master of Photography,” said Photo London’s founding directors Michael Benson and Fariba Farshad. “As his recent retrospective at MOMA (New York) admirably demonstrated, Stephen is a truly pioneering photographer who has consistently pushed the boundaries of image making throughout a long and successful career.”
Alongside the exhibition, which is produced in association with Sprüth Magers and 303 Gallery, Shore will be speaking as part of the talks programme on 16 May. This year’s speakers have been selected once again by writer and curator William A Ewing, and confirmed so far are Vanessa Winship, Martin Parr, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Susan Meiselas, and Ed and Deanna Templeton. The full programme will be announced in April.
The public programme also includes another UK-first – a major presentation of work by American street photographer Vivian Maier. Other highlights include work by Roger Fenton, one of the world’s first war photographers; and Irish photographer Eamonn Doyle’s audio-visual series, Made in Dublin. The New York Times will display a series of drone images that illustrate the crippling effects of climate change, made by staff photographer and senior editor for photo technology Josh Haner, and online platform Arturner will present work by Ana Elisa Egreja, Paul Kneale, and Tabor Robak.
There is an interactive element to this year’s programme, in the form of a giant egg sculpture by British artist Gavin Turk. Intending to question the role of photography and social media in experiencing art, the two metre egg will be installed on the Embankment terrace, inviting visitors to take photographs with and of it, and enter them into a photography competition via Instagram. Entries will be projected onto the walls of the Great Arch Hall throughout the festival.
The galleries showing at Photo London this year represent the biggest global reach yet at the fair, with almost 100 galleries from 21 different countries – Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lebanon, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, South Africa, Taiwan, the UK, and the USA.
16 of these galleries have opted to mount solo exhibitions, with work by Mitch Epstein (Galerie Thomas Zander), Tony Gum (Christopher Moller Gallery), Tom Wood (Sit Down Gallery), Ivars Gravlejs (Careva Contemporary), Daisuke Yokota (Roman Road), Dag Alveng (Shoot Gallery), Max Pinckers (Galerie Sofie Van de Velde), Giulio di Sturco (Podbielski Contemporary), Adam Jeppesen (Black Box Projects), Edouard Taufenbach (Galerie Binome), and Casper Sejersen (Cob Gallery).
Other galleries have chosen to focus their shows on specific countries or region, such as Iran by Roya Khadjavi Projects, Japan by IBASHO, Latin America by RocioSantaCruz and schools in Helsinki, by Gallery Taik Persons.
The widely acclaimed Discovery section will present 23 galleries focusing on new and emerging talent; the curated selection includes ALMANAQUE Fotográfica (Mexico City), Careva Contemporary (Riga, Latvia), Euqinom Gallery (San Francisco), Galerie Binome (Paris), Galerie-Peter-Sillem (Frankfurt, Germany), Gallery Sofie Van de Velde (Antwerp, Belgium), Metronom (Modena, Italy), and UP Gallery (Hsinchu City, Taiwan).
Photo London 2019 will take place 16-19 May at Somerset House. Tickets go on sale from 05 February at photolondon.org
1852 © Roger Fenton
