On the face of it, Thomas Ruff has radically altered course since his first major…
“MY FRIENDS!” writes Çağdaş Erdoğan from the Silivri Prison, Istanbul on 21 September, in a handwritten letter translated by a curator contact and circulated by his publisher Akina Books. “I salute all of you with my heart. Regardless of the illogical times we have been having, I hope you are well. Don’t worry about me. I’m doing well despite the physical and psychological negativities I experienced since the last two weeks.” Erdoğan was taken into custody at the start of September and officially arrested on 13 September, when he was put into pretrial arrest on accusations of membership to a terrorist organisation. In his letter, Erdoğan discusses the reason he was initially apprehended, and discusses some of the reasons he has been given for the terrorism charges.
“Neverland came via my participation in the Wrzesnia Collection, a long-term photography project and ongoing photographic residency which is creating an ever-growing photo archive on the Wrzesnia Town and Commune. Every year, the Mayor of Wrzesnia Town and Commune invites one photographer, selected by the curator, to spend some time in the town creating a personal series of images that illustrates the district and its inhabitants. I had a very open brief, it was completely up to me how to portray the place. It’s an extraordinary little city, but it also seems very boring and calm on the face of it. I had to work like a journalist, cooperating with the local newspaper and researching every local event, initiative, meeting or story that could be interesting. All these events were an opportunity to meet the people, to spend some time with the community,” says Polish photographer Adam Lach
German photographer Andrea Grützner, who was born in 1984, has won the ING Unseen Talent Award with her series Hive. She now wins €10,000 to develop a new project and, along with the other shortlisted photographers, the opportunity to develop her work under the guidance of Nadav Kander, the UK-based photographer best-known for his huge commission for The New York Times Magazine, Obama’s People.
Tate was famously slow to institutionalise photography, staging its first photography show (Cruel + Tender: The real in the 20th century photography) in 2003, and appointing its first photography curator, Simon Baker, in 2009. Now, hot on the heels of its acquisition of Martin Parr’s 12,000-strong photobook collection, its now made another major commitment to photography, appointing Kate Bush in the new post of Adjunct Curator of Photography. Bush, who was previously Head of Photography at the Science Museum Group, and prior to that Head of Art Galleries at the Barbican Centre in London, starts at Tate Britain in October.
Randal Levenson stumbled upon fairgrounds almost by accident in 1971 – travelling from Ottawa to Maine to visit a friend, he found he was there at the same time as the Fryeberg fair. He spent eight days photographing its agricultural and carnival exhibits and, intrigued, went on to the next fair, the last of the season, in Topsham, living in a tent in the woods opposite to be as near to the site as possible. From there Levenson decided to shoot a book-long project on the so-called carnies, and worked on the project for the next ten years. He spent nearly all of 1974-78 on the road with various sideshows and carnivals, shooting from under a dark cloth on a large-format camera on a tripod. “I photographed freaks as normal people,” he told Vice back in 2014. “I found most to be fairly noble individuals.”
“The Face had a different theme every issue and were planning an issue on sex, so Graham Rounthwaite [the art director] said ‘Can you photograph in clubs and sixth form parties and get an idea of young kids’ idea of love?’”says Ewen Spencer. The feature became a regular spot, sometimes shot by Spencer and sometimes by another photographer, a writer going along each time to talk to the kids they found. But it became an ongoing interest for Spencer, who started to pursue it in his own time as well as on commission, and images from the series have now been published as a book by Stanley Barker
Titled Afrotopia, the headline show of the 11th Rencontres de Bamako features work from 40 photographers and collectives, drawn from all over the continent and from the African diaspora abroad. Shown at the National Museum of Mali, the exhibition was drawn from over 300 applications by a jury of photography insiders including Rencontres de Bamako artistic director Marie-Ann Yemsi, photographer Sammy Baloji and curator Azu Nwagbogu. It will be on show from 02 December-31 January 2018, after which the exhibition will travel to The Netherlands.
“I have always wanted my photobook collection to go to a public institution in the UK and with the recent commitment to photography from Tate, this was a very easy decision to make. I’m also very happy that thanks to Maja and LUMA, the city of Arles will embrace the photobook phenomenon,” says Martin Parr. Well-known as an avid photobook collector, co-author of the seminal three-volume anthology The Photobook: A History, and a respected photographer, the Magnum Photos member has given his entire collection to Tate. Built up over 25 years and including 12,000 photobooks, it is a world-class library which includes a broad geographical scope and many different approaches to photography, and includes self-published amateur work and mass-produced books alongside iconic publications by artists such as Hans Bellmer, Nobuyoshi Araki and Robert Frank.
“You could say I’m a member of the establishment,” says Martin Parr, the Magnum Photos member who has published early 50 monographs, had solo shows at The Barbican, Jeu de Paume, and Maison Europeenne de la Photographie, guest-directed the Rencontres d’Arles, and co-authored The Photobook: A History. We’re discussing his latest exhibition and book, Oxford, which was shot on commission for the world-famous university, is going on show in its Weston Library, and will be published by the Oxford University Press.