esther teichmann

esther teichmann, Mythologies, 2008

Esther Teichmann spoke at LCC a couple of weeks ago to an incredibly rude audience who seemed to think it was ok to come and go, talk, answer the phone and generally show little regard for the fact that this artist was showing not only beautiful but powerful and personal work. 

It was difficult not to be overwhelmed by the creative energy of this young, prolific and clearly gifted photographer who splits her time between completing an MPhil at the RCA, lecturing at LCC and Brighton, producing ad campaigns and fashion shoots, and linking up with fellow creative spirit, Spartacus Chetwynd, on minibus forays to galleries in Berlin.

santu mofokeng

Ishmael, Eyes Wide Shut

'One can't travel far within this country before coming upon shadowed ground of negative remembrances of violence and tragedy. This partly explains my peregrinations here in foreign lands. In 1997 I started to visit the shadow grounds of Europe and Asia. I wanted to see how other countries were dealing with places associated with negative memories. The demise of apartheid has brought to force a crisis of spiritual insecurity for the many who believe in the spiritual dimensions of life. Today this consciousness of spiritual forces, which helped people cope with the burdens of apartheid, is being undermined by mutations in nature. If apartheid was a scourge the new threat is a virus - invisible perils both.'

Santu Mofokeng, The Namib, Namibia, 1997 

Exhibition runs January 14 - February 28, 2008 at Rivington Place

fay goodwin

Leaping Lurcher, 1972

Copper Beach, Stourhead 1983

'I don't get wrapped up in technique and the like. I have a simple rule and that is to spend as much time in the location as possible. You can't expect to take a definitive image in half an hour. It takes days often years. And in fact I don't believe there is such a thing as a definitive picture of something. The land is a living, breathing thing and the light changes its character every second of every day. That's why I love it so much.' Fay Goodwin, 2004

24:2009

24:2009 will be celebrating their sixth annual show in Greenwich. Every year since 2004 , between the hours of midnight New Years Eve and midnight New Years Day, 24 photographers have looked to find an image that sums up the essence of that hour for them - be it a social, political or an environmental concern - or a personal reflection of that moment in time.

This year 24photography will be staging two exhibitions, the first in The Royal Park Greenwich will feature the 24 images taken on the 1st January 2009 while the nearby Viewfinder Gallery will stage an interim retrospective, showcasing the 144 images created by the photographers who have contributed to the movement to date. 

Nicky Wilcox, one of the founding members of 24photography, described the images, 'as a subtle catalogue of our time, raising questions of where we are and where we might be by 24:2010'.

I have been contributing images to 24photography for the past three years and the themes that have emerged in my own work are concerns for our fragile earth and ensuring a safe future for our children. 

This year I chose to spend the evening of the 1st January 2009 in the Maternity wing at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Wing of UCLH, where my own children were born in 2001 and 2004 respectively - the year 24photography was initiated. My son will be 24 when this project is complete and I can only hope that actions I take now will have some positive impact on his future world - however small that might be.

The evening I spent with doctors, nurses and parents at UCLH once again confirmed the immense respect I have for the staff at this hospital. The stories the nurses have to tell, the focus and dedication of the doctors and the visible pain of the parents is all to tangible and in a way to fragile to photograph. Instead I chose to photograph an empty cot and use the words written in a christmas letter to the staff thanking them again for saving the lives of twins born in the same month as my son.

The exhibition opens on the 24th February and runs through until the 19th March 2009.

daan van golden

Youth is an art, 1992/2008

Daan van Golden appropriates images discovered in the world around him. His art draws on his own fascinations and 'out-of-the-ordinary' moments that occur in life. He finds beauty in the everyday and treats the mundane with integrity and respect, by showing us familiar things in a new way.

I caught the last day of van Golden's exhibition at Camden Arts Centre on Sunday which brought together paintings from the last thirty years along with photographs including a selection from the series Youth is an art, images of his daughter as she was growing up between 1978 and 1996. 

There is a captivating symbiosis between the meticulously worked paintings and the fleeting moments captured of his daughter as she grew. Van Golden is a gentle artist able to perceptively capture a sense of beauty in the everyday which is at once joyful and serene.

olafur eliasson

Beauty, 1993 

Minding the world

'Today we cannot afford not to think about the environmental consequences of our individual actions; about the relation between the individual and the collective. And we have reached a stage where such deliberations can be integrated with our aesthetic feelings.' 

Olafur Eliasson : Light Conditions

figuring landscapes

Winter Light Sophia Dahlgren

I attended four of the screenings of a collection of compelling moving image works drawn from the political and cultural history that links the UK and Australia at Tate Modern this weekend. The works in Figuring Landscapes address questions of ecological survival, post industrialism, gender, the touristic gaze, and the social, political and cultural status of indigenous people in a post-colonial society.

Andrew Kotting's Jaunt up the Thames from my old stomping ground of Leigh on Sea to Westminster was a particular favourite, along with Matt Hulse's Sine Die,  Tony Hill's vertigenous  Downside Up, Dryden Goodwin's inspirational Flight, Sofia Dahlgren's mesmerising Winter Light, Emily Richardson's Petrolia, and Margaret Tait's touching Portrait of Ga. 

Devised by Catherine Elwes and Steven Ball, Figuring Landscapes is a riveting and enlightening body of work brought together in a series of screenings over the weekend. I am sorry I can't make it for the final day tomorrow which will be followed by a discussion led by Steven Bode, director of film & video umbrella.