Exhibition Review

Exhibition Review

On Wednesday 10th December students from Preston's College held a photography exhibition in the Victoria Building at UCLAN between 4pm - 6pm. Although the exhibition started just a little later than 4pm due to the preparation, it was very successful and there was a good turnout. The exhibition was named ‘Perspectives’ and I think it was named this because all the photographs were of the same model but she was being portrayed in different lights in every individual photo. There was around 30 students involved in the exhibition, all Preston’s College students I believe. Based on the quality of the work, I was very impressed that the photographs were produced by college students. Every person involved in the exhibition had worked extremely hard and that was very clear from the results of their photographs but the layout of the photographs was also very well thought out and it looked very professional. It was clear that everybody had worked together to ensure the photographs complimented each other and fitted in, rather than putting all the coloured ones together, they were spread out so there was variety and each set of photographs showed very different ‘perspectives’. As I was walking around the corridors of the exhibition, there were a certain few photographs which captured my eye.

The first was by a student named Stefan Eccles. Mr Eccles photograph intrigued me, this was because it was black and white and that captured my eye as it was different than many of the other photographs. The model in Mr Eccles photograph also had mascara running from either eye which makes your mind wonder as to why she appears to have been crying, had something happened or is this supposed to portray something much more deep and upsetting? There was many thoughts running through my head when I saw the photograph and that’s what intrigued me because there’s so much it could mean and you want to know more about her and why she appears the way she does in the photograph.

The second photograph that caught my eye was one by Hannah Wright, it was on the first wall as I walked into the exhibition and it was next to two completely different photographs, one with a bright coloured background and one with a dark background and the model with an unhappy expression on her face, Miss Wrights photograph was different from all the others as she had gotten the model to lie down which I think, drew attention to the photograph because of that, it was also black and white. The model in the photograph was led on her back and holding her right hand to her head, I think the image was really interesting and it sparked a lot of curiosity, mainly wondering why she chose the model to be positioned like that but also, wondering what she’s thinking about in the photograph, there’s so many things it could be representing and that’s what I like about it, it keeps you guessing and it’s intriguing. 

All of the photographs throughout the entire exhibition were all different and intriguing, they were all very well thought out and positioned which shows everybody involved worked well together and it was taken very seriously. The result was impressive and very professional.

Overall, I think the exhibition was a success and the work was fantastic for college students. The prints were of high standard and the photographs were all different but impressive in their own ways. All of the students seemed to be involved and were more than happy to answer any questions asked of them. There was a lot of professional shown throughout the whole exhibition.

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Artist Research

Anders Petersen
Anders Petersen is a swedish photographer born in 1944 in Stockholm known for his documentary style black and white photography. In 1967 he started photographing in a bar called Cafe Lehmitz in Hamburg and continued with this for 3 years and in 1970 he had his first solo exhibition. In 1973 he published his first book "Gröna Lund" based on people in an amusement park in Stockholm. Then in 1984 his first book from a trilogy was published, they were based on people in nursing homes, prison and a mental hospital. 

Diane Arbus
Diane Arbus was an American photographer, focusing mainly on 'deviant and marginal' people. Including dwarfs, giants, transgender people, nudists and circus performers, people that could be considered as 'out of the ordinary'. Arbus said that a camera could be 'a little cold and a little harsh' but that it showed the difference between what people wanted to see and what they really saw. She was known as the photographer of freaks. In 1972, Arbus became the first American photographer to have their work shown at the Venice Biennale. After the second world war, Diane and Allan Arbus started a commercial photography business named 'Diane & Allan Arbus'. Diane was the director and Allan the photographer, their photos featured in Glamour, Seventeen, Vogue and Harper's Bazaar.

Rineke Dijkstra

Rineke Dijkstra is a Dutch Photographer, she lives and works in Amsterdam. Dijkstra worked as a formal portrait photographer until the early 1990's, when she began taking her own style of portrait photographs, which led to her series The Beaches between 1992-1996. This involved her photographing adolescents in their bathing suits on beaches from Ukraine to USA, which she is now very well known for, world wide. These photographs again, capture people when they are most self conscious and revealing. 

Irving Penn

Irving Penn was an American photographer, known for his fashion photography, portraits and still lifes. Penn worked for Saks Fifth Avenue as an art director for a year then left to take photographs and painting across Mexico and US. Penn returned to New York and was offered a job as an associate for VOGUE magazine, in which he worked on the layout for before being asked to try out photographing. Penn was amongst one of the first photographers to pose subjects against a simple grey or white background.

Alec Soth

Alec Soth is an American photographer known for 'large scale American projects'. His photography gives off the feel that there is a story behind each photograph, his career has been described as 'photographic career out of finding chemistry with strangers'. Soth has photographed for The New York Times, Fortune and Newsweek. He has a book called 'Sleeping by the Mississippi' which contained landscapes and portraits. He photographs could be described as something out of the ordinary but they're really interesting.