In 2021, the German British photographer Nikolai von Bismarck retraced the Bloomsbury Group’s journey through Rome, documenting the places and objects tied to their search for a more intimate, casual way of living. Among the early twentieth-century collective of British writers, artists, and intellectuals were Virginia Woolf, Duncan Grant, and E. M. Forster.

Published in the second issue of Now Voyager, von Bismarck’s photographs were printed by Jean François Fresson at the Atelier Fresson — a workshop nested in the town of Savigny-sur-Orge, France — using a technique invented by Jean François’s great-grandfather, Théodore-Henri, in 1899. The process produces softly hued prints with a delicate, painterly quality that is unique to Fresson.

A couple of months ago, I sat with Nikolai to discuss the Rome series and printing with Fresson.

David Hill: Before we begin discussing your beautiful images of Rome, I would like to thank you for allowing us to publish them in the second issue of Now Voyager. We’ve had such a positive response.

Nikolai von Bismarck: The reproductions look great and are true to the original Fresson prints. The article is lovely; I am so happy with the feature.

DH: Some of the images appeared in The Fendi Set: From Bloomsbury to Borghese (2022), a book published in conjunction with the fashion house’s Spring/Summer 2021 couture collection. Were those images ones you had shot before the book project, or were they all commissioned specifically for it?

NvB: All the photographs were taken for the book between 2020 and 2021. One of the first places I photographed was the Protestant Cemetery where Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats are buried. We also captured Shelley’s final home, Casa Magni, which held particular significance for the Bloomsbury Group.

From there, we set out to retrace their footsteps by combing through their diaries and correspondence with friends and relatives, some of which are housed at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building of the New York Public Library and the NYU Tisch School of the Arts. We were guided by the places they described, such as the Villa d’Este and the Baths of Caracalla.

DH: Did the Bloomsbury Group concept come from Fendi or from you?

NvB: It came from Kim Jones, who was artistic director of Fendi at the time. The Bloomsbury Group were local heroes in Lewes, a town on the south coast of England, where Jones moved to at sixteen, so he had a natural affinity. And as a young gay man, he was fascinated by the ideal of freedom to which the Bloomsbury Group aspired.

Kim is utterly obsessed with them to this day. He owns an unbelievable book collection of around 20,000 volumes, ranging from titles related to the Beat Generation to what must be the most complete collection of Bloomsbury Group first editions. He has books signed by Virginia Woolf, Vita Sackville-West, Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell, to name a few. He even bought an old schoolhouse a few doors down from the Monk’s House in East Sussex, Woolf’s seventeenth-century country retreat. When Kim debuted his collection for Fendi during the Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week in 2021, the models walked to an evolution of Woolf Works, Max Richter’s contemporary ballet score commissioned by the Royal Ballet and inspired by the life and writings of Virginia Woolf.

DH: When did you first become aware of the Fresson printing process?

NvB: It was from seeing the photographs of Sarah Moon, Sheila Metzner, and Bernard Plossu.

DH: I most associate Bernard Plossu with the process, as his entire output is realised through Fresson prints. Sheila Metzner used it a great deal too, whereas it was just one of many techniques for Sarah Moon and Paolo Reversi.

NvB: Exactly. The prints of Cy Twombly’s flower photographs are Fresson, created from Polaroids he took beginning in the 1970s and later reprinted in collaboration with Michel Fresson and his son, Jean-François.

DH: Have you heard when Jean-François will retire from printing? I know the process is a closely guarded family secret, but it feels tragic to me that he doesn’t have a family member to pass the baton to.

NvB: Yes, all elements of the Fendi book, whether it was Fresson or Polaroids, were about the extinction of formats and processes, and saying goodbye to them. Jean-François told me five years ago that he was planning to retire soon, but he’s still printing and seems quite happy, although I do think that day is approaching.

DH: Had you worked together prior to the Fendi project, or was that the beginning of your working relationship?

NvB: I did send him a couple of images for test prints, which were travel shots from Mozambique and Rwanda, but it was really with the Fendi book that we started working together regularly.

DH: Could you tell me what you know about the Fresson process?

NvB: Given it is a secret, nobody truly understands the process unless they belong to the Fresson family. I have seen the wooden projector that Jean-François uses to make prints, which I assume he puts slides into. Then he prints the cyan, magenta, and yellow layers by hand, before taking it all into a backroom to do whatever he does there, but that room is out of bounds.

DH: I understand it is a direct carbon printing process, but I hadn’t realised, until you told me, that it can take five days to produce a single print.

NvB: Yes, printing Fresson takes a lot of time.

DH: One aspect that I find particularly interesting is that when ordering a Fresson print, it seems that you don’t quite know what you will receive back.

NvB: There is an element of surprise that excites me. Some images do seem to ‘Fresson’ better than others. And when they turn out well, they have the most incredible, timeless, painterly quality to them.

After a while, you start to get the hang of what works well for the process, and what does not. You learn that yellows do not tend to mesh well with Fresson, but that blues and reds come out very nicely, and greens often work well too.

DH: You learn to play to the strengths of the Fresson process?

NvB: Yes, I learned to only send images with colours that I think will render well with the process.

DH: Have you shot any fashion photography with the intention to print as Fresson?

Not yet. The fashion industry always works on tight deadlines, and Fresson can be a time-consuming process, so unless one is working on a book project, it is tricky to shoot fashion with Fresson. I did shoot some couture portraits of models for the Fendi book, but nothing else since. I am inclined to try something more modern with Fresson, rather than the romantic and nostalgic work I have made so far. I would like to look forward, rather than looking back.

DH: Would you like to continue working with Fresson, when the right project or series presents itself?

NvB: I would. In fact, I have an idea to photograph a metropolis in East Asia, perhaps Hong Kong or Shanghai, where there are elevated trains that run through the middle of skyscrapers… A Fresson print would make that ultramodern scene feel slightly gentler, a little more romantic, almost like a 1950s vision of how a 21^st century city might look.

All images © Nikolai von Bismarck

You can see more of Now Voyager and subscribe here.

The summer exhibition is now open at David Hill Gallery, with viewing by arrangement during August. The show features work by Alice Mann, Laura Pannack, Sanlé Sory, Malick Sidibé, Larry Fink, James Clifford Kent, and Derrick Santini.

Please email info@davidhillgallery.net to make an appointment.

Hello, it’s been some time since the last VIEWFINDING transmission, and there’s a good reason for this. In early 2025, I was approached with the proposition of joining the team of a new magazine as a photography editor. The ambition of Now Voyager is to publish original longform reporting, artwork, photography, and writing about books, the arts, travel, and food from around the world. Crucially for me, the founders recognise the power of good photography and art to enrich and expand the reach of the written word. It was an opportunity I could not pass by.

Here we are, a year or so later, the inaugural issue of Now Voyager is on newsstands and the second one at the printer. VIEWFINDING will become monthly and share the photographic content of Spectrum, the magazine’s in-house arts newsletter, which will provide insight into the artists and photographers featured in each issue. Expect insider perspectives, artist interviews, and a behind-the-scenes look at how the contributors create their work.

The launch issue features sixteen full-page images from Laura Pannack’s The Journey Home project, most of them previously unpublished. The London-based photographer’s series is an on-going document of the lives of students in Cape Town, South Africa, who must navigate perilous gang-controlled neighbourhoods as they make their way to and from school. The project received the Tom Stoddart Award for Excellence and placed first in the Perspectives category of the annual Sony World Photography Awards.

I recently spoke with Laura about the series. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Laura, what led you to start The Journey Home, and what is important to you about the project?

Whenever I start a project, it comes from a place of wanting to focus on simple human themes that most people can relate to. It could be an emotion like love, the feeling of time running out, or the universal experience of nudity, as we’ve all been naked.

I was thinking about how I often turn to adolescence in my work, and how this period of life fascinates me. I’m interested in transitions and the time when identities are formed. It’s also an age that I find quite triggering, as a lot happened for me personally then. I think artists usually start from something they’ve experienced or feel strongly about.

For this project, I wanted a framework and thought about the journey home from school, because it’s a wonderful reflection of the journey that we take from childhood to adulthood.

Did you have the concept for the project before you visited Cape Town and thought it would fit well there?

A few years ago, I was invited to do a short, six-week residency in South Africa, intended as the starting point for a project that would unfold over several stays. Then COVID hit, freezing all travel plans and giving me ample time to reflect on how I wanted to approach the opportunity. Once the pandemic had wound down, the invitation still stood, but I was told the work would have to be completed in a single trip. Knowing I couldn’t create it that way, I decided to use the funding to run workshops and treat the residency as a period of research.

I had some good advice from [South African photographer] Gideon Mendel. I said to him, “I’m going to Cape Town, my dad’s from there, but I’ve only been once and I don’t really know anything about the culture, and the last thing I want is for the project to feel like I just parachuted in.” Gideon’s advice was to avoid the townships and take things slowly.

I realized I needed a team, and that’s when I met Lauren Theunissen, a photographer based in Cape Town. I couldn’t have done this project without her.

What’s so invaluable about working with a local collaborator like Lauren is that they’re not perceived as a threat by the people you’re working with. But beyond that, she’s one of the most perceptive and thoughtful people I’ve ever met, deeply aware of our responsibility—not just as photographers, but as adults, as women, and as privileged people working in this context.

Lauren’s involvement extended far beyond production; she helped refine the artist’s statement and played a key role in shaping ideas, including decisions about what to shoot.

I’ve always considered your approach to be very much that of a fine artist, especially in the way you break projects down and examine their layers. Could you tell me a little about your process?

I use different tools and processes for each project. I might take a story and translate it into several different languages and then look at the meaning each language brings out in it. I might then strip down those lines of text and draw them out, to make a visual representation of the words.

I don’t want to just respond to what I see by being reactive. I could be dancing with the scene in front of me, but prior to that moment, I’ll already have spent months, sometimes years, exploring ideas and researching them. This could mean looking at paintings, reading Nabokov, Esther Perel, or Deborah Levy, or watching Larry Clarke films.

In November 2021, I was working on a project for the Passage Art-Residency-Programme in Germany that looked at the landscape, history, and culture of the Heide and Wittenberg regions. Every morning, before the shoot, I laid out about a hundred images of inspiration, mainly paintings and drawings. At the shoot, I responded in a very documentary way: I’d see light come through a window, so I’d wander into that room and stay there for a while to see if something happened. The images I shot were predominantly of a family cutting vegetables at the table in a beautiful soft light that had filtered through the window. But when I looked at the inspirational paintings and drawings again, I realizsed that the majority were still life images of fruits and vegetables. I had effectively preconditioned my subconscious and directed what my eyes would gravitate toward.

Fundamentally, the Journey Home series is about the beautiful innocence, naivety, and imagination of young people within their space. Yes, of course, it’s about the journey to and from school and the fear and anxiety that comes with that, especially in a dangerous place. In Cape Town, the crossfire from gangs is the greatest threat, and I believe that every young person should be able to grow up in safety. But what I find so interesting, and what my camera is drawn toward, is the beautiful element of play and how that still exists, even in precarious situations. It reminds me how imaginative kids are and how they own their spaces. How they find play, joy, friendship, and escape, despite the circumstances.

All images © Laura Pannack.

You can see more of Now Voyager and subscribe here.

A selection of Laura’s images from The Journey Home will be shown at the David Hill Gallery booth (B07) at Photo London, 13th to 17th May.

We will also present works by Alice Mann, Sanlé Sory, Mark Steinmetz, Larry Fink, and James Clifford Kent. Please message via the button below to receive a PDF of the all works that will be shown at the fair.

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First published by Nazraeli Press in 2017, Sage Sohier’s Americans Seen has just been issued in newly ‘remastered’ and expanded form. Featuring images made by Sohier between 1979 and 1986 when she lived in Boston, it is predominantly a portrait of the city’s working-class communities whiling away long summer days.

In addition to the Boston-based work, the book also holds images from various road trips made by Sohier. In the summer these took in everything from mining towns in West Virginia and Mormon neighbourhoods in Utah, to run-down Newburgh, situated on the Hudson River, and French-Canadian communities in Berlin, New Hampshire. In winter, Sohier headed south to the warmth of Florida and Louisiana where she photographed families whose homes had been flooded. Together, the images create a broad picture of 1980s US working-class life.

Americans Seen is a captivating body of work that magically captures a recent, but now by-gone era. It shows people with time on their hands, some making their own entertainment, some not, in the days before attention spans shrunk with the invasion of smartphones.

“Life was lived outside in public more, and I found the kind of theatre-of-the-streets that emerged intriguing.” Sage Sohier

Sage Sohier: Americans Seen is available from UK distributor Setanta Books.

All images © Sage Sohier, courtesy of Nazraeli Press

Eileen Perrier: A Thousand Small Stories

Opening on Thursday 17th April at Autograph, in London’s Shoreditch, Eileen Perrier: A Thousand Small Stories is the artist’s first retrospective and draws on three decades of work. Perrier started making portraits in the 1990s, often resourcefully in makeshift studios, finding common themes of shared experiences and place.

In the words of the Bindi Vora, the exhibition’s curator, “Her work has evolved into a form of social engagement that powerfully visualises individuality – encouraging us to look beyond social and cultural divides. Perrier uses the tropes of 19th century European and contemporary African studio portraiture to contemplate how class, cultural identity and belonging are represented through the photographic portrait.”

Central to the show is Perrier’s Afro Hair and Beauty Show, shot between 1998 and 2003, a portrait series that focuses on the significance of hair and hairstyles as symbols of cultural pride and resistance across the African diaspora. Her Red, Gold and Green series from 1997 is also featured, a collaboration with family members – first, second and third-generation British Ghanaians living in London – all photographed in their own homes. With fabrics utilised as backdrops, the work has echoes of West African portrait studio photography of the 1960s, 70s and 80s.

Eileen Perrier: A Thousand Small Stories is free to attend, tickets and information here.

All images © Eileen Perrier, courtesy of Autograph

Mark Cohen: Tall Socks

About to be published by GOST Books, Mark Cohen: Tall Socks is a collection of images made in New York over a 50 year-period. It started in July of 1973, when Cohen was taking part in a film production workshop at New York University. Classes were short, so with time on his hands, he walked the city with his 35mm camera, often shooting candidly from the hip, giving a lower perspective to many of the shots.

New York of the 1970s was beset by problems, with street gangs prevalent and crime rates sky high. Municipal services has ceased to function properly as the Big Apple teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. It was all too much for the middle-classes, who made an en masse bolt for the suburbs, leaving the city with a dystopian vacuum. But there was still resilience, energy and playfulness, and this is what Cohen’s lens was drawn to.

“There is an undercurrent of threat in some of the images—the glare of a stranger and menacing subway stations—but also humour and joy found in a child’s tall socks, a lady with peacock feathers, an incongruous elephant, or a girl carrying a plank of wood across a cobblestoned street.” GOST Books

Mark Cohen: Tall Socks is available to pre-order now from GOST Books, shipping in April.

All images © Mark Cohen, courtesy of GOST Books

You can follow David Hill Gallery in Instagram here

Newly published by Nazraeli Press, Mark Steinmetz: Chicago is a late-80s portrait of the Windy City, with all images made between 1988 and 1991 when Steinmetz lived in a small apartment in the city’s Wrigleyville district.

Producing prints in his bedroom that doubled as a darkroom, it was here he printed important series like The Players, Summertime, and Carnival, as well as this previously unseen body. Chicago is a collection of quiet, gentle moments, acutely observed with Steinmetz’s typical humanistic discretion.

Featuring 129 duotone plates and an essay by Peter Galassi, Chief Curator of Photography at the MoMA from 1991 to 2011, Chicago is published to coincide with an exhibition of the same name at Chicago’s Stephen Daiter Gallery, showing until 25th April. It is available as a standard book (edition of 1,500), a signed and numbered Special Edition in slipcase (100 copies), and in Deluxe edition with a signed 10 x 12 in. silver gelatin print of State Street and Randolph, Chicago (above), hand-printed by Steinmetz himself (12 copies).

In the words of publisher Nazraeli Press, ‘Mark Steinmetz’s photographs are devoid of malice—they are full of compassion. His work is curious and respectful, asking questions without pretence, or judgments. He allows his subjects to express how they are feeling, rather than projecting his own.’

Mark Steinmetz: Chicago is available directly from Nazraeli Press in the United States, or from UK importer Setanta Books.

All images © Mark Steinmetz, courtesy of Nazraeli Press / Stephen Daiter Gallery

Alex Harris: The Idea of Cuba

Published back in 2007, and somehow off my radar until now, The Idea of Cuba collects images that photographer Alex Harris made over three trips from 1998 to 2003.

Harris took a different approach on these visits, giving each series its own documentary identity. Looking beyond the well-worn archetypes, he used the ubiquitous 1950s Detroit machinery to highlight the difficulties caused by 65 years of embargoed trade between the US and Cuba, rather than romanticising it.

Similarly, the portraits of young Cuban women not only challenge and raise questions regarding gaze, but also show their slowly improving social status in late-90s Cuba, which Castro’s government deemed important for his political survival.

‘I travelled to Cuba to make landscapes and discovered (Cuban nationalist, poet, philosopher, essayist, journalist, translator, professor, publisher, and national hero) Jose Marti. Maybe this was only luck, providing a gringo photographer with a unifying Cuban theme for three idiosyncratic bodies of work. But if this was luck, it was an odd blessing for an author trying to publish in the United States, choosing for my book a hero that few in this country know or care about.’ Alex Harris

‘Time will tell if my photographs of Cuba have significance beyond the pleasure I had in making them, implications for those still squinting at Cuba through an old iron curtain, relevance perhaps even for Cubans enduring difficult times on the island, waiting for something to happen.’ Alex Harris

Alex Harris: The Idea of Cuba was published by University of New Mexico Press (in association with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University) in 2007 and is still easily available online.

All images © Alex Harris, courtesy University of New Mexico Press

Kathy Shorr: Limousine

Kathy Shorr’s Limousine is a photobook that’s been a long time coming. After graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in photography at New York’s School for Visual Arts in 1988, the Brooklyn-born and based Shorr was looking for a follow-on series to her thesis study on ballroom dancing. Long story short, she took a job as a chauffeur with a local limousine company, reasoning that she could photograph her passengers while she worked. In the nine months that followed, Shorr transported and photographed people across a very broad social spectrum.

Female limousine drivers were still uncommon in the late-80s, which may have contributed to the positive responses Shorr received when asking if she could photograph those she was taking to weddings, dinners, proms and dances.

Some shots were taken outside the vehicle, but most were through the partition behind the driver, which effectively turned the passenger section of the vehicle into a plush mobile photobooth.

Shorr was soon aware of the shift in character that happened as people embraced a temporal sense of celebrity when riding in style and not wearing their everyday clothing. ‘When people come into the car, everybody is dressed up, and you take on a new persona when you dress fancy. Your behaviour and manner are very different than if you’re just going out in jeans or sweats with the same people. Your persona elevates. But, as time goes by, your real personality comes out.’

Speaking with The Guardian in 2019, Shorr observed that driving limousines in New York taught her a great deal about human nature. ‘Working-class guys were the best tippers. They understood that the tip was going to make the driver’s day or evening. The worst were the people who had money: the more money it seemed that somebody had, the cheaper they were.’

Katy Shorr Limousine is available now from Lazy Dog Publishing

All images © Kathy Shorr, courtesy of Lazy Dog Publishing

You can follow David Hill Gallery on Instagram here.

First published by STANLEY/BARKER in 2014, Studio 54 has been made available again to mark ten years of the British publisher. The photobook collects 66 of Tod Papageorge’s images from the infamous New York nightclub, all shot between 1978-80.

Studio 54 first opened its doors in April 1977 and then ran full tilt until February 1980 when the IRS forced its closure. In that short time the club’s name had become a byword for decadence, celebrity and excess. It was the hottest spot in town and notoriously hard to enter.

‘Unsurprisingly, given its reputation, it was difficult to get into: the imperturbable doormen who doled out access as if they were controlling passage into a fabulous kingdom made sure that it would be. Only the famous or socially connected could assume they’d find themselves shooed around the flock of hopeful celebrants milling on the street side of the velvet rope and guided through the door; otherwise, the thing most likely to help was to be beautiful. Once inside, though, everyone there seemed thrilled by the fact, no matter how they’d managed it, an excitement fed by the throbbing music and brilliantly designed interiors, which, on a party night, could suggest anything from Caliban’s cave to a harem.’ Tod Papageorge

In the words of publisher STANLEY/BARKER, ‘Papageorge's images transcend the obvious, transforming the glitter into something akin to poetry.’

Tod Papageorge: Studio 54 is available with a (very disco) gold cover here.

All images © Tod Papageorge, courtesy of STANLEY/BARKER

Tina Barney: Family Ties

Towards the end of the 1970s, Tina Barney began documenting the privileged upper echelons of New England society, a strata that her family had long been a part of (Barney herself attended Spence, the elite girls school in New York). Initially shooting family and friends with her 8 x 10 inch large format camera, Barney was soon analysing the social mores and rituals of the East Coast’s bourgeoisie.

The recently published Family Ties collects almost 100 photographs made over four decades and coincides with a career retrospective at Paris’s Jeu de Paume. A collaborative project between Atelier EXB and Aperture, the book features an essay by Quentin Bajac, who commissioned and directed the exhibition, and an interview with the artist by Sarah Meister, the executive director of Aperture.

‘I want every object as clear and precise as possible so that the viewer can really examine them and feel as if they are entering the room. I want every single thing to be seen, the beauty of it all: the textures, the fabrics, the colours, the china, the furniture, the architecture.’ Tina Barney

Tina Barney: Family Ties is available from Atelier EXB (French language edition) and Aperture (English language version). The exhibition at Jeu de Paume runs until 19th January.

All images © Tina Barney, courtesy Atelier EXB / Aperture

Laura Pannack: 2025 Calendar

It’s that time of year when shops and websites are again awash with calendars, but this one from Laura Pannack stands head and shoulders above the throng, appropriately so for a photographer most known for meticulous yet intimate portraiture.

Designed by Alice Chia and printed by Taylor Brothers, Bristol's oldest printing company, the calendar consists of twelve images drawn from Pannack’s 17-year strong archive, each one relating to the month it is paired with.

Available with a choice of four different colour covers (cream, forest, terracotta and ocean), it can be ordered directly from the artist’s site, or can be picked up from The Photographers’ Gallery this evening (13th December, 6-9pm), where Pannack will be launching it accompanied by mulled wine and mince pies. Ask nicely, and she might even sign for you.

All images © Laura Pannack

You can follow David Hill Gallery on Instagram here.

Download a PDF of Alice Mann’s Drummies series, currently showing at the David Hill Gallery, here.

Just published by Deadbeat Club, Magdalena Wywrot’s Pestka is a gem of a photobook, full of images with gothic playfulness that remain seared on the mind’s eye.

Living in Krakow, Poland, Wywrot predominantly documented the life of her daughter, nicknamed Pestka – hence the book’s title – as she grew from childhood through to early adulthood. Many of the photographs were made in, or looking out from, their apartment high above the city’s streets. Others are beautifully stark landscapes, near-abstract architectural compositions, or quiet observations of the natural world. Some images echo the high grain, high contrast style of Japan’s Provoke movement, while others have an altogether more subtle tonal balance. Expertly edited by writer and curator David Campany, this is a captivating book with balance and poise.

In the words of the publisher, ‘There is a fishbowl quality to Wywrot’s photos, which shapeshift, mercury-like, between Expressionism, Impressionism, and abstraction. The portraits are tender, mysterious, full of sparks of wonder and ecstasy, while the landscapes are disorienting, forbidding, vaguely apocalyptic, and often sublime.’

‘Earth is an extraordinary laboratory. We are here for only a fraction of a cosmic second. What we see, touch, experience, give of ourselves – it's all ours. And it doesn't matter where we come from.’ Magdalena Wywrot, translated from Polish

Magdalena Wywrot: Pestka is available from Photobookstore in the UK, or directly from Deadbeat Club. The publisher also has two special editions available, each coming with a print of a different image.

All images © Magdalena Wywrot, courtesy of Deadbeat Club

As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic

Toronto-based dentist, collector and archivist Dr. Kenneth Montague has been building the Wedge Collection since 1997, and in this time has created an extraordinarily rich collection of photographs and artworks from African Diasporic culture. The current exhibition at Saatchi Gallery is an extension of his best-selling Aperture-published book of the same name and this is the first time the collection has travelled to the United Kingdom.

With many works acquired early in artists’ careers when support is most needed, the collection is a rollcall of some the most notable artists, Black or otherwise, from the 20th and 21st centuries. These include Liz Artur Johnson, Seydou Keita, Gordon Parks, Malick Sidibé, Zun Lee, Charlie Phillips, Jamel Shabazz, Sanlé Sory, Dennis Morris, Horace Ové and James Barnor.

‘Too often in the larger culture, we see images of Black people in attitudes of despair, pain, or brutal isolation. As We Rise gently refuses that. It is not that people are always in an attitude of celebration – no, that would be a reverse but corresponding falsehood – but rather that they are present as human beings, credible, fully engaged in their world.’ Teju Cole in his preface to As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic: Photography from the Black Atlantic (Aperture, 2021)

This is simply a must-see opportunity to view works from Canada’s largest privately-owned collection dedicated to Black artists.

As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic is showing at the Saatchi Gallery until 20th January, and the Aperture book is available from the publisher and other outlets.

First image © Samuel Fosso, courtesy JM. Patras, Paris, second image © Liz Artur Johnson, courtesy Black Balloon Archive, third image © Jamel Shabazz, courtesy of the artist, fourth image © Zun Lee, courtesy of the artist

Saul Leiter: Carte Postale

Saul Leiter: Carte Postale has just been published by Antwerp’s Gallery 51 to coincide with its eponymous new exhibition. Discovered only recently by Leiter’s estate, Carte Postale is a collection of intimate, postcard-sized photographs, produced by the artist over several decades. 

Leiter uses similar visual language in these diminutive monochrome prints to that of his ground-breaking colour work, his eye consistently elevating potentially mundane scenes into images of poetic grace and beauty.

‘Being ignored is a great privilege. That is how I think I learned to see what others do not see and to react to situations differently.’ Saul Leiter

Saul Leiter: Carte Postale is available directly from Gallery 51 and from Photobookstore in the UK. The accompanying exhibition is showing at Gallery 51 from 23rd November to 1st February.

All images © Estate of Saul Leiter, courtesy Gallery 51

You can follow David Hill Gallery on Instagram here.

You can download a PDF of Alice Mann’s Drummies series, currently showing at the David Hill Gallery, here.

Published to accompany the first European retrospective of American photographer Barbara Crane (Centre Pompidou, Paris until 6th January), this Atelier EXB monograph primarily covers work from the first 25 years of her career and features images from her major series plus many previously unpublished.

Crane’s boundary-pushing photography is a combination of documentary and experimental, the latter approach often featuring sequenced, repeated, gridded or layered negatives, lending graphic abstraction to the work.

‘See, I told you photographers could still do something different.’ Ansel Adams, on seeing a selection of Crane’s photographs in 1971

‘She never stopped playing and never stopped experimenting.’ Lesley A. Martin, creative director of Aperture Foundation, who edited Crane’s Private Views photobook (Aperture, 2009).

Barbara Crane: Barbara Crane is available in either English or French language editions from publisher Atelier EXB, and details of the Centre Pompidou exhibition can be found here. Private Views is also available from Aperture.

Images © Estate of Barbara Crane, courtesy Atelier EXB

Letizia Battaglia: Life, Love and Death in Sicily

Life, Love and Death in Sicily is the first major UK exhibition of work by Sicilian photographer Letizia Battaglia. Born in Palermo in 1935, Battaglia was the victim in an abusive relationship from the age of sixteen, only escaping this in her early forties, also the point when she first picked up a camera. From then on, she relentlessly photographed the destruction, heartache and despair left in the wake of perpetual Mafia conflict during the period known as ‘the years of lead’.

After just three days at L’Ora, the daily newspaper she reported for, Battaglia had seen her first dead body. She later commented, ‘Your first murder, it never leaves you’. Many of her hard-hitting images appeared on the front page of L’Ora, resulting in her becoming known as the modern-day Weegee.

In one grim image from 1982, three lifeless bodies are slumped in a stark featureless room, their lives cut short as a result of buying their heroin from a supplier other than the Mafia. Battaglia said, ‘It was such a small room, when I arrived it was full of people: policemen, doctors, magistrates. I had to wait there until, one by one, they left and I was alone with the bodies. It took an eternity, but I had to be alone out of respect for the dead.’

Battaglia’s images are far from the Hollywood portrayal of the Mafia and clearly illustrate its impact on all ages and strata of Sicilian society.

‘Photography changes nothing. Violence continues, poverty continues. Children are still being killed in stupid wars.’ Letizia Battaglia

Letizia Battaglia: Life, Love and Death in Sicily is showing at The Photographers’ Gallery until 23rd February, more details here.

All images @ Archivio Letizia Battaglia, courtesy of The Photographers’ Gallery

Don McCullin: The Roman Conceit

British publisher GOST Books has just overseen the printing of The Roman Conceit, its second book with Don McCullin, scheduled for publication next February. Clearly a labour of love, the book has rich tri-tone reproductions from McCullin’s 25-years-and-counting photographic survey of the cultural and architectural remains of the Roman Empire. Images feature statues, busts, heads and friezes, both in their original situation and as displayed in museums, and all are previously unpublished.

However, this feature is to draw your attention to the Special Edition of the book, which will be published alongside the ‘standard’ version. Produced in an edition of only twelve, these come supplied with a beautiful signed and numbered 20 x 16 inch silver gelatin print of Hadrian’s Villa, Tivoli, Italy (the first image above), hand-printed by McCullin in his home darkroom.

The price of this Special Edition is £2,250, increasing as the edition sells through, which for a McCullin print of this quality and provenance has to be a relative steal. Pre-orders are being taken now for both the standard and Special Edition books, and I don’t see the latter being available for very long.

‘It is never as an academic, nor as a scholar, that I respond to these stone gods and goddesses, but as a respectful admirer. I hope to pay tribute, through my photography, to their iconic beauty, their marble perfection and their very existence, exhumed lovingly by archaeologists and brought to life after 2000 years of burial. We must not allow ourselves to forget that such beauty came at a price; this, after all was stone quarried by enslaved people and the statuary itself became the spoils of war, looted across the centuries, from country to country, to this day. It moves me that these exhibits have existed through such turbulent times; surviving disfigurement and the changing mores and morality of Christianity and Islam which found nudity unsettling, surviving the vandalism of thieves and tomb-robbers, the destruction of earthquakes, as well the zeal of over-enthusiastic restorers. Their broken beauty doesn’t take away from their impact; here is all the power and the glory of the Roman world at its most narcissistic and idealised; a celebration of victory, grandeur and perfection of the gods and heroes of the classical world.’ Don McCullin

For more information, or to pre-order Don McCullin: The Roman Conceit, click here.

All images © Don McCullin, courtesy GOST Books

You can follow David Hill Gallery on Instagram here.

You can download a PDF of Alice Mann’s Drummies series, currently showing at the David Hill Gallery, here.

Opening at London’s Autograph on 31st October, Abi Morocco Photos: Spirit of Lagos tells the story of a unique portrait studio that operated in the Nigerian capital from the mid-1970s to the early-2000s.

Run by husband-and-wife team John and Funmilayo Abe, the role of studio photographer was shared between the couple, a particularly unusual arrangement in such a male-dominated era. In addition to making portraits, Funmilayo was also an accomplished darkroom printer and produced many of the prints for the studio’s clients.

As with much West African studio portraiture, common visual themes are present in the imagery, with props such as cameras, guitars and a telephone often featured, plus the ubiquitous chequered linoleum flooring. But these images have an identity of their own and do not feel generic. Studio floodlights and other details are seen at the left and right edges of many images, the full-frame square format negatives remaining uncropped for exhibition’s prints. This is unlike those that customers would have receive dat the time, which were cropped to a standard rectangular postcard format that effectively edited out the lights and other elements at the vertical peripheries. The prints in the show are all the richer for the context provided by full-frame printing.

Abi Morocco Photos was one of many West African portrait studios that adopted digital technology when it arrived in the early 2000s. Aware that so much rich visual culture and history was at risk of being lost, Lagos Studio Archives was born in 2015 with a mission to preserve the work of the Nigerian photo studios.

Bindi Vora, who co-curated the show with Lagos Studio Archives, sums up the work of Abi Morocco Photos thus, ‘The studio’s remarkable black-and-white portraits celebrate the rich style and joyous spirit of a generation of Lagosians during a transformative period in Nigeria’s history.’

Abi Morocco Photos: Spirit of Lagos will show at Autograph, London, from 31st October to 22nd March, further details and tickets here.

All images © Funmilayo Abe, courtesy Autograph / Lagos Studio Archives

Harry Gruyaert: Homeland

Newly published by Atelier EXB in France and Thames & Hudson in the UK, Homeland is Magnum Photos member Harry Gruyaert’s photographic tribute to the quirkier side of Belgium, ‘a visually interesting place where incongruous things happen’, as he succinctly puts it.

Images in Homeland are a combination of monochrome and vibrant colour, separated into different portfolios that cover topics ranging from carnivals to religious processions, and café-concerts to seemingly random street observations. One gets the sense that Gruyaert is continually filled with a mix of wonder and gratitude that the photographic gods have smiled on him yet again.

The publisher describes the project thus, ‘Here, in the homeland that he had considered so desolate in his younger years, he found unexpected beauty. Urban lighting, neon storefronts, glimpses behind suburban dwellings, passersby wandering drunkenly home, ports that never sleep, countryside with seemingly infinite horizons: his lens captures the singularity of his nation, portraying everyday life in a way that unfolds like a hyperrealistic film set.’

Harry Gruyaert: Homeland is available now and includes a QR code that links to a film based around Gruyaert’s images, which is accompanied by music from Tuur Floorizone.

All images © Harry Gruyaert, courtesy Magnum Photos / Thames & Hudson / Atelier AXB

Jason Evans: Pointing at Joy

Back in 2004, six years before Instagram was born, British photographer Jason Evans presciently launched a website dedicated to the daily sharing of images he made that brought him joy. The site was named The Daily Nice and it rapidly achieved cult status, the images only remaining visible on the site for 24 hours before being replaced by another.

To mark 20 years of these posts of positivity, Evans has produced five limited-edition sets of playing cards, each with 52 unique images from the project’s publicly invisible archive.

The premise behind the site is ‘the belief that positive will bring positive’, as Evans recently explained to designer, creative director, and lecturer Carri Munden, ‘The audience was only ever supposed to see one picture at a time, a bunch of the images can feel like a potentially overwhelming carnival of eye candy, which you were subjected to for the purposes of this conversation. The Daily Nice pictures are the outcome of my compulsively ‘pointing’ at things that give me visual pleasure and wanting to share that as positive affirmation.’

Evans further explains, ‘I don’t keep an archive or a record of the images. I’ve lost loads of them on old laptops, but I don’t mind, there’s always going to be more beauty, more inspiration, you just have to be tuned into it. That’s what the no archive policy implies. Letting go is a radical act in a consumer culture. It’s about the process, the taking part, not accumulation.’

Carri Munden’s full interview with Jason Evans can be read here, and The Daily Nice playing cards ordered here.

All images © Jason Evans / thedailynice.com

You can follow David Hill Gallery on Instagram here.

You can download a PDF of Alice Mann’s Drummies series, currently showing at the David Hill Gallery, here.

Way before Larry Clark shot to notoriety for Kids, his 1995 film portraying the lives of young teenagers living a life of drink and drugs, he was a photographer.

As a teenager himself in early 60s Oklahoma, Clark and his friends trod a similar path to those in Kids and were big on amphetamine, extracting the drug from nasal inhalers. Moving to New York to study photography, Clark then served with the military for two years in Vietnam. On returning to Tulsa at the age of twenty, he slid into heroin use, and began using his camera to document himself and those in his circle. Some of these images were published in his landmark photobook Tulsa in 1971.

Half a century on, Clark has revisited his archive for Return, a new photobook being published by STANLEY/BARKER in October. Return covers 1962 to 1973 and features many previously unseen frames. Images are stark, visceral, and hard-hitting. The publisher describes them as ‘a series of raw photographs chronicling the disintegration of the American dream.’

‘I’ve always been interested in small groups of marginalized people who no one would know about otherwise. I photographed my friends over a ten-year period in this secret world that nobody else could have possibly come in and done except someone from the inside like me. You see us from the time we were teenagers up until our twenties and how everything changed and how we changed. There weren’t supposed to be drugs back then. It was supposed to be mom’s apple pie and white picket fences. When I started making work, I said, “Why can’t you show everything?”’ Larry Clark

Larry Clark: Return is available to pre-order from STANLEY/BARKER now, shipping October.

All images © Larry Clark, courtesy STANLEY/BARKER

Michael Kerstgens: The Enemy Within – The Miners Strike 1984/5

Recently published by Dewi Lewis, The Enemy Within is Michael Kerstgens’ document of the Miners Strike of 1984/5, when most British miners took industrial action against pit closures and an immanent loss of jobs. The book takes its title from a phrase then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher chillingly used to describe the miners.

For those who can’t remember it, I urge you to watch Strike – An Uncivil War, which is now streaming on Netflix. It shows how the Thatcher government employed paramilitary policing tactics for the first time in the UK to control and dominate the demonstrating miners. The BBC, ITV, and mainstream print media all colluded with the government to present a picture of violent miners attacking the police, but the film shows a very different reality. When the strike action collapsed in early 1985, pits were rapidly closed without any support or plan for alternative employment. With hope extinguished, many previously solid communities quickly fell apart, sinking into alcohol and drug dependency. The whole chapter is both tragic and shameful, and there is yet to be an official inquiry into the way that the government and police force operated (last denied by Theresa May’s conservative government in 2019).

Michael Kerstgens was studying photography in Germany in 1984, but was born and grew up in Llanelli, South Wales. Publisher Dewi Lewis explains the background, ‘His father spent twelve years working in South Wales for an engineering company involved with the mining industry. As a sixteen-year-old, Kerstgens took a summer job at the company’s Swansea office. He also experienced the underground life of the miners at Cynheidre Colliery. It’s not surprising therefore that once Kerstgens heard about the strike he went to South Wales to find out what was going on and started what would be his first major photography project.’

Now aged 24, Kerstens reconnected with old friends in South Wales, which gave him access unavailable to most photographers. His images are a unique behind-the-scenes view of a community doing its best to resist brutal change imposed by Westminster. One shot shows miners’ wives at a social club on New Years’ Eve, another shows a room packed with men for a National Union of Miners branch meeting, and in one we see a large hall where Christmas dinner has been laid on for scores of miners’ children.

Michael Kerstgens: The Enemy Within – The Miners Strike 1984/5 is available from publisher Dewi Lewis here.

All images © Michael Kerstgens, courtesy Dewi Lewis Publishing

Ten.8 in Focus: The Legacy of Black Image and Body Politics

Opening at The Photographers’ Gallery on 9th October, Ten.8 in Focus: The Legacy of Black Image and Body Politics looks at two specific issues of the influential Birmingham-based magazine, founded by photographers Derek Bishton, Brian Homer and John Reardon in 1978.

The issues featured are Black Image from 1984, and Body Politics from 1987, both of which were produced in collaboration with The Photographers’ Gallery. In the words of TPG, ‘Ten.8 in Focus is a snapshot of the dynamic and diverse ways Ten.8 explored ideas around power, representation, sexuality, race and photography, which are all still relevant today.’

‘Ten.8 began as a magazine with the stated aim of providing a forum for West Midlands-based photographers to come together and share images and ideas. The first issue was published in February 1979 and had a print run of 500 copies. Eleven years later, when what turned out to be the last edition, Critical Decade, was published, the local magazine had developed into an internationally acclaimed journal – or Photo Paperback as we rather grandly called it – with distribution across North America, mainland Europe and Australia and more than 1,500 subscribers from all over the world. The Digital Dialogues issue sold 5,000 copies, and the first print run of Critical Decade – 3,000 copies – sold out in months.’ Derek Bishton, Ten.8 founder and editor

A number of collaborative events are planned, more details can be found here.

You can follow David Hill Gallery on Instagram here

Scheduled for publication in November, but available to pre-order from GOST Books now, Sam Wright’s Pillar to Post is a tender document of Traveller and Romani Gypsy communities in the UK and Ireland.

Shot over a two-year period, the photographer, who is of Irish Traveller heritage himself, has created a tender portrait of these often misrepresented communities. His images show the warmth of multi-generational families, the strength and respect in communities, and the place that centuries-old tradition has in their world today.

Wright says, ‘It was very clear that many people have misunderstood Travellers and Romani Gypsies, and I was shocked by the open prejudice towards this community. I wanted to tell the real story of the people I met and counter the media portrayal. I believe it's time for a positive change in attitudes, and I hope this project contributes to that shift.’

The publisher explains how the project came about; ‘Wright began his project at Appleby Horse Fair, the largest annual gathering of Traveller and Romani people, which has taken place since 1775. Before he visited the fair he was warned not to attend – he was told there would be trouble and that his equipment would be stolen – demonstrating the widespread prejudice facing the often misrepresented and maligned community. In spite of warnings, he persisted and was warmly welcomed by the community, quickly building relationships with a number of families as he listened to and recorded their stories on film and in photographs. He went on to visit fairs across Yorkshire, Norfolk, Cumbria, Galway and Cork.’

Sam Wright: Pillar to Post can be pre-ordered from GOST Books here, shipping in November.

All images © Sam Wright, courtesy of GOST Books.

Trent Parke: Monument 

Trent Parke’s starkly beautiful Monument series – as recently published by STANLEY/BARKER – will be shown at the Martin Parr Foundation in Bristol, opening on 3rd October.

Monument collects images by the Magnum photographer shot on the streets of Sydney and Adelaide, Australia over a 25-year period. The publisher explains, ‘When Trent Parke moved to Sydney from a small Australian country town, his first impression was of the sheer volume of people. He would grab his camera and go out exploring at every opportunity, fascinated by the endless processions. At rush hour, he watched as the city workers moved in a great mass, all walking the great conveyor belt of life. In a trance-like state, treading the same path day after day, week after week, year after year… clocking on, clocking off, all under the spell of the city. Parke would stand on the edge of the wave, on the outside of a new world, looking in. As if watching a newly discovered species.’

In addition to observing people as worker insects, Parke also recorded actual insects – moths in particular; ‘At night I would watch the eclipse of moths, millions of them constantly circling the lights of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. At the same time, on my balcony, a miniature performance played out around the light above my head. The moths inevitably and without resistance were drawn to their ultimate demise. Spiralling out of control, like small spaceships caught in a tractor beam. Lured and blinded by the bright white light, they were taken out by hundreds of birds swooping in to snatch them from the air… spiders sat waiting on their webs. Built with precise coordinates across the face of the lights, they captured the hapless tiny creatures that slipped through. If any miraculously managed to survive that onslaught, they continued on, driven towards the flame, intoxicated by those burning hot light globes. Then suddenly an electrical charge in the still air. A small puff of smoke. Gone. Instant disintegration of a life form. Another blip in the universe. Another small spacecraft colliding with the blazing sun.’ Trent Parke

Trent Parke: Monument is showing at Martin Parr Foundation from 3rd October to 22nd December, more details can be found here.

All images © Trent Parke / Magnum Photos, courtesy of STANLEY / BARKER

Nazraeli Press One Picture Book Two series

US-based photobook publisher Nazraeli has recently issued four new titles in its highly collectable One Picture Book Two series, where all books are limited to 500 copies and come supplied with an artist-signed print.

The new titles are by Carrie Mae Weems, Tanya Marcuse, plus two from Daido Maoriyama, and all are selling fast.

The One Picture Book Two series is available from importer Setanta Books and The Photographers’ Gallery Book Shop.

Images © Carrie Mae Weems and © Daido Moriyama, courtesy Nazraeli Press.

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Co-published by Atelier EXB and Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, Stephen Shore: Vehicular & Vernacular accompanies the current exhibition of the same name at the Fondation in Paris, which is showing until 1st September.

Vehicles and mobility have been central to Stephen Shore’s work for half a century. The theme began when he started documenting Los Angeles from a car, which he chose to shoot in monochrome, snapshot-style, to create opportunity for luck and error. Taking this conceptual approach further, he explored the visual language of postcards, culminating in a series on the city of Amarillo in 1971. This was followed by two landmark series, American Surfaces and Uncommon Places. Together, these established Shore as one of the most significant pioneers of American colour photography. At the turn of the millennium, he returned to photographing from car windows, trains and planes, and then in 2020 began utilising camera-equipped drones to document changes in the American landscape.

In the words of publisher Atelier EXB, ‘Based on curator Clément Chéroux’s idea, this book and the accompanying exhibition look at Stephen Shore’s work through the unexplored lens of vehicular photography. The journey, as important as the destination, becomes a pretext for experimenting and developing a unique body of work. Stephen Shore explores vernacular contemporary landscapes and what they reveal about American society.’

‘To see something ordinary, something you’d see every day, and recognise it as a photographic possibility – that’s what I’m interested in.’ Stephen Shore

Stephen Shore: Vehicular & Vernacular is available now from The Photographers’ Gallery Bookshop. The exhibition at the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson is showing until 1st September; more details, including an in-conversation video, here.

Images © Stephen Shore, courtesy of Atelier EXB / Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson

Lisa Barlow: Holy Land USA

Lisa Barlow made Holy Land USA while an American Studies major at Yale, where she was taught by two of the photographic greats – Larry Fink and Tod Papageorge. Shot in the summer of 1980, the series was forgotten in the decades that followed, only to be rediscovered when Lisa spent time with her archive during the Covid pandemic. Almost forty-five years later, it will finally be seen when published by STANLEY / BARKER this autumn.

Lisa had heard of Holy Land USA – as Waterbury, Connecticut, is known – but had never visited. As the name implies, Waterbury is a devout Christian town, but one complete with a miniature Jerusalem featuring scenes from the Bible and biblical quotations engraved in cement. This replica’s detail and references are extraordinary – Pontius Pilate’s house is there, an inn displaying a ‘No Vacancy’ sign, a lump of something spray-painted white to represent Lot’s wife turned to a pillar of salt, and Lucifer locked in a dog cage.

The publisher provides some context, ‘Built 20 years earlier with concrete, plaster, wire and wood, the diorama had been sparingly repaired with modern materials such as plastic and aluminium siding. The Stairway to Heaven, cracked asphalt steps ascending the hill, had a cyclone fence along one side, and the Garden of Eden was completely obscured by thick vines under a tin sunshade. It was from there that Barlow first saw the city of Waterbury spread beneath her, its church spires and factory smokestacks in odd juxtaposition with Holy Land’s little foot high buildings at her feet.'

‘Before long, it was more than a fascination with Holy Land that kept luring me back to Waterbury. It was the people who captured my attention, my imagination and eventually, my love. This is the story of that year in pictures.’ Lisa Barlow

‘Barlow’s images of Waterbury and its uniquely American idiosyncrasies are enthused with a rare empathy combined with a visual complexity that continues to unfold with each viewing.’ STANLEY / BARKER

Lisa Barlow: Holy Land USA will be published by STANLEY / BARKER in October and can be pre-ordered here.

Images © Lisa Barlow, courtesy of STANLEY / BARKER

Larry Towell: The History of War

Magnum Photos member Larry Towell’s forthcoming The History of War combines photographs, collages, and general ephemera to chart Ukraine’s evolution from the 5th century and its long struggle for independence.

Towell first visited Ukraine during the Maidan uprising in 2014, when he bore witness to the violent clashes between the protestors and police in Kyiv. His photographs depict civilians behind makeshift barricades, armed only with home-made weapons, facing a modern riot-equipped police force. Then the dead are shown in a half-destroyed Maidan Square. Towell’s long-term commitment to Ukraine started here, compelling him to return in subsequent years.

The book also looks at the wastelands of Chernobyl, the site of history’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986, the cause of many Soviets losing faith in the system. Other chapters cover the eastern Donbass, with its neglected coal miners and de-occupied ruins, the Bakhmut region, separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk, and then, the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

In the words of publisher GOST Books, ‘The History War challenges the possibilities of a photobook and demonstrates how storytelling can be woven together by different fabrics. Taking on the format of a scrapbook, Towell combines personal notes with ephemera—postcards, found family pictures, playing cards, cigarette packets and rubbish left behind by Russian soldiers to supplement his images.’

‘I believe this project is an important testament to a political crisis that will shape international relations and reverberate through the decades to come. It also challenges a world oversaturated with news pictures.’ Larry Towell

Larry Towell: The History of War is available to pre-order from publisher GOST Books here, shipping in the autumn. Signed copies are available.

All images © Larry Towell / Magnum Photos, courtesy of GOST Books

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Whoever at Time was inspired to commission Scottish photographer Robbie Lawrence to cover the Paris Olympics deserves a medal, the images seen so far being unlike any others from the Games.

Lawrence has employed a similar approach to that used in Long Walk Home, his five-year documentary series on the Highland Games, shot in Scotland and the United States, and soon to be published by STANLEY / BARKER. The photographs are often dark and moody, with athletes’ movement blurred by slower shutter speeds, creating timeless, painterly images of the competitors.

‘When I initially made the list of events I wanted to cover each day I imagined dodging between the likes of swimming, to dressage, to volleyball seamlessly, but realized very quickly that my ambitions were rather naïve. The events spread from the city’s regal center to Saint-Denis in the north to the great estate of Versailles in the west. Photographers spend just over two weeks charging from venue to venue, attempting to squeeze every visual opportunity from this vast array of performances.’ Robbie Lawrence

You can see the Time feature here, and more images are set to follow.

All images © Robbie Lawrence for TIME

Christer Strömholm

Recently published by Dewi Lewis, Christer Strömholm is an overview of work from the influential Swedish photographer’s long career.

Clocking in at a substantial 296 printed pages, the book covers the early work in post-war 1940s Paris, a city in which Strömholm lived and would frequently return to over the years. There are also images from trips to Spain, the United States, India and Japan, plus the stark graphic works he started producing in the early 1950s as a member of the avant-garde Fotoform photographic collective.

Naturally Strömholm’s best known series, Les amies de Place Blanche, is featured in depth. Shot in the early-to-mid 1960s, it documents the lives of a group of young Parisian transsexuals he befriended and spent considerable time with. The series still raises questions about sexuality and gender, and in Strömholm’s own words, ‘is about obtaining the freedom to choose one's own life and identity.’

‘They were very much outsiders, struggling to survive with their main source of income being from prostitution. In these legendary photographs, shot at night in available light, Strömholm merged street photography and portraiture, depicting them as the close friends they were, in intimate and honest portraits far from the spectacular or speculative.’ Dewi Lewis Publishing

In 1962 Strömholm co-founded the Fotoskolan academy in Stockholm, where he became its director. Between 1962 and 1974, 1,200 students graduated from the academy, including notable photographers Anders Petersen, Björn Dawidsson, and Gunnar Smoliansky.

Christer Strömholm is available from Dewi Lewis Publishing here.

All images © Estate of Christer Strömholm, courtesy of Dewi Lewis Publishing

Frank Horvat: Hong Kong 

In late 1962, French photographer Frank Horvat and German writer Dieter Lattman arrived in Hong Kong, there as part of an assignment to document significant cities around the world for the German magazine Revue. The work has now been collected together and published as part of the Louis Vuitton Fashion Eye series and includes many previously unseen images.

In the words of the publisher, ‘Horvat was fascinated to discover a dense city laid out vertically, packed with people, dwellings, objects and symbols, where empty space was unimaginable. It perfectly suited his style, because he liked to compose his images in black and white, filling the frame with his subject.’

‘To me, photography is not just a visual art, but something closer to poetry – or at least to some poetry, such as the haiku.’ Frank Horvat

Frank Horvat: Hong Kong is available from The Photographers’ Gallery Bookshop.

Images © Estate of Frank Horvat, courtesy Louis Vuitton Fashion Eye

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The African Gaze is writer and archivist Amy Sall’s overview of the most significant African photographers and filmmakers of the postcolonial era. Beautifully produced, it feels like an important and timely book, and is one that I have been hotly anticipating.

Sall examines the work of 25 photographers and 25 filmmakers, with biographical text and images accompanying each. The heavy-hitters of both mediums are represented, as one would expect. On the photography side that means Keita, Sidibé, Sory, Fosso, Barnor and Ojeikere, plus some names that may be off-radar to all but the most committed.

Sall extensively studied archival imagery and documents in her research, interviewed the photographers and filmmakers featured – family members or close associates if the artist is deceased – and has contributions from writers, academics, and curators. Cogently presented, the book provides what must be the most comprehensive document of pan-African film-based creativity to date.

The African Gaze is an essential purchase for anyone with more than a passing interest in African photography or film. You can find more details and order a copy from publisher Thames & Hudson here.

First image © Samuel Fosso, second image © estate of Malick Sidibé, third image © Sanlé Sory / Tezeta

Roger Mayne: Youth

Newly published to accompany The Courtauld’s exhibition of the same name (showing until 1st September, see VIEWFINDING #26), Youth features over sixty photographs and an interview with Mayne’s daughter, Katkin Tremayne. There is also an original essay by Jane Alison, curator of the show at The Courtauld.

In the words of Paul Holberton Publishing, ‘Mayne was passionate about representing human life as he found it – most famously, in his street images of low-income communities in West London. Capturing children at play and the emerging phenomenon of the swaggering teenager, Mayne discovered in the young a defining energy that perfectly embodied both the scars and the vitality of post-war Britain.’

‘My reason for photographing the poor streets is that I love them, and the life on them. Empty, the streets have their own kind of beauty, a kind of decaying splendour, and always great atmosphere whether romantic, on a hazy winter day, or listless when the summer is hot; sometimes it is forbidding; or it may be warm and friendly on a sunny spring weekend when the street is swarming with children playing, and adults walking through or standing gossiping. I remember my excitement when I turned a corner into Southam Street, a street I have returned to again and again... I think an artist must work intuitively, and let his attitudes be reflected by the kinds of things he likes or finds pictorial. Attitudes will be reflected because an artist is a kind of person who is deeply interested in people, and the forces that work in our society. This implies a humanist art, but not necessarily an interest in politics.’ Roger Mayne

‘He did not approach his work as a photojournalist. He would be struck by a face or a group. I remember watching him spot a potential photo – everything else would disappear.’ Katkin Tremayne

Roger Maine: Youth is available directly from the publisher here.

All images © estate of Roger Mayne, courtesy of Paul Holberton Publishing Limited

Hark1karan: Zimmers of Southall

Zimmers of Southall was born in 2019 when photographer Hark1karan and filmmaker Alex Donaldson first met the characters they would document in two critically acclaimed films, and who are now the subject of Hark1karan’s third photobook.

Released in 2022, Zimmers of Southall 1 documents the very specific car culture that exists within West London’s Punjabi community, where classic 1980s, ’90s and early 2000s BMWs are proudly maintained, modified and cherished. Zimmers of Southall 2 followed in 2023, showing how classic car culture provides a safe space for the community’s Sikh women. Both films have been widely screened in arts spaces and at film festivals, including The Barbican, Institute of Contemporary Arts, and Venice Biennale.

Hark1karan recently launched a Kickstarter to help fund the book, which will largely consist of previously unseen images shot between 2019 and 2024. The campaign has already succeeded – at the time of writing exceeding the target by 30% – and with almost three weeks remaining to back the project and bag the various rewards.

‘The book expands on the two movies, documenting wider life in Southall with a focus on the Panjabi Sikh community. It tells the story from my perspective as the first person in my family to be born in the UK. I capture different layers of Southall via tradition and rituals, faith, caste, grassroots protest, relationships, marriage, expression, music, design, and city space. The project deliberately avoids tired stereotypes. Instead, it emphasises shared humanity and practices, presenting an alternative narrative of modern British life that is often untold and generally exists offline, in real life.’ Hark1karan

You can read more on Zimmers of Southall and back the Kickstarter here.

Images © Hark1karan

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For anyone with New York travel plans, MoMA’s forthcoming Life Dances On:
Robert Frank in Dialogue simply has to be on the to-see list.

Truly one of the cornerstones of modern visual culture, the influence of Frank’s photography and filmmaking cannot be overstated. In the words of the MoMA curators, ‘The exhibition will delve into the six decades that followed Frank’s landmark photobook The Americans (1958) until his death in 2019, highlighting his perpetual experimentation and collaborations across various mediums. Coinciding with the centennial of his birth and taking its name from the artist’s 1980 film, Life Dances On will explore Frank’s artistic and personal dialogues with other artists and with his communities.’

Frank stopped taking stills at the end of the 1950s, spending the next decade committed to filmmaking, before returning to photography in the 1970s. Life Dances On will feature more than 200 objects, including his photographs, films, books, plus ephemera and archival materials.

To reacquaint yourself with Frank’s work, you could do much worse than head to the Steidl website. The German publisher worked with Frank during his lifetime to produce books and DVDs of his photographs and films, and has continued with this mission since the artist’s death.

‘The book has always been more important to me than selling my photographs. The book is what ensures your work will live longer, longer than any other means.’ Robert Frank

Life Dances On: Robert Frank in Dialogue will show at The Museum of Modern Art from 15th September to 11th January 2025, more details can be found here.

All images © The June Leaf and Robert Frank Foundation

Joseph Michael Lopez: JML NYC 02-23

Photographer Joseph Michael Lopez pounded the streets of New York City for twenty years and in that time amassed a substantial archive of images. These are now distilled down to JML NYC 02-23, which is scheduled for publication by GOST Book in September.

The publisher states, ‘Each picture is carefully composed of an untold story, happening before and continuing after the frame. They show details of the city: a man sprawled on the floor of a train, the spray from a city fountain, a bird in flight, a shard of light on park railings, a crying child being carried down subway steps and couples lost in each other. The people in the photographs appear constantly in motion, moving in and out of frame against the static backdrop of angular city details and architectural canyons. Collectively, the photographs in JML NYC 02-23 impart not how the city looks, but how it feels.’

'Lopez sees and uses light as a liberator... to liberate darkness from death to give light the mystery it commands as a force of nature… and to illuminate his vast emotive and profound concerns about being alive and about seeing itself. He is one of the best.' Larry Fink

Click here for details on JML NYC 02-23 or to pre-order a copy (shipping in September).

Images © Joseph Michael Lopez, courtesy of GOST BOOKS

C. Rose Smith: Talking Back to Power

Currently showing at Autograph on east London’s Rivington Street, C. Rose Smith’s Talking Back to Power sees the artist examine identity and individuality through quietly powerful monochrome self-portraiture and still life work.

In many images, the artist is seen wearing a white cotton shirt in locations across the southern states of America, each of these having a connection to wealth generated from cotton plantations. In the words of curator Bindi Vora, ‘Throughout her photographs, Smith fashions a crisp white button-up shirt, a potent emblem of both exploitation and respectability.’ It is a cleverly subversive and thought-provoking series, the images highlighting the way in which Black bodies were legally treated as a commodity and tool for financial gain.

Vora continues, ‘Smith poses in opulently decorated antebellum homes in Tennessee, South Carolina and Louisiana, by-products of the wealth amassed by the owners of cotton plantations. Entrenched throughout these buildings is the lingering spectre of the magnitude of violence and anguish that is inextricably linked to chattel slavery. Despite many undergoing meticulous restorations and now serving as tourist destinations, these buildings bear witness to the enduring legacy of human suffering.’

‘There is a humility in sitting as an act of rest in starched white cotton garments, envisioning my ancestors labouring in endless fields.’ C. Rose Smith

Talking Back to Power is showing at Autograph until 12^th October and there is no charge, more details here.

All images © C. Rose Smith, courtesy Autograph London

You can follow David Hill Gallery on Instagram here

Photographer, Emmy-award-winning cinematographer, painter, collage-maker, and professor, John Simmons is every inch the visual polymath. An in-depth interview with the artist has just been published on the LARKHAUS YouTube channel, where he discusses his journey, its challenges and his inspirations. Simmons is a passionate, open, and engaging storyteller, making this insightful interview a real treat.

Growing up in Chicago through the 1950s and 60s, Simmons used his 35mm camera to document the struggles of the Civil Rights era, a theme that continues in his works on paper today.

Following an artist-in-residence position at Fisk University, the liberal Black arts college in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1969, Simmons next attended University of Southern California on a scholarship to study cinematography. He has worked in film and television since the early 1970s, and became a member of the American Society of Cinematographers in 2004.

With his work held by many museums, Simmons recently received a new level of recognition when The National Gallery of Art, Washington, acquired five of his photographic prints and a collage for its permanent collection.

‘I’m still trying to learn how to take a picture, I’m still trying to make the camera see what I see’ John Simmons, ASC

You can watch the interview here.

Images © John Simmons, ASC

Adam Ferguson: Big Sky

Frustrated with the outdated and outmoded narratives attached to Australia’s interior, photographer Adam Ferguson began shooting Australia’s Outback in 2013, a project that he would complete a decade later. Seeking to portray an honest picture of the two million square mile region and its inhabitants today, his work highlights a dwindling of traditional Aboriginal events, the effects of globalisation, and the difficulties that climate change has brought to communities.

Inspired by the vision of Richard Avedon’s portrait series, In the American West, Ferguson soon understood that he needed more than pure portraiture to tell the stories of his subjects effectively.

‘Part of the experience of living in this huge, sweeping landscape is the relationship each individual has with the land and environment. It made sense to position everybody in the spaces they occupy. I wanted to construct a scene which complemented or reinforced the stories of the people I photographed.’ Adam Ferguson

Published by GOST Books in September, Adam Ferguson: Big Sky can be pre-ordered here (signed copies are available).

All images © Adam Ferguson, courtesy GOST Books

David Corio: The Black Chord

A newly revised edition of David Corio’s The Black Chord has just been published by Hat & Beard Press. Corio’s photographs trace the arc of late-twentieth century Black music, covering jazz, blues, soul, reggae, rhythm & blues, hip hop and more.

Originally published in 1999 and long since out of print, the 2024 edition has been restructured and expanded to include additional musicians. As with the original book, Corio’s intimate images are accompanied by text from renowned music journalist – and musician herself – Vivien Goldman, who interviewed most of the artists specifically for the project.

Corio and Goldman are both dyed-in-the-wool music lovers, which is clear from their work. David began shooting in 1976 and has built a substantial archive since, and Goldman, similarly, has been writing about music since the 1970s.

‘Like my dear friend and colleague David Corio, I came up in the London media and arts scene of the 1970s and 80s; in the early ’90s, we both moved to New York. We shared the same typical Londoner’s sort of eclectic pan-Black aesthetic: A love of soul, jazz, hip hop, R’n’B, music from Africa, particularly Francophone West Africa, and we had a special passion for reggae and dub. We shared a cultural formation, one that is reflected in this eclectic collection.’ Vivien Goldman

With just 1,200 copies printed, The Black Chord comes with one of three tipped-in cover images – you can choose from Bob Marley, Nina Simone, or Biz Markie.

For more information on The Black Chord and to order from the publisher, click here.

All images © David Corio, courtesy Hat & Beard Press

You can follow David Hill Gallery on Instagram here

Henri Cartier-Bresson’s The Decisive Moment is without doubt one of the most important photobooks of all time.

Originally published in 1952 by Verve as Images à la Sauvette, the large format book was a three-way collaboration between Cartier-Bresson, the art critic and publisher Tériade, and Henri Matisse, who provided one of his cut-outs for use on the book’s dust jacket. However, it was the US edition, published by Simon and Schuster in the same year, that utilised the now-famous Cartier-Bresson mantra the decisive moment for its title.

This new edition, published by The Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, is a smaller format book, designed to keep its price down for increased accessibility. The images in the 2024 edition remain the same as the original and are accompanied by a comprehensive study of the book’s production, written by Clément Chéroux, Director of the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson.

‘A bible for photographers’ Robert Capa, Magnum Photos co-founder

Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Decisive Moment is available to pre-order from The Photographers’ Gallery Book Shop, shipping late July.

Images © The Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos

Michael Ormerod: Vanishing Point

In 1991, British photographer Michael’s Ormerod’s life was cut tragically short at the age of just 44. A fascination with the notion of Americana led him to travel the western States extensively through the 1970s and 80s, building a substantial photographic archive as he did so. Ormerod’s lens found a time-worn, faded version of the projected American Dream, the beauty in his images often being countered by a bleak sense of desolation.

States of America was the first book to gather Ormerod’s work. Published by Cornerstone in 1999, it has long been unavailable and is now a rare and prized collector’s book. Ali Ormerod, the photographer’s daughter, has worked with RRB Photobooks on a new book, due for publication in the autumn, which will feature many previously unseen images.

Ali Ormerod and Crane Kalman Brighton, the long-time representative of Ormerod’s archive, are now fundraising via Kickstarter to cover production costs for a London exhibition. The show, to be titled Vanishing Point, will coincide with publication of the RRB book and feature images from it.

‘It seems that everything my father did was intended to raise questions rather than insist on answers. Perhaps that is why the obsession with horizons, vanishing points and ends of the road are common themes throughout his work.’ Ali Ormerod

Kickstarter rewards range from an exhibition preview invitation to estate prints in various sizes. Details can be found here.

Images © estate of Michael Ormerod, courtesy Ali Ormerod / Crane Kalman Brighton

Paul Graham: Verdigris / Ambergris

Paul Graham’s Great North Road was published in 1983 and is a collection of images the photographer captured when travelling the medieval British road with his large-format camera. Recording the people, buildings, and landscapes he encountered along the way, Great North Road has become a landmark British photobook.

The photographer’s latest book Verdigris / Ambergris, recently published by Mack Books (which also reprinted Great North Road in 2020), completes the artist’s twelve-year study on life’s transience and our mortality. Presented as a pair of complimentary slip-cased books, the work focusses on the infinite horizon over land (Verdigris) and sea (Ambergris).

In the words of publisher Mack Books, ‘Interleaved with contemplative portraits (of horizon-watchers) in the first volume are images of cherry blossoms, and in the second, images of the setting sun. These photographs were made respectively in a park overlooking post-industrial New Jersey, and along the northern coast of Long Island, where there is a long tradition of watching the setting sun.’

For the series, Graham embraces the limitations and flaws of his tools; the portraits of horizon-watchers are captured with golden-hour clarity, while the blossom images in Verdigris are captured on a digital camera purposely set in such a way that it struggles to render a coherent representation. The saturated sunsets of Ambergris, however, are created by a different approach, the camera having been pushed beyond its recording limits, resulting in intense images that are overloaded with information.

A note from the publisher, ‘Verdigris is the green patina of oxidised copper, as found on the Statue of Liberty. Ambergris is a rare and enigmatic product of whales, sought by beachcombers and highly valued in perfumery.

Paul Graham: Verdigris / Ambergris is available to order directly from Mack Books here.

Images © Paul Graham, courtesy Mack Books

You can follow David Hill Gallery in Instagram here.

Shadowlines at The Photographers’ Gallery is a new exhibition of over 60 works by Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide.

Throughout her career, Iturbide has consistently documented the indigenous people of Mexico, spending time with different communities, getting to know and understand them, and building trust. Her images are a portal into their worlds, showing rituals and traditions, as well as the struggles they frequently contend with.

Shadowlines includes prints from several of Iturbides’ most important series, including Juchitán de las Mujeres (1979-1989), her documentary of the matriarchal society of the Zapotec people of Tehuantepec, south-eastern Mexico. Having immersed herself in their lives for a decade, the photographs display the strength, vitality and resilience of the Juchitán women.

As time has passed, Iturbide's photographs have increasingly focussed on materials, textures, nature and light, rather than people. In the words of The Photographers’ Gallery, ‘Whatever her subject, Iturbide has continued tracking the sunlight with her camera and experimenting with shadow lines.’

‘Photographs emerge from both exterior realities and our inner selves – from within and from without.’ Graciela Iturbide

Graciela Iturbide: Shadowlines is showing at The Photographers’ Gallery until 22nd September, more details can be found here, including a video interview with the show’s curators.

Images © Graciela Iturbide, courtesy of The Photographers’ Gallery

Mary Frey: My Mother, My Son.

Recently published by TBW Books, Mary Frey’s My Mother, My Son. is a collection of monochrome and colour photographs presented to resemble a family album.

Shot over a ten-year period by the award-winning American photographer, the images are a sensitive portrayal of Frey’s extended circle of family and friends, captured in their everyday moments. Her carefully considered portraits, which often contain a pinch of drama, feel intimate, creating a sense that the viewer has been invited to join that circle.

In the words of publisher TWB Books, ‘Frey masterfully captures subjects at ease in environments that feel, at once, wholly familiar yet unmoored from their own reality.’

Frey states, ‘Since a photograph holds its own fiction, its meaning may slip, shift or change depending upon the context in which it is placed.’ Mary Frey

Mary Frey: My Mother, My Son. is available directly from TBW Books and through some UK sellers.

Images © Mary Frey, courtesy TBW Books

Alec Soth: Advice for Young Artists

Magnum Photos’ Alec Soth is having something of a moment. His new title with Mack Books, Advice for Young Artists, follows hot on the heels of the acclaimed Bottega Veneta advertising campaign that he shot in Japanese playgrounds.

Between 2022 and 2024, Soth visited 25 undergraduate art programmes in the US, and this new book is a visual diary of the time spent with the students he met. Much less a how-to book, Advice for Young Artists is Soth’s ruminative take on the making of work at different stages of life, considering the experience of the young artist with the prospect of becoming an older one.

In the words of publisher Mack, ‘Soth offers an angular and unresolved reflection on artmaking at different stages of life, interspersing lyrical portraits with formal still lifes and unrulier works of self-expression’.

‘When I’m feeling jaded or worn down by the art world, I try to tap into that original feeling I had when I first discovered art as a teenager’ Alec Soth

Twenty years after the publication of his first photobook Sleeping by the Mississippi (Steidl, 2004), this latest body of work, inspired by Walker Evans’ late Polaroids, reveals a development and expansion in Soth’s practice.

With publication scheduled for late July, Advice for Young Artists can be pre-ordered from Mack Books now, with buyers also having the option of artist-signed copies.

Images © Alec Soth, courtesy of Mack Books

You can follow David Hill Gallery on Instagram here

South African photographer Ernest Cole is without doubt one of the most important documenters of the country’s apartheid system, and his landmark House of Bondage series is now showing at The Photographers’ Gallery.

Fleeing South Africa’s racist regime in 1966, Cole headed to New York, smuggling his photographs out with him. First published in 1967, House of Bondage is a graphic account of the inequality and brutality faced by the Black population in apartheid South Africa, something that its country’s government went to great lengths to conceal from the international media. Cole’s images revealed the injustices suffered by Black South Africans in day-to-day life, and House of Bondage became one of the most important photobooks of the twentieth century.

The exhibition features over 100 prints, presented in 15 themed chapters, as per the Cole’s book, and includes works from a chapter titled Black Ingenuity that was not published in the original edition of the book, only in later editions.

‘It is an extraordinary experience to live as though life were a punishment for being Black.’ Ernest Cole

Ernest Cole: House of Bondage is at London’s The Photographer’s Gallery until 22nd September, more details here.

All images © estate of Ernest Cole / Magnum Photos, courtesy of The Photographer’s Gallery

The Camera Never Lies: Challenging images through The Incite Project 

In a world awash with media manipulation and disinformation, The Camera Never Lies: Challenging images through The Incite Project is a timely exhibition looking at how the narratives of important global events can be distorted to meet particular agendas.

This new exhibition at the Sainsbury Centre in Norwich features over 100 prints from The Incite Project, a private collection of photojournalism and documentary photography that has a remit to support contemporary practitioners.

The show includes work by Robert Capa, Stuart Franklin, Dorothea Lange, Don McCullin, and Richard Mosse, and is presented in two parts. The first looks at how single images have come to define events, both at the time and later, historically, while the second examines the increased control available to image-makers in recent years through access to technology.

In the words of curators Harriet Logan and Tristan Lund, ‘Sometimes seen as superior to text, photographs are now a mainstay of how the media and the public consume events such as war, famine, and celebrity. But is what people see a true reflection of the reality?’

The Camera Never Lies: Challenging images through The Incite Project is showing at the Sainsbury Centre, Norwich until 20^th October. Further information can be found here.

First image © Anastasia Taylor-Lind, second image © Stuart Franklin, courtesy of Magnum Photos, third image © Richard Mosse. All courtesy of The Incite Project / Sainsbury Centre.

Homer Sykes: An Annual Affair – Some Traditional British Calendar Customs

Friend-of-the-gallery, and chronicler of the British at work and play, Homer Sykes is running a Kickstarter fundraiser to publish his new photobook, An Annual Affair: Some Traditional British Calendar Customs.

A culmination of 15 years’ work researching and documenting traditional British events and ceremonies, this project is a continuation from Sykes’ Once A Year, Some Traditional British Customs, first published in 1977, and republished by Dewi Lewis Publishing in 2017. The new book will feature 140 colour images from 80 different events, with only three of these events appearing in the monochrome 1977 book. An Annual Affair will also be published by Dewi Lewis.

As is usual with Kickstarter projects, there are various reward levels that correspond to different amounts pledged. Rewards offered include signed books, signed books with prints, and even a day with Homer looking through his photobook collection and vintage print archive. The pledger of that ultimate level also gets to choose a bromide print – or prints plural, depending on the amount pledged – to take home. Not a deal to be sniffed at, as a £1,000 pledge allows you to choose from prints that usually retail at £2,000. There is only one rule that applies to the spending-time-with-Homer reward, which is that he’s very happy to, ‘talk photography, but not cameras’. Quite right too.

Homer Sykes has published 16 books, and his work has featured in many magazines around the world. He has been widely exhibited, his first show being at London’s ICA in 1971, and was the first British photographer to be given a solo exhibition at the Maison Robert Doisneau museum in Paris.

If you would like to support Homer’s project, then don’t delay, as the Kickstarter expires in the early hours of tomorrow (Saturday, 15th June). There are more details here, including a video of Homer discussing the project.

Images © Homer Sykes

You can follow David Hill Gallery on Instagram here

Roger Mayne: Youth opens at The Courtauld Gallery on 14th June and will consist of around 60 of the self-taught British photographer’s prints, most of which will be vintage. The exhibition is something of a landmark, being the first time that photography will be shown at The Courtauld.

Mayne’s well-known images of post-war youth will be central to the show, many of which were taken in and around Southam Street, West London between 1956 and 1961. Living in the neighbourhood, Mayne was a familiar face to those that he photographed, and this provided a trust that allowed him to capture his subjects unguarded. The images he created are an extraordinary record of the birth of the British teenager.

Located on the northern edge of Notting Hill, Southam Street looks very different today, having been levelled in a 1969 as part of a slum clearance programme to create space for Erno Goldfinger’s Trellick Tower and adjacent low-rise social housing.

Youth also includes some largely unknown family images taken at Mayne’s Dorset home, plus images from his Spanish honeymoon in 1962, which he considered to be ‘the best series of photographs I have yet done.’

‘With Mayne’s post-war subjects now in their more senior years and today’s younger generation facing a myriad crises, Mayne’s deliberations on growing up, childhood, adolescence, and family feel especially poignant and timely.’ The Courtauld

Roger Mayne: Youth is showing at The Courtauld from 14th June to 1st September, details can be found here.

Images © estate of Roger Mayne, courtesy of The Courtauld

Andrew McConnell: Some Worlds Have Two Suns

Andrew McConnell has been documenting the community of the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan since 2015. Every three months, a rocket is launched from the site carrying three astronauts to the International Space Station, while at around the same time, three returning astronauts descend to a region to the northeast of Baikonur.

McConnell explains, ‘I became interested in the Soyuz landing after seeing a documentary in 2014. It was deep winter, and the spacecraft descended under parachute into an ice world. A ground team battled the harsh conditions to open the capsule and when eventually three humans emerged my heart skipped a beat… I had just returned from covering a war and had witnessed the very worst of humanity, yet here were humans working together and achieving the seemingly impossible. In my jaded state it was profoundly moving, and I resolved to go and see it for myself.’ 

During McConnell’s first visit, as the space travellers were taking part in the landing ceremony, he saw locals from the village of Kenjebai-Samai who had come to witness the event. The local community and its relationship with the cosmodrome soon became the most compelling aspect for McConnell, ‘On each visit I would stay in Kenjebai-Samai or explore further afield. The steppe, which at first appeared as a boundless void, would over time reveal unexpected details. I found a people largely uninterested in the space travellers and yet somehow bound up in this strange ritual. These descendants of nomads once again on the edge of a new horizon.’ 

Publisher GOST Books describes the significance of the Soyuz system thus, ‘The Soyuz spacecraft has been in operation since the late 1960s and due to its length of service is considered the safest and most cost-effective space vehicle. The capsule of the spacecraft, which are not reusable, measure just 2.2 metres long and 2.1 metres wide. They can carry up to three people, take just six hours to reach the space station and the descent module, just three and a half hours to return. For a period after the retirement of NASA’s space shuttle in 2011 the Russian Soyuz rocket launches in Kazakhstan were the sole working portal to the International Space Station. The word ‘soyuz’ means ‘union’ in Russian.’

Andrew McConnell: Some Worlds Have Two Suns is scheduled for publication in October, but GOST Books is taking pre-orders now and all pre-ordered copies will be supplied signed by McConnel. You can find more details and pre-order here.

Images © Andrew McConnell, courtesy GOST Books

Deanna Dikeman: There Were 93 Goodbyes

Between 1991 and 2017, Deanna Dikeman visited her parents’ retirement home in Sioux City, Iowa, 93 times. On each of these visits, she photographed her departure, creating an intimate, time lapse-style series showing the passage of time and the human aging process. Now exhibited for the first time in the UK, There Were 93 Goodbyes features an image from each of those 93 visits, allowing the viewer to join Dikeman on her deeply personal journey.

As the artist reflects, ‘I was 37 years old when I took that first Kodachrome slide, and 63 years old when the project ended. In this timespan, Mom aged from 66 to 92, and Dad from 71 to 91. I became a mother, and my parents became grandparents. My son appeared as a baby, then he drove the car, and then he was a college student holding on to Grandma in her last photograph. Now I’m at the other end of the driveway. My son waves to me, and I photograph as he leaves, And I know how my parents felt when I left.’

Images from the series were originally published as Leaving and Waving (Chose Commune, 2021), but this is now sold out in its third printing. To coincide with its exhibition, Flow Editions has produced a beautiful catalogue featuring over 50 photographs from the project, accompanied by new essay from Dikeman on the making of the work, and another by Flow’s Alex Schneideman. The There Were 93 Goodbyes catalogue is available here.

‘Deanna Dikeman’s extraordinary quarter-century photographing her parents is an emotional sequence that reminds us of the limitations that time places on the heart.’ Alex Schneideman

Deanna Dikeman: There Were 93 Goodbyes is showing at Flow Photographic Gallery from 7^th June to 18^th August, with viewing by appointment.

Images © Deanna Dikeman, courtesy of Chose Commune / Flow Photographic Gallery

You can follow David Hill Gallery on Instagram here.

On 2nd May 1986, Graciela Iturbide was one of a group of photographers participating in the A Day in the Life of America project, documenting everyday life in various locations across the US – all within a set 24-hour period.

Iturbide’s chosen subject was a group of deaf female members of a Chicano street gang in the Boyle Heights neighbourhood of East Los Angeles. And so began her enduring relationship with the White Fence Gang, which saw the photographer return in the following decades to continue her documentation of this tight community.

White Fence consists of two slipcased volumes. The first book contains images from 1986, 1989, 2018, and 2019, while the second includes an essay by Alfonso Morales Carrillo titled White Fence Revisited. This details the development of Iturbides’ photographic series and the historical context that it conveys – the formation of Mexican communities north of the Rio Grande border.

The photographs reveal a sharp contrast between the tough street personas displayed in her more formal portraits, where members proudly show gang signs, and the community nature of everyday scenes. Together, they provide a layered picture of a group frequently demonised by media and politicians.

‘The first images I encountered as a child, other than family photos, were in Life magazine. I didn’t realize I was looking at the work of famous photographers like Robert Capa and Henri Cartier-Bresson, but I loved the images and the memories they contained. I still believe photography is a very democratic discipline for that reason: regardless of location or social class, photography is always inscribed with memory.’ Graciela Iturbide

A limited quantity of signed copies of White Fence are available from Donlon Books.

Images © Graciela Iturbide, courtesy Editorial RM

Daniele Tamagni: Style is Life

Produced to coincide with the recent exhibition of the same name in Milan, Style is Life is a comprehensive 256-page monograph of work by the late Milanese photographer Daniele Tamagni who passed away in 2017, aged 42. The images are a dynamic combination of photojournalism, street photography, and stylish documentary that stick in the mind.

Tamagni became best known for his series on the Congolese sapeurs of the SAPE (Società degli Animatori e delle Persone Eleganti, which translates to Society of Tastemakers and Elegant People). Since the early 20th century, the sapeurs reinterpreted the style of the region’s French colonisers, subverting ostentation, luxury, and sophistication as tools of cultural resistance. These images were collected in Gentlemen of Bacongo, published by Trolley Books in 2009, which went on to sell 20,000 copies in its various editions. Tamagni also documented the intriguing Afro-metal scene in Botswana, and The Flying Cholitas, Bolivian wrestlers wearing the colourful pollera skirt that challenge traditional gender roles.

‘He put a spotlight on social groups promoting dialog, respect, dignity, identity and creativity through the “art of dressing up” in social contests. The common denominator of these communities is not only their clothing, but the strong link with the values and attitudes of the individuals wearing it.’ Giordano Tamagni

Daniele Tamagni: Style is Life is available from The Photographers’ Gallery Bookshop here.

Images © Daniele Tamagni, courtesy Giordano Tamagni / Kehrer Verlag

Michelle Sank: Burnthouse Lane

Michelle Sank: Burnthouse Lane is available from publisher Dewi Lewis in advance of its mid-June publication.

Burnthouse Lane in Exeter, Devon, is a social housing project initiated in the 1920s, which was designed using the principle of the Garden City. While it may have failed to meet its architects’ objective of social elevation, not all aspects are negative, as explained by the artist; ‘The deprivation it was supposed to overcome has continued to haunt it, but the isolated nature of the estate and its intricate labyrinth of lanes, have also made for positives, such as a close-knit community and a sense of solidarity among the residents. Often considered a no-go area in the past, my experience has been completely different – it is one where I have been welcomed and embraced within the community. It is this positivity that I wanted to highlight.’

Michelle Sank was born and raised in South Africa, and moved to the UK in 1987. The daughter of Latvian immigrants, she witnessed the horrors of Apartheid, and it was this that spurred her to document societal and community issues.

‘People are not typecast or stereotyped, they seem completely themselves. Sank has allowed each of them simply to be. Something has been evoked that seems to come from deep within, it is the unique spirit of the other person’. David Goldblatt on Michelle Sank

Michelle Sank: Burnthouse Lane is available from Dewi Lewis Publishing here.

Images © Michelle Sank, courtesy Dewi Lewis Publishing / Elliott Gallery

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