Annie Leibovitz
A photographers life 1990-2005
16th October 2008- 1 February 2009
National Portrait Gallery
Nearest Tube: Leicester Square/ Charring Cross
I was quite stricken by the lackadaisical approach to the hanging or structure of the photographs; their layout in relation to their subject matter. They were a mix of Annie's work pictures (for magazines and photoshoots) and a collection of her own personal photographs, documenting her life throughout her career. As I said I was shocked; there were photographs of war beside smiling pictures of her family. I wasn't sure but gave it a chance, took my time and walked around, following her father and mother young(ish) and quite agile smiling on the beack to her fathers illness, witnessed his deterioration and finally death onto the birth of her first born and later twins. By the end of the visit I had laughed out loud and cried. It was a masterful job at arranging the photographs to put her own life beside Claudia schiffer, Vivienne Westwood etc. visually worked well.
http://www.npg.org.uk/annieleibovitz/exhib.htm
Thomas Husein
Bastards
22 Herald Street
This was related to the work I was doing at the time. A large human-like structure is the first thing you are greeted with upon enetering the gallery. there are two rooms. some work are on the walls and two sculptutre pieces in the main room. It's all very white, plaster wood and metal are his main materials. It is not an overloaded space, if anything it's quite simple. I enjoyed it, it was not threatening, I thought it gave you space to look around and take your time. The gallery has a little bookshop aswell, where between the books there are magazines, leaflets and more of the artists work on the walls, a cosy and welcoming space.
1 comment:
i went to the annie liebovitz show too and came out feeling a bit cheated and annoyed both at the show and myself really. like finnula says there was a big mix of which photos were hung next to each other and i don't think that really worked. there was a series of photos she had taken during the balkan war in sarajevo, which were very interesting and moving photos, for instance the photo of susan sonntag sat in the rubble of the national library, you could see the books strewn around her feet and the sky above where the roof had been bombed out but nobody was looking because it was next to a big glossy photo of pregnant demi moore. again in another room there was a photo of a child's bike lieing on the ground, the story was that their group had been driving along the road and were following this boy cycling and he cycled over a mine (i think, or he was hit by a shell) and was killed, again this photo seemed to be overlooked because it was next to a photo of johnny depp and kate moss. it made me pissed off, but a lot of that was directed at myself because what did i expect? she's a very famous celebrity photographer! it's not my kind of thing, it was such a gossipy, glossy, exhibition of the beautiful and the admired, like stepping inside a celebrity magazine. but perhaps i should use my judgement when choosing which shows to go to better. the most intelligent conversation i heard whilst i was in there was did demi moore suit long hair or short hair better? (short apparently, perhaps this is a topic we can discuss in class!)
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