I heard from John Umney and Penny Watson that they have decided to include some work from Lifting the Curtain in their forthcoming exhibition to take place in Oxford in May/June of this year. This is great news and my thanks to them both for their generosity. As I am away a lot over the coming months, I have had to progress getting my prints, artists statements and so on ready in advance.
John/Penny have set out some standards of presentation to ensure consistency and to fit within the space and in-situ hanging arrangements. We have been offered the options of 20×16 and 20×20 inch frames. I needed to think about how I would handle the image and text. I recognised that it would be far better to present the image and text on the same panel in this situation – as I did for the PhotoMonth Open late last year. This would allow me to show more of my work with the single panels taking up less space than the diptych form of presentation. Because of this I have elected for 20×20 inch framing with the images set in a small window mount border.
How then to select a smaller number of images for inclusion in this show. This is a problem I will need to tackle at any exhibition as showing the work is unlikely to be possible due to space constraints. My approach has been to start with the subject matter of the image/text pairings. I wanted to show a broad range of topics. Then I looked at the nature of the colours in the prints on offer by subject matter. Some are similar in the colour arrangement. For example, the images shot under sodium lights in late twilight all have strong oranges and deep blues. I did not want to include several which would look the same. This is important in a smaller exhibition, less so in a book with a larger number of prints. Finally, I looked at the composition of possible selections and went for a variety which included some photographs with deep perspective, some with a flat frontal composition, some open including the sky and some closed with no sky.
My selections are shown in the sequence I want to show them below:
Wentworth Street from Lifting the Curtain ©Keith Greenough 2014
Shadwell Basin from Lifting the Curtain ©Keith Greenough 2014
West India Docks from Lifting the Curtain ©Keith Greenough 2014
Bow Road from Lifting the Curtain ©Keith Greenough 2014
Jereme Street from Lifting the Curtain ©Keith Greenough 2014
Andrews Road from Lifting the Curtain ©Keith Greenough 2014
Leman Street from Lifting the Curtain ©Keith Greenough 2014
This selection covers a range of subject matter including race relations, working conditions, class relations, social activities, sex discrimination, youth crime and housing congestion. They also work well as a group with a range of colour and compositional types.
I prepared the prints in Photoshop for production as digital c-prints by The Printspace in East London. Including VAT the prints will cost around £22 each or £154. With framing the costs will be around £300. This is far less than my print costs for the [(6)] Exhibition. I normally proof the prints beforehand by printing full size proof strips of the prints onto Epson Premium Lustre paper. I know from past experience that the digital c-prints will be similar in colour rendition – a little less magenta. The c-prints are generally punchier and a little brighter. Here are my proofs ready for inspection (I am tending to take over our house – the mirror leaning on the wall is temporarily displaced by my mock up diptych for Lifting the Curtain which is currently on the wall!).
Oxford Exhibition Proof ready for inspection
I have also drafted an artist statement for this exhibition. I have modified my ‘book’ statement a little to more clearly link in the exhibition theme of Memory and to also draw attention to the link to Oxford University, Toynbee Hall and my charitable fundraising. I will attempt to sell some prints with the money going to Toynbee Hall. The statement now looks like this:
Oxford Exhibition – Artists Statement
I hope to get the printing done this week so that I can let John Umney have the prints before I go away for a month…
