The British Journal of Photography

19/08/2024

“The artist and lab relationship is often a very collaborative process. Framing is more than a way of getting your artwork on the walls, it is an extension of the artist’s work”

With 15 years of experience in the print industry and global client roster including the Tate Modern, the V&A, Sotheby’s and David Bailey Studio, Faraz Ahmad is the Co-Founder of Beyond Print, the UK’s leading professional fine art framers. He talks to Louise Long about the nitty-gritty of the framing process, the latest framing trends amongst photographers, and the creative possibilities the process can offer.

Read more about their practice:

16/08/2024

Challenging social policies under a far right government, Balam magazine is a compilation of expressions from across Latin America and the rest of the globe. As the country’s first LGBTQ+ magazine of contemporary photography, its director and editor Luis Juárez tells BJP that the obstacles are tenfold – not only do they struggle with funding and resources, but the contributors to the magazine also face stigmatisation and censorship.

Nevertheless, Balam remains committed to “the infinite possibilities and ways of existing within dissident minorities,” says Juárez. He tells BJP about the theme of its tenth issue, La Bohemia, influenced the ways they approached curation. For Balam, with a strong decolonial and anti-establishment attitude, La Bohemia encompasses the ways which photographers capture the fight for a free future.

The issue features photographers such as Adam Rouhana, Keerthana Kunnath, Juan Brenner and Phyllis Christopher, among dozens more and exciting Latin American collectives such as Retratistas do Morro.

Learn more about the LATAM q***r photography magazine:

For its latest issue, La Bohemia, the magazine's team wanted to "conceive bohemia as something we must safeguard and preserve" amid a global polycrisis

15/08/2024

🚨Cover reveal 🚨⁠
⁠
British Journal of Photography Issue #7919: Work

We’re excited to reveal the wraparound cover of our Work issue, featuring an iconic shot taken by John Sturrock during the UK Miners’ Strike. Showing a mass picket confronting police lines in Bilston Glen, Scotland, in 1984, it captures the antagonism of this key event in British industrial history.

“I wasn't a news photographer; a really good news photographer has an instinct for finding the ‘news’ photo of the day,” Sturrock tells BJP. “For me, it was just ‘I think this is the place to hang out with the people I know, let's just see what happens and see if I can get pictures’. I was just very lucky to be in the middle and to get that shot.”

Sturrock’s interview is part of a wider article on the Miners’ Strike and its depiction by photographers; this issue of BJP considers Work from a variety of angles, including how photographers make a living, the Foto/Industria festival, and going in the studio with Jenny Matthews. Also including the Protest in Photobook collection and the London School of Economics’ work on images depicting wealth.

Become a BJP Full Access Member by 23 August and take advantage of exclusive perks, including home delivery of the Work magazine and free entry to our internationally esteemed awards, including Female in Focus x Nikon, opening for entries in October 2024.

Explore our subscription and membership options: https://1854.photo/3SOLYT3

This issue will reach our Print Subscribers and Full Access Members from 03 September.

📷: Cover image © John Sturrock | reportdigital.co.uk

14/08/2024

During the busiest annual period for the city, Edinburgh Art Festival returns for its 20th birthday this month – “tracing lines through personal histories, the natural world, postcolonial landscapes, and the global political stage”, director Kim McAleese says. Photography fans should head straight for ‘Home: Ukrainian Photography, UK Words’ at Stills and Karol Radziszewski’s ‘Filo’ presentation at City Art Centre, while also keeping an eye out for images in wider mixed-media contexts, such as Ibrahim Mahama’s documentation of Ghanaians pushing rusted train carriages in lateral series along the walls of Fruitmarket, and Flannery O’Kafka’s intimate domestic capsule at Sierra Metro.

You can read more about the festival – and hear from Radziszewski and ‘Home’ curator Max Gorbatskyi – at the link below.

Visitors are treated to a breadth of approaches, from Polish subculture archives to intimate domestic imagery

14/08/2024

We are delighted to announce the opening of the Portrait of Humanity Vol. 6 exhibition at Four Corners Gallery in London, running from 04 to 14 September.

This exhibition features the top three winning series and 30 single images selected by our esteemed panel of judges, including Alessia Glaviano of Vogue Italia, Max Gorbatskyi from Open Eye Gallery, Ángel Luis González Fernández of PhotoIreland, and Brazilian curator Ioana Mello. Each image offers a meaningful reflection on our shared human experience, exploring themes of empathy and resilience.

We extend our thanks to our printing partner Beyond Print for their invaluable support.

Learn more: https://1854.photo/3yLRH5d

📷: Juliette Cassidy, Portrait of Humanity Vol. 6 single image winner

13/08/2024

Women’s participation in typically masculine or male-dominated sports is a contentious topic perhaps now more than ever. This month, spectators of the Olympic Games in Paris saw Algerian boxer Imane Khelif experience harassment and bullying from pundits. In Keerthana Kunnath’s series, Not What You Saw, she follows female bodybuilders in India who are similarly challenging stereotypes of western beauty standard and idealised feminine bodies.

The women in Kunnath’s series are not only athletes but also mothers, teachers and designers, and highlight the multifaceted roles of women in sport as well as the added pressures they face compared to their male counterparts.

Read more about Kunnath’s experiences photographing the bodybuilders in South India:

12/08/2024

In summer 2023, photographers Rehab Eldalil and Abdo Shanan considered reaching out to Arab Documentary Photography Program (ADPP) and the Magnum Foundation to see if they would financially support the pair getting a table at Polycopies, the book fair which runs alongside Paris Photo. The original idea was to present their own books, but they opted to also invite photographers from the ADPP community and beyond. They then decided to present themselves as a collective – aka TAWLA.

“There are so many incredible books and dummies produced by photographers in the region that do not find their way out, because of the lack of interest from established western publishing houses, but also support in diffusion and distribution. Aka TAWLA was born with the desire to fill in for such a need, and create our own platforms and opportunities,” Shanan tells BJP. After the success of its first publication, ‘Tarweedeh’, the group is continuing to support artists in the SWANA region, spreading the word internationally and advocating for Palestinian artists in particular.

Read more about the collective at the link below.

A collective for photobook-makers in the SWANA region, aka TAWLA aims to highlight their narratives and recently created a publication featuring Palestinian photographers

09/08/2024

Showcasing five decades of Peter Kennard's iconic work, 'Archive of Dissent' at Whitechapel Gallery explores the world of art-ivism (art activism) and the impact of photomontage. Confronting us with stock images of Donald Trump, Margaret Thatcher, and Henry Kissinger, alongside symbols of apartheid and nuclear war, Kennard’s art challenges the status quo and exposes the mechanisms of power and oppression.

Renowned for his mixed-media and photomontage work, Kennard's pieces critique social and political issues, from the Vietnam War to Gaza and environmental activism. His unique visual language bridges artistic expression and activism, highlighting historical and contemporary struggles. The show exposes Kennard's creative process through various forms – placards, vitrines, and lecterns – transforming the gallery into a dynamic archive.

The free exhibition honours the radical history of the East End and the old Whitechapel Library, embodying a space for community learning and engagement. Kennard’s work is a rallying cry against the pervasive influence of capital and the global arms trade, advocating for human dignity and solidarity.

Read our interview with Kennard below.

The show at the Whitechapel Gallery pays homage to the artist’s notable role in art-ivism, spotlighting his heavy use of archival photography and manipulating mass-produced images

07/08/2024

‘Decolonial’ has become a buzzword. But what does it look like to decolonise a practice? For its first exhibition, the West Asian North African Women’s Art Library’s (WANAWAL) founder Êvar Hussayni tells BJP how she sought to explore what roles the photograph and its archival process play for diasporic and marginalised communities.

Collaborating with artists and archivists Sarah Hamed and Olivia Melkonian, ‘don’t worry i won’t forget you’ is a deep dive into the vast and thorough collection of the Art Library and asks vital questions around institutional power, access to archives, and how marginalised communities use archives to fight against socio-political erasure.

From Susan Meiselas’s honest documentation of Kurdistan to Myriam Boulos’s work following Lebanon's revolution from 2019 to 2020, Hussayni also unpacks the photo books and works which inspired her and hold a central place in the exhibition.

Read more about Êvar Hussayni’s process for her debut show below.

PASTE STANDFIRST HERE

07/08/2024

This is ‘Portrait of the North’, a project by Cianeh Kpukuyou which highlights the lives of individuals in Northern Ghana. At its heart is Gifty, a remarkable woman who embodies the resilience, warmth, and communal spirit of her region.

Gifty’s story, centered around her salon, serves as a powerful symbol of unity and support, reflecting the diverse cultural tapestry that fosters inclusivity and acceptance in Northern Ghana. Through her journey, Kpukuyou captures the strength and unwavering sense of community that defines this area.

Kpukuyou’s is one of the 30 winning single images of Portrait of Humanity Vol. 6, on show at Four Corners Gallery, London, from 04 to 15 September, alongside this year's three winning series.

📷: Cianeh Kpukuyou, Portrait of Humanity Vol. 6 single image winner

06/08/2024

Beginning in early March 1984, the coal miners’ strike saw over 140,000 – or 75 per cent – of the UK’s miners walk out in opposition to the planned closure of at least 20 collieries. During the year of pickets, violence and political turmoil that followed, 11,000 people were arrested and hundreds, if not thousands, were injured.

The facts are well known – and so are the images. Brenda Prince was one of the photographers on the ground, and her pictures of women’s action groups involved with the strikes appear in BJP’s forthcoming Work magazine. Protest and social history are big themes of this issue, in which we dive into the London School of Economics’ research visualising wealth inequality and trace anti-establishment photobooks from across the globe. All this alongside our usual emerging artist Projects, Studio Visit and Any Answers features.

Secure your BJP Full Access Membership by 23 August to receive exclusive perks, including home delivery of the Work issue and free entry to our renowned awards: the next edition of Female in Focus x Nikon opens for entries in October 2024. Discover our subscription and membership options now: https://1854.photo/4d8sqB7

© Brenda Prince

05/08/2024

When Lily Barton was growing up in Dorchester, south west England, she knew her grandfather was a Freemason, but had little idea about what this involved. She was told not to look in his wardrobe or briefcase, and often wondered why he had an office in his house, even though he appeared not to work.

Her ‘Snakes and Ladders’ project sees the artist delve into her grandfather’s identity as a Freemason using a combination of original imagery, found photographs from eBay, and wider archival material. “I wanted to make sure it was my perception of freemasonry – not a factual, ‘this is what’s happening’ project,” Barton tells BJP. Often this perception was coloured by the group’s attitudes towards women, provoking a sense of conflict in the artist which runs through the book, which was submitted as part of her final project at Bath Spa University.

Find out more about the work below.

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02/08/2024

For the latest instalment of our Any Answers interviews, BJP sat down with East Wing artistic director Peggy Sue Amison to talk about her time studying in California, leading Cork’s Sirius Arts Centre, and ending up in Berlin – leading a commercial gallery without a physical space.

“When I was studying photography, there was a lot of emphasis on photography and truth; we now understand there really is no truth in photography,” she reflects. “It’s more about artists telling their own authentic stories, the narrative structures they choose, and the tools they use to communicate.” Read more: https://1854.photo/4dqZGDv

Peggy Sue Amison by © Farzin Foroutan

02/08/2024

There is one week left to support Bluecoats latest Kickstarter campaign for “The Magic Money Tree” by Kirsty Mackay.

This important body of work documents the cost of living crisis through a collaborative approach. Working alongside individuals and groups to explore the reality of poverty and the impact of 14 years of social welfare decline.

This collection serves not just as an urgent document that politics has real-life consequences, but also as a call to arms that change should not be just a slogan.

Support the Kickstarter campaign today to help bring this important book to life: https://1854.photo/46wMYkh

© Kirsty Mackay.

01/08/2024

It takes up most of our waking hours and yet it’s seldom depicted – Work. This new edition of BJP explores the topic from every possible angle: How do photographers make a living? Which curators are preserving our 20th-century industrial history? And how does medical, agricultural and labour imagery operate in both professional and artistic spheres?

Hear from artists Kadir van Lohuizen, Samar Hazboun and Christina Fernandez in our in-depth artist features, plus learn about maintaining archives of work from the Martin Parr Foundation’s Isaac Blease, Fondazione MAST’s Urs Stahel, and Luciano Zuccaccia, whose Protest in Photobook library exceeds 700 anti-establishment volumes.

As ever, our writers preview this season’s most important institutional shows, from Ming Smith’s three-pronged homecoming in Ohio to Tate Britain’s huge survey of 80s photography in Britain, while we also count down to Paris Photo, celebrate 10 years of Loose Joints photobooks, and spend a lazy afternoon with Jenny Matthews in east London. It’s not one to miss.

Subscribe by 23 August to receive the Work issue and all forthcoming magazines direct to your door, plus unlock free entry to all of our acclaimed awards, including Female in Focus x Nikon, which opens for entries in October 2024.

Learn more: https://1854.photo/46qvDcM

31/07/2024

Peter Mitchell grew up in a working-class family in London and left school at an early age, training as a cartographic draughtsman and studying at Hornsey College of Art before hitch-hiking across Europe and the US as a student. In 1972, he went to Leeds to visit friends who were squatting. He never left, working as a truck driver and setting up The Winged Cobra Workshop, making fine art silkscreen prints. He also began photographing – starting a relationship with the place that would last a lifetime.

Mitchell would go on to shoot extensively around the city, making work on its abandoned modernist estates and using Leeds as a starting point for ‘A New Refutation of the Viking 4 Space Mission’, a pioneering show which suggested an alien-eye, quasi-scientific view of Britain.

Now Mitchell is receiving a long-overdue retrospective at Leeds Art Gallery, on view until 06 October. Read more about it below.

After documenting societal change in the UK for over 50 years, the colour pioneer receives a well-deserved retrospective in the city where it all began

31/07/2024

There are only a few spots left for our ‘Writing for Photographers’ workshop led by Simon Bainbridge and Colin Pantall. Here’s what past attendees said about the events:

⭐ “Wonderful workshop, so great to meet a lovely group of fellow photographers and learn about writing with interesting examples”

⭐ “It was a great workshop. Simon and Colin are so knowledgeable and wonderful instructors”

Join us for this workshop tailored for photographers eager to elevate their writing skills. Unlock your writing potential and discover different styles, voices, and techniques through interactive examples and exercises.

📅 Dates: 10 August 2024 and 19 October 2024
🕙 Time: 10:00 – 18:00
📍 Location: BJP’s offices, London, E2
💵 Price: £250 per person (limited to 12 participants)

Don’t miss this opportunity to refine your storytelling skills alongside fellow photographers. Secure your spot now! https://1854.photo/4dmnZCv

30/07/2024

This poignant portrait of Magalí, taken by Kenny Lemes, is one of the last images of her life. Magalí was one of the few trans women to survive the military dictatorship in Argentina.

Until recently, trans women in Argentina faced a life expectancy of only 35 years due to pervasive stigma and violence. Many were expelled from their homes at a young age and, if they attended school, often left due to severe bullying and harassment, with little support from the national education system. Without family support or education, many in the transgender community struggled to survive.

Kenny Lemes’ work is featured among the 30 winning photographers in Portrait of Humanity Vol. 6, which will soon be on show at Four Corners Gallery, London.

📅 Exhibition Dates: 04-15 September
📍 Location: Four Corners Gallery, London, UK

📷: Kenny Lemes, Portrait of Humanity Vol. 6 single image winner

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date with the exhibition details and more via our link in bio.

29/07/2024

Fibreglass rocks, indoor rainforests and artificial beaches – Zed Nelson interrogates a world changed irrevocably by human activity “beyond anything it has experienced in tens of millions of years” and compiles details of places where we try to create illusions of the wild places and things on earth. Shot over six years across four continents, ‘The Anthropocene Illusion’ by Zed Nelson is a disturbing insight into a world in which the natural world is replaced by spectacle.

“Just as we divorce ourselves from the natural world and destroy it,” he says in our Virtual Reality print issue from earlier this year, “we do something extraordinary – we create staged-managed versions of the very thing that we’re losing.” Covering countries from Norway to China, Kenya, Sri Lanka and the UK, he not only highlights the problematic nature of zoos and aquariums, but also documents Yosemite and other national parks, asking why we reserve the experience of nature as “prescribed” and “highly controlled”.

You can read the whole conversation here:

Shot over six years across four continents, ‘The Anthropocene Illusion’ is a disturbing insight into a world in which the natural world is replaced by spectacle

26/07/2024

If you happen to be passing through Heathrow Terminal 4’s London Underground station over the next few months, take a moment to pause in the ticketing hall. Look around, and you’ll see the work of Joy Gregory, the latest artist to undertake an Art on the Underground commission – focusing on work she made with asylum seekers awaiting immigration decisions in nearby Hillingdon. Gregory presents cyanotype, monoprint, lumen and nivea print-based works in ‘A Taste of Home’, in which she also incorporates poems and culinary references, continuing her focus on migratory and cultural signifiers.

In a political climate in which migrants are routinely demonised, Gregory hopes the Heathrow commission can also have a social impact. “We have to find a way to shift people’s perception but in a very gentle, non-threatening way,” she tells BJP. “The language and methods that are used to talk about people who have come from elsewhere is to attack and dehumanise them. But when you hear the stories first-hand, it’s heartbreaking, how people end up in these places.”

You can read the full interview with Gregory below.

In a time of deep toxicity around immigration, the south London artist uses cameraless photography to foster care and conversations

24/07/2024

‘Miss July’ from Julia Gunther’s ‘Calendar Girls’ series is one of the winning single images for Female in Focus 2022. This photograph captures the essence of the Miss Calendar Girl Beauty Pageant, established by Chedino Martin in 2015 to create a supportive platform for trans girls in South Africa. Inspired by popular culture such as ‘Paris is Burning’, these pageants offer a nurturing environment and a sense of community for marginalised groups. Gunther orchestrated the shoot in a salt pan near Cape Town, highlighting the participants’ distinctive designs and makeup and resulting in these compelling portraits.

Female in Focus X Nikon 2024 will open for submissions in October, inviting women photographers worldwide to share their unique perspectives. Winning entries will be exhibited at two venues (including 10 14 gallery in East London), featured on BJP online, and shared with our extensive list of industry contacts.

Prepare your submissions now – and become a BJP Member to access exclusive benefits and free entry to Female in Focus and all our awards.

Learn more on our Membership packages: https://1854.photo/3Sn9Z3z

📷: Julia Gunther, Female in Focus 2022 single image winner

23/07/2024

Step behind the scenes of Janette Beckman’s ‘Rebels’ exhibition at Foam, Amsterdam, a sprawling inventory of sharp portraits – and a who’s who of contemporary underground music from London to the Bronx. There’s a ponytailed Sade in a fringed jacket leaning on a police vehicle in 1983; André 3000 showing off his arm tattoos, and street pictures of Run DMC and LL Cool J.

“I think if you are photographing a musician you should listen to their music, get a sense of what they are trying to say,” Beckman tells BJP. “I like to talk with the artist before I photograph them. I’m trying to capture them at that moment in time, their style and attitude are always important.”

You can read more from the London photographer below.

A new retrospective showcases the career of Janette Beckman, who documented youth subcultures from punk to hip-hop through to today’s street activism and more

20/07/2024

Nestled in Paris’s 17th arrondissement, Tokyo-born artist Hanako Murakami gathers plant cuttings to sear against copper plates for her thermography image process. Her studio is packed full of glass slides, Instamatic cameras, and heavy-duty masks for when she is using toxic chemicals (such as mercury) – testament to her fascination with traditional photographic techniques.

Books on Donald Judd and abstraction line the floor when our writer Sarah Moroz visited Murakami’s studio for our Virtual Reality print issue. They discussed perfumes, Nicéphore Niépce, artists’ rights and much more. The interview – featuring beautiful original photography by Taisuke Yoshida – is now available to read in full online.

We visit a bright apartment in the 17th arrondissement of Paris administered by DRAC, an organisation which supports artists

18/07/2024

A clear, succinct artist statement is an absolute necessity to identify what’s unique about your photography. But how do you write a personal statement that truly stands out?

No one knows better than BJP’s former editor, Simon Bainbridge, and Colin Pantall, a photographer, writer and lecturer. We’re excited that the pair will be hosting one-day workshops at our East London offices on 10 August and 19 October 2024, in which you’ll learn how to craft the perfect copy to accompany your photography.

Ahead of the ‘Writing for Photographers’ workshops, read a lighthearted take on the pitfalls of the personal statement: https://1854.photo/4cXGddi

An upcoming workshop in London with Colin Pantall and Simon Bainbridge will help photographers communicate their ideas through writing

17/07/2024

“Despite progress towards equality and acceptance, many societies still show prejudice, discrimination, and invisibility when it comes to le***an partnerships,” says photographer Nora Obergeschwandner, whose image is a Portrait of Humanity Vol. 6 winner.

“The stigma attached to le***an love can lead to social isolation, lack of legal recognition, and even violence. Moreover, there is often inadequate representation and support in the media, educational institutions, and within family structures. It is essential to acknowledge the issue of le***an love, advocate for equality, and create a more inclusive and supportive society.”

Obergeschwandner’s ‘In Between’ is among the 30 winning single images of Portrait of Humanity Vol. 6, to be exhibited alongside the three winning series at Four Corners gallery, London, from 04 September.

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date on the exhibition: https://1854.photo/4d0O367

📷: Nora Obergeschwandner, Portrait of Humanity Vol. 6 single image winner.

16/07/2024

An exhibition of product photography in New York recasts the work of August Sander, WH Fox Talbot, Margaret Bourke-White and Irving Penn in a new light, but also asks fundamental questions about how different forms of photography are valued.

“Commercial photography is inescapable now, you open your computer or your phone and it’s there. It’s high time to look again and better understand how we got to where we are today,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Virginia McBride tells BJP. Toilet paper, hair combs, shoes and panama hats all adorn the walls of the storied museum, ready to be discovered by viewers who may associate the artists on show with powerful street photography or landscapes.

You can read more about the show below.

Tracing an alternative history of photography by considering product shots, a new show suggests an intrinsic link between consumerism and image-making

16/07/2024

Today, Bluecoat launches the Kickstarter for "The Magic Money Tree" by Kirsty Mackay.

This powerful project documents the cost of living crisis and highlights the impact of poverty in the UK. Collaborating with children, families, and youth groups, Mackay explores poverty in working-class communities, engaging groups across the UK. She provided film cameras and workshops to encourage participants to consider the power of their own voice and how to use it.

Spanning over 200 pages, Mackay traces a direct line from Westminster and the decisions made by May’s and other Conservative governments to their impact on four communities across the country. This collection is a poignant and vital reminder of the real-life consequences of politics and a call to action for genuine change.

Learn more: https://1854.photo/3S7RNuz

© Kirsty Mackay

13/07/2024

In discussing his beguiling project ‘Non Fiction’, Henri Kisielewski points to some works which have inspired him: Thomas Bellinck’s ‘Domo de Eŭropa Historio en Ekzilo (The House of European History in Exile)’, which asks us to place ourselves in the future, visiting a museum exploring the history of a now-defunct European Union, and the work of conceptualist Stanley Brouwn, who in the 1960s asked passers-by to draw directions to a place, presenting the maps as abstract works.

“On one hand flash is cold and objective, we’ve been programmed to see it as this sort of truth-telling machine,” Kisielewski tells BJP, talking through his strange but transfixing portraits. “But on the other hand, in a less journalistic context – I’m thinking of Max Pinckers, for instance – we think because there’s flash it must be fake. It’s like you’re incorporating fiction into the image.”

You can read more about the artist’s influences and ‘Non Fiction’ below.

Zoning in on a small town in Normandy, ‘Non Fiction’ lends its characters a self-conscious ambiguity

12/07/2024

“There are very different approaches, artists dealing with more documentary, with film with more experimental forms, with installation, with video,” says curator Audrey Illouz. “I thought it was very important to respect all these different languages, though at the same time be quite acute with this notion of disquiet.”

The seven artists selected for this year’s Louis Roederer Foundation Discovery Award at Rencontres d’Arles work with various media but, Illouz tells BJP editor Diane Smyth, share a similar sense of uneasiness. Using ‘disquiet’ as a watchword, Illouz has created a quiet exhibition that nonetheless feels like an accurate read of our times.

You can find out more about the award and the chosen artists via the link below.

"This feeling of disquiet or of encompassing the darkness was very of the moment"