June 2014

ˈfōtō ˈfôrtˌnīt frīdē

Erdil’s Tailoring, 87th between Lex and 3rd.

I just happened to be walking down 87th Street, it was blazing hot in a glaring sun kind of way but as I walked past this bleached-by-the-sun-wall something pulled me beyond the shapes, textures and colours of the building. Something drew me to look in. There he was, sitting at a table, a small lamp illuminating the material he was working with. Such a tiny light  and a man quiet and totally absorbed in his stitching. This scene shone right out of the shop, brighter somehow than the daylight.

TanyaAhmedErdilsTailoring

Another’s thoughts on [( 6 )]

Another’s thoughts on [( 6 )]

As we lead up to the exhibition in July the [( 6 )] of us are getting excited! You may have read my brief introduction to our work:

http://tanyaahmed.com/2014/06/12/6-whats-it-all-about/

but, as the 6 of us produce different works so the six of us see things from a slightly different angle. Why not check out Rob™’s blog as he gives his thoughts on each of our projects.

http://www.robtm.co.uk/blog_files/category-exhibition.html

Rob will be at Bank Street Arts for the Private View on the 9th of July and also on Saturday the 12th so stop by for a chat with the man himself.

Rob

 

Photograph © Rob™

[( 6 )] ? What’s it all about?

[( 6 )] : Personal Explorations in Photography

[( 6 )] ? What’s it all about?

Life that’s what. People, places. How we are, where we are, how we make our way through our day, through our environment. Mentally, physically and of course photographically.

We are six photographers. We didn’t set out to create an exhibition, but we gravitated together at a fortuitous time. We’ve got to know each other’s work, and each other, over the past few years, which is a feat as we currently live in the USA, the UK and China. We will be presenting photographs capturing life in the USA, the UK, France, China and Japan.

Despite the geographic distance and our differing genres, landscape, portraiture and documentary, collectively our work interlinks with the exploration of social themes. Our images cut across the divide of distance and culture, as we reveal our use of and the role of photography to understand the world and our place in it.

This is not a group show in the usual way, a curated theme we all submit a couple of photographs to. We have taken over a floor of Bank Street Arts, consisting of 5 separate galleries. Each gallery holds different sets of work so in effect you are seeing six separate photographer’s exhibitions consisting of 10 different bodies of work.

There is though an incidental large-looming central theme running through all of these works. The pulling of the viewer into the reading of each image. We as photographers aren’t making statements so much as asking for your interpretative viewing.

What follows is the briefest of introductions to some of the work that we will be showing at Bank Street Arts.

Rob’s luscious woodland images in A Forest expose the beauty and richness of nature and then he trips you up with the decanted unnatural objects he stumbled upon and then juxtaposed with the forest scene. The pairing of the two photographs invites you to put the object he pulled out of the scene back in as you imagine what led it to be there in the first place thereby discovering a third, latent image in your own mind.

You can get a sneak peek of A Forest, one of the two bodies of work Rob will be showing, in hashtag magazine. http://www.robtm.co.uk/blog_files/dabe9e996904fe4635cb72704f69fbc6-74.html

Hashtag Magazine http://www.hashtagphotographymagazine.co.uk

I take this idea a collaborative step further with one of my two projects, Untitled. I present spaces that are purposefully made for rest and contemplation. The settings vary though and one person’s calm oasis is another’s awkward reminder of an experience gone by. As the viewer you share, through captioning my photographs, what thoughts and connections you make when you encounter these images. This project is an extension of a previous online collaboration. Does the gallery space affect how these images are received, I hope to find out.

In my second set, Walking the Gamut, I lead you through the pedestrian’s experience of navigating construction where new obstacles and routes are thrown up inhibiting easy access and creating a confusing array of colours and shapes. This theme of access is continued in an exploration of another point of view by Pete.

As a wheelchair user Pete takes us on another path as he re-presents a familiar city landscape. Through his viewpoint and experience Pete helps us reassess access within a landscape that we see but do not understand in the same way as a physically impaired person does.

Whilst Pete shares much about himself, we get a real sense of him and his engagement with the world, he does not use portraiture through the three projects he presents. Pete is not asking that we look at him but that we experience the social landscape as he does. His work looks outward to the world he encounters and gives us a new way into it.

Keith, perhaps the opposite of Pete in mobility, is an Ironman. His works in [( 6 )] focus on people that are active participants in this strenuously physical lifestyle. Rather than show us the subjects as they are competing, which is perhaps what we might expect from a group of people obsessed with physical activity, Keith instead uses classic portraiture techniques to distill the essence of each subject. Questioning whether we can see the spark that makes them Ironmen (and women).

Whereas Pete is stilled by his impairment yet fights to be mobile, Keith’s subjects are stopped from their activity and made still in a studio setting. Presenting two bodies of work, in the first, I am an Ironman, Keith photographs himself repeatedly after finishing training a time when he barely has the energy to even pose. This presents us with a conflicting view of someone who is incredibly active and strong and yet is reduced to such a state of exhaustion that he appears immobile.

Finally, we look at the work of Dewald and Nigel who consider how the environment affects mental as well as physical interaction as they find themselves in a landscape that is culturally different than their own. Nigel’s work is concerned with transience and transitions. He presents here, in a departure from his usually studio based work, the aftermath of the Tsunami on the north east coastline of Japan after the wreckage had been removed. Nigel’s work shows an in-between time where life is unresolved. The debris has gone but normal life has not yet resumed and may not. The once populated area seems to be suspended indefinitely. With the rich blue tones consistent throughout each print we are lulled into the beauty of the sky and landscape, only to feel the blue as melancholy when our eyes fall on the disrupted urban structures.

Dewald also has a particular colour palettte, one that is slightly muted. It bestows an ethereal presence on the tranquil spaces Dewald discovered in the otherwise gritty urban landscape of the Suzhou ring road. More than just a exploration and document of the road itself, Ring Road exposes the need to step out of the onward flow in the busy city and take the time to assess the moment. Dewald perhaps has discovered on his walking quest of where the road goes that ‘the journey is the destination’. (Dan Eldon)

[( 6 )] kicks off at Bank Street Arts in Sheffield, UK with a private view on July 9th where you can meet four of the photographers. (let me know if you didn’t get an invite). The exhibition continues from July 10th until July 19th. You can download a flyer with the exhibition details and get a taste of each photographer’s photographs over at:

www.six-scapes.weebly.com

six

 

 

 

ˈfōtō ˈfôrtˌnīt frīdē

I saw this whilst exploring the building during Interior Lives, the exhibition at the National Arts Club in Gramercy. It’s in the ladies loo! You never know where the light is going to catch your eye!

TanyaAhmedTraskLadies

 

[( 6 )] : Personal Explorations in Photography

[( 6 )] : Personal Explorations in Photography

This is the big one for 2014. I am teaming up with 5 photographers and together we will be taking over the ground floor, 5 galleries, of Bank Street Arts in Sheffield, UK.  Between us we will be showing 10 bodies of work.

YOU ARE INVITED!

The private view is on July 9th, 1730 – 2000 by invite only but I will happily guarantee you a personal invitation if you would like to attend. Just let me know.

I’ll give more info as the time approaches but for now you can get a sneak peek of what will be on offer at Bank Street Arts and a look at the work of the other photographers, RobTM, Pete Mansell, Nigel Haworth, Keith Greenough and Dewald Botha at our exhibition website:

http://six-scapes.weebly.com

[( 6 )]

 

 

 

People and Place

2014 – PWP SPRING 2014 INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S CALL FOR ENTRY

I am honoured to have my work chosen by Juror Andrea Meislin, Owner and Director of the Andrea Meislin Gallery in Manhattan. She selected two of my images, for first place in the environment category and third place in the black and white category.

You can see my two photographs and those of the other photographers that were chosen here:

http://www.pwponline.org/exhibition/view/pwp-spring-2014-international-women-s-call-for-entry