Bradford Visit

Last Friday we braved the M1 and headed north to Bradford. First on the agenda was a visit to the Impressions Gallery, and a look at British-Indian photographer Max Kandhola's exhibition - Flatland: A landscape of Punjab. "...Kandhola explores themes of memory, migration and Sikh Diaspora through large-scale colour photographs of Punjab's many rivers and uncharted villages."

Max Kandhola - Kapurthala District travelling between Phagwara and Phillaur Jalandhar District

Personally I wasn't greatly impressed by the exhibition, feeling that beyond some interesting compositions and exotic landscapes, the work didn't hold a lot of depth to its purpose, and hence didn't really draw me in. The gallery had an excellent little bookshop though. 

We next visited (and spent the rest of the day at) The National Media Museum. We had a talk from the museum's photography curator Greg Hobson about the current exhibition - We English by Simon Roberts. Greg's talk was very informative, hearing both a curator's point of view, as well as some interesting 'behind the scenes' of Roberts' acclaimed project. I came across We English some months ago but I only ever saw the work online, and seeing the large prints on the wall just blew me away. The quality of detail was immense, and for me this made the images (and the whole project) much more impacting. The experience also restored my faith in a good old gallery visit.

Simon Roberts - Cotswold Water Park, Shornecote, Gloucestershire, 11th May 2008

Simon Roberts - Fantasy Island, Ingoldmells, Lincolnshire, 28th December 2007

You can find all the images from the body of work here, along with reviews, links, the blog from Robert's trip, and other goodies. Also a podcast from Foto8 of Simon talking about his project. 

The rest of the afternoon was taken up with a tour around the Museum's archives, and their open viewing and research facility - Insight. I think we were all amazed at the breadth and depth of the archives, as well as the numerous exciting historic items - daguerreotypes, 10x8 plate cameras, spy cameras, old computers, newspaper prints, and so on. Via the Insight facility, the archives are open to the public to search and study photographic items of interest (best arranged by appointment). This can be very specific, from a certain photographer, to a certain time or style of photography, or a certain make/model of camera. Considering the potential for some very in-depth research, I'm thinking it would be a good idea to visit again as a group (perhaps in the next academic year), when there is a new exhibition on, and beforehand preparing some names whose work we want to have a good look at.

Next week we'll have a peer review session to see where everyone is at with the assignment, as well as a flashgun workshop, and a talk from photographer Joanna Ornowska.