Brett Jefferson Stott talking in the gallery
London’s first Street Photography Festival is now in full swing, and last night I was at the opening of what is perhaps the most impressive of the several shows, although not one that has received any great publicity. Seen/Unseen at the Collective Gallery down an side alley at 15 Camden High Street, a few yards from Mornington Crescent station is for various reasons an interesting show, and is open 7 days a week until 17 July, although a display of 8 of George Gerogiou’s images is also on nearby bus shelters until 5 Aug.
Waiting for the 168 at Mornington Crescent
It was Georgiou’s images, taken looking out of bus windows, that held my interest, displayed on a grid of six screens in the gallery. At least during the opening, the light level in the gallery shining on the front of these largish monitors seemed to me at least a couple of stops too high for optimum viewing, more designed for the large prints by Mimi Mollica around the rest of the space.
George Gerogiou
Part of the interest was in recognising many of the views captured by Georgiou, but the work also reflected the near-invisibility of the photographer, recording unobserved from the window of the bus. Of course he is not the first to take advantage of this kind of privileged position (and most of us city photographers have done the same) but he has persevered at it in a way that few others have.
Six screens display Georgiou’s work
His work incorporates the reflections and irregularities that come from shooting through glass which is seldom clean, and although at times this gave the images a greater depth, there were others images where I found it simply annoying and wished he had worked harder to avoid these – as some other photographers have done. But then we would have had different pictures.
Mimi Mollica
I found Mimi Mollica‘s images taken of people inside buses somewhat less gripping, at least in part because of their technical qualities. I felt they would actually have looked rather better on computer screens than as the large and rather garish blow-ups on the wall, and certainly felt they looked considerably better from a distance than close to, and I think better in my photographs than in reality. But others will certainly disagree.
Grace Pattison, Brett Jefferson Stott and others listen to the photographers talking
Both Brett Jefferson Stott, the founder/director of the London Street Photography Festival and the two photographers spoke at the opening, and there was a large and appreciative audience including a number of other photographers. Brett in particular talked a little about the difficulties of photographing in public, which I think can easily be overstated. So far as buses are concerned I do of course have a little form, producing a set of black and white pictures on them which was shown at the Museum of London back around 1991.
On my way home I had a long time to wait at one of the bus shelters for the 168, and so had plenty of time to photograph one of Georgiou’s images on display there. And as often on my bus journeys I did take a few pictures out of the window, as well as one of my fellow passengers.
Another show in the LSPF not to be missed, which I’ve yet to see but which looks to be of great interest is Walter Joseph‘s ‘Street Markets of London in the 1940s‘ which is at the British Library until 31 July. It’s good to see the value of this work being recogised, I think promises to be rather more interesting than the much hyped Vivian Maier show.
A few more pictures from the opening will be on My London Diary some time in the next few days.
I should have made clear that Mimi Mollica’s images are all taken from the closed circuit monitors installed on some buses. You can see what I think is a better presentation of this work on his web site.
http://www.mimimollica.com/reportage/project/bus_stories
Along with other work, much of which I find more interesting than this.
Peter