Manchester Art Gallery Visit

So another week draws closer to my shoot with Bayston Hill Quarry, I am both eager and excited for this experience. Having getting an email this week to bring hi-vis jacket & trouser, plus steel toe capped boots. I hope I can get the images which I want, as I think this is my major shoot for my negotiated project and has a high chance of being what I display in the end of year show.

Monday, as a University group, we took our short journey northwards. I felt this was a good opportunity to take more architectural shots before we explored the gallery and also after. Arriving into Manchester Piccadilly, I don't know why, but I was shocked at how busy it was. Taking my small mirrorless Lumix with me, allowed me to capture more candid shots.

Here are a few images from the day:

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The reason for going to Manchester was for the Strange and Familiar exhibition curated by Martin Parr. The exhibition explores Britain through international photographers eyes and the images they have taken in the country. The work is mostly documentary or photojournalism. I really enjoyed the visit for ideas for my final exhibition and it also helped with my publishing practice (the candid photos of football fans).

The exhibition included the likes of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paul Strand, Sergio Larrain, Axel Hütte, Raymond Depardon and Bruce Gilden. It was impressive to see original prints of the likes of Bresson and Strand, the way which they were presented, was really nice and uniform. I particularly like the way Bresson's work was displayed, with landscapes layered and portraits straight. Other artists such as Larrain had more almost random collection of his work but it seemed to show a story. The one thing which I think would've been nice to have throughout the exhibition is uniform frames. I like the border around the images and the thin frames.

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The worst piece for size and the way it was presented was Bruce Gilden. It was big and garish and didn't go with the rest of the show. The images seemed over adjusted and just didn't't work in my opinion.

But possibly my favourite exhibited work being by Cat Oorthuys, the reason why I liked her work is because of the simple layout and frames, I feel it could work with my pieces, it reminds me of my interim work. The way it is presented was a nice spectacle.

I feel this visit was helpful, especially walking around with Tom Wood and hearing what he had to say about each piece of work. So overall it was a good experience as bigger prints doesn't mean better and frames and borders are extremely important with how the work is viewed. Something to think about for our show is the placement of statements as some pieces of work you don't know who the artist is.