? The image as question
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Simon Norfolk, Prison Staircase, Aushwitz, 1996
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Valery Khristoforov, Cribs, the faculty of journalism of Moscow State University, 1984
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Sheldon Hine, Pistol Lit by Coaxial Lighting, c.1950. View 4
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Ground Floor, Enrique Metinides
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Melanie Einzig, September 11th, New York, NY 2001
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Dr Guillaume Duchenne de Boulogne, Rire faux (False laugh) from Mecanisme de la physionomie humaine, 1854-1856
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James Nasmyth & James Carpenter, The Moon (Illustrated scientific book explaining the surface of the moon, Published 1874)
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Inspecteur Pagneux, Inspecteur Pagneux’s private album of French criminals, 1895 - 1904.
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Louis Oliver, Set of 29 scientific botanical studies made under microscope, 1887
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Adam Fuss, Untitled 1998
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Peter Beard, ‘Portraits London (Francis Bacon) / Paris / Nairobi’ Collected at Hog Ranch 1960-70, 1990
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Takashi Arai, A Maquette for a Multiple Monument of the Wristwatch Dug Up from Ueno-machi, Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum. From the series Exposed in a Hundred Suns, 2014 No.2
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Alfredo Jaar, Life Magazine, April 19, 1968
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Etienne-Jules Marey, Walking man, circa 1895 (A)
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Ground Floor Hang, an assortment of images by various photographers
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Dr. Harold Edgerton, Milkdrop Coronet, 1957
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Simon Norfolk, Burnt filing cabinets, Iraqi National Archives, Baghdad April 2003
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Max Aguilera Hellweg, Pigment Composition Analysis of a Pollock Painting using Multispectral Flourescence and Ultra-Violet Imaging, Museum of Modern Art, New York, March, 2007
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Unknown photograher, Plutario Fassi (1901-) and Fausto Manfredi (1904-) burgled the safe at Lyon-Allemand in November 1933 by drilling into the ceiling. Theft by an anarchist pair.
Part of the fascination with all photography is that the medium is firmly grounded in the documentary tradition. It has been used as a record of crime scenes, zoological specimens, lunar and space exploration, phrenology, fashion and importantly, art and science. It has been used as ‘proof’ of simple things such as family holidays and equally of atrocities taking place on the global stage. Any contemporary artist using photography has to accept the evidential language embedded in the medium.
In this exhibition the Michael Hoppen Gallery exhibits a myriad of different images including 19th, 20th c. and contemporary works of art. Seemingly disparate these images have a shared gravitas, a weightiness that emanates from their documentary function. Many of the images were originally taken to provide empirical evidence of a theory or record of an event. Dislocated from their original context and distanced by time, they do not so much provide an answer, rather question the viewer afresh.
It is interesting that the majority of photographs in this exhibition were never intended as beautifully crafted or well-composed images. They were required to prove a point, solve a mystery or simply to inform with clarity. The identity of a face, the location of a cell, the shape of a skull as confirmation of evolution, the coaxial lighting down a gun to show the twist of the barrel. All these images were made to illustrate a fact. Even a picture of a Russian schoolgirl’s calculus covered thighs provides amusing evidence of her cheating in a math’s exam. The image was taken as proof of her misdemeanor but isolated from its original context, as with many of these images, it acquires a beauty and significance independent of it’s original function.
Most of these images once served a specific purpose, which has now passed. What therefore makes these disparate images still so important and also so collectable? One understands very quickly how extraordinary some of these pieces are, not only from an informative point of view, but also aesthetically. Many are unique and the chances of them having been saved in good condition, for posterity is often just pure chance. The minds that thought up ways to record this evidence, sometimes in the face of cultural or academic adversity, was also an achievement. Look at Jules Etienne Marée’s series of the naked man walking. This is possibly the earliest ‘giff’ in the world! What he was able to do is still being practiced today in cinema special effects.
Equally, the photographs Francis Bacon used to create some of his great canvases could have ended up in a waste paper bin, but are here for all to see. Scholars need this material to work with and it is this search for the truth that leads us neatly to where we are today with a plethora of fascinating pictures to sample, savor and marvel at.
A hand bound exhibition catalogue will be available limited to only 200 copies.
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Sean O'Hagan's top 10 photography exhibitions of 2016
Sean O'Hagan, The Guardian, December 7, 2016 -
Top 10 Photobooks of 2016
Tim Clark, 1000 words mag, December 5, 2016 -
In praise of the lesser- known photographer
CRISTINA RUIZ, Art Newspaper, November 16, 2016 -
The Image as Question: An Exhibition of Evidential Photography
Will Britten, Film's Not Dead, November 9, 2016 -
The Image as Question At Michael Hoppen Gallery
L'OEIL DE LA PHOTOGRAPHIE, October 13, 2016 -
EVIDENCE
Michael Hoppen, Hunger Magazine, Issue #11, October 10, 2016 -
Evidence Case file. The image as question: an exploration of evidential photography
Photobooks, Blog, Gabriela Cendoya, October 8, 2016 -
Crime! Sex! Space! A Showcase of Evidential Photography
Hattie Crisell, AnOther Magazine, September 29, 2016 -
Arts picks of the week: 26th September-2nd October
Evening Standard, September 29, 2016 -
Proof Reading: Tracing the history of evidential photography
Charlotte Harding, British Journal of Photography, September 26, 2016 -
Compelling evidence: crime scene photographs
Liz Jobey, FT Online, September 9, 2016
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Top 10 photography exhibitions of 2016
Selected by Sean O'Hagan, The Guardian December 7, 2016Sean O'Hagan names two MHG exhibitions in his Top 10 Exhibitions of 2016Read more -
EVIDENCE CATALOGUE NAMED IN TOP 10 PHOTOBOOK OF 2016
Selected by Tim Clark of 1000 Words Mag December 5, 2016Self published and and made exhibition catalogue nmaed in Top 10 photobooks of 2016Read more
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EVIDENCE
Michael Hoppen talks in Hunger Magazine, Issue #11 OCT, Issue #11Michael Hoppen talks in Octobers issue of Hunger Magazine about his passion for documentary and crime photography.Read more -
EVIDENCE CASE FILE
NEW TO THE ONLINE SHOPExhibition catalogue for the Michael Hoppen Gallery's 'Evidence exhibition, 2016.Read more