MHG Newsletter '16

We have been busy in Japan again and have some wonderful new work to show to you in London this year.

We are so proud to be able to bring Solitude of Ravens to our gallery. It has been a quest of mine for the past six years to exhibit this body of work. And now finally it is hanging in our gallery and hope you will make the journey and come to see it.

We have found that many more museums across Europe and America are also enjoying the fruits of Japanese photographers and our belief is still that it is not only some of the most interesting work to look at and collect, but it is of such quality and so beautifully produced, it still amazes us as to why it has taken so long to be embraced.

We are delighted to be able to present vintage works by so many of these masters such as Fukase, Hirata, Kawada, Tomatsu, Hamaya, Hosoe, Ishiuchi and Shinoyama, to name a few.

We have now also ben appointed as the exclusive representative for Eikoh Hosoe’s works and we are delighted to be able to offer very rare and beautiful vintage exhibition prints for the first time.

Tate Modern has substantial holdings of Japanese photography, thanks to Dr Simon Baker, and it is currently showing Performing for the Camera which includes works by Hosoe, Hirata, and also Fukase whose wonderful series Bukubuku (which means blowing bubbles in Japanese) we have loaned to Tate for their exhibition, and is on display for the very first time since 1992. It is a exhibition well worth visiting and covers a wide range of other artists who have used the camera to photograph their own performance and in many other cases such as Hosoe, a performance directed by the photographer. Kamataichi is a wonderful example of this collaboration and the whole series can be seen in the show. A rare treat.

Collecting photography can be such a minefield. So we do offer advice to our regular collectors and would be delighted to have a conversation with you should you wish to find out about a particular artist or a print. If we can help, we will.

The season for shows and fairs is quite definitely open. There are many events to choose from and it would be difficult to see all, but we recommend The Armory and AIPAD in New York. PhotoLondon in May and then Arles, which opens in early July. We advise booking hotels and transport now, as the opening week can be very busy. We are delighted that several of our artist will be shown this year in Arles and Eamonn Doyle will be given space to show all three of his projects. We will also open a show of Eamonn’s newest project ‘End .’ at the gallery in May.

Another highlight of the year for us is our June show ‘In the Blink of an Eye’. We have invited the writer William Boyd to curate a show of his favorite works by our favorite photographer, Jacques Henri Lartigue! William and I have spent hours pouring over the albums looking for Lartigue ‘snapshots’, and have found some real treasures to show you in June!

“Lartigue is such a giant of photography today that it’s almost impossible to imagine the photographic landscape of the 20^th century without him.”
- William Boyd

PhotoLondon opens for its second edition in May and we look forward to welcoming so many great artists and galleries from around the world to London. It is exciting to see London giving Paris a run for their money and believe that there is more than enough room for the fair to thrive.

Technology is always at the forefront of photography and today is no different. The demise of analogue continues apace and sadly we see fewer photographers and artists being able to find good instruction on how to make a photograph using traditional darkroom methods. It is such a wonderful way of working, and it is important that these skills are not lost. We have suggested that PhotoLondon hold seminars about process and also print identification later in the year and we hope this program of seminars and lectures will be announced soon. We have fantastic national collections and these can be used as a backdrop to finding out more about how photographs were and can be made. We will certainly keep you informed about these seminars and if you are interested in attending, please do contact us so we can make sure you are sent all the details.

We have great news from our artist Sohei Nishino. The Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco have confirmed a solo show for this wonderful artist and have also commissioned a Diorama of San Francisco for the museum. Sohei has also just completed Johannesburg and is now just about to finish Havana in Cuba. This is a much anticipated Diorama, and we look forward to sharing it with you soon.

Please do look at our news page which has some of the photography exhibition highlights in London listed for artists and shows we feel we should draw your attention to.

We are planning to go to ‘By Appointment Only’ on Saturdays. This will certainly be during the summer months – June to the end of August but we may extend this during art fair months too. Please do keep an eye on our web site for opening times on Saturdays from June onwards.

We are very sorry to have said goodbye to Florence Lautenberg who was with us for some 5 years and has had a beautiful baby boy. Florence has left to become a full time Mother. We wish her and her family the very best for the future.