Gallery Visits

Over the year I have been to a few galleries to see the exhibitions that were being shown. In January I was able to go to London and visit a few exhibitions that were on. I was able to go to the Tate Modern and see The Clock by Christian Marclay which was an unusual but compelling piece of work.

Fig 1: Marclay, C, (2019). The Clock. Video. Tate Modern.

I also saw some artwork that was also showing at the Tate Modern. The next day I was able to go to the Photography Exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum. It was very interesting to see the development in the technology used to create the photographs and to see how the techniques were used to create interesting pieces of work. It was interesting to see that there were 3D images made before digital photography. These images were displayed in a machine which would change the image at the press of a button.

Fig 2: Jeffries, L., (2019). Anna Atkins: Festuca Ovina. Photograph. Photographer's own collection.

After visiting the Victoria and Albert Museum I went to the National History Museum to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition. This was an exhibition that I was very interested in going to see as it is relevant to my photographic practice. After paying for my entry I was able to go around the exhibition and see all the category winners and the runners up. I was able to see images that inspired me to practice my photography and develop my own skills. After viewing all the images I then went to the shop to get postcard prints of the images I liked the most, my favourite is The Vision which is a monochrome image in high detail. This image combines intense blacks with a grey smoke background which makes the focus of the image stand out even more. Whilst I was there I spoke to a member of staff and showed her a couple of my images, she encouraged me to enter my work in competitions there as she considered my work to be of similar standard to images being shown there already.

Fig 3: Jeffries, L., (2019). Jan Van Der Greef: The Vision. Photograph. Postcard in own collection

Back in Plymouth we have access to the gallery based at Plymouth University and I went to the Jem Southam exhibition. I liked the series Birds, Rocks, Rivers and Islands as it is the type of photography that I like. I enjoyed going around the gallery and taking my time looking at his work. There were quite a few images that I liked as they seemed to carry a wistfulness that is conveyed to the viewer. Jem Southam has achieved this effect with the muted colours within the images. It is this effect that I want my images to convey to the audience of my work.

Fig 8: Jeffries, L., (2019) Jem Southam: Full Moon Rising Above The North Island Motueka River. Photograph. Photographer's own collection