Down to a vast warehouse in Curtain Rd Shoreditch for the weekend long cluster photo fair.

I really enjoyed the Cluster photography fair which hosted a large range of artists and varied practices, most of it amazing stuff. I’m less interested in any of the AI connected things on offer(a topic for another day), but the rest of it was truly astounding in the wide variety and it’s so refreshing and wonderful to see so many talented people practising the art of photography.

We sometimes forget that photography is still a very young art and there’s still so much we haven’t done with it even if we’re going to stick with analog processes there’s so much to explore and this fair gave a great overview of the limitless possibilities of photography . @cluster__photographyandprint

Aesthetics of horror

These pieces by Bruce Osborn are really important. He has created various aesthetic but incredibly disturbing images of the JUNK that emerges from the ocean – man-made materials usually plastic that we thoughtlessly used in our daily lives and somehow find their way into the oceans.

By criticising something which is so terrible he manages to draw our attention to it like a child to the candy shop window and then hit us between the eyes by the horror of what is happening . Although he’s working on such a different scale, the work reminds me quite a lot of the brilliant.Edward Burtynsky his work also uses aesthetics to draw attention to our problematic relationship with the planet
@bruceosbornphoto @cluster__photographyandprint #photographer #photo #ecology #aesthetics #ocean #environment #art

Obsessive Joy

Callum O’Keefe’s work looks at the art and culture of collecting with some remarkable photographs of people who are die hard collectors – beginning with his own dad
At @cluster__photographyandprint he is exhibiting some of his photographs and this endearing but also quite compelling little collection of things I presume it’s from his dad‘s collection. There’s something very poignant about it. I’ve always thought collecting was both attractive and strange. I admit to having probably too much stuff (puppets and skeletons!) of my own (confession here) but he brings an insight but also a compassion in his pictures. Have a look at his Instagram @callumokeefe00 to see more
I’m really looking forward to seeing more of Callum‘s work.

Ice Realm

The striking image drew me from across the room. There was something about it that was very compelling. Something that reminded me of a dreamscape, but so clearly a real place
As I approached it. I wondered if it was a re-printed antique piece ?
But talking to the artist Anne Lydian, I discovered that it was a colour photograph printed black-and-white and then the black-and-white was allowed to decay in the elements and then to be photographed and this is the final piece that you see so not toned purely the productive nature.

It is a shot of a giant iceberg in Greenland. It’s a very poignant comment both in terms of the process and in terms of the subject Matter of the inexorability of nature and also its fragility.. @cluster__photographyandprint @anneonrock Anne Lydian

A week later I’m still thinking about this image.

Saturated splendour

One of my very favourite pieces at the @cluster__photographyandprint fair was this gorgeous photograph by @nstlgc_kky Kitebe Kone Yah
. One of a number of stunning photographs which were outstanding in the fair.
Simply because there’s nothing else quite like them in the whole show really beautiful work. Some of her work is experimental like this gorgeous image, but she also showed a truly monumental composition showing people on a seashore that has strong feelings of an Old Master, also in her saturated style. Truly sublime.

I look forward to following this artist., who hails from Côte d’Ivoire.

Bees! And more bees!

Enter the hive of artist diz_qo who is an old friend of mine and I never cease to admire his work. He produced a truly immersive video work for the entrance of the fair, immediately pulling the audience in a world of visual magic.

#art #bees #video #immersive

art #photographer #photographylovers #photography #images #london #weekend