Photographers' Gallery Review
Alex Prager: Silver Lake Drive
Alex Prager is a photographer and filmmaker. She is well known for her large scale techno-coloured photos. In the exhibition there was both her photos and films that corresponded with the photos. I really liked her exhibition as the use of such bright colours and large group shots where very impressive and eye catching, the longer that I looked at them the more details I noticed such as their facial expressions and the other models in the shot that they are interacting with. Watching the films that corresponded with the images gave me a better understanding of her photos and created a new layer to the images. For example there was an image of a ballerina in a bright blue dress against a black background with a scared look on her face and after watching the film I understood why Prager chose to photograph her like, because of that it became my favourite photo in her exhibition.
Tish Murtha: Works 1976-1991
Tish Murtha was a British social documentary photography best known for documenting marginalised communities, social realism and working class life. Her works (1976 - 1991) shed light on parts of life that not many people paid attention to at the time of each set of photos she took such as Young Unemployment or the night life of dancers in London clubs. I enjoyed her exhibition because it wasn't polished and didn't put a 'rose tinted lens' on the message she was trying to portray. The gritty realism on her images helped me to empathies with the struggle of the people in her images. My favourite photo from her 'Young Unemployment' collection was the one where a young man was lying on a sofa smoking a cigarette. The way that Murtha captured the smoke and created movement within the still image really caught my eye.
Tony Vaccaro - Getty Images
Tony Vaccaro is an American photographer who is best known for his photos taken in Europe during 1944 and 1945, and in Germany immediately following World War II. I found Vaccros' World War II collection really thought provoking and I liked how it depicted such a horrible experience in such a beautiful way. I especially liked the image of the fallen solider in the snow, as the juxtaposition of the brutality of his death versus how peaceful he looks lying in the snow showed how destructive War had been. On top of this the fallen solider was Vaccaros best friend and the fact that he didn't know this when he took the photo added an extra layer of meaning and depth.
