Coming in September 2018, Portrait of Britain is now in its third year and attracting thousands of entries each year.
The 100 winning images will be displayed on JCDeaux’s digital screens across the country for the month. All 100 images, along with 100 more that were shortlisted, will be printed in a book to be published by Hoxton Mini Press.
Photographer Benjamin Rice took part in the 2018 Dulwich Festival. Showing at Bell House, his images of Dry Stone Walls are a metaphor for the marriage between nature and human endeavour. Printed landscape and measuring 3m in size, the precision and variety of nature's enrichment is only revealed when seen at this scale.
Also on display was his Tree series, a study of a tree in Peckham photographed over the past few months in various states of leaf fall.
Punk artist Mal-One exhibited a series of new works at Herrick Gallery in London in May 2018.
Never Mind The Punk 45 was a mixed-media show featuring decollages from the forerunners of the punk rock’s movement, focussing on the debut 45” releases. Cutting back from the original sleeve artwork to show snippets of related material from the band’s back story, the images were made up of press cuttings, promo badges, and tickets along with other items.
Band included are Adam & The Ants, Buzzcocks, The Clash, The Damned, Ian Dury, Generation X, The Jam, Ramones, Sex Pistols, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Stranglers, and X Ray Spex.
Also on display was the work 100 Punks, a collage of 100 punk singles inspired by the original wall at Rough Trade that featured many a Punk record sleeve.
To coincide with this exhibition Mal-One released a limited edition 7” single as part of this years Record Store Day.
Photographer Tom Oldham announced a unique collaboration with musician and producer Andy Gangadeen, and the publicans and performers of East London institution, The Palm Tree. The Last of the Crooners comprises a set of award-winning and atmospheric portraits of the singers and musicians who play at the pub every weekend and an LP of live recordings from these sessions.
Long-time landlords at The Palm Tree, Val and Alf Barrett welcomed all-comers to an evening of live music where a selection of the photographs, which were awarded the Professional Portrait Award at the Sony World Photography Awards 2018, were exhibited. A strictly limited vinyl edition of The Last of the Crooners album, restricted to 500 copies, is on sale at the pub on a first-come-first-served basis. (Please note this record will be only available to purchase from the pub exclusively, so as to ensure visitors will have first experienced the environment to then enjoy the music at home).
Tom’s exhibition was featured on BBC London, Jo Good’s BBC Radio London, Monocle 24 Radio among others.
David Magee presented his first public exhibition of landscape and seascape photographs at Herrick Gallery in February 2018. The exhibition showcased a retrospective body of work spanning twenty-five years, and coincided with the release of his limited edition book Outside, published by Concentric Editions.
This beautifully printed and meticulously produced book presents an overview of his approach to landscape photography consisting of forty-seven plates painstakingly selected from an extensive archive. Outside is a gallery in itself with a collection of images that encapsulate the essence of his atmospheric photography.
The elements - earth, water and air – and where the land and sea meet the sky, are the recurring themes that Magee works with. However, it is the composition and the combinations of light, tone and movement, as well as the passage of time captured through extended exposures that creates the atmosphere that sets his photographs apart.
Magee says, “In my photographs, there is no real sense of time or of a specific place. The location is totally secondary to the feeling. The feeling is everything.”
Published by Concentric Editions, with only 500 copies worldwide, this limited edition book is hand numbered and signed by the artist. With a foreword by Academy-Award winning director Terry George, and an interview with Dr Collete Nolan.
David was interviewed by London Live for his exhibition and was featured in Country Life Magazine, ArtDaily, PhotoBite and Photogrvphy
From November 2017 until the start of 2018, HENI Gallery in London presented an exhibition of works by Simone Fattal to coincide with the publication of Simone Fattal: Watercolours by HENI Publishing.
The limited edition book presents over 100 watercolours works, from still lifes to abstracts. Made between 1972 and 2016, the book depicts a combination of painting, collage and sculptural works, all preceded by a discussion with the Artistic Director of London’s Serpentine Gallery, Han-Ulrich Obrist. This open discussion sees Fattal ruminating on her childhood in Damascus, her publishing company Post-Apollo Press, and other recurring themes that continue to inspire her long-standing affinity with the watercolour medium.
ArtReview reviewed the exhibition as in their February 2018 issue
This book is David Bailey’s portrayal of the landscapes and personalities of the mystical and densely forested Naga Hills, part of the complex mountain barrier between India and Myanmar (Burma), and home to the Naga tribes, “those with pierced ears” in Burmese. Bailey’s desire to visit the Naga Hills has been with him since youth, yet access had been continually restricted because of war and unrest – until 2012 when that wish finally became a reality.
Bailey had initially wanted to photograph the story of the last headhunters in the region, but in typical Bailey style, he needed to improvise when this didn’t quite go to plan: he recalls for example cutting though difficult terrain (at times needing to walk beside the four-wheel drive), becoming lost for hours, only to be discovered by armed men who directed him to a party at a guard post, where he proceeded to dance the night away with the soldiers…
This is the newest book exploring Bailey’s on-going fascination with India, the previous being his Delhi Dilemma of 2012, and by no means the last – for in Bailey’s words, “India seems endless”.
The book was featured in Arts Illustrated, State Magazine, and Vogue India among others.
As a fashion photographer, Amelia Allen works in an industry obsessed with body image, one that focuses on the most flattering way of dressing oneself. It was therefore an usual and refreshing step for her move into a world where the body is completely liberated, devoid of styling and stripped of fabric and fashion.
In Naked Britain, Amelia explores the reason behind the unique and controversial status of naturism in today’s society that often associates nudity with sex. To Amelia, that association if a harmful misconception; In the naturist world, people connect as equals, regardless of appreaance, wealth, occupation, or status, be literally stripping off and immersing herself in the 21st century naturism, Amelia discovered liberation, empowerment and the sense of fun that naturists embrace and enjoy.
For two years she inhabited both worlds producing this sociological documentary through the eye song her camera lens. Her developing interests in reportage photography comes from her enjoyment of travelling, meeting new people and observing them in their everyday life. Amelia’s ability to connect with people and tell and story through imagery facilitated this publication and exhibition.
“The sense of fun, freedom, and liberation that naturism offers its advocates is extraordinarily infectious and I like to think I have captured the raw beauty of that.”
Amelia was interviewed on BBC World News, BBC Radio London and The Telegraph, and her images were featured on many news sites including the Daily Mail, Metro, and GARAGE Magazine.
Artist Alexander de Cadenet presented for the first time in the UK Creations – an exhibition at St Stephen Walbrook, a Sir Christopher Wren church in the heart of the financial City of London from 3rd October to 3rd November 2017.
The show comprised of a series of life-sized, unique solid silver and gold plated hamburger sculptures that are a protest against our society’s ever increasing materialistic greed and hunger for power and status. Two of the burgers featured images of Donald Trump reflecting the current mood in politics.
The sculptures consist of various materialistic objects crammed in between a McDonald’s sesame seed burger bun – these watches, cars, planes, Barbie dolls, and money display varying degrees of grotesquery.
In keeping with the spiritual sanctity of the venue and in addition to the 10 new ‘Life Burger’ sculptures, there was a message of redemption in the form of a single much larger scale bronze apple with three bites taken form it. This work is designed to balance the more protesting themes explored by the burgers.
Arts & Collections Magazine featured the exhibition on their social media channels, while Artlyst wrote a long piece on their website.
One year after its debut, the UK’s biggest photography exhibition returned, putting the country’s citizens centre stage once more on digital screens up and down the land. Portrait of Britain, in partnership with JCDecaux and Nikon, gave photographers, amateur and professional alike, the chance to showcase their work across the country.
Visualised as an exhibition for the people, by the people, Portrait of Britain reached more than a third of the UK population in 2016. It returned in 2017 with another 100 photographs showing in busy public spaces nationwide. The public encountered the images as they went about their daily lives, displayed across JCDecaux’s digital channel of screens in places such as rail stations, shopping malls, high streets and Heathrow.
Following an open call by the British Journal of Photography, neatly 8000 portraits were entered, from which the final 100 were chosen.
The wining images from the exhibition can be seen at portraitofbritain.uk and many of them are available to buy as art prints from gallery.portraitofbritain.uk
The exhibition was featured in The Sunday Times, The Guardian, The i, and The Times, as well as Sky Breakfast, BBC In Pictures, Mail Online, and The Jewish Chronicle among others.
David Bailey’s King’s X brings together two books – King’s Cross and Street People King’s Cross – as one slipcase limited edition, dedicated to the area in which Bailey has lived for over 20 years.
Bailey presents a striking yet complementary contrast to the street photography of King’s Cross in Street People King’s Cross, turning his famed portraiture to the people that live on those very streets. Initially commissioned by The Big Issue in 1999, these portraits of homelessness showcase Bailey’s unsurpassed talent in capturing unexpected aspects of his subjects, challenging preconceptions with a quiet intimacy. King’s Cross meanwhile focuses on the fast-changing landscape of the area. Bailey’s relatively recent photographs – together with an insightful text by Francis Hodgson – are an testament to the ever-changing city and the stories held within. For every copy sold a £10 donation will be make to a homeless charity.
The book and accompanying exhibition were featured in many outlets including The Big Issue, Time Out and It’s Nice That.
For his fifth solo show, British artist Blondey McCoy unveiled Us and Chem., an exhibition that intimately drew a parallel between art and therapy. Us and Chem. is a study in self reflection and the psychological manifestations of chemical imbalance. McCoy describes the 12-new mirror works as: ‘A product of disaster. Anti-drugs and pro art… the fruits of a project fuelled by hyper productivity as a means of combatting depression, rather than burying it the easy way’.
On account of his favourite magazine shop waving farewell to Soho’s square mile, Blondey has been forced to move away from his signature cut and stick photo montages of pre existing material and has collected, curated, photographed and then printed onto mirrors a London abode-ful of articles representing the joys and pains of interior and exterior London life. All works were original and unseen, with some presented in sash and leaded window frames of up to 4.5 feet tall.
The show featured the artists debut collaboration piece, with British artist Damien Hirst: a painted then printed on one-off five foot tall spin painting.
“In feeling blue, tragically, the natural thing to do is stay blue. The creating of these new works has proven to me, more than ever before, that expressionism and making artwork is a way of temporarily exorcising that feeling. The show was created out of a compulsion to create, not one to show off, throw a party or make money. It’s making has been a revelation in accepting the need to treat bipolar as a blessing rather than a curse, and to perpetually guarantee myself that from long hum drum periods of heightened sensitivity, my most genuine and life affirming artwork is born.’
For the exhibition Blondey was interviewed by BBC London and BBC Radio London, as well as i-D and FAD.
Tom Oldham first visited Lesotho in 2009, shooting for the NGO Riders for Health, on a whistle-stop shoot travelling through this mountain kingdom. On the winding, climbing roads he’d see herder boys tending to their animals and immediately imagined a series of images that he just couldn’t shake from his mind – their distinctive silhouettes against the sky, these icons of Lesotho wrapped in the woollen blankets that provide their only protection from an intense sun or a brutal winter.
The herder boys work astonishingly hard, for very low pay, in the toughest conditions imaginable. It is the only option available to some, who often have very little formal education and can enter into this employment from early childhood.
In November 2016, he was able to return to Lesotho to shoot these portraits and with some valuable assistance from the team at Riders for Health he came home with some very special new work.
The Herder Boys of Lesotho exhibition was supported by Hasselblad, and was printed and framed by Metro Imaging. This was Tom’s first solo West End exhibition and was held at the White Space Gallery, on Great Newport Street – just off Leicester Square in London.
Tom was interviewed on The Monocle Weekly radio show speaking about the exhibition and his work.
As human beings we have always been interested in electricity. Since it was first showcased by scientists in the 1800’s people have been fascinated by seeing the power of this elemental force. People flocked to Victorian ‘public spectacles’ and today we still use Michael Faraday’s many discoveries in our everyday lives.
The Faraday Cage, named after the man himself, has many uses, ranging from surrounding the microwave in your kitchen, to helping protect cars and planes from lightening strikes. Even the Brexit Secretary’s briefcase is a Faraday Cage, keeping sensitive information from prying ears and eyes.
Artist Garry Hunter used Faraday’s principles to contain and ‘sculpt’ sonic inputs, within an egg-shaped cage, creating electrical arcs from an coil upcycled from reclaimed elements including a particle accelerator and a plastic drainpipe.
Hunter has been interested in Faraday for some time and this 5-year project finally came to fruition. Working with engineers at FAB LAB RUC at Roskilde University, Denmark, he created this Faraday Cage sonic interface, which was demonstrated as part of Open House Weekend on the 16th and 17th September 2017 at Trinity Buoy Wharf, supported by TBW Trust.
In July 2017 artist Brian Clarke exhibited his Summer Solstice Screens at HENI Gallery in Soho. The screens were provoked by the artist’s travels around the world and he created each screen to reveal a resonating characteristic of a different place, each is a uniquely contemporary expression of ‘genius loci’ taking the subject matter and medium to an entirely new experience.
Using the stained glass techniques Clarke has honed over the past 40 years, the artist revealed a world of energetic vivacity. Each composition traversed the twelve individual panels that formed every screen and revealed the kinetic nature of the medium. Movement, seen through the transparent membrane, movement of transilluminated colour and light reflected from the animate character of the material itself all contributed to a beguiling and vivid poetic experience.
Brian was interviewed by BBC London ahead of the show and Fated & Fabled attended the private view to write about it.
After a successful exhibition in London, Scarlett Raven and Marc Marot took The Danger Tree interactive exhibition to Liverpool. The city had a deep connection with the work as the Liverpool PALS regiment were open of the first to be sent to fight in WWII, and consequently one of the last groups to be disbanded.
The works, when viewed through a mobile device, come to life, some showing the layers of paint being stripped away, others referencing poetry and spoken word associated with the fighting.
The exhibition was featured on BBC North West and BBC Radio as well as the Liverpool Echo and Art in Liverpool
Gerhard Richter has been creating his Artist Books since 1966, and Heni Publishing celebrated the release of his last book, 40 Tage, with an exhibition which opened on the 23rd February 2017.
40 Tage features a series of 40 graphite-on-paper drawings, drawn between May and September 2015. Richter’s Artist Books are considered to be artworks in their own right and have become sought after items. The latest title was published as a limited edition of 800 numbered copies worldwide.
To coincide with the books release, the 40 Tage series of work was displayed as facsimiles of the original works, at the Heni exhibition space in Soho, London from the 23rd February to 9th April 2017. The works spanned two rooms, organised chronologically, followed by a third room dedicated to Richter’s engagement with artist books. All 30 of the previously released books were displayed, including: Polke/Richter. Richter/Polke (Hannover: Gallerie h, 1966), War Cut II (Cologne: Walter Koenig, 2004), and Atlas in Four Volumes (Cologne: Walter Koenig, 2015).
As part of the coverage Hans-Ulrich Obrist spoke with 52 Insights about the artist and his books.
First published in 1982, David Bailey’s NW1 captured a vanishing part of London.
Primrose Hill and Camden had been his home for nearly 30 years and it was slowly changing, so he decided to photograph the shuttered cinemas, boarded railway arches, crumbling Victorian facades, dormant car parks and advertising hoardings.
34 years ago it was a statement of the suburban decay, and looking back on the images now it becomes even more poignant.
Gone is the history to be replaced with glass and steel, family businesses replaced by chain fashion stores and coffee shops.
Extracts from the book, which has long been sold out, have now be re-printed for the first time in a special limited edition hand numbered and signed by the artist. The new edition also contains an unseen photograph from the series.
To coincide with the release of the book the images were exhibited at the HENI Gallery in Soho from 1st December 2016 to 31st January 2017. This was the first time the images have been exhibited.
The book and exhibition were widely covered by there media including London Evening Standard, The Telegraph, the Times Literary Supplement, and the British Journal of Photography.
In its debut year, Portrait of Britain was launched by The British Journal of Photography to critical acclaim. Showcasing the face of a modern country, the images, in partnership with JCDecaux, were displayed on digital screens across the country.
Attracted approximately 4000 entries, the final 100 images were a mixture of amateurs and professionals alike.
The exhibition was featured in many media outlets both in the UK and overseas. The Times, Independent, Mashable, Buzzfeed, BBC and MSN all featured the images, as well as TIME in the US and Rolling Stone in Italy.
On 20th June 2016, the longest of the year, Tom Oldham photographed 24 people, 1 every hour for each hour of the day. All participants were at work and ranged from club performers, to midwives, to cycle couriers.
Taken on the Monday, the images were then put into a free newspaper which was given away at selected tube stations in London on the Friday. As people woke up to the shock Brexit result, the newspaper was a visual reminder of the variety of London’s vibrant East End.
The Evening Standard ran a nice piece the day before the release of the free newspaper, which was then picked up by Time Out and The Big Issue among others.
Designer Radim Malinic released his first Book of Ideas in 2016. The book was such a success that the initial print run quickly sold out and more had to be printed. Covered international by various media including New Design Magazine and It’s Nice That (UK), 72dpi (Germany), Graffica (Spain), Vile Arts (Sweden), and Xueui (China), the book went onto become an Amazon No.1 Best Seller.
As the PR Manager for TASCHEN I looked after most of the EMEA and APAC territories. My role was to place features stories in media not only for the books, but also back stories about the company itself. Below are a few examples
Archcritik - India, Bespoke Magazine - Lebanon, D2 - Norway, Esquire - Poland, Esquire - UK, Esquire Big Black Book - UK, Gulf Today - United Arab Emirates, Hospodarske Noving - Czech Republic, L’Azure - Russia, Metro - UK, Rolls Royce Magazine - UK, South China Morning Post - Hong Kong, Svenska Dagsbladet - Sweden, The Independent on Sunday - UK, The Telegraph Magazine - UK, The Times Literary Supplement - UK, Vogue - China, Vogue - UK, Vogue Living - Australia, The World of Interiors - UK
