Photo London 2020
Nobuyoshi Araki, Flower Rondeau, 1997, image © Nobuyoshi Araki courtesy of Michael Hoppen Gallery
by Summer Myatt
This year, beloved and renowned international photography fair, Photo London, has moved its experience almost entirely online due to continued pandemic restrictions. The fair, normally hosted at Somerset House in London, presented its sixth installment earlier this month through its temporary online home, Artsy.net. Despite the less tangible, connective experience of a two-dimensional online fair, Photo London 2020 was no less thrilling than its previous installments. Boasting over 100 exhibitors from 21 countries, this year’s virtual fair still offered many the features that make it unique, including an impressive lineup of established artists, the Discovery section featuring emerging artists and galleries, panel discussions with industry leaders, and the coveted Master of Photography award which went to Shirin Neshat this year.
GUIDO GUIDI, ‘Sardegna, 1974’, 1974. ©Guido Guidi
Courtesy the artist and Large Glass, London
The London-based Michael Hoppen gallery notably presented an excitingly curated array of vintage and modern photographs. Peter Beard’s journalistic, up-close documentation of African wildlife contributed an element of historical context with his raw depictions of the natural world. Sarah Moon’s late 1990s work, capturing the beauty of the female body in dizzying, muted colors, infused the gallery’s selections with a sensual, vintage feel. The Michael Hoppen gallery also featured incredibly detailed floral still lifes by Nobuyoshi Araki and dynamic, large-scale set work by Tim Walker.
Masao Yamamoto, Untitled #917, from the series Nakazora, 2001. Gelatin silver print. Courtesy of the artist and Yancey Richardson, New York.
Anne Hardy, The Depth of Darkness, the Return of the Light (twilight fever), 2020. Courtesy of the artist and Maureen Paley, London
UK gallery, Large Glass, shined a spotlight on photographer Guido Guidi, whose work explores light and shadow against picturesque Italian landscapes and architecture. Often returning to the exact same subject and frame more than once, Guidi masterfully captures the beauty of the otherwise mundane and the nuances of how sunlight can alter and manipulate a singular physical space.
Jessica Backhaus, A Lemon from the series Dare to desire, 2018. ©Jessica Backhaus, Courtesy Carlos Carvalho Arte Contemporânea
Andrea Alkalay, Kutho Variation.
Gallery 1957, of the Discovery section, attracted plenty of attention through its artist, Joana Choumali. The West African photographer and multimedia artist prints her ethereal photographs onto canvas and then hand stitches gorgeously intricate embroidery into the images, creating dazzling mixed media works. Founded by Lebanese entrepreneur Marwan Zakhem, Gallery 1957 has garnered international attention alongside Choumali’s own rise in the art world; her conceptual portraits of life in her West African hometown of Abidjan were certainly a highlight of this year’s Photo London.
Zanele Muholi, Limise Gamalawo II, Frankfurt, Germany, 2019. Courtesy of the artist, Yancey Richardson, New York, and Stevenson Cape Town / Johannesburg.
Matt Lipps, Flare, 2020. Gelatin silver print. Courtesy of the artist and Yancey Richardson, New York.
The cutting-edge New York City-based Yancey Richardson gallery presented an entirely black-and-white curation of works from new and known artists alike. Matt Lipps’ captivating conceptual images combine sculptural, photographic, and thematic elements to produce an altogether explosive body of work that holds its own alongside modern masters like Irving Penn and Sebastiáo Salgado. Lipps’ three- dimensional silhouette cutouts make for a compelling background upon which sentimental magazine page collages are projected. The rich, lush black of South African artist Zanele Muholi’s portraiture elegantly compliments and juxtaposes the warm cream tones of Japanese photographer Yamamoto Masao in Yancey Richardson’s dynamic collection.
Awol Erizku, Love is Bond (Young Queens), 2018-20
While Photo London’s 2020 installment may have been fundamentally different in medium, it expertly delivered the same impact through its digital presentation. Able to bring together audiences from all over the world through its free online platform, this year’s photography fair was yet another success to be celebrated.
Takashiba Dekoyashiki, Koriyama, Fukushima, from the series A New River, 2020. © Ai Iwane, courtesy KANA KAWANISHI GALLERY
