Visiting the
V&A's Photographs Gallery this passing weekend was an immense indulgence; like walking through a Who's Who of the photographic world. It is well worth a visit, and considering the vast archives that the V&A have and the fact that the gallery will be regularly changed, it is a visit that can be made time and again. From the daguerreotype images of Andrew Pritchard (
Antoine-Francois-Jean Claudet for example), through the exquisite cyanotypes of Anna Atkins (
British and Foreign Flowering Plans and Ferns) to the classic documentary of Henri Cartier-Bresson (in particular one of my all-time favourite images
Allee du Prado, Marseilles), this was a photographic feast.
I especially loved Harry Callahan's imagery depicting his family as 'points of interest' within a wider landscape, which reminded me of a project that I've been working on called
Personal Space, and also the 'tourist' imagery of Francis Frith.
It was also a great pleasure to discover some photography that I hadn't seen before, including the works of Marianne Breslauer and El Lissitzky.
All in all, they gave me confidence in my own practise and (especially with my affinity with Callahan's work) a certain historical context for my own ideas.
