THE RADICAL EYE: TATE MODERN

The Radical Eye was an exhibition of photographs from the collection of Elton John on show at the Tate Modern that I visited on the 16th May and also on the 21st May 2017. To briefly give an overview of the exhibition and to quote the publicity material...

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see one of the world’s greatest private collections of photography, drawn from the classic modernist period of the 1920s–50s. An incredible group of Man Ray portraits are exhibited together for the first time, having been brought together by Sir Elton John over the past twenty-five years, including portraits of Matisse, Picasso, and Breton. With over 70 artists and nearly 150 rare vintage prints on show from seminal figures including Brassai, Imogen Cunningham, André Kertész, Dorothea Lange, Tina Modotti, and Aleksandr Rodchenko, this is a chance to take a peek inside Elton John’s home and delight in seeing such masterpieces of photography."

There were a great assortment of images from the first half of the 20th century and the aim of the show was to celebrate the pioneers who were defining what photography, was and could be. This was in terms of creativity, purpose, ideology as a tool for artists and to record society as well as developments in technology that mage photography grow as an art form.

The exhibition was brilliantly curated and the rooms were themes into areas of photography. The pieces that most affected me however were the ones catagorised in the exhibition as Documents. here were lots of documentary style  1930's photographs by the likes of Dorothea Lange and her Oklahoma images as well as Walker Evans and his Alabama images. Both photographers had taken images of people and their photographs captured the time, place, hardship of their subjects amazingly well. I also loved the work by Helen Levitt of life in inner city New York capturing the place and people that lived there.

One of the reasons these struck a cord was the way they tackled social injustice by giving these people a voice in both of these cases during the depression. The work was called a "social document" factual information presented in a moving way in order to maximise its affect. I guess this is similar to the themes I want to address but also emphasises less can be more. The images are simple, uncluttered and represent a manufactured truth that is moving and contains both narrative and character. Much like what I am trying to achieve in my own work.