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Study Visit to Deutsche Borse Prize

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Study Visit to the Deutsche Börse Prize thumb

Study Visit to the Deutsche Börse Prize

This is a post from the weareoca.com archive. Information contained within it may now be out of date.
 

“Chris Killip is the only established photographer in a shortlist full of artists. What does this say about contemporary photography?”

Sean O’Hagan has been asking the same question for as long as I can remember and this year is no different.  Which is why Brad Fueuerhelm’s opening comment describing voices whining in unison about who deserves to win such a prize (£30,000 and a huge amount of press and prestige) made me laugh in his relevant article on 1000wordsmagazine.
On 15th June we will go to The Photographer’s Gallery to see the shortlisted works for ourselves.  After that it would be good to have a discussion over coffee about some of the questions this polemic prize raises year after year.  Instead of asking you who you think should win… I’m going to ask you to please put Sean out of his misery…  What is contemporary photography anyway? (answers welcome below or on a postcard.)

A few interesting articles to whet your appetite…
Guardian (Adrian Searle)
1000 words
Telegraph
Guardian (Sean O’Hagan)
Places are free to all OCA students.  Please email enquiries@oca-uk.com to book your place.


Posted by author: Sharon

16 thoughts on “Study Visit to the Deutsche Börse Prize

  • Perhaps it’s good to start by saying what contemporary photography is not… it is not (in my opinion) defined by whether the photographer has used a camera before or not.

  • I went to the Photographer’s Gallery yesterday and the only photographer’s images I didn’t appropriate was the work of Henner – is that contemporary photography?

  • Why am I studying photography when all I’ve got to do is go onto Google and look for images taken by a van? Mishka Henner’s nomination might have some credibility judged against criteria around the definition of art, I’ll leave that discussion to others, but I think it totally devalues the craft of photography. For my next assignment I’m going to submit Google street view images of cars without tax discs! I wonder where that will get me.

    • Probably the mark you deserve!
      I did submit GSV images (with other appropriated images) for my last aop assignment as I’m sure I have mentioned before. So if anyone reading has a more enlightened attitude to that kind of photographic work, I can reassure them that I survived assessment and got a very good mark.

    • “… I think it totally devalues the craft of photography …”
      You might find that this was part of Henner’s intention. Like a lot of contemporary phtographic artists and students (including me!) he is grappling with the question of what a photographic image is in 2013.

  • Contemporary photography is … perhaps not what we expect to see and how we imagine what is not shown or left out.
    Contemporary photography is not … perhaps predictable and obvious.
    I refer to contemporary photography as art.

    • By the way, I have been to see the exhibition but won’t be attending the study day as I am away at that time! It is certainly thought provoking and I think to describe Chris Kilip as the only serious photographer of the group is a misunderstanding. Photography is more about photographs than photographers …

  • War Primer 2 is available from Amazon at £2500 (only 1 available when I last looked) and will only increase in value as a limited edition of 100 copies (also limiting the number of the original work as a consequence… However it has been made freely available as a digital download here – http://mappeditions.com/publications/war-primer-2 and more than good value at the price I think!
    Salgado’s limited edition (with book-stand) is on offer here http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/photography/all/02622/facts.sebastio_salgado_genesis_art_edition_a.htm – other editions are available from Amazon 😉

    • Thanks for the links John!
      As to all this questions regarding what is contemporary photography, I feel that even if I do not relate to everything that is done, Personally, I see in contemporary photography a craze for exploration, a real freedom, and a real curiosity (this is the theme of the Aperture Magazine this month, very interesting). There is the path and the destination, we always look for answers but may be we should learn to be comfortable with the questions alone.

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