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Worth $50 000+? The Deutsche Borse Prize (Long)


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I went to London today to see, amongst other things, the candidates

for the Deutsche Bőrse Photography Prize, which has succeeded the

Citibank Prize and offers an enhanced first prize of ?30 000. The

format remains similar with four nominated candidates learning who?s

scooped the pot on 11th May. Since the web-sites featuring the

exhibit aren?t exactly comprehensive, a few people might be

interested in this assessment which hopefully others will top ?up

on.

 

The first thing that strikes you is the sheer size of the exhibits ?

three of the four have contributions that are much dependent on

their physical presence. Also immediately apparent are the subdued

palettes on show. The Velvia Product Manager is probably not going

to see this show as a triumph, but then to some extent bleakness is

a theme too.

 

Stephen Shore?s Uncommon Places is probably the most familiar and

most cohesive collection on display. It is also the most

accessible, and features images made on a series of road trips

across the USA in the 1970?s, but recently republished. The dates

shook me a bit because some of the photographs ? nicely made and

presented prints ? didn?t look that old. I felt that Shore?s

compositions were very strong and that he struck an excellent

balance between big views and close ups; objects and people.

 

Jőrg Sasse collects vast volumes of his own and other people?s

photographs from which he picks a tiny quantity for enhancement into

what he terms ?Tableaux?. In essence he picks fragments from these

pictures and makes something out of (very often) a very small part

of the image. The prints are kind of unsharp, which given the

degree of enlargement may not be avoidable, but this frankly suits

the subjects rather well. His work is termed a series but frankly

there is no attempt made to present a cohesive collection here.

They are individual images, pure and simple. I felt that Sasse has

made several of the images I most like from this years crop,

including a wonderful photograph of a large frosted glass panel in

front of diffused colour. But he doesn?t tell a story like Shore.

 

Luc Delahaye exhibits a few extremely large and detailed panoramas

which have been banished to the caf鮠 His theme appears to be

contemporary war and political power, though I?m glad someone told

me since it may have taken me a little time to guess, given the

nature and variety of subject matter on view which ranges from

Baghdad to a conference room which turns out to be the UN Security

Council. Much of it looks kind of unengaged, maybe even detached.

It?s different, and I felt the prints were well made and presented.

As war stories though I thought his work lacks the appeal and

stunning pallete of Simon Norfolks 2003 entry.

 

There?s always one I just don?t get, and this year its JH Engstrőm?s

contribution ?Trying to Dance? which is described as a sequence of

self portraits, portraits, landscapes and still lifes. Whilst

Steven Shore manages to unify ostensibly different subject matters,

I don?t think Engstrőm succeeds remotely as well. I kept wondering

why I should be expected to rationalise the co-existence of some

trees, a half-eaten dinner and a rather bored naked bloke. I don?t

much like the individual images, and I don?t get the point of the

entirety. Enough said.

 

Given my track-record on this, the one I like least is probably

going to win it. Id like the award to go to Stephen Shore who has

the best overall exhibit, or to Jőrg Sasse, who may lack Shore?s

cohesiveness but possibly exceeds his creativity. But strangely

enough the sponsors name has an umlaut and so do the names of no

less than two of the candidates. Could 2005 be the year of the

umlaut?

 

The best of last year? I enjoyed this year?s exhibits more than I

often do, and I think that certainly Shore and Sasse are good

candidates. But is this material overall better than the Gregory

Crewdson photographs currently on show at the White Cube? I think

he?d give them a run for their money, but no-ones put him in the

race.

 

Anyone else seen this?

 

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Stephen Shore has a chance of winning; the winner last year (when it was the Citibank prize) was Joel Sternfeld, who has a similar style and choice of subject matter (and whose massive enlargements from 10x8 originals were impressive in the flesh; his books, although worth having, don't do them justice).

 

Of course this might equally hurt his chances if the judges decide they ought to go for something completely different this year.

 

What I find odd about the prize is that it doesn't reward photographic efforts over the year; as you say, Shore's images date from the 70s. It's almost more like a Hall of Fame induction; a recognition of a body of work.

 

I'll be seeing the exhibition tomorrow, so will post back with my thoughts; and thanks for the heads up on Gregory Crewdson - I hadn't heard of him before, but I'll try to check it out.

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Luc Delahaye's pictures suffered from their location in the cafe, as there just wasn't room to get back far enough to take in the whole image. Looking back at them from the opposite side of the central tables was difficult, partly because of the crowds and partly because they were mounted under glass which was causing distracting reflections.

 

Scale was definitely a theme, and I wasn't too keen on the noisy enlargements from Sasse, although I agree that the glass panel photograph was fantastic; at a glance, it could have been a real window.

 

Of all the exhibitors, I liked Stephen Shore best, but then I've seen his work before and enjoyed it (and own a copy of Uncommon Places).

 

I enjoyed the Gregory Crewdson exhibit at the White Cube as well, and as with Shore, I felt that the large format quality really justified the massive prints (by comparison, the book is disappointing; a nice memento, but you need to see the originals).

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