Photographically speaking
A single wall towards the back of one of the Sainsbury Centre’s two current photography shows does, with quiet beauty, everything that I was trying to achieve in my ‘Objects’ photostream [no longer live].
‘A World Observed’, a retrospective of photos by Dorothy Bohm, is made up of a striking collection of photographs from across the world, of scenery, people, shop windows, torn posters, still lifes and unobserved moments. Moving from black and white to colour photography she captured the essence of so many communities, cultures and eras. This small show of photographs is a visual feast. Her eye for detail and composition is made particularly clear by the series of four photographs of North Norfolk taken specially for the show which capture beautiful but ordinary scenes in Norwich, Wells-next-the-Sea and Sheringham. But, most striking to me, was the single wall hung with a simple grid of Polaroid photographs taken across a number of years. Each shows a close-up, slightly abstracted image of saturated colour, focusing on a flower, a shadow, a piece of furniture or cloth. They give a life and piquancy to each object and, as a whole create a wonderful modern wunderkammer.
The Sainsbury Centre’s other current show is equally rewarding. ‘The Face of the Artist’ showcases a selection of photographs from the Centre’s newly acquired John Hedgecoe collection. Hedgecoe was a unique and renowned portrait photographer who took images of some of the most famous artists of his day, and developed personal relationships with them that shine through in the portraits. Most striking are his series of images of the sculptor Henry Moore, which beautifully evoke the relationship between the man and his sculpture. Some portraits show an artist with his or her work, some focus on simply the face. Hedgecoe’s close up of David Hockney frowning in thick, black-rimmed spectacles is as evocative as the one of Francis Bacon before his painting, or Mary Quant in her sitting room. His portrait of Cecil Beaton with a classical bust can’t but make you smile. As a group, the portraits reveal a photographer who could pull a personality into the camera.
Both the Bohm and Hedgecoe shows are a tribute to the Sainsbury Centre’s usual curatorial flair in putting together beautiful and thought-provoking shows. In pairing the Hedgecoe portraits with works by the artists from the permanent collection, they connect these images out into the galleries. Bohm’s eloquent photographs speak to the collections in their own right.