Photomonth
3rd September - 22nd January

Photomonth is an annual festival during which galleries across East London are supported in exhibiting British and International Photography. Now in it’s tenth year over 200 galleries and groups are participating in exhibitions from September through until early January, showcasing incredibly diverse work from recent graduates through to established practitioners. It is difficult to surmise such a large festival within any one article, however I have chosen to expand upon three solo presentations taking place at the Victoria and Albert Museum, The Whitechapel Gallery and London Metropolitan University.

Robin Grierson’s ‘Family Pictures’ at London Metropolitan University documents Grierson’s family over the space of several years, since the birth of his first child. The same faces of his relatives reappear several times, and the way they change over time creates a visual representation of time. Although many photographers have dealt with the subject of ageing by photographing and re-photographing the same subjects over time there is a real sense of a connection with the subjects. Grierson is often positioned very close to the subjects, creating a greater sense of intimacy,  and giving the images a timeless quality.

‘Walid Raad: Miraculous beginnings’ at the Whitechapel Gallery is the Lebanese born artists largest survey exhibition to date. Raad’s practice includes video, photography, literary essays and performance which all, in one way or another, deal with the contemporary history of Lebanon with particular emphasis on the wars in Lebanon between 1975 and 1990.

In 1999 Raad founded the Atlas Group, an imaginary collective whose objective is to document civic experience in war torn Lebanon. A series of monochrome blue photographs, the negatives for which were found under the rubble of war-ravaged Beirut, hide the images of anonymous men and women found dead in the Mediterranean. Black and white photographs of Beirut are peppered by coloured dots, signifying bullet holes and where the bullets originated from. 145 cut-out photographs of cars correspond to the exact make, model and colour of every car that was used as a car bomb between 1975 and 1991. In the work of the Atlas Group, there is a blurring of fact and fiction. It is never clear whether statistics, images, and testimonies correspond to their true dates and locations, or whether they contain any veracity at all. 

Raad has often referenced the writings of Jalal Toufic in  his claim that some disasters ‘surpass’ reality and he seems to believe that  story telling and interpretation are more important to the healing process than and historicisation or finger pointing. However from an audiences perspective a story half-told especially a story which is such a complex or even contradictory one can leave you with far more questions than answers. 

Having surveyed the 8000 strong collection of dolls from the Victoria and Albert Museum Craig Deane has selected ten weird and wonderful characters to explore the way in which we represent ourselves has altered over time. The dolls vary immensely from powdery white skin to false fringes demonstrating a market for increasingly realistic dolls as the population developed greater disposable income. Ranging from the humorous to the grotesque these dolls provide an intriguing insight into the relationship between the growth of market capitalism and self-image.

Overall Photomonth successfully taps into a burgeoning interest in contemporary photography. Representing the fullest and most expansive understanding of Photography, Photomonth will no doubt continue to develop audiences and their engagement with the medium well into the next decade.