The Art of Arrangement

It's a shame that the National media Museum is so awkward to get to. Every time you visit an exhibition there you see and learn something new and the current still life exhibition is no exception. I called in simply because I was travelling home from Leeds and it was possible.

I don't know what if anything I expected to see. The the title might suggest something dry and academic but the exhibition proved to be quite a revelation. Anyone who believes as I do that printmaking is important needs to visit this exhibition. There are vintage prints from the mid-1800s to the present day and the quality of the work is outstanding. All the great and good are represented from Roger Fenton through Ansel Adams to Don McCullen not forgetting Dorothea Lange, Paul Strand, Horst P Horst, Edward Steicher, John Blakemore, Ian Beesley, the list goes on.

I understand that all the images are drawn from the museum archive and they have stretched to the definition of still life somewhat to include the surrealism of Jerry Uelsmann and composite photographs by various artists going back to Henry Peach Robinson in 1858. They've even managed to sneak one of Simon Norfolk's photographs from Afghanistan into the brief. This really is an exhibition with something for everyone

There are any number of famous original prints on the walls and this might be your only chance to see them before they return to the museum vaults. Unfortunately the only picture we are allowed to reproduce is the Roger Fenton above. The press release below from the media Museum really does not give the exhibition the write up it deserves.

National Media Museum, Bradford 17 November 2012 – 10 February 2013 Art of Arrangement: Photography and the Still Life Tradition, is a visually arresting exhibition that explores the still life genre, its themes and its influence on photography. The exhibition will be on show at the National Media Museum from 17 November 2012 - 10 February 2013. Still life has inspired photographers throughout the history of the medium. The form, developed throughout centuries of painting and visual art, is full of striking imagery and dark symbolism, focusing on decay and the fleeting nature of life. Featuring works by some of the most celebrated practitioners of photography, Art of Arrangement investigates the photographic still life through both classic examples and works that challenge the definition of the genre.