Nearly Nothing: An exhibition of international photographers exploring the aesthetics of ambiguity

12 July - 17 August 2008

This exhibition rekindles the historic debate as to whether photographers can be considered image makers rather than purely documenters. The exhibition further questions how much information we need to read an image, whether we need to be able to read an image at all, what level of accompanying text is required to make such images comprehensible.

These photographers use the camera to create innovative, poetic images rather than simply to record: photographing scenes where there is no immediately obvious subject matter (as with Gerd Hasler's waterscapes, in which water is reduced to monochrome images; Mike Whelan's series of interiors abstracted to light and form; and Mark Bellingham's photographs taken from moving trains, allowing for chance compositions), photographing what is not quite there (Nicola Probert's photograph of her parents' half-hearted redecorating attempts), or photographing the outright invisible (Isidro Ramirez's documentation of the scenes of his dreams and longings). Equally, there are more literal photographs of nothingness: Hamish Pringle, in his first photographic project, photographs a sealed window in St Tropez; Kelly Hill photographs her daughter in a hazy light in an attempt to suggest the fragility of childhood.


Participating photographers:

Mark Bellingham
Gerd Hasler
Kelly Hill
Jockel Liess
Hamish Pringle
Nicola Probert
Isidro Ramirez
Gregor Stephan
Mike Whelan

Exhibition catalogue £9.95
Available from the Viewfinder shop, click here.