On Tuesday, 20th October, the Society welcomed the curator of The Photographers’ Gallery, Clare Grafik. Clare was introduced by the Chairman on a dark & stormy night! Several members braved the rain to reach the hall and others attended on Zoom.
Clare began with a little bit of history about the gallery, which began at 8 Great Newport St. In 1971, Sue Davies OBE HonFRPS, exhibitions secretary and one of just 5 staff at the ICA, decided to create a permanent gallery space for photography, something which the nation astonishingly lacked. Sue was thus instrumental in shifting the general public’s views of photography, from something essentially transient to that of a serious art form. Sue became the founding director of the Photographers’ Gallery by second mortgaging her home to secure premises in a derelict J Lyons tea room. Sue brought with her ICA and journalistic connections, and was determined to explore a very broad range of photographic genres in the new space.
The first show was photojournalist Cornell Capa’s The Concerned Photographer, followed by an exhibition of Andy Warhols’ Polaroids. Clare Grafik lamented the fact that the gallery had not retained a few of Warhol’s now absurdly valuable photographs!
The 70’s saw some unusual immersive installations, such as Janine Wiesel’s The Vulcan’s Forge, which recreated a mine shaft in which to display some of her photos. This was at a time when there were few peer institutions and the subject was unaddressed in schools. By the end of the decade, however, the gallery was attracting an astonishing 20,000 visitors a month and had obtained Arts Council funding.
In 1982 Martin Parr’s Bad Weather exhibition surprised many with its use of colour for documentary photographs. In 1985 The Face had a huge impact on the expectations for fashion photography - Clare suggested that the concept of the ‘life’ of a photo was fundamentally changed by this exhibition.
In 1991 Davies stepped down but she continued to be involved in photography as a visiting lecturer and creator. In 1996 the Gallery became home to the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize. This prize was presented to the photographer who had made the most significant contribution to the photographic medium in Europe during the past year.
In 2012, the reopening at 16-18 Ramillies Street, Soho in a former textiles warehouse gave the organisation the chance to reconsider their reason to exist. The new building was comprised of three exhibition spaces, a print sales gallery, education studio, bookshop and café. It also featured a digital media screen, which both encouraged people to come in off the street and allowed for a new engagement with digital artists. The increased exhibition space also allowed two exhibitions of completely different styles to run concurrently. Famous photographers (such as the current Eggleston exhibition) were (and are) deliberately run alongside new/up and coming photographers.
In the last 3 years new artist exhibitions have been encouraged and the number of collaborations increased. Between six and nine shows are produced every year, including coverage of the annual £30,000 photography prize. The Summer slot is deliberately skewed towards tourists and often exhibits applied photography. The Autumn slot has a ‘back to school’ mentality and represents an attempt to reconnect with Londoners and new students.
Perhaps disappointingly for some ambitious Society members, Clare stated that their choices for exhibitions are typically made from photography festivals and smaller gallery exhibitions, rather than completely new artists.
The Gallery recently collaborated with Westminster Council in order to improve the aesthetics of the alleyway from its lively Oxford Street neighbour. This was an oft delayed project but Covid led the Council to suddenly offer their assistance, in order to encourage people back to the area (they were particularly keen since the Gallery was a cultural institution).
Clare answered a few questions from members regarding programming before the Chairman thanked her and the meeting was formally concluded.