PHOTOGRAPHY 2010

VITTORIO GUIKEN MORTON

STEVE MCCURRYMIRANDA GIBILISCO

VITTORIO GUI

1 Flora VIII edition 1 of 3 photograph 135 x 195 cm (53 x 77 in)

2 Flora V edition 2 of 3 photograph 135 x 195 cm (53 x 77 in)

3 Flora XII edition 1 of 3 photograph 135 x 195 cm (53 x 77 in)

KEN MORTON

4 High Sierra II edition 1 of 3 diasec digital print 56 x 84 cm (22 x 33 in)

5 Rocky Road to Knowhere I edition 1 of 3 diasec digital print 56 x 84 cm (22 x 33 in)

6 Mindscape II edition 1 of 3 diasec digital print 63 x 84 cm (25 x 33 in)

7 Mindscape III edition 1 of 3 diasec digital print 63 x 84 cm (25 x 33 in)

8 Mindscape V edition 1 of 3 diasec digital print 63 x 84 cm (25 x 33 in)

9 Mindscape VI edition 1 of 3 diasec digital print 63 x 84 cm (25 x 33 in)

STEVE MCCURRY

10 Bombay, India 1996 edition 26 of 60 photograph 51 x 61 cm (20 x 24 in)

11 Boy Between Two Daggers, Yemen edition 1 of 7 photograph 102 x 152 cm (40 x 60 in)

12 Peshawar, Pakistan 2010 edition 16 of 60 photograph 61 x 51 cm (24 x 20 in)

13 Boy in Mid-Flight, India edition 5 of 12 photograph 102 x 152 cm (40 x 60 in)

MIRANDA GIBILISCO

14 La Rocca della Fate edition 2 of 5 photograph 57 x 100 cm (22 x 39 in)

15 Giordania la Strada edition 1 of 5 photograph 75 x 100 cm (30 x 39 in)

16 Il Respiro delle Nereidi edition 2 of 5 photograph 75 x 100 cm (30 x 39 in)

17 L’Orto di Nettuno edition 2 of 5 photograph 75 x 100 cm (30 x 39 in)

18 Futuro edition 2 of 5 photograph 57 x 100 cm (22 x 39 in)

19 Antichi Richiami edition 2 of 5 photograph 75 x 100 cm (30 x 39 in)

VITTORIO GUI was born in Bologna in 1966 where he lives and works. To Gui, photography is a meditative moment, a “frozen moment” within endless sequences of time. With his photographic work, he does not intend to tell stories, neither does he want to amuse nor shock people. His theme is one of pausing, coming to rest, getting involved with a most unobtrusive picture, the aesthetic radiation of which will enthrall us. The universally appealing flowers are captured, with blurred and, at the same time, sharp contours, removed from any realistic context and raised into a new artistic space, the beauty of the blossoms intensifies the effect of these large works. Gui protects his photos from misrepresentation and interpretation by putting them in frames, which, like a second skin, complete the work of art. The wooden frames are of enormous size, lacquered coal-black, and perhaps this is why they give shelter to the fragile photos. “Flowers”, says Gui, “keep still. They do not move and, by their immobility, support concentration.” To Gui, who has found his spiritual home with Taoism, the pictorial reproduction of the flower head is no plain portrayal but concentrated energy. Space and a distance between the spectator and the picture are essential to his work. Gui’s photographic endeavors began in 2000. During this short time he has made an international name for himself; his photographs are an important contribution to the current aesthetic discourse.

KEN MORTON was born and grew up in County Durham and studied Fine Art at Sunderland College of Art in the late sixties, specializing in painting, drawing, printmaking and photography. He was always interested in landscapes and organic forms, finding the works of painters such as the late Peter Lanyon and Sheila Fell as a source of inspiration. Morton worked on large canvases in both oil and acrylic, trying to combine landscape with a degree of abstraction, three of which are in the Durham University permanent collection. Still in his early twenties Morton contracted a long-term illness resulting in him becoming severely handicapped – working on canvases became impossible. Resolute in his determination to overcome this hardship he tried his hand at book illustration and card design, ultimately specializing in children’s books. For the next 25 years he worked in that genre illustrating some 80 books and over 1000 greeting cards. Having carved out a successful career as an illustrator, fate dealt another blow. He suffered an accident requiring surgery, which augmented his existing condition in restricting his already limited movement even further and preventing him from working as before. Recovering from this setback he discovered in digital photography a vehicle to start creating and experimenting again. He realized he could use photographs as a basis for creating and developing a new range of images, by using digital manipulation. Instead of using a paintbrush he uses a light pen, his palette is no longer sourced from tubes of paint but from the colours and textures from digital imaging. Inevitably he gravitated back to the organic forms and landscapes from his past for inspiration embracing the technology, which gave him the freedom to explore for him a newfound method of expression resulting in vibrant, colourful and stunning imagery.

STEVE MCCURRY recognized universally as one of today’s finest image-makers, has won many of photography’s top awards. Best known for his evocative color photography, McCurry, in the finest documentary tradition, captures the essence of human struggle and joy. Member of Magnum Photos since 1986, McCurry has searched and found the unforgettable; many of his images have become modern icons. Born in Philadelphia, McCurry graduated cum laude from the College of Arts and Architecture at the Pennsylvania State University. After working at a newspaper for two years, he left for India to freelance. It was in India that McCurry learned to watch and wait on life. “If you wait,” he realized, “people will forget your camera and the soul will drift up into view.” His career was launched when, disguised in native garb, he crossed the Pakistan border into rebel-controlled Afghanistan just before the Russian invasion. When he emerged, he had rolls of film sewn into his clothes of images that would be published around the world as among the first to show the conflict there. His coverage won the Robert Capa Gold Medal for Best Photographic Reporting from Abroad, an award dedicated to photographers exhibiting exceptional courage and enterprise. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including Magazine Photographer of the Year, awarded by the National Press Photographers’ Association. That was the same year in which he won an unprecedented four first prizes in the World Press Photo Contest. He has won the Olivier Rebbot Memorial Award twice. Steve McCurry has covered many areas of international and civil conflict, including the Iran-Iraq war, the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia, Beirut, Cambodia, the Philippines, the Gulf War, and continuing coverage of Afghanistan. He focuses on the human consequences of war, not only showing what war impresses on the landscape, but rather, on the human face.

MIRANDA GIBILISCO was born in Syracuse, Sicily in 1953. Her introduction to photography was serendipitous: a childhood friend gave her a Nikon camera, and so began her photographic exploration of the natural world. Photography soon became so deeply absorbing for her that she was rarely separated from her camera for very long. Gibilisco has an innate ability to capture the very essence of the scenery that surrounds her. The constant desire to sate a seemingly endless creative appetite was further fueled by her extensive travels, which have taken her to all corners of the globe. She knows the deserts of Africa and their mysteries, as well as their marvelous vistas. The long periods she has spent there allowed her to establish a perfect symbiosis with the people populating these lands, and with the few spans of water, the rare oases, the fragile animals, and their history and art. The images she has brought back are of breathtaking beauty. Gibilisco’s travels are a spiritual wandering amidst seas and deserts, cultures and worlds that are forever new, documented in a library of 30,000 images.

©ALBEMARLE GALLERY MMX

ALBEMARLE