Brighton Photo Biennial heaven

Just look at these fabulous photographs and you'll understand why I found Brighton Photo Biennial so exciting last weekend...

The House of the Vernacular> 

This was without question one of the most interesting acts of curation I have ever experienced, having never visited Fabrica before I'm not sure how things normally look, but this was exquisite.
Images by amateur and professional photographers from all over the world. Entering each room is a remarkable experience and culturally enlightening.
These Brazilian family photographs have been hand coloured to improve constitution, render the subject in better clothes, or even to bring the dead back to life...

Brazilian family portraits

Brighton Museum and Art Gallery>

 In 'Three Views of Brighton' artist Steven Gill had the foresight to best photograph Brighton by physically putting bits of Brighton into his camera, and the results are so captivating they literally made me itch to take photographs myself...but to step outside of my own standard approach and realise that incorporating the 'alien' into the picture taking process can become in itself a familar yet thrilling routine. 

Alec Soth's work mostly employing his seven year old daughter as photographer is also well worth a look. He was banned from working in the UK so he continued his project for the biennial through his daughters' eyes, and lens.

Steven Gill - this was my favourite. Actual moth wing inside his camera.

Alec Soth

This year the BPB has also made obvious reference to the limited funding for production, and employed strategies to make sure photographs could be seen effectively, uncompromised by rudimentary and cheap display methods.

I emailed the BPB team about the hanging methods used, the festival manager responded to say they used a system you can buy from Magnet Expert and they cut metal plates for backings. I'll look into this and post if I have luck putting up pictures using a similar method. (Not that my current budget will stretch to such large photo prints!)

Currently I'm hanging photographs using string, akin to a washing line and a row of bulldog clips holding each picture. There is a fresh and exciting quality to display methods of a temporary nature, especially when you can disregard expectations and keep the display up there. Who needs frames these days? Well...the Brazilian photo/paintings in The House of the Vernacular show are framed, as they are traditionally meant to be, but the frames themselves are printed.

p.s. Martin Parr is a genius.