Starting with Danny Treacy
who I didn’t know about before I went to see the show. He produced these large
portraits that almost weren’t photographs. They looked like photocopies or scans. They also were lacking in features, even though you could tell that the
whole body was there he has covered himself in these disjointed clothing. His
fashion sense reminds me of Jean Paul Gautier’s designs for the film the fifth
element. It’s a bizarre mix of retro and rubbish. He literally finds clothes in
streets, parks and waste grounds, cuts them up and sews the clothes to make
outfits that are designed for him. He then documents this process with these
very flat planed photo’s that loom out of the darkness. I’m not sure if he is
discussing collage, fashion, photography or even portraiture (the poses
reminded me of royal paintings of the proud male showing of his finest silks).
I think that they come together quite well especially the slick presentation
only enhances your understanding of how smelly and dirty the actual clothes
potentially are.

Hans Aarsman

This display in the corridor that leads out of the café is about making use of photography instead of owning or buying things. When Aarsman had to move to a smaller house, he realised that he needed to get rid of some of his possessions. He took photos of things before he threw or gave them away. This led him to think carefully before he bought new things. Rather than buying something, he would often would take a photo of it instead. I think the most exciting thing about this project is that
if you bring something to the gallery that you are going to throw away they
will lend you a camera to document and annotate your own photo to then put on
display with the others.

In the main gallery was an exhibition that documented fashion photography over the past fifty years. However it had a different take as it showed how the photographer gets involved in the whole process. The most intriguing part of the whole show was how the
photographer positioned themselves. Because they were obviously performing for
a camera, their role as model now elevates the photograph to documentation of a
process. I especially liked the photos of tom ford (a fashion designer) abusing
models. It was very tongue in cheek and amusing in comparison to the serious snapshots of these photographers posing for their own 15 minutes in front of the camera.