Not one, not two but three great photo exhibitions in Bangkok over the weekend. The World Press Photo and Thai Press photo exhibitions are thought-provoking if harrowing. Difficult really to look at those photos and to leave the exhibition feeling terribly uplifted but there’s no question that these are images which should be brought to our attention. Depressing to see the numbers of journalists killed and wounded around the world last year listed at the entrance to the exhibition. One would be too many but, sadly, the numbers were in the hundreds.



By way of contrast, the aerial photos of Yann Arthus Bertrand show more aesthetically pleasing views of our world and were a welcome change of pace. Impressively big enlargements have been arranged in circles in the square outside the Zen shopping centre in central Bangkok and the backdrop of skyscrapers and skytrain line seemed to work really well.



The exhibitions also served as an opportunity for me to meet up with a few members of the Bangkok Camera Club, which I’m looking forward to joining next month.

Tags: bangkok camera club, exhibitions

The AOP Portfolio exhibition finally opens at the AOP gallery in EC2 today with the official Private View coming on Thursday evening (let me know if you'd like a ticket).

I already owe Lucy Davies from Flavorpill a beer for this quote:

"Gavin Gough's colourful travel images... convey the vibrancy of Asian and Middle Eastern cultures without cliché or contrivance."

Tags: aop, exhibitions, photography

Before the Royal Photographic Society headquarters was moved from the atmospheric Octagon Gallery in central Bath to the anonymous and characterless office on the outskirts of the city it was a magical place to visit. It was a big deal to take the train for a day out in Bath. There was a real sense of excitement and delicious anticipation as the train approached the city and the honey-coloured buildings in the valley were slowly revealed.

And the Octagon was the jewel in the crown, I would put off walking up the hill to the gallery for as long as possible, enjoying the anticipation. I would cross Pultney Bridge and walk a circuit back around to the Roman Baths, pause for tea in the square and join the audiences for the various buskers, knowing that the best part of the day was still to come. The magnetism of the Octagon would inevitably draw me up the hill though and with a genuine, spine-tingling thrill I would finally allow myself to walk into the narrow bookshop and two or more hours of real delight would commence.

The bookshop was so narrow that you'd have to squeeze in to let people pass but that small area contained a wealth of photographic books and postcards that I just would never have seen anywhere else. Having looked at probably every book in the small shop and selected my postcards to buy on the way out I would continue into the Aladdin's Cave of the gallery itself. I'm sure I must have seen lots of exhibitions with colour images in the Octagon but in my memory all of the photographs were black and white. The first exhibition I saw there contained stark photographs taken in Haiti. Dark studies of men holding severed pig's heads and carrying coffins down dusty tracks, photos of voodoo dolls and fat women with fearsome expressions. Oh God, it was divine.

Walking slowly around the eight-sided room, studying these outrageous images made you feel like you'd entered a special underground club. The knowledge that in the daylight outside, people were walking along the street, shopping, using the cash-point, waiting for the pedestrian crossing, only heightened the sense that you were one step removed from the rest of the world briefly.

I eventually joined the RPS and took the train to Bath more regularly, attending opening nights and private views of exhibitions there. I once saw Don McCullin open an exhibition in the Octagon and, at that time at least, I wouldn't have been more impressed if I'd bumped into Mick Jagger or Bono or the Pope. In fact, I'd have been a lot less impressed.

And now? A few years ago the RPS moved its headquarters to a small office building on the outskirts of Bath. It looks like an office for an Insurance Broker or an Estate Agent. Magic? It has none. Disappointed? I was gutted.

None of which has anything to do with what I started this post about so please forgive the rather self-indulgent digression. This post is actually about the Deutsche Borse Photography Prize and the fact that the Photographers' Gallery in London is relocating to a "£15.5 million, architect-designed, purpose-built address in Soho". I'm hoping that the Photographers' Gallery will offer some of the magic that was lost to me when the RPS moved.

I was going to write about the Deutsche Borse because it's a great competition and the shortlisted works are inspirational but instead I'll simply point you to this article in the Telegraph and suggest that you take a look at the work of Fazal Sheikh, the first of the shortlisted photographers featured.

Tags: photographer's gallery, exhibitions, photography

ephotozine announces the forthcoming AOP Portfolio exhibition. The exhibition will run from February 7th to February 28th at the AOP Gallery, 81 Leonard Street, London. EC2A 4QS and I'm hoping to have eight of my photographs exhibited.

Tags: exhibitions, photography

The Association of Photographers has a tradition of showcasing the work of new members and presenting their work to the photographic industry.

"The annual 'Portfolio' exhibition has become immensely popular with agents and buyers giving those in the photography industry an opportunity to review work from a new generation of AOP members"

I'm hoping to exhibit a panel of photographs in the 2008 'Portfolio' Exhibition and will provide more details here as they become available. For now though, make a date in your diary:

P O R T F O L I O 5th Feb - 28th Feb, 2008 THE AOP GALLERY 81 LEONARD STREET LONDON EC2A 4QS (map) Admission: Free The image on the right, taken at Angkor in Cambodia, has also been exhibited at the AOP Gallery as a finalist in the AOP Open Competition.

Tags: exhibitions, aop, photography