Cuny Janssen à la Photographers' Gallery, Londres
Le 2011-10-05 18:29:09

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LaPhotographers' Gallery présente « Finding Thoughts», une exposition de Cuny Janssen, photographe hollandais né en 1975. 35 images de portraits de jeunes personnes et de paysages. Un livre d'artiste accompagne l'exposition. Jusqu'au 31 juillet 2005. Entrée libre. http://www.photonet.org.uk Horaires d'ouverture : du lundi au samedi de 11h à 18h. Nocturne le jeudi de 11h à 20h. Le dimanche de 12h à 18h. Cuny Janssen's portraits of children and young people offer a fresh perspective on both themedium and method of photographic portraiture. Alluding to a rich history of the portrait in art, her colour images actively engage in the quandaries of the portrait as psychologicalspace and philosophical construct. In the light of this, developing and responding to contemporary social as well as artistic challenges form the crux of her practice. Based in Utrecht, Janssen's work has taken her to locations including Norway, Macedonia,Iran, India and the UK. Her creative influences are equally diverse, ranging from Marcel Proust to contemporary artist Thomas Struth, and from photographer Robert Adams to thepainter Ferdinand Hodler. Her in-depth familiarity with their work has become an important element of her development as an artist. Janssen photographs and work with publications first came to prominence with an artist'sbook, published in, 2002 featuring images of children and young people in India. However, the true beginnings of her portraits/landscapes series came with her photographic approachto portraying children in areas of conflict. Janssen went to Macedonia in 2003 when ethnic violence was sporadic and many families were (and remain) displaced from their homes. Cuny Janssen is not an opportunistic artist. Her working process involves very careful editinglong after the photograph has been taken. Her portraits come about through long periods of time spent with sitters and their families although the specific names of her sitters are not identified in the final works. Her photographs are neither snapshots nor formally poisedmoments. Both the photographs of landscapes and children, juxtaposed without textual interpretation, carry an ambiguous undercurrent of expectancy and stasis in equal measure. Overall, Janssen's practice has positive connotations; her ostensible subjects are of younglives and unspoiled nature. Combined with the children's resilience and the displaced feeling of the landscapes, Janssen's project emerges as a highly contemplative body of work,encouraging an optimistic reading of the enduring truths of survival and beauty. The exhibition is curated by Clare Grafik. © Cuny Janssen

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