Contributed by: Ms Charlotte Gregory (AU17, UK)
Have you taken a photo recently? On your camera or your phone, shared it with your friends, posted it on facebook, instagram, twitter, google+, flickr, tumblr or other networking sites? Chances are you have and so have millions of other people all over the world. “Everyone is a photographer now” is a statement made by duo Charlotte Gregory (UK) and Kuba Ryniewicz (UK/PL) who are setting up a new gallery dedicated to photography in Newcastle upon Tyne (UK).
Charlotte and Kuba both attended the 17th ASEF University (AU17) and worked on ‘Shared Heritage: As We See It’ an exhibition of photography and film put together by the AU17 participants. After this uniting experience they started to share their thoughts on current photographic practice and the lack of photography galleries that seem to be representing the evolution of photography and its seeming democratisation.
So they decided to create one themselves, and named it PH. – an exhibition space dedicated to photography, film and post-photography aesthetics. Kuba and Charlotte said “as darkrooms and film become less and less, our memories are now held on hardrives or memory cards and they have an endless capacity, we are losing the physical presence of a photo, we are now watching the fight between pixel vs. chemical”.
The pair are passionate to exhibit work by artists and photographers from all over the world, “…it’s really important to us to show photography by everyone, to create a democratic platform, we are eager to bring international photography to the gallery to present many different influences, backgrounds and cultures to provide an overview of what is going on right now in the world with photography” said Charlotte.
PH. is based on the 2nd floor of a 5-story office building in the city centre of Newcastle, which has been taken over by artists and now functions as bustling artist studio spaces, called The NewBridge Project.
Their first show entitled WHERE DOES TIME GO, named after a ‘post-human’ soundscape by artist Oneohtrix Point Never, will open on 3rd August 2012 and include works from Jordan Tate (USA), Nicolas Poillot (France), Estelle Hanania (France), Alex Binder (Germany), Jamie Allen (Canada) and other yet to be confirmed. They are currently working on ideas for publications linked to PH.
PH. is supported by Ideastap and The NewBridge Project. For more information please visit: ph-space.tumblr.com
Disclaimer: The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of author and can not in any circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF).