Following on from my post about Sara Galbiati's photos, I made it down to Lucha Future at the Dome last weekend and a muy buena noche was had by all!
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Danish photographer Sara Galbiati has captured the violent spectacle of Lucha Libre (“Free Fighting”) in all of it's theatrical glory. The heroic luchador is documented in action, at rest and in pose in a series of brilliant colour images.
Popular in Mexico since the 1930s, the sport has grown to dizzying heights. For a taste of the real thing Lucha Future opens at the Roundhouse in Camden today until 26th June, and is coming to The Dome in Brighton next weekend.
[pullquote author="Sarah Galbiati"]"It is a fight between “tecnicos” and “rudos” –between “good” and “evil”, where either the good or evil wins, so the never ending duel can continue in the next coming shows. The fights are choreographed and the winner picked in advance, but the fights are all at once fascinating, surreal, brutal, fake and serious"[/pullquote]
In amongst the mountains of tat inspired by the upcoming royal nuptials it's nice to see something with a little taste. Behold! is a bold circus style screenprint by James Brown in the union jack colours of red, white and blue. Available from Keep Calm Gallery.
This year's Brighton Photo Biennial came to a close last weekend. Titled New Documents and curated by Martin Parr, it was an eclectic selection of both new and undiscovered talent. I attended some of the opening talks and heard some of the photographers give insight into their work. I saw the documentary Making a Book with Steidl, the company's enigmatic figurehead Gerhardt Steidl on hand to discuss his way of working. A refreshing and funny insight into how books can be made.
The Biennial was the world's first frame-free photo festival with all of the prints being produced in the BPB offices. This lent a certain democracy in the way the images were presented, as well as, I'm sure, a way of keeping costs to a minimum!
I loved Alejandro Chaskielberg's series The High Tide, one half of the exhibition A Night in Argentina at the Brighton University gallery. His large scale portraits have a magical ethereal quality achieved by taking long exposures at night under a full moon, with only a hint of flash - his use of focus and colour verging on the surreal. Alejandro spent several years visiting the logging communities he documents, so even though the images themselves are staged they still have a real sense of authenticity. I didn't see everything the festival had to offer, but these were my favourite images out of what I did.
The old Co-op building on London road provided a great space for the brilliant group show New Ways of Looking. These were the highlights.....
Another series of nocturnal long exposures - Dhruv Malhotra's Indian cityscape project Sleepers - inspires a Where's Wally reaction. Sometimes obvious, othertimes obscure, people sleep peacefully within the urban sprawl of New Delhi:
Oscar Fernando Gomez Rodriguez is a taxi driver (and wedding photographer) who has used his cab window to frame everyday life in Mexico passing by. Initially begun as a document for his soon-to-be-born daughter, these snapshots have a great innocence about them. But also a sadness as his daughter died at a very young age - when invited to speak he cracked at this point of the story:
Suzanne Opton's vulnerable, anti-heroic portraits of US soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan:
Viviane Sassen's African portrait series Flamboya:
Fabrica had a refit for the eccentric exhibition The House of the Vernacular. The various sets played host to vintage Brazilian photo paintings, amusing child portraits from the 70s and 80s by Lee To Sang, and pimped out private jet interiors, among other curiosities!:
