First Edition ☝︎

What Are You Looking At?
Ambika P3                Gallery SO
28th Oct - 5th Nov       27th Oct - 5th Nov


What are you looking at?

In the context of this exhibition, it might depend on your relationship with photography.

For people who are familiar with “art” photography, you might see an unusual mix of works that appear quite distanced from each other.

Some others, who hold a modernist take – composition, light, craft of a silver gelatin print, and so on – might find some of the works are  very subversive, or even disappointing.

Another case might be that some people may find they are not sure what to make of it when looking at some of the work, which happens quite often with contemporary art.

Given these different scenarios, you might realise photography is understood in very different ways for different people.


So what are you looking at?

You might see nothing from a photograph apart from the materiality of the photo paper itself. You might not realise you expect to see a nude  when looking at pin-up photos from the 60s - until the nude is covered. You might be confronted with many view points captured at the same moment, slightly confusing which reality the photos are presenting.

The reality is that photography is heterogeneous which naturally leads to the various approaches artists take. In turn this gives the viewer different ways to contemplate the image, which can potentially reveal the power and politics of photography.


The intention of the exhibition is to direct visitors’ attention to the medium itself. The works you see here are all engaging with one question – what are you looking at when you are looking at a photograph?

Lena Amuat & Zoë Meyer
Mervyn Arthur
Lucas Blalock
Jack Carvosso
Jorge Luis Dieguez
Xiaobo Fu
Kerimcan Goren
Noémie Goudal

Darren Harvey-Regan
John Hilliard
Hideyuki Ishibashi
Aleksei Kazantsev
Josh Kolbo
Nikki S. Lee
Inès Lion
Davide Maione

Carter Mull
Barbara Probst
Kent Rogowski
Thomas Ruff
Erin Shirreff
Miki Soejima
Eva Stenram
Christopher Williams