Black White Photography - UK (2019-05)

19

Opposite (top)Marta, 29, Poland. Portrait of B+W

Opposite (below) RAF No

Evidence/Kein Beweis, 2017.

Above Antelope Valley

1438, 2008.

Below ‘Typical American

House’, Nevada Test Site,

Yucca Flat, Apple II Test

Site, 1995.

SEE THE IMAGES

The Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize

2019 is on show until 2 June at the Photographers’

Gallery, 16-18 Ramillies Street, London.

See tpg.org.uk.

Group) gives pause for thought. The group was involved
in a series of violent terrorist attacks in Germany over
the course of three decades. Messmer was nominated
for his show RAF – No Evidence/Kein Beweis (which
ran at Zephyr – Raum für Fotografie in Mannheim).
In a departure from the norm, the artist repurposes
images, documents and other source materials
commonly used in police investigations and crime scene
reconstructions. The result is a body of work that
encourages us to question our understanding of history.
Documentary photographer Susan Meiselas is the
final nominee and earns her place due to her European
retrospective Mediations (which ran at Jeu de Paume
in Paris). Meiselas is well known for her work in the
conflict zones of Central America during the late 1970s
and early 80s, and also for her immersive approach

• often spending long periods of time collaborating
  with her subjects.
  The artist has chosen work from her project
  Kurdistan/akaKurdistan. In the 1990s Meiselas
  began documenting the exhumation of mass graves
  in northern Iraq (the result of Saddam Hussein’s
  genocidal campaign against the Kurds), as well as
  excavation sites and individual survivors. The
  experience led her to set up akaKurdistan.com, which
  acts as a public archive bringing together photographs,
  maps and stories, proving her commitment to this
  group, whose culture and identity has been oppressed
  by regimes in the nations they call home.
  During the exhibition the Kurdish community in the
  UK is being encouraged to contribute their own
  memories to Meiselas’ project via a special workshop.
  In addition, the gallery is running a full programme

of talks and events to accompany the show.

The winner of the Deutsche Börse Photography

Foundation Prize 2019 is announced on 16 May.

© Mark Ruwedel, 2018

© Mark Ruwedel, 2018