Just learned that I’ll have a couple of photos from The Guardian’s Your Pictures of the Decade competition and the weekly “Your Pictures” competition on exhibition at The Guardian offices from 22 November – 2 January. The private view will be held on 22 November. If anyone would like to come as my guest, I would be happy to have you! Please get in touch. x E
Friday night saw the opening reception for the “Asylum Seekers” exhibition at Brighton’s Add the Colour Cafe & Gallery, which features five photographers’ different interpretations of Hellingly Hospital. Hellingly was an abandoned Victorian-era mental asylum, open from 1901-1994. I shot there about a year and a half ago though sadly it has since been demolished in favor of townhouses and condominiums. On the day we were there, we ended up with only about 2.5 hours before we lost the light and we found security guards, having called the police, waiting by our car when we emerged. Unfortunately, I never got the chance to return to shoot again.
"Her Fleeting Imprint" by Miss Aniela
With this exhibition, I’m thrilled to be showing alongside work from Miss Aniela, an amazing internationally exhibited and published fine-art photographer with a unique vision and whom I wholly admire and respect. Miss Aniela is showing her piece entitled “Her Fleeting Imprint”, a cloned self-portrait from her “Abandoned” series, which evokes a sense of madness, loss of a sense of time and entrapment.
"Hellingly 3" by yours truly, Erika Szostak
That's me. Photo courtesy of Juliet Greig.
My own visual representation of Hellingly was a bright and colourful one, as its attraction to me was related to the astonishing kind of workmanship, attention to “frivolous” detail and beauty poured into public buildings that no longer exists. While today’s institutions tend to be uniformly white, monotonous, utilitarian and flourescently lit, Hellingly was full of richly patterned carpets, chandeliers, coloured tiles, intricate moldings and generous windows. Neither today’s budgets nor today’s ideologies allow that such places will ever be built quite like that again.
Image by Barrie Griffiths
Of course, these physical features can obscure the very real suffering that occurred in Hellingly, and it’s that suffering that informs the photos of Barrie Griffiths. Barrie hoped to capture the “miserable beauty” of the place and the peace that has settled on it now that Hellingly’s inmates have moved on from a place once full of pain and loss.
Image by Nicky Bryce-Sharron
Nicky Bryce-Sharron‘s stark black and white photos are intended to convey the sense of creepiness she felt when visiting there. ”For me,” says Nicky, “it was important to capture the shadows that seemingly grow from the corners of the rooms, leading you to glance back over your shoulder from time to time as you make your way past dozens of doors, each leading to nowhere.”
Image by Mike McLean
Finally, Mike McLean‘s square format photos reflect his passion for urbexing and ”recording images whilst trespassing in places where he shouldn’t be, be they old and abandoned or still in use.” The exhibition will remain up through 27 June.
Images by Mike McLean; photo courtesy of Juliet Greig;
Well, this is exciting – my first photography review! Culture 24, “one of the Guardian’s essential sites for 2009″, has recommended my “Masks” exhibit at Colourstream as one of the five to to see during the Brighton Photo Fringe.
Colourstream is located at 123 St. James’s St in Kemptown.
Backstage Burlesque - from the "Cabaret" series
So much going on recently! I just learned yesterday that one of the photos of Missy Malone from my “Cabaret” series – “Backstage Burlesque” – has been selected for printing and hanging at the Old Truman Brewery in Brick Lane as a part of the Photomonth Photo-Open exhibition. The exhibition will be up from Oct 15 – 25, with the preview party on Oct 14.
I’m privileged to have two exhibitions in the Brighton Photo Fringe this year. I’ll be showing my a selection from my “Masks” series at Colourstream, 123 St. James’s St, BN2 1TH, from Oct 5 til the end of the Fringe, and my “Telephone Games” series at Add the Colour, 64-65 North Rd, BN1 1YD, from Nov 1 – Nov 6, with fellow photographers Mike Oddhayward and Scribe.
