Landmark: The Fields of Photography, Somerset House - exhibition review
Landmarks can range from tourist beauty spots to historical locations, but in the context of this magnificent exhibition they also bluntly include the brutalised scars on the surface of our planet, and the industrial buildings and farmlands covering it. The 70 artists exhibited offer diverse interpretations of our world today. Selected by the celebrated American curator William Ewing, the mosaic of more than 170 images represents his definition from “hot — polluted and irradiated” to “cold — corporate landscapes such as Disneyland”.
The opening room includes Icefjord by Olaf Otto Becker, and abstract snow trees by Charles March, while scenes of icy seas hide their melting future behind their beauty. The Japanese legend Hiroshi Sugimoto presents a funereal image of darkly fogged sea, while Chris McCaw (US) makes a strong environmental statement through his lustrous series, Sunburned.
Design plays a major part in Ewing’s curation and the many examples include David Maisel’s aerial Terminal Mirage 18, and Edward Burtynsky’s early works. Robert Polidori documents a vast Mumbai honeycomb of shanty houses while Mitch Epstein’s gigantic American refinery is part of his statement work representing damaged earth and communities.
This diverse range of subjects matches the photographic processes involved, from early cameras (Robert Adams) to NASA lenses (Thomas Struth’s images from Mars) and Joan Fontcuberta’s computer-generated Google images of mountains.
Until April 28. somersethouse.org.uk 020 7845 4600. An auction of images from the exhibition takes place on May 15 at Christie’s, in aid of the Positive View Foundation. positiveviewfoundation.org.uk
