Spectator

With this exhibition, the FOTOHOF provides an insight into the contemporary photo art scene of a European country. Last year, artists from Belgium and the Netherlands were shown. This year, in cooperation with the British Council in Vienna, we are presenting four positions from Great Britain. The works by Stuart Lee, Helen McCrorie, Nigel Shafran and Shizuka Yokomizo embrace classic elements of documentary photography and at the same time question them.

Nigel Shafran’s “Dad’s Office” is a personal documentary about clearing out his father’s office at home. Seemingly forgotten objects appear like constructed still lifes. Water stains on broken wallpaper and walls spread just as abstractly and randomly in a room that is simultaneously deserted but full of memories.

Helen McCrorie’s Waterway is a one-hour video of a canal through Glasgow after it has been left out for the first time in a long time. The camera pans constantly and evenly along the bank. The observer is a walker whose gaze falls on a normally idyllic park scene. However, the usually perfect landscape is littered with cars, fridges, and other hidden detritus of consumer society.

Stuart Lee’s series “Reserve” shows large-format photographs of bird observatories in nature reserves. These places were built to observe nature, allowing the viewer an undisturbed view from a hidden observation tower. Documentary and also wildlife photography try to capture their subjects in undisturbed moments, untouched by the presence of the observer, whereby the photographer manages to remain completely unnoticed.

Shizuka Yokomizo’s work “Stranger” addresses the issue of voyeurism by questioning the classical methods of documentary photography. The series of these anonymous portraits came about after the artist made letter contact with people living on the ground floor. She invited them to join in her voyeuristic game; she asked them to open the curtains at a certain time and thus “expose” themselves. After a photo was taken, the anonymous photographer disappeared. Questions about public or private space and the relationship between the photographer and his subject emerge.