Sunday 13 June 2010

Spencer Tunick @ The Lowry.



I'm a little bit reluctant to write any kind of a review of anything after the last thought provoking post over on Blacklab. Anyway 'Everyday People', Spencer Tunick at The Lowry.

I'd obviously seen plenty of Tunick's work before and was always impressed with his organisational abilities but other than that always thought of it as a bit gimmicky, a bit..... samey. I was intrigued when I heard that The Lowry had commissioned him to make work to mark their tenth anniversary. I almost sent in my name for the volunteer call but well, I'm shy and a little over my optimum fighting weight so I didn't. But I needn't have worried everyone in the pictures seemed to be over their optimum fighting weight. That's one of the things I love about these pictures, that there's people of all shapes and sizes, although not age, getting your 'kit off' for NY photographers appears to be a pastime favoured by the middle aged.
There's a good few prints been produced and I was suprised by the variety of the images. People crammed into buses, smaller groups of males (middle aged) and photo's at plenty of sites in and around Manchester. For me though it's the shots in Peel Park, Salford that stand out. I like the intentional connection with the work of Lowry and I love the nudes in the weak Salford spring light. Go see it and then pop in the rooms next door to see the exhibition 'Lowry Favourites' there's pencil drawings of crowds in Peel Park done by Lowry in amongst.
Oh yeah, Interview with Spencer Tunick HERE.
'Everyday People' by Spencer Tunick, The Lowry, Salford Quays til 26th September.....

3 comments:

Peter Jacobs said...

It might not seem it but there was a wide range of ages too. Hence Spencer was able to do a photograph with women under 30 (Peel Park), and men and women under 45 (Concorde), as well as the older men in the Castlefield photograph.

You should have come along. It was a fantastic experience.

Brenda said...

I chickened out for equally compelling reasons when he came to Newcastle.

The link with Lowry adds a whole new dialogue, like an echo.

mark page said...

Brenda, never mind anything else stripping naked on the North-East coast! I've got things going blue just thinking about it!

Peter, perhaps there were younger people in there. The day I was at The Lowry it was pretty busy and I didn't want to get clocked staring to hard at the details in the prints!