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Contributors Veronica Bailey • David Bate • Sian Bonnell Peter Fraser • Ori Gersht • John Goto • Paul Graham Rut Blees Luxemburg • Neeta Madahar • Mari Mahr Michelle Sank • Helen Sear • Paul Seawright
It is a pleasure to announce the 50th issue of Portfolio, marking 21 years of the publication. To celebrate the occasion we have invited 50 of the UK’s most significant artist photographers to contribute two pages of their newest works for this special extended issue.
In reflecting back over Portfolio’s history, it is clear that photography has changed dramatically in terms of its production, distribution and consumption, and this 50th issue offers an opportunity to explore how and when these changes have evolved. A useful starting point is a key moment thirty years ago, when the groundbreaking exhibition ‘Three Perspectives on Photography: Recent British Photography’ was shown at the Hayward Gallery, London, in June 1979. This ambitious exhibition - and its catalogue - inspired a generation of photographers, and broadened the future scope of photography production and exhibition. The exhibition comprised three distinct strands that reflected the diversity of photography at the time – Paul Hill curated ‘Photographic Truth, Metaphor and Individual Expression’; Angela Kelly curated ‘Feminism and Photography’; and John Tagg curated ‘A Socialist Perspective on Photographic Practice’.
Continuing the theme of ‘three perspectives’, we have invited three writers to contribute their personal and professional analyses: David Bate looks at the origins and structure of the 1979 exhibition, its cultural and economic context, and how photographic practices have evolved during the following three decades; Martin Barnes discusses the major survey exhibitions that followed and the important shifts in practice; and Dewi Lewis explores external influences on photography in Britain, the tension between art and commerce, and the publishing sector.
I sincerely hope that this incomplete survey of photographic art in Britain in 2009 will inspire emerging photographers and students, and that these illuminating essays will contribute towards the continuing history of photography. Gloria Chalmers
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