UNSEEN
2009-05-11The exhibition of 32 previously unseen images from the Guy Bourdin archive, includes images from his commercial work for French Vogue and Charles Jourdan shoes. Guy Bourdin launched his career with fashion assignments for Vogue, Paris which employed colour photography to its maximum effect, creating dramatic accents with saturated colour and texture.
While on the one hand employing formal elements of composition, Guy Bourdin sought to transcend the reality of the photographic medium with surreal twists to the apparent subject of his images and his unconventional manipulation of the picture plane. The art of Guy Bourdin communicates an entirely different reality, challenging our perception and provoking our senses with his layered narratives. Clever juxtapositions of objects and body parts contribute to the formal abstraction of the image while at the same time revealing potent sensual details. The surrealist quality of the images is heightened by their unique sense of location—often views in undistinguished bedrooms, the beach, to the side of a road. The unusual dramas that unfold in these seemingly everyday scenes and ordinary encounters pique our subconscious and invite our imagination.
This exhibition runs until the 4th of July 2009
The Wapping Project
Wapping Hydraulic Power Station
Wapping Wall
London
E1W 3SG
UK
