INSPIRATION CURATED BY PERRY OGDEN
Extended until Friday 28th August
‘Inspiration’, an exhibition of photography curated by Perry Ogden. This show features a selection of Perry’s own work alongside images by David Bailey, August Sander, Gilles Peress, Donovan Wylie, Alen MacWeeney, Mary Ellen Mark, Steve Pyke, Andrew Bush, and John Hinde. For Ogden, the exhibition marks a tribute to both the inspiration that he found through these photographers and also to the periods of his life in which he encountered them.
In August Sander’s ‘Young Farmers’ (1914), Ogden was haunted by the austere
portrait of three young farmers taken on the eve of the First World War, posing
unanswered questions of Where they were going?, What were they doing? What were they hoping for? And what became of
them? The affect that Sander’s extraordinary photographic records of German
life taken during the first half of the twentieth century was as profound an effect on
Ogden as it has been on Photography in general.
From Roger Mayne’s 1956, Cartier Bresson inspired, images of
Fifties working class London to Gilles Peress’s 1981 study of the Northern
Ireland conflict, the influence of urban street life documentation in its most
triumphant, resourceful and yet harrowing of forms can be seen when studying
Ogden’s portraits of north Dublin city Pony Kids.
Move to Mary Ellen Mark’s 1983 Seattle
portrait of 13 year old child prostitute Tiny and you find the subsequent
inspiration and lead character for the Martin Bell directed movie ‘Streetwise' which greatly influenced Ogden’s
award winning film ‘Pavee Lackeen’.
Ogden’s admiration and respect for the many idiosyncrasies
of Irish life are caught in ‘Entrance Hall’ by Andrew Bush taken from the
American photographer’s study of the Georgian house Bonnettstown, Alen
MacWeeney’s 1965 study of the Traveller
Community and John Hinde’s idealistic shots of 50’s to 70’s Ireland.
For Perry Ogden, these distinguished photographers have
influenced and inspired his own career as both photographer and filmmaker. Born
in Shropshire in England,
he now lives in Ireland.
His photographs have appeared in countless magazines worldwide including
Italian Vogue, Luomo Vogue, W, The Face and Arena, and he has shot advertising
campaigns for Ralph Lauren, Chloe and Calvin Klein.
This work has supplemented more personal projects such as the photographic study PONY KIDS which was published by Jonathan Cape/Aperture in 1999. His photographs of Francis Bacon’s studio - 7 REECE MEWS – were published by Thames & Hudson in 2001 and exhibited widely including The Hugh Lane in Dublin, the Fondation Beyeler in Basle and the Fondation van Gogh in Arles. His first film Pavee Lackeen (The Traveller Girl) (2005) won numerous awards around the world including the IFTA for Best Film and the Satyajit Ray award for Best First Film at the London Film Festival.
