What's next?

Coinciding with FOAM's tenth anniversary is a forward-looking micro-site: What's Next. The site a selection of articles and reflections by some of the most interesting minds in photography today, covering everything from the future of the institution to the effects of digital media on photography.

The good people at FOAM say: "The question 'What's Next?' is founded in our conviction that photography has fundamentally changed during the last twenty years. And this process of change and transition might not be finished yet. The digitalization of the medium has altered every aspect of photography, whether it is the photograph as an object, the position of the professional photographer, the function of the photo lab, the news agency or the photography museum.

In fact the question 'What's Next?' is about far more than 'just' the future of photography. It is also about the future of a society dictated by visual media, of a society in which people primarily communicate with technological tools that have been developed and made into consumer products with incredible speed. It is about the future of a society in which every layman can and will be a photographer, sharing his experiences with newly made online communities, a society in which the experience of time and space have drastically changed."

In conjunction with the website FOAM recently held a fascinating symposium, a few video clips of which you can see here:









To see more videos like this from FOAM click here

Elliot Wilcox

All images © Elliot Wilcox

Wow! There really is some exciting work landing in the submissions inbox nowadays! Firstly, let me just take the opportunity to thank you all for everyday I get more and more spoiled by the sheer volume and quality of artwork that comes my way. Thank you for satisfying my hungry eyes, but also for making me relish more.

Elliott Wilcox is the latest artist whose work has truly captivated my attention. Wilcox is a London based, British photographer who is currently studying at the University of Westminster, MA Photographic Studies. He graduated from the University of Wales, Newport with a BA in Photographic Art in 2008. He has been the recipient of several awards including a Judges Award at the Nikon Discovery Awards and a New York Photo Award in 2009. Elliott recently won a prestigious Lucie Award for the Discovery of the Year at the International Photography Awards. 

Elliott has exhibited internationally and in the UK, his work was part of Singapore’s first International Photography Festival and selected for both Catalyst Arts Belfast and the Crane Kalman Gallery Brighton’s Graduate showcase exhibitions. His work was part of the recent show PRUNE – Abstracting Reality at FOAM Gallery Amsterdam guest curator Kathy Ryan, editor of the New York Times Magazine.
 
His work is featured in the Magenta Foundation’s latest publication on the future of photography, focusing on emerging talent, Flash Forward - Emerging Photographers 2009, The New York Photography Festival and in the New York Photo Awards Annual 2009. Elliott is also featured in FOAM magazine’s Talent issue and FOAM Gallery’s 2010 Annual. 

Wilcox has also been a part of the BBC’s latest Documentary – School of Saatchi. His work beat thousands of applicants to be in the last 10 artists involved in the show. Elliott was the only photographic artist to make it through to the final stages, a testament to the quality of his photographic works. 

The images showcased here are taken from his fantastic project Courts. The work "examines representations of the enclosed spaces of sports courts. In photographing the empty courts, absent of the fast paced action we are so familiar with, these environments reveal themselves in a new light."

"The camera shows details that the viewer can see closely, revealing many subtleties that usually go unnoticed. The vivid stains, ball marks, blood and scratches force the viewer to focus on these details rather than just the court."

"The courts have one single use – a ball game, with all their complicated rules and regulations. These normally sub conscious spaces become alive. Much like a gallery space is missed to the artwork, the space of these courts is missed to the sport. These large format images are slow and deliberate. The non-judgemental image creates an experience to explore, a path to revealing the unnoticed and exposing the unexposed, consequently romanticising the courts."

Forthcoming projects for 2010 include an artist run exhibition featuring works from artists affiliated with MurmurArt which is set to run in autumn 2010. Later this year Wilcox is planning to exhibit Courts in his first ever solo show in London. In the meanwhile, he says he "hopes to continue developing his photographic practice and pushing the boundaries of his medium."

Kim Boske

All images © Kim Boske

Just finishing at Foam is an exhibition of Kim Boske´s photographic series, Mapping, a few images from which Kim kindly took the time to share with me the other day. Needless to say, it gives me great pleasure to be able to showcase them here on the blog as I have long been an admirer of this work.

Boske is fascinated by the system of time and space. In her work she tries to capture this illusive reality by exploring the mutability of things. Her photos incorporate various levels, merging different moments in time together. They reveal phenomena that are impossible to see or witness with the naked eye.

In Mapping, Boske investigates how physical movement in time and space continually changes our perspective on the world. By eschewing individual perspective and instead combining multiple perspectives in a single image, she creates a new, layered reality. Here Boske presents a series of views of trees that she photographed from different angles. She combines the various shots to form a new image that shows each tree in its entirety. All the perspectives of the tree exist simultaneously; they overlap each other and join together to form a single image in a changing world of appearance and disappearance.

Kim Boske graduated in 2005 at the Royal Academy of Fine Art in The Hague. In recent years she has shown work at Amsterdam’s Centrum voor Fotografie, Netherlands Photography Museum in Rotterdam, Singapore’s International Photography Festival, Ron Mandos Rotterdam, New Jersey USA (all in 2008), as well as Platform 21 in Amsterdam in 2006.