Ej Major @Matt Roberts Arts, London

All images © Ej Major

A buzz surrounds Ej Major's one man show that opens on Thursday at Matt Roberts Arts, winner of the 2011 Salon Photo Prize (sponsored by 1000 Words). Of the work on display, most notable is her clever faux biography entitled Marie Claire RIP.

"These series of 12 images," Major explains, "is based on an article published in Marie Claire in 2002, which featured police mug-shots of a [heroin addict] taken over a fourteen year period. The article revealed that not long after the last picture was taken the woman was found dead."

She adds, "Marie Claire RIP is a re-staging of these images using myself as subject. I intended the piece to be non-specific in terms of the nature of the character’s demise. There is no direct reference to heroin addiction. The series may be read in terms of each person’s story or experience who views it. While the piece challenges the veracity of the photographic portrait it also finds an authenticity in a notion of self-portraiture that involves acting. It is me and it isn’t her and yet it is her and it isn’t me at the same time."

This exhibition runs from Friday 2 September to Saturday 24 September. Matt Roberts Arts, Unit 1, 25 Vyner Street, London, E2 9DG.

Ej Major wins The Salon Photo Prize 2011

Thank you to all those who applied to The Salon Photo Prize 2011. Making the selection was far from easy. Out of an extensive list of strong entries (we received 953 applications in total), the judging panel has chosen 39 artists to exhibit:

Manuela Barczewski, Sara Bjarland, Richard Burton, Emma Crichton, Alex Currie, Julia Curtin, Marysa Dowling, Lisa Elmaleh, Valentina Ferrandes, Iulia Filipovscaia, Jo Gane, Marguerite Garth, Ben Gold, Isabelle Graeff, Julie Hill, Ellie Davies, Tess Hurrell, Mandy Lee Jandrell, Jordanna Kalmann, Özant Kamaci, Naima Karlsson, Yaron Lapid, EJ Major, Zoe Maxwell, Georgina McNamara, Kate Nolan, Ethna O'Regan, Vesna Pavlovic, Sever Petrovici-Popescu, Luca Sage, Carolyn Scott, Louise Short, Jayne Smith, Alison Stolwood, Jan Stradtmann, Carole Suety, Chiara Tocci, Philip Tottenham, Rachel Wilberforce.

The exhibition will continue from 4 February - 26 February, Friday-Sunday (12.00-18.00) at Matt Roberts Project Space.

To download this year’s PDF catalogue please click here. Below are a few photographs from the opening on Thursday 3 February, taken by Robson Yee, editorial assistant at 1000 Words. It was an entertaining opening night and a tremendous turn out with over 1,300 people packing out the gallery.

















All images © Robson Yee | 1000 Words

Congratulations to Ej Major, who has been named as the winner of The Salon Photo Prize 2011. Major´s piece, an excerpt selected from her series To Shoulder, explores themes of construction of identity in the digital media age:



















Image © Ej Major

Of the work she says: "Recently I’ve become interested in protest. The Suffragette movement provides a historical context for the performance and investigation of protest today, a fixed vantage point from which to explore the myriad issues we are asked to care about today. It also acts as counterpoint to my own ambivalence. An ambivalence born of fatigue at the information overload that surrounds the globalized internet generation."

She will receive £1000 and a solo exhibition in 2012, supported by 1000 Words. Watch this space for more developments and news on the show.