Thursday 18 July – Thursday 26 September 2013
Photographer Robert George captures the world. Working autonomously, his compelling portraits synthesize physicality and cultural turn within an ever-burgeoning series. Robert George’s brand new collection, Athelstan’s Dream, will be on display in The Kestrel Suite at Common from Thursday 18 July.
Image Robert George
Robert explains more about his exhibition:
“Walking the streets of London, photographing men and women as they charm me. It is not a new thing, it is five years old; I have done it in places more alluring than our capital. But, I have never done it in our capital. Resisting planning – walking and walking – these prints are only the people I’ve found; those distracted or still enough to let me shoot; he and she uncaring, docile or unbelieving.
Prime significance? Perhaps it is our subtle difference; our pertinent parallels. Athelstan’s Dream is the new component of a life-long series – a collection of unrepeatable images taken all over the world. I have noticed the same things for twenty-seven years: opulence, hunger, desire, repulsion, fear, gall, ignorance and understanding. Now, I have a camera in hand.
When I shoot I find myself hunting for the physical, often discovering it in the old or infirm. But, when collecting the day’s work, it is not the deep wrinkle or missing eye I enjoy, but their conceivable incidents and aftermaths. I can imagine a thousand stories for each mark. Somewhere, they are true. The young and clean can give a beautiful shot, often subtle. Habitually, their moments are yet to come; that wonder they keep is a difficult but heavenly shot.
I enjoy the stories I have to tell: the angry vagabond at Marble Arch, the one-eyed Moroccan pickpocket and a Christmas night quivering toward death on an Oulx mountain. I’d do these places without the camera, looking at every person I can.
I hope we all want to understand. Look to understand; we are redrawn seven billion times.”
Exhibition Launch Night: Thursday 18 July, 6pm – 9pm
Common
Edge Street
Manchester
M4 1HW
