Yesterday I was able to head down to Disorder Gallery for the Tony Potts gallery talk and discussion on his current (yes, on now) current exhibition, A Moment Of Intimacy, which features classic black and white photographs of women in sensual poses. Let me start again. All of the pictures in the exhibition were shot in the 1980s on film, of course, as that is what we had back then. They are one-on-one personal work by Tony, and as I said to a female friend of mine, 'they are pictures of women from when women were women and some men knew how to photograph them'. The pictures and the prints are beautiful. Most of the prints are of the digital type on fine art papers but there are also a couple of smaller original prints - wet bench prints - made at the time of the photo sessions, back in the 1980s.
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| Framed print by Tony Potts with the same image on Instagram - Same, not same. |
I was party to some of the preparations for this exhibition and curiously, while I liked the photograph above when viewing it on a computer screen. Along with other images proposed for the exhibition. Nothing prepared me for the impact of this shot - which is the first picture you see - when I walked into the gallery. It is mesmerising. And as Tony explained during his talk, the position of the hands, as seen in this image, were only there for a fleeting moment. Which is part of the raison d'être of this exhibition. Apparently there was not a lot of what I might call 'structural' posing going on, it was all a lot more natural, people who knew each other working together to make beautiful pictures. These days you hear the word collaboration a lot. Well, back in the day it was called working together. You may judge for yourself if the words are the only thing that has changed... Coming back to the picture above, it completely reinforced to me the importance of the print. Which is something that I have experienced repeatedly in the last few years. The print is not a decoding of data illuminated on a screen, it is not a different colour on every phone, computer, TV screen (have you ever watched the same show, footy game, on the different TVs at the pub? All different, the colour, one magenta, another green, none are the same). The print is the photograph as a physical object. When I walked into the gallery I stood before the picture. I was not looking down on a tiny screen on the bus, scrolling, scrolling. I see that because I do not scroll on the bus, but so many do, I watch them, just scroll and scroll!
The print, this picture demands your attention! The print embraced me, not the other way around, and it felt like magic.
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| Tony Potts listening to a question about his work - Disorder Gallery, Sydney, Australia. |
Although I interviewed Tony about his work in the Australia + Fashion Photography exhibition last year; and some of his photographic techniques were a revelation to me. There were more surprises instore during yesterdays floor talk - where Tony discussed the various affects of cameras and film-stock and post processing (making of the original silver prints) on the printed image. And of course, discussed the relationship of the sitter (subject/model) and the photographer. It was fun, Tony did a great job not letting the discussion go off onto other tangents and graciously shared some of the experiences, some not particularly flattering, that led him to make the huge leap he made to embrace the method of working that had him produce this body of work. You can see his pictures online here https://www.instagram.com/tonypottsphotography/ or if you are in Sydney and are quick, the show is on from until February 15 - March 2, 2024 at Disorder Gallery, East Sydney.
Tony Potts
A Moment Of Intimacy
February 15 - March 2, 2024
https://www.disordergallery.com/
Telling Stories in Pictures all over..
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