PHOTOMONTH - East London's International Photography Festival 2011

Last Thursday was the official opening of Photomonth 2011 East London's international photography exhibition.

The Opening Exhibition this year is a retrospective of Phil Maxwell's work entitled "Forty Years On - A photographic journey from the 70's to the present. "

Celebrating 40 years of Phil Maxwell’s work and its archiving for public use by the Bishopsgate Institute, the exhibition takes you on a journey through his youth in Liverpool to his later life in the East End of London. Housed in two venues - the Bishopsgate Institute and here at Rough Trade East – you can walk between the two buildings and experience the vibrancy of the East End first hand.
This is the East End seen through Phil Maxwell’s lens - his backdrop and canvas against which he’s captured sketches of life, documenting an instant in time and the social conditions and history of his community.

Rough Trade East also plays host to another exhibition in conjunction with Photomonth by Constantine Gras entitled "Vinyl Replay."

Vinyl Replay from Constantine Gras on Vimeo.

Vinyl Replay is a unique visual exploration of Constantine's record collection. In the studio and on location, he used long exposures, often with a camera in motion, to reinterpret his dusty and scratched vinyl records. These records range from 1966 when the Beach Boys filtered across his mum's amniotic sac, up until his last days of active vinyl collecting from Mole Jazz in the early 1990's.

"I want to re-invoke the space and time of this analogue existence: early days of collective family listening; rushing down to Woolworth's with pocket money to buy singles; the flowering of sexual identity in post-punk teens; and the outrage and civil disobedience against Thatcherite Britain."

On display until 31st October at Rough Trade East.

Other highlights of the festival include an exhibition of works by Carole Suety on display from Thursday 6th October at agnès b on Lamb Street. Carole explores relationships through the appropriation of an old French tradition of keeping a bell jar to preserve the memories of married life.



One of our favorite local boozers The Carpenter's Arms are displaying the works of Andrew Grainger. This is Andrew's first solo exhibition after having removed himself from nearly a decade of photographing the fast paced industry of fashion and advertising, he has rediscovered his passion for photography by capturing the reality and spontaneity of his surroundings in his body of work "What's The Brief."

More information on Photomonth 2011 can be found at www.photomonth.org