The Jerwood Charitable Foundation and Portfolio Magazine are pleased to announce the five winners of the Jerwood Photography Awards 2008: Martina Lindqvist, Alice Myers, James Pogson, Kurt Tong and Nicky Walsh . The winners each receive awards of �2,500, and their work is shown in a group exhibition at Jerwood Space, London. This year�s winners have recently graduated from a range of educational institutions across the UK, and their highly divergent, distinctive and stimulating work represents the finest photographic output from young graduates today.
Selectors for the 2008 Jerwood Photography Awards were: Dewi Lewis , Director, Dewi Lewis Publishing (Chair of Panel); Gloria Chalmers , Editor of Portfolio Magazine; Neeta Madahar, Visual Artist; David Scull , Director of Hoopers Gallery, London; and Marta Weiss , Curator of Photographs, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Tim Eyles, Chairman of the Jerwood Charitable Foundation, Roanne Dods, Director of the Jerwood Charitable Foundation, and Gloria Chalmers , were joined by Dewi Lewis, who presented the Awards at Jerwood Space, London, at 7.00pm on Thursday, 6 November 2008. Roanne Dods said: �Every year we come to these awards with an open mind, and every year we are thrilled by the quality of work that shines through from artists at such early points in their careers. This year we were struck by the imagination, range and quality of work coming from these five artists. Yet again the work in this exhibition is evidence of the unique revelation that the practice of photography can bring to the world of ideas, human understanding and to the arts.� Dewi Lewis said: �The sheer number and quality of entries for this year�s Awards is stunning evidence of the strength of photography in the UK today and of its centrality within contemporary visual arts practice. It was a delight to be introduced to so much excellent work and to see such diversity, not just in terms of content but also in the visual strategies being explored. The five winners all show great maturity of vision, presenting imagery with an individual voice and I have no doubt that winning a Jerwood Photography Award will present valuable opportunities at this stage in their careers.�
Over 5,000 photographs were submitted by 610 entrants, all recent graduates from UK visual art degree courses, resident in the UK. The exhibition at Jerwood Space opens to the public on 7 November and continues until 11 December 2008. It will then tour to venues in the UK, beginning at Impressions Gallery, Bradford, 27 January to 29 March 2009, and Aberysthwyth Arts Centre, 2 May to 13 June 2009.
Portfolio Magazine issue 48, published on 6 November, features the winners� work, with an accompanying essay by Marta Weiss, in which she suggests: �Collectively, as leading recent graduates of UK photography degree courses, Kurt Tong, Martina Lindqvist, Alice Myers, Nicky Walsh and James Pogson are pointing the field in promising directions. Their approaches are as varied as their subject matter. Each of the selected bodies of work exhibits a coherent vision and each photographer expresses, in a distinctive voice, the demand that we look. We can look forward to seeing where they direct our attention next.�
WINNERS: Martina Lindqvist (age 27) R�gsk�r Island, 2008 Martina Lindqvist creates mysterious and unsettling landscapes contextualised by personal memories of R�gsk�r Island, a small island off the coast of Finland Lindqvist grew up visiting each summer. The series is a combination of factual recording and recollections, and the views are brooding and lonely, underscoring the sense of island isolation.
Alice Myers (age 22) Rocket, 2008 Rocket captures the exhilaration of children as they propel themselves through water, letting go of safety and launching themselves into the expanse of the unknown. Drawing on remembered feelings of fear and hope and viewed from an adult vantage point, the photographs convey feelings of anxiety as children are caught awkwardly progressing into the unknown.
James Pogson (age 24) Ladykillers, 2008 Ladykillers takes its title from an international women�s Thai kickboxing tournament held in England in 2008. Formerly banned in Thailand, women�s kickboxing remains a subcategory of a sport dominated by male competitors, and the garish, Technicolor portraits are in complete accord with the assertiveness of the subjects they depict.
Kurt Tong (age 31) People�s Park, 2007 The People�s Park series was inspired by nostalgic reflection upon family snapshots and the artist�s own childhood memories in Hong Kong. Tong set out to document city parks in mainland China similar to those of his youth, presenting a melancholic and wistful view of the now deserted Communist-era parks.
Nicky Walsh (age 29) Untitled, 2005 � 2007 For Nicky Walsh, a limited palette and narrow tonal range are part of a deliberate, disciplined attempt to depict the most subtle differences in opacity and tonality of everyday objects. Her minimalist approach invites an aesthetic contemplation of mass produced objects and sterile office environments, revealing their simple elemental forms.
Exhibition times and dates: Jerwood Space 171 Union Street, Bankside London SE1 0LN 020 7261 0279 7 November � 11 December 2008 Mon � Fri 10am � 5pm Sat � Sun 10am � 3pm
For further information contact: Gloria Chalmers, Chloe Reith or Elizabeth Pardoe Portfolio Magazine [email protected] 0131 220 1911 43 Candlemaker Row, Edinburgh EH1 2QB www.portfoliocatalogue.com
Notes: The Jerwood Photography Awards were established in 2003 and are funded by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation and managed by Portfolio Magazine. The Awards aim to support talented artists in the early stages of professional life. Five winners each receive Awards of �2,500, their work is exhibited in a group exhibition at Jerwood Space in London in November each year, followed by a tour, and is published in the November issue of Portfolio Magazine. The 2008 Jerwood Photography Awards were open to artists who work with the medium of photography. Applicants were required to be resident in the UK and have graduated from a visual arts degree course in the UK between January 2005 and September 2008. There was no age limit. Awards were made to five artists whose submitted photographs, in the opinion of the selectors, demonstrated originality and excellence.
The Jerwood Charitable Foundation is dedicated to responsible and imaginative funding of the visual and performing arts and other areas of human endeavour and excellence. It supports, amongst other things, the Jerwood Visual Arts Series and brings together the Jerwood Photography Awards, Jerwood Contemporary Painters, Jerwood Sculpture Prize, Jerwood Applied Arts and the Jerwood Drawing Prize. Each exhibition creates an overview of current debate and practice in each of these fields.
Portfolio Magazine is an award-winning magazine of contemporary photographic art with an international subscription base. It publishes new and previously unpublished photography created or exhibited in the UK, accompanied by specially commissioned essays in a collectable bi-annual publication (published in May and November). Portfolio is a showcase for the most innovative and engaging photography and is an indispensable source of information for photographers, teachers and curators, as well as anyone with a serious interest in photography.
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