Bristol Through the Lens: an Exhibition and an Essay
Sheona Beaumont
Tangent Books, 2011
21cm x 21cm; 64pp; 24 colour illustrations
perfect bound, printed on 170gsm silk paper, with a 400gsm cover
PB: 978-1-9064775-8-5
Second edition of the exhibition catalogue, with the complete series of 20 kaleidoscopic Bristol landscapes by Sheona Beaumont. The striking composite images are situated by the artist within a tradition of alternative photographic practices that consider the Bristol landscape from innovative perspectives. First published by Trigger Editions on the occasion of the exhibition at The Photo Gallery Bristol, 2010 (part of the inaugural Bristol Festival of Photography), where it sold out. This second edition includes an additional plate, Lighting Up the Landscape, which featured in the Portents installation hosted by the Pierian Centre on College Green, Bristol (marking the European Year for Combating Poverty & Social Exclusion).
Sheona Beaumont not only recognises photography’s inherent tension between objective truth and subjective expression, but also its potential to transcend literal representation. Her photographic series Bristol Through the Lens presents a uniquely personal take on the city’s landscape. … Recalling Cubist strategies, whereby objects are depicted from myriad vantage points, Beaumont’s scenes are compiled from numerous images of the same location recorded over periods of time. … These are the places which are experienced day in day out, in different lights, seasons, and weather conditions. Seen through this protracted lens, Beaumont perhaps gives us a more ‘truthful’ picture of a city in constant flux.
David Trigg, from the foreword
Contents:
- Foreword by David Trigg
- ‘Photographing the Bristol Landscape’; essay by Sheona Beaumont, featuring the work of Justin Quinnell, Andy Clifford, Thomas Kellner and Ed Hill.
- 20 colour plates
- Acknowledgements
- Bristol: a poem by Sheona Beaumont