Description

A Positive View defined as the must-see photographic event for London 2010, featured the finest 10th and 21st century photography from around the world. For one month only, A Positive View returned to showcase an extraordinary range of photography on a truly international scale, under the Royal Patronage of Prince William supporting Crisis, the homelessness charity.

The third edition of the fully curated, museum-scale photographic exhibition, held at Somerset House, brought together more than 100 rare and signed vintage works across almost a century of photography; classic and contemporary works crossing a variety of genres, from still-life, fashion, landscape, portraiture and reportage. Followed by a Royal Gala reception and auction at Christie’s on 15th April, in aid of Crisis.

For the first time, A Positive View featured work from contemporary artists whose creative practice incorporates photography, with geographically diverse representations from Korea, China, Japan and West Africa. A Positive View will provide an unusual and interesting opportunity to consider how practitioners beyond Europe and America are working with photography. In another departure, the 2010 edition of A Positive View included works by unknown photographers, all clients of the homelessness charity Crisis who studied photography at the Crisis Skylight, education, training and employment centres in London and Newcastle.

“As A Positive View benefits people on the margins of society, this exhibition brings together images of a notional ‘centre’ – social icons, home, the West – with peripheral visions. In some cases the display suggests their unsettling interdependence. At the same time, as with previous editions, A Positive View continues to showcase the achievements of leading photographers past and present.” - Nadim Samman, Exhibition Curator.

Each of the works donated by the photographers, or their representatives and estates, have been included in the exhibition following a stringent selection process by A Positive View Patrons, who included Philippe Garner, International Head of Photographs at Christie’s, and Tim Jefferies, Director of Hamilton’s Gallery, with exhibition curator Nadim Samman.

Patron Philippe Garner said: “This exhibition is truly international in scope and represents the contemporary vitality and authority of the photographic medium across many genres. I have spent forty years as a champion of photography and I find it very rewarding to be part of such a stimulating project – one that invites us to celebrate the medium for so very worthwhile a cause.”

The exhibition was followed by a Royal Gala reception – co-hosted by Barclays Wealth and Vogue – and the charity auction of 100 of the most collectible works at Christie’s London happened on 15th April 2010 with 100% of the sales proceeds going to Crisis. In addition to this, A 200-page fully-illustrated coffee-table book was published in March 2012.

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