Sat, 05 Feb 2005

Photo exhibition

When we’d finished our champagne cocktails at Watt, we wandered off towards the river for a walk. For no particular reason, our path took us back through the powerhouse, where we stumbled into a new photographic exhibition that opened there a couple of days ago: Revolutions Revelations Resolutions, a solo show by Tim Page.

During the past decade—and especially the past three years—it has been difficult to go for long without being confronted by images of war. Like most people with an imagination, I find all such images disturbing. But I have become somewhat accustomed to them.

But images of a war that you were involved with have an altogether different impact. I don’t seek out images of the Vietnam war and have not seen any for quite some time—so I was quite startled when I walked in on this set. Despite difficult light when you approach from the back, I instantly identified the material and was transported back 37 years in a flash. This was like being hit in the stomach, it was so strong. I wandered around for a short time, taking in those oh so familiar scenes. They were so evocative, I could smell them and I could hear the sounds.

Coming upon this unexpectedly turned out to be a bit too much, so I only spent a short time there today. Fortunately, the exhibition continues until the end of the month, so I can prepare myself a bit and make a planned return to explore it a bit more thoroughly. I think I’ll try to track Tim Page down as well—I think it might be interesting to talk with him about this.

Posted at: 20:55

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