Resort 1
Fox, Anna (2011) Resort 1. [Exhibition/show, Photography]
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This project arose from a commission that led to an exhibition in a major art gallery and a publication. The project was designed to record and comment on the contemporary face of a uniquely British holiday resort. Its context is contemporary art-based documentary practice and its aim was to extend the boundaries of documentary practice both conceptually and technically.
The conceptual background to the project involved research conducted on location, in libraries, on the internet, and with individuals. Through interviews and by looking at past representations of Butlins I was able to consider the use and implications of such images. In producing the photographs, I experimented with new ways of working, departing from the conventions of medium-format colour documentary. The project's technical innovation was its use of large-format photography and a lighting crew – the production was a collaboration between a team of people working like a film crew. The resulting images are highly coloured and have extraordinarily high definition even at the largest scale that they were printed (6ft x 8ft). Documentary photographs that include people in the frame have rarely been seen at this scale.
In developing the techniques for these new processes I aimed to challenge existing documentary practices and extend the ways the documentary genre is defined. This included developing new modes of presentation and installation, and highlighting the importance of these to the work. This was all part of finding a new way to view the subject matter of holiday camps that could be at once striking, contemporary and present people in a dignified way.
The work has been widely reviewed and the show is touring. The work will be included in exhibitions/publications currently planned by The National Media Museum and Exit magazine, amongst others.
Reviewed in Shanghai Daily, 4 December 2017: https://www.shine.cn/archive/city-specials/hangzhou/Exhibition-capturing-a-bygone-era-of-postcard-Britain/shdaily.shtml
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