Jerwood Encounters

The exhibition will present new commissions and existing work by six early career photographers relating to 'Family Politics' - the curatorial theme of the first issue of Photoworks Annual which will launch alongside the exhibition. The exhibiting artists include invited artists Claudia Sola and The Photocopy Club; and artists selected from an open call, Jonny Briggs, Robert Crosse, Nikolai Ishchuk and Joanna Piotrowska. The exhibition explores the different ways in which artists consider and use photographic practice resulting in an expanded view of the medium.
As a subject, the family is both private and public: the site of intimate inter-personal relations and a social construct subject to public and political pressures. This relationship is mirrored in examples of family photography. The majority of family pictures serve essentially private functions, accruing meaning through their relationship to the memories, experiences and histories of individuals. However, the family is also the subject of public photographic representation and contestation largely through digital media and 'over sharing'. This involves a wide variety of practices, including representations in the mass media, art and advertising.
Family Politics features a variety of approaches to photography with each work drawing on photographic language as a reference point.