2010-06-28
Typologies at Tate Modern
Tate Modern is advertising its Exposed photography exhibition, but if you don’t want to pay, there are still some gems to be found by going up to level five.
In room eight of the State of Flux collection, a selection of images from Bruce Davidson’s Subway series, taken in New York in 1980, are on display. Usually he works in black and white, but these are in colour.
They’re also stunning collection generally, and I could easily fill a post just with selections I found online. If you’re in London and can get there before the room changes (which is, unfortunately, a bit unpredictable), you should.
Also on the fifth floor is a collection of rooms entitled Photographic Typologies. To some extent, Davidson’s series could have fitted here, but instead you get an entire room of August Sander’s work, which is well worth examining. (I missed an exhibition of his work in Paris last year, so this was a nice chance to see a subset of it for free.)
Meanwhile, another room - perhaps inevitably - has two of Bernd and Hilla Becher’s composite photographs of industrial works.
All in all, the two together are well worth a look. If you’re in London, just pop in; if you have to visit, start with these, take a restorative cup of tea, then see Exposed. It’s worth it.
