The Photographer’s Gallery – Katy Grannan & Soho Nights

Title: The Photographer’s Gallery – Katy Grannan & Soho Nights

Rating (out of 100): 90 (Grannan) / 50 (Soho Nights)

Mood: provoked, maybe a little disturbed, curious, empathetic (Grannan) & transported into a different era (Soho Nights)

Website: http://www.photonet.org.uk/

Timeout / Culture Critic: http://www.timeout.com/london/art/event/124793/katy-grannan.html & http://www.timeout.com/london/art/event/124820/soho-nights.html / na

Recently moved from its previous location near Leicester Square, the Photographer’s Gallery is now open (off Oxford Street). Its new, multi-storey location has the same feel as the previous location and the quality of exhibits is similarly excellent and engaging. There are two main exhibitions on display currently – Soho Nights (collection of black & white photos that I wasn’t a huge fan of) and Westerns (a collection of beautiful and challenging photos by Katy Grannan). Also, don’t forget to check out the smaller but equally (if not even more interesting) exhibits in the gallery café. Grannan’s Westerns exhibition features people that are usually on the margins of society – transvestites and a woman who looks in the various photos as a cross between a junkie and a prostitute. Visually, the pictures are beautiful and some are even ethereal in their light and the delicate emotions they portray. Others are disturbing showing intense emotion. And then there are the pictures with the babies – some may say making these characters more understandable, or more provocative depending on your point of view. All in all an excellent show. I also loved the mini shows in the gallery café. You may notice some overlap with the show currently on in the National Portrait Gallery (the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2008 - http://www.npg.org.uk/live/index.asp).