| | | |  | | | | After Rodin XX, Eve After the Fall, 2016 © Erwin Olaf | | | | | Modern Masters | | | | Hamiltons’ group show Modern Masters presents a selection of work by some of the greatest names in Modern and Contemporary photographic history, including | | | | | | | 10th September – 23rd November 2018 | | |  | | | | | | | | | |  | | | | Protestor, Cuban Missile Crisis, Whitehall, London, 1962 © Don McCullin | | | | | | Hiro
Shortly after arriving in America from Japan in 1954, Hiro landed an apprenticeship in Richard Avedon’s studio. Avedon soon sent Hiro to legendary art director Alexey Brodovitch and within a few years Hiro had risen to extraordinary heights as a fashion photographer. By 1963 Hiro became the only photographer under contract at Harper’s Bazaar, a position he kept for the next ten years and he continues to take assignments with the magazine.
Hiro discovers beauty in the extraordinary. His work is characterised by surprises, abnormalities, unusual lighting, Surrealism, the unreal and an astounding and constant vision. After several years spent in New York, Hiro was sent back to Japan to capture a personal reflection of the country, and this photograph Shinjuku Station, Tokyo, Japan, 1962, is what he returned with. This is the last available installation from the edition.
Sir Don McCullin
McCullin was born in 1935 in London’s Finsbury Park, one of London’s roughest areas at the time. Leaving school at fifteen with no qualifications, McCullin signed up to the RAF as a photographic assistant. In 1958, McCullin took his first published photograph of The Guvnors, a London gang who had been involved in the murder of a local policeman. The image appeared in The Observer that same year, securing his contract with The Observer in 1961. Initially based on projects in London, his work soon took him around the world, starting with the building of the Berlin Wall, 1961 and soon after the Cyprus War, 1964, marking the start of his career as a photographer of war and other human disasters. Between 1966 and 1984, McCullin worked for The Sunday Times Magazine which was at the cutting edge of investigative, critical journalism, leading McCullin on assignments including Biafra, the Belgian Congo, the Northern Irish ‘Troubles’, Bangladesh and the Lebanese civil war. Sir Don was awarded a knighthood in the 2017 New Years Honours list.
Robert Frank
Considered one of the most influential figures in the history of photography, Frank found fame in the 1960s with his ground-breaking book The Americans. The series offers a profound insight into the country’s cultural and social conditions and, despite initially perplexing critics due to its unorthodox style, soon became and still remains widely regarded as a pivotal work in 20th century art history.
Frank’s fame can be traced to his time spent in Paris, England and Wales in the 1950s. In London, where this photograph was taken, Frank photographed labourers and bankers alike, capturing the city’s spirit following World War II. Frank’s camera becomes an extension of his eye, depicting individuals each with their own stories to tell.
Erwin Olaf
Olaf has often used themes of theatre and cinema in his photographs. With his combination of photojournalism and studio photography, Olaf emerged on to the international art scene in 1988 when he was awarded first prize in the Young European Photographer competition. Olaf’s trademark is to address social issues within the framework of a highly stylised mode of imagery.
The After Rodin series was originally commissioned by the Groninger Museum, The Netherlands in 2017 and their collection now includes nine works from the series. In this series, Olaf pays homage to individual masterpieces by the impressionist sculptor August Rodin and by using members of the Dutch National Ballet to do so. Each of the pictures is titled after the sculpture from which it has been inspired. Olaf also pays tribute to the marbles of the French master with a uniquely sparse, stone background, rather than his more common, elaborate stages.
Helmut Newton
Over the years, Newton's work centred primarily on fashion, nudes, and portraits, with the three categories often mixing. With the encouragement of his wife June he began to photograph more overtly erotic nudes, sometimes in his studio, and other times in the jet-set retreats of Europe and The Americas. His black-and-white photographs combine the feel of 1930s noir photojournalism with aspects of New Wave films, reflecting his directorial mastery. Newton challenged conventions with his provocative, hybrid photography that embraced fashion, erotica, portrait, and documentary elements, producing a highly stylized interpretation of elegant and decadent ways of life. |
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