Exhibition - 3 exhibitions @ Kings Place

Photographs, charcoal and pastels, these three exhibitions have something in common.

Showing at Kings Place.
Ketih Pattison - No redemption:
 A powerful photograph essay of the miners strike.  The photographer spent a year living with the miners documenting the 51 weeks of the strike.
The black and white images are so incredibly powerful.  You can feel the anger, the frustrations, the bitterness, the unity, the sense of community.  The cracks appearing as time passes and life becomes more difficult.  Keith must have had total trust to be able to take theses kind of images.  On the street in people homes. By the time you get to week 51 you feel you have lived the previous 50 week with the families yourself.  The most powerful image for me is the one in week 51 of two union leaders with tears in their eyes as the miners vote to end the strike.
The images are raw emotion without being voyeuristic.  I love photography with the power of these photos.

Angela Hughes - Transitions
Charcoal of the old gas works.  The artist has obviously spent hours and hours in these old gas works. The way she has captured the light and the feeling of the building is stunning.

The narrow world of Norman Cornish
Pastel drawing of miners in a local pub. You feel transported back 50 years sitting in the local listening to these men chatting over a beer and smoking. (something they can't do in a pub now). Did he spend most days sketching the daily lives of these men?  It feels like it.

All three of these exhibitions capture the very essence of their subject.  This is not something that could be done by popping by for the afternoon. Or even a week for that matter.

I think this is what my tutor is trying to explain to me at present by getting me to try and focus on one subject for awhile.